Cebu and what not

So my trip is winding down in Cebu and I will return to Manila tomorrow. I have had a great time here and I finally got to see some the beaches and scenery that the Philippines is famous for. My second day here we went to a beach on Mactan island which is not far from Cebu but it took awhile to convince the taxi driver to go out that far. After getting lost a few times the driver finally found the beach that was recommended to us by some local people. It had a resort feel to it but it was filled with Filipinos and me and the Japanese girls I went were the only the foreigners there. It was very nice but the actual beach was quite small. I noticed that aside from the Japanese girls, who wore their bikinis. there was not many Filipino women in the water and the few that were there were modest and swam with their clothes on. I think Japanese girls are a bit shy and modest compared to Americans and especially Europeans, but they came off as almost scandalous compared to the Filipinos. The beach seemed more like a place for children and guys while the women relaxed in the shade under a hut somewhere. I could tell an American and a few Japanese girls coming to this place caused a bit of stir among the locals. At one point I was chilling on the beach and this guy came up to me, didn't say a word, and handed me his two year old daughter. He was holding his camera and kept nodding and gesturing at me. I thought he was asking me to take a picture of him with his daughter but I eventually realized that he just wanted me to pose with his kid for a picture. I thought it was kind of weird but he seemed really excited to have a picture of his child with me so I didn't complain. A lot of guys wanted to come and speak English with me and ask me about America and I could tell the Japanese girls were getting a lot of attention from the local guys. They all seemed nice but after awhile all the attention got kind of exhausting.

After that I went to Beverly Hills, Cebu. I was just as surprised as you are probably right now that there is even a Beverly Hills in Cebu but what's even weirder is that we went there to see a Taoist temple. The place was interesting but there was something strange about it. I saw some Filipinos coming to pray and meditate but might have been the weird pastel color scheme or the fact that the official name of the place was “Philippine Taoist Temple, Inc.” (is this some kind of business or something?) I have to admit it there was something kind of fishy about the whole place. It didn't cost any money to get in so it's not really a tourist trap but it's more like a fake tourist attraction. It would be like if the someone built a replica of Abraham Lincoln's log cabin somewhere in a Japanese park. It just seems out of place. The next day we had a conference all day with prospective clients. When I say all day, I mean all day. So my boss explained to a bunch women and their children of various ages about our NGO, what services we offer, etc. It wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been to about six of these conferences already. It was sort of interesting though for me because the first few times I heard it, it was in Japanese and then Tagalog and since my boss cannot speak the local language, Visayas, she did it this time in English. But honestly it was pretty boring and I needed about three cups of coffee just to keep myself from passing out on the table.

The next day was far more fun. My Filipina co-worker, a couple Japanese girls, and I went to visit a home of one our clients. It was far away. It took about 3 hours to get to there but the bus went through some very beautiful mountain roads. This part of the Philippines definitely reminds of Hawaii. I think since they are both volcanic archipelagos the mountains have a similar shape. So anyway we just crossed some mountains I guess, but it was weird because I don't remember going downhill on the bus but somehow the village of Dumanjug was next to beach so we must have subtly descended. I really enjoyed my short stay in Dumanjug. The family was very nice and had lunch prepared for us when we got there. There were probably 11 people living in the house which was a decent size but only had three rooms. I remember walking through the house to use their bathroom and I was struck by one room with a wall that a few family photos, a big picture of Avril Lavigne, and Jesus. It seemed an odd combination. But anyway the sister of the mother of our client was on vacation from her job as a housemaid in Singapore and she spoke some English but because she worked in Japan her Japanese was better so we discussed in Japanese. One of the Japanese girls told me that it was really strange for her to hear an American and Filipino talking to each other in Japanese but since most of our clients are Filipino women who were married to Japanese men, I usually speak Japanese with them. In the world today, the different languages that are used today astounds me. Most people probably take for granted that English is the lingua franca of most of the world and it's true that most educated people that travel around do speak at least a bit of English. I have no problem with that since it makes my life easier but I find it strange when my Korean and Japanese housemates in Manila only have English as a common language. You could swim from Japan to Korea but even so they learn a language that originates on the opposite side of the world to communicate with each other. I just find that a bit weird.

My last day in Cebu also turned out to be my birthday and since we had no work to do and our flight wasn't leaving until the evening my Filipina co-worker, a Japanese girl, and myself went to a small island called Bohol. I wouldn't be surprised if yinz have heard of it, its actually pretty famous. They have these bizarre hills that are famous for their distinct shape. They are known as the Chocolate Hills and I haven't seen anything like it before. Supposedly they are calcium carbonate deposits that formed when the island was under the level of the sea. They are called Chocolate Hills because during the dry season there isn't much rain so the hills all turn brown.

 Aside from the hills we did various other touristy things which were fun but the place was a bit of tourist trap. I have a phobia for touristy places. Maybe because I grew up in Pittsburgh where there are no tourists but I dislike being around tourists. I think its for that reason that I like the place where I live, Quezon City. As beautiful a place Cebu is I did miss Quezon City for some reason. I have an attraction to this place that is hard to explain. Most of my friends here are always looking for their next trip out of Metro Manila to go somewhere nice and away from the city but I am the opposite. Don't get me wrong the air is filthy at times, the sidewalks can be disgusting, and usually smells bad (especially the stream that runs by my house that they definitely pump sewage into) but in a weird way I sort of enjoy it. A lot people like to go to beautiful mountains and beaches to see how nature can express itself but the city with the immense crowds of different people living in cramped quarters is an expression of human nature (sometimes at its worst) and I find that infinitely interesting. Honestly I find vacations kind of stressful. I also dislike the annual parties that people seem to look forward to so much such as Halloween, New Years, July 4^th, etc. It's not that I don't enjoy parties but I don't like being forced to put more weight on one night and if I don't have a good time it feels like a big loss.

My phobia reminds me something I read from Kierkegaard back when I was at school. The character of his sort of stream of consciousness essay was lamenting the fundamental boredom that goes hand and hand with life but at the end he insists that planned vacations, parties, etc. are actually just a shallow and brief escape. If you really want to enjoy life you have to open your mind and senses to endless depth of pure subjectivity. So watching the sweat drip off the nose of a bum on the bus can be just as enjoyable as being in a hot-tub with some Playboy playmates. I know this probably doesn't make a lot of sense but I know that some the more memorable times of life were incidents that seemed to arise out of complete arbitrariness and not the big events that I felt obliged to enjoy. It's a process of accepting the arbitrariness and emptiness of real life and laughing at it.

Malls and 'nat

I have been here for almost a month and I feel like I am finally assimilating to the way of life here. The heat is intense and I am always sweaty but it has made me enjoy cold showers just that much more. Right now even as I am sitting in my hotel room in Cebu I won't turn on the air conditioner. I really feel alive in the heat and air conditioning just makes me feel sickly. I will write more about Cebu later once I have finished my stay here but I wanted to talk about a couple things that I dislike about the Philippines.

Since I have arrived I have be taken to probably 6 different malls around Manila and Cebu. Now, Filipino malls are just as nice, big, and have the same stores as American malls and I would even say that there aren't even any malls in Pittsburgh that are as big as the one's I've seen here. I haven't been to the Mall of Asia which is the biggest mall in Southeast Asia but hopefully I can avoid going there during my stay here. I always hated going to malls in America and here is no different. I'm not sure why people here assume that I would want to go to malls because seriously if it wasn't for all the Filipinos around I could forget that I'm not in America. I get the feeling that Filipinos feel its necessary to show foreigners their malls because maybe they think that since I'm American I'm automatically a fan of massive malls. They have the same stores and the crap in them as in America but everything is about a quarter the price. I also find it strange that everyone calls me “sir” all the time. No one in America calls me sir, it makes me feel weird because I know I'm too young to deserve that kind of respect from people I don't know. I mean I know they are just trying to be polite because I am a foreigner but what made it worse was the time I was buying a bottle vodka at some super-market. I was waiting in line to buy a very cheap bottle of vodka (probably around two bucks or so) but all of a sudden the woman at the cashier waved me up in front of a few people. I thought there was problem or she wanted my ID or something but then she just rang up the bottle and I paid for it there. I realized while I was walking away that I was rushed to front of line at the expense of three Filipinos probably for the sole reason that the woman wanted to impress an American. Some people might enjoy this kind of special treatment but honestly it makes me uncomfortable. I didn't come here to live like some sort of privileged tourist. This special treatment comes with a few catches though such as being continually hassled to pay more for taxi rides which does get annoying but it gives me motivation to learn Tagalog so I can actually negotiate with the driver and prove that I am not just a tourist. Anyway, back to malls.

Another reason why I dislike malls in America was the vulgarity of the average consumer. You

know those people that drink Fair Trade Starbucks coffee and then buy clothes produced from cheap labor in developing countries. I'm not going to jump on that anti-globalization which too many non-committed idealistic “activists” have turned into a cliché. It is true that I am very cynical about student political activism because I feel like too many of them ump onto catch phrases like “globalization” and “commercialism” without actually knowing what they mean, however I do still believe that the affluence experienced by America and other Western countries comes off of the backs of exploited people across the world. You could say that it is a natural by-product of predatory environment in the world economy of today and I would agree but I still think it's tragic. I see it as a heterotrophic dilemma because to live and grow as individuals we depend on the death of plants and animals to sustain ourselves nutritionally and our economies operate in a similar way. In a world of where resources are becoming more and more scarce the wealth people accumulate does not come out of thin air but usually at the expense of some other disadvantaged part of the world. My main problem with American malls is that I don't think the average consumer gives a second thought to where all this cheap crap is coming from and for what price. I can't really get on a high horse and judge other Americans because I am no different. I buy the same clothes made in sweatshops but I just wish that more people considered the consequences and the effect American aggrandizement of wealth has on the rest of the world.

Filipino malls are different in that respect. Like I said before, its the same stores and same crap but the difference is that right next to most decently sized malls will be a complex of shanty towns and slums. The average American consumer can go waste some money on some new shoes or sunglasses and drive home in peace without having to see any unsightly poor people. But as you leave malls in the Philippines you see poor families asking for money or I saw a man with this massive tumor growing out of his neck asking for money to go to hospital. I can understand why poor people wait outside malls since I mean they are asking for a small amount of change from people who just bought some superfluous clothes or electronics that are probably worth more than anything the poor people have ever owned. I know it sounds morbid but I actually like that aspect of Filipino malls because I feel that seeing people in dire straits like that might help burst that apathetic bubble that consumerism instills in people. Anyway, I'll get off that soapbox I said I wouldn't get on.

Unfortunately, I have not met one Filipino that knows anything about Pittsburgh. I was surprised one morning when an old woman I met in a convenience store said she knew about Pittsburgh and told me the story of Grace Kelly who was an American actress who married a prince of Monaco and she insisted that she was from Pittsburgh. I'd never heard of that but after consulting Wikipedia I was disappointed to discover that she was actually from Philadelphia. Even though Pittsburgh is not well-known among the locals here, at least some people know about Pennsylvania or at least the name. One lady tried to convince me that Harry Potter was filmed in Pennsylvania which I highly doubt but I think the funniest reaction was from someone who kept asking about if there were a lot of vampires or vampire movies coming out of Pennsylvania. After a decently long discussion I realized she was talking about Transylvania which I thought was pretty funny because I can't see how I could pass as an Eastern European or a vampire for that matter. I shouldn't make fun of her because I know a lot of people back home who think China, Korea, and Japan are pretty much the same country. Yeah the problem with the Philippines is that there isn't a famous young black guy fluent in Tagalog from Pittsburgh famous for singing lounge type music like they have in Japan. I doubt most people know what I'm talking about but look up Jero on youtube and you'll see what I mean. 

Anecdotes of Manila

 So I thought I would reflect a bit and write about various aspects about my life in Manila. I can say one thing right off the bat, Manila is not initially a very charming city. The car exhaust can be choking and the way people drive here would drive any American crazy. There are rarely stop signs and the traffic lights seem pretty sparse so most of the decisions made on the road come at the whim of who's driving. Cross walks with pedestrian lights are also a rarity so I have to cross a five lane highway everyday to work with only some courage and a vague hope that those driving will not kill me. Yeah but anyway aside from the driving the rain does get to me.

I've bought already three umbrellas since I've got here. I lost the first one I got probably a day or two after I bought. One morning I got caught in the rain, and trust me the rain here is severe and you will be soaked through in a matter of ten seconds, and I was carrying my computer so I was forced to stop at the closest convenient store. Now there was only one umbrella left in the store and it happened to be neon pink. I would never have bought it but I really had no choice. Honestly, it was actually the best quality umbrella I've owned with the only catch that was bright pink. Normally, when I was living in the US or Canada I don't care or self-conscious about wearing outlandish things. Here though being a foreigner I already attract a lot of attention from the average person and carrying around a very feminine umbrella also caused me to attract the attention of guys that I had no intention of attracting. After numerous comments from my female co-workers I decided that it would be a good idea to get a another umbrella. So last Monday the cleaning woman came to our office to clean up the place and she brought her daughter who was about 7 or 8 years old to help her. That caused another row between my boss and her because the lady was taking her daughter out of school to help her with her work but that's a different story. Anyway, I was impressed with the little girl, not only was she very nice and cute but she stayed and worked with her mother all day and did not give even a hint that she was bored. I know when I was 8 years old and my parents made me go to boring places within 5 minutes I was difficult and self-centered but this little girl handled the day with an amount grace that impressed me. So at the end of the day I had one of my co-workers explain to the mother that I was forced to buy this umbrella and that it wasn't really my color and I arranged to give to the girl as what I thought was a small present. I found out later that actually the umbrella I gave the girl, which was only about $2.50 was about one-half of the salary that her mother earned for the whole day of work. I realized then just how large the disparity of wealth is and actually I think that woman was actually decently well off compared to the average Filipino. I mean if Americans come here on vacation the reasonably high-end restaurant only costs about $5-$6 per person and the average taxi ride would cost only about $3 but this is still out of reach for most of the people living here. The Philippine currency is actually kind of ridiculous because it is forced to operate on such vastly different levels of affluence. There is a 1 Peso coin which is divided the same way as one American dollar with 5 cent, 10 cent, and 25 cent coins. But seeing as $1 is around 40 Pesos the small change is really worth nothing to me at all. There are also 5 and 10 Peso coins which are useful because the buses cost about 7 Pesos or so. Now there are also 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 Peso bills. The ATMs only give you 100 or 1000 Peso bills and since most things I buy cost only around 50- 100 Pesos, believe me trying to find a store that will break a 1000 Peso bill is no easy feat. It's really a chore to break those bills and I jump on any opportunity I can. Since the average laborer or employee at a restaurant only makes around 300-400 Pesos a day, only foreigners or wealthy people actually have 1000 Peso bills. Anyway, aside from the money a lot of things about Philippine society intrigue me.

The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, around 75-80%, but also has a population of Muslims, probably 10%-15%, who predominantly live in the southern island of Mindanao. There is a conflict between the Muslim people of Mindanao and the Christian people of Northern and Central Philippines. Basically the people Mindanao feel that they want to separate and form their own Muslim country. Now the situation is actually kind of complicated I don't think I can adequately explain it because I do not fully understand. I do know that there is a terrorist group called Abu Sayyaf which operates out of Mindanao and supposedly has links with Al Qaeda. These guys are responsible for numerous kidnappings and terrorist attacks but all the Filipinos I asked do not associate Abu Sayyaf with the struggle of Mindanao people but recognize it as a fringe group. I thought it was funny that most Americans might think that the Philippines is a “backwards country” but while Americans are debating whether or not some crazy guy is Florida should be allowed to burn Qurans, even with all the conflict and strife we had a national holiday here for the end of Ramadan. Another aspect I think is interesting is that the Philippines is the only Asian country I know of where you see openly gay men and women in the street. Now if you compare Japan which is a largely secular nation but where it is extremely rare and difficult for homosexuals to be open about themselves with the Philippines, which is one of the most passionately Christian countries I've been to, it is common and accepted to see openly gay people. When I say “passionately Christian” I mean that you can't walk a block in this city without seeing “Jesus Loves You!”, “Repent Your Sins to God!”, “God Bless Us!” plastered on a wall or on the buses. I assume there is some conflict between the Filipino Christians, Muslims and homosexuals but I can tell you it isn't obvious.

The night life here is fun so far. I haven't been to any clubs yet but I assume they are similar to American or Canadian clubs which I never really liked anyway. The bars are affordable and there is a wide range of different styles; from the dark shadier establishments to outdoor cafes to your more respectable places. I am also a big fan of a local beer here called Red Horse, its like Colt 45 but tastes better but most Filipinos enjoy San Miguel. There are different kinds and it is quite similar to Corona but the only thing I don't get is that most Filipinos put ice in their beer. They claim that it is so hot here that they only like cold drinks but adding ice to beer that is as light as San Miguel seriously turns it into water. 

I live right by the universities so I've met some Americans, Europeans, and other Asians and I usually drink with my Japanese, Filipino, and American friends. I enjoy going out and my neighborhood is pretty safe at night but once I while I was walking back trying to mind my own business this young girl maybe 5 or 6, with only one arm approached me asking for money. Now after a night of drinking with my friends it was a very sobering experience to meet this poor girl and you have to be hardened person to shoo a girl like this away. Instead of giving her money I just bought her a bag of chips or something. She was very sweet but seemed kind of disappointed. People here constantly tell me that if I really want to help out homeless people its better to just buy them some food because otherwise you don't know where the money will go. I remember another time my friend was driving me and some friends to local concert and I was in the front talking about this or that with the guy driving. We were at a stop light and then all of sudden while we were talking this old man walked up to the car and stuck his stump of an arm on the window. I think we were talking about Street Fighter or some old Nintendo games or some crap like that and honestly I found it real difficult to concentrate with this destitute partially crippled man staring at me. The other guy just continued talking as if this was normal. Its going to take some time for me to get used to this side of the Philippines but trust me it is no easy task.

First Impressions of Manila

 So I have just finished my first week in the Philippines and I thought I would reflect on some of the things I experienced here so far. After you leave the airport, the first thing you notice is how crazy people drive here. The lines on the road seem only to be decoration and most Filipinos ignore them. I have to admit that I am one to be a bad back seat driver and get ancy when I'm in a car with someone I think is driving badly but I just didn't know where to start when the guy from my organization picked me up. But amid the chaos there is a system which only now I'm starting to understand. A Filipino guy explained that driving in the Philippines is easy, if there is space in front of you take it and honk your horn continuously.

The road next to my place is six lanes across on both sides. Now on this road are massive trucks, buses, SUVs, normal size cars, Jeepneys (I think these only exist in the Philippines, imagine a sort of mini-stretch Jeep, I'll put pictures on Facebook soon so yinz can appreciate just how sweet/ridiculous these things are), those sort of put-put motor bikes with a passenger buggy on the side, people riding bikes, and then tons of people walking on the edges since there are no sidewalks but everyone has to walk up and down this road everyday. My first day here I rode on of those put-put motor bikes with the side car (they call them tricycles) and my two friends took the side car so I was sitting behind the driver on the bike. You have to sit as if you were a lady riding a horse and you just have a rusted piece of metal attach to the bike to hold onto. As he was puttering along, vaguely in one of the lanes, massive 18-wheelers plow within feet of me and I got to admit I haven't felt more vulnerable in a long time. But it was fine and I ride those things all the time because they are pretty cheap. Now Jeepneys are a different story, they're similar to buses because they have regular routes but they stop if you flag them down and you can also try and jump on while it's at a light or even still moving if you're fast enough. The only problem is that it isn't clear to me where they are actually going half the time and because I am too tall I can't even look out the windows to see where I am.

The place I'm living in is modest at best (no AC or hot water) but my rent is so cheap that I don't really care (3,000 pesos a month which is around $85 US). I share my room with two other guys who are pretty cool, everyone in the house I'm living at are either students or volunteers like me so it works out. The only concern is the mosquitoes. There isn't any worry about Malaria in Manila but the mosquitoes here occasionally can pass on Dengue Fever. The fever comes on at first feeling like cold but after a few days the symptoms disappear and then the bug has entered your system. At that point you start hemorrhaging all over your body. Basically you bleed from the pores in your skin, eyes, nose, ears, and everywhere else in your body and you die a slow painful death. It's especially dangerous right now because it is the rainy season and so there is a lot of stagnant water around for the mosquitoes to breed in. I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about catching Dengue but honestly my life is at risk just crossing the street here so I'm not overly afraid of mosquitoes.

Aside from the traffic the poverty also jumped out at me. Manila is a place where you have massive malls, bigger than any I've seen in the US, with everything you would expect in an American mall. They even have Dairy Queen, Wendys, and Taco Bell but for half the price. But right outside the malls are thousands of people living in slums. Some the slum houses that are visible from the train station even have billboards plastered to the side of them advertizing dish soap or Honda SUVs. I also heard of massive trash dump known as Smokey Mountain an hour outside of Manila where supposedly 30,000 people live. I'm planning a trip out there pretty soon to see how it is but I heard the stench is almost unbearable. In the city of Manila it's common for young children to approach you and ask for money. Some of them sell these white flowers which I later found out is the national flower of the Philippines but no Filipino will buy them because my friends claim that all the money supports the children's vicious glue addiction. Now I find hard to believe that all poor children are addicted to glue and that none of them would buy food if they were given money. It reminds of the common excuse people give for not giving money to the homeless, you know that homeless people are pretty much all alcoholics or addicts of some sort. I always found that to be a pretty lame excuse but here the problem is so bad that if I were to give a little money to everyone that asked I would be poor myself in a few weeks. I could say a lot more about this but I'm going to wait until I have more experience and I can express more than just mere impressions.

Anyway, my work so far is reasonable and laid back. I'm the only man in the NGO and the first American that's worked their. My NGO is called the Maligaya house and is run by a Japanese woman. We help Filipino women who had been married to a Japanese man and had a child or children with him but he for whatever reason abandoned them and returned to Japan. So mainly we collect information from the ladies and convey this to our Tokyo office so they can locate the guy in question. Than we send some letters from the woman and the children in an effort to have him recognize the children as his own. The main goal is to secure child support and possibly apply for Japanese citizenship for the kid. If the guy is reluctant to cooperate we have some lawyers around who can bring the case to court in Japan but ideally it doesn't come to that. My role so far has been translating their website from Japanese to English and I think I might be teaching some Japanese classes to the kids pretty soon. It's kind of funny I think because my original plan was to go to Japan to teach English but now I'll be teaching Japanese to Filipinos but that's how things worked out. Now I'll finish this post with an interesting but completely unrelated anecdote I heard from one of my Filipina co-workers. She told that me that the rise of Chinese today was actually prophesied in the Bible. Apparently, there is some vague reference to group of people that will rise up and take over the world and I guess some Protestant churches in the Philippines have put their money on the Chinese. I really doubt that whoever compiled this part of the Bible had the Chinese in mind but you never know...