1. Whenever you are walking past a store in the mall, or by someone's stand on the side of the road, they always say, "Yes Ma'am," (pronounced 'Mum') or "Yes Sir," or my personal favorite "Yes MumSir."
2. Filipino men will pee just about anywhere whenever they need to.
3. Is that a radio I hear? Oh no, it's the Filipino person walking behind me and singing Taylor Swift, rather loudly I might add. I am sad to say that Filipinos tend to over estimate their abilities to sing well.
4. Speaking of loudness, everything is loud here. Appliance stores, CD/DVD shops, arcades can be heard as soon as you walk into the mall; again, everything is LOUD. Except of course, the way people talk.
5. Filipinos are always ready and willing to dance.
6. Two things about driving: Use your horn all the time, and it's always appropriate to pass even when: there is oncoming traffic, you are in an intersection, you are making a turn. My brother Matt would excel at driving in the Philippines.
7. Malls are everywhere around Davao. The city isn't even that big and there are at least a half dozen malls. I should also note that you have to go to the mall for just about everything. We haven't gone one day so far without going into at least one mall.
8. Filipinos have no problem making loud noises to try and gain the attention of a white person. This includes, but is not limited to, honking the horn repeatedly, yelling "Hey Joe," or "Papa Americano." This also includes simply yelling "HEY!"
10. Even though we have seen other white people every day, Filipinos stare at us as if we had an extra arm growing out of our foreheads.
11. When paying for things in cash you should use bills smaller than 500 pesos otherwise someone will have to go make change for you at the gas station. 500 pesos is roughly $11.00 so I find that quite surprising.
12. A twenty minute taxi ride only costs about $3.50 which includes a generous tip, but a crappy toaster that looks like it will break in two weeks costs $80.
13. When using the bathroom, or 'Comfort Room' as it is known in the Philippines, make sure to take your own tissue paper.
14. Filipinos keep their cars very clean. Even if their car/motorcycle is not very nice you can be sure it is clean. Getting a large van/suv cleaned at a car wash only costs about $2.
15. Electricity costs money, so to save money there are not as many lights in places that you might expect them to be. For example, there is probably only one light in the bathroom which can make it rathe difficult when shaving. If I thought I could pull it off I might grow a beard while we're here.
16. You can pay to have someone do just about everything for you.
17. When going for your early morning run in the Philippines, be on the look out for dog poop in the middle of the road; stray dogs are everywhere and they're not afraid to poop whenever they need to.
18. FLA - Filipinos Love Acronyms. Since being here I have heard approximately 4,000,000 acronyms.
19. Lots of Filipino men grow facial hair, but their beards may only consist of 20 hairs.
20. The Philippine culture is very title-oriented. It is how they understand their frame of reference to each other.
21. You could use a system of Filipino's cell phones instead of tornado alarms to warn people of an incoming storm. Even on the lowest setting it can be heard for miles.
22. When you are invited somewhere by a Filipino group, they are so excited to give you whatever they can. Whether it is coffee, coconuts, crab, or bananas they are so happy to offer you the best of what they have.
23. Glee is the official soundtrack of the Philippines. Okay, maybe not, but it should be cause it's on everywhere we go.
Note: These things aren't meant to be criticisms, they're just random observations and differences we've noticed. We really love it here, I swear!
Yesssss to number 5.
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I suggest you take up numbers 2 and 3 upon return to North America. At the very least, it'll get you noticed.
ReplyDeleteYou OBVIOUSLY have a sense of humour and can see the intracacies of another culture clearly. Blessings as you serve!!! and love the people.
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