PHILIPPINES, PART 1

So i bet im the first person you know to drink 65% filipino wine on the veranda of a small house in the jungle in the philippines under a canopy of palm trees with 2 toothless filipino women and a 65 year old retired australian sailor with a broken nose and a mean sunburn, who happens to be the only white person i've seen since i've been here but was actually so drunk he spoke the worst english of anyone i've met since i've been here. but more on that later.

So I guess some people are wondering why i am in the philippines, which is an excellent question that i am still trying to answer myself as i navigate away from all the troubles that tend to stalk foreigners here. i really wanted to do some volunteer work in asia somewhere before i came home, not because of some sense of altruism but more for selfish reasons involving self-reflection and curiosity. ive always found the philippines very compelling, as an incredibly beautiful group of islands with its fair share of problems. we all know filipino people, and it seems that most of its people are spread around the world working a wide range of jobs.

Actually, from what i gather, it is about 10 million of the population of 60 million or so who work abroad due to poverty, overpopulation and a lack of quality work to be found at home. anyway, i felt that travelling to the Philippines would be a perfect opportunity to volunteer somewhere, to see a country i always wanted to see and most importantly to experience a very interesting culture that not many people from the west get to experience. Complicating the matter for me, however, were the rather frequent outbreaks of violence occurring all over the country. when i read the Canadian travel advisory for the Philippines, i had to make sure i hadn't accidentally clicked on darfur. you see, there is a very thinly veiled disgust with the United States in this country.

The philippines finds itself in league with so many other countries in the world in that the States used them (as allies in WWII), provided them with a laughable amount of aid, and supported a dictator (Marcos) who is basically known for being almost impressively corrupt and having a wife (Imelda Marcos) who really, really, really liked shoes. Also, the Abuseyyif, a Muslim Extremist terrorist organization which operates from the south of the island, blows a lot of stuff up, and when it doe, really likes to blow up white people and white business interests. also, i am white and sound american. so, the combination of all these factors somewhat complicated my hope of traveling to this incredible country. But, through a family connection the opportunity came up to live in lucena city, about 3 hours south of manila, with a family, and hopefully do some volunteer work around town.

So, I was leaving for airport and was somewhat terrified, and after sending out a few "if i get blown up, just know that i like you alot" emails (if you didnt get one its not because i dont like you, its because i like you too much, i didnt want to embarrass myself and make yu not like me, get it?), i had somewhat made peace with the decision to come here. That was, of course, until I read the last 3 news stories on the philippines on the internet: "Election-time violence increases: 5 dead in political shooting"; "American Peace Corps worker murdered while hiking"; "First Gentleman of the Philippines...Gay?" 2 of these 3 stories really didnt do much good for my confidence.

Anyways, on the flight to Manila I had once again calmed down. However, the one thing that is not a thrillah to hear when you land in Manila is that the reason your airplane is not moving off the tarmac is because the airport has been declared to be under a state of "quasi-emergency". I immediately knew I was going to pay for half-jokingly referring to this country as the "Killipines" before i came here. anyways, it turns out that "quasi-emergency" in the philippines means that a politician is getting on a plane somewhere in the airport and nothing is wrong. unfortunately for me and the woman beside me who i almost vomited on, this was not explained until several minutes later.

anyways, despite all this, things have turned out fine. i was picked up at the airport by mama bueno, papa nelson and the crew. they are incredibly nice people and i have really enjoyed living with them so far. the first thing they did to introduce me to the philippines was to take me to that bastion of filipino culture: the shopping mall. now usually, a reasonably upscale shopping mall is the one place in a city like manila (or kampala, uganda or taipei or nairobi) where you can count on running into other foreigners. it was kind of disconcerting to see not one other foreign person in this mall. i did however see a whole lot of filipino people giving me looks that suggested they were wondering what the hell i was doing there, which has really become a major theme in my life in the past year. they also got me to eat a balut, which i was told was featured on fear factor, a deep fried one day old chicken. dont tell PETA.

Manila is an incomparably ridiculous city. Pollution is rampant, palm trees grow impossibly from everywhere and jeepneys and tricycles choke the streets. Traffic is absurd here, to the point that it took us 4 hours to drive the 130 km to Lucena. the tricyles i mentioned are quite different from the ones 3 year olds (or me until the age of 7, dont judge i lived on top of a hill it was hard to learn the 2 wheeler) ride at home. this one is a bicycle or motorbike with an attached sidecar (think darkwing duck's ride). It is incredible how many people can fit on one, the most I've seen so far is 11.

So my experiences so far are wideranging and confusing. Yesterday I drove around a lot with my new family and then went to observe the political caucus taking place before the elections happen in just over a week. for some reason, the trip for me to observe the political process in the philippines started with the aforementioned trip into th jungle to go shot-for-shot with the australian and the toothless filipinos while mama bueno talked politics with the australian's terrifying, shrek-ish wife for an hour and a half. my everlasting image of this encounter will be of the australian pointing his fingers to his head, opening his eyes widely and screaming over and over to "THINK ABOUT THE CLAP" which i guess was his advice as a travelling sailor who had seen many countries and many brothels. after this, we went to the political caucus, which pretty much amounted to all of the candidates for city councilor and mayor singing and dancing on stage. filipinos, as far as i can gather from the sheer number of karaoke machines i've already seen, LOVE to sing, so i guess it makes sense that political decisions should be based on Filipino Idol. Anyways, i was very confused, and even more confused when everyone shifted down the bench i was sitting on to allow a cross dresser to sit next to me and spend the next very uncomfortable 20 minutes attempting to entice me with pineapple and a portable fan. i put out that fire by telling her/him i had 3 girlfriends at home and couldnt possibly cheat on them. i then made a quick getaway and entertained an entourage of 30 children with my broken attempts to speak the filipino language, tagalog, for the rest of the night.

The other day I was taken on a boat ride to an incredible beach and spent a few hours swimming there. Also spent time hanging out at the fire station with mama bueno's son, jojo, and driving around the city on the back of his motorcycle. there are more stories but i am sure most people stopped reading 8 paragraphs ago.

I am supposed to be volunteering in a hospital, but it seems that the organization for that moves about as slowly as the filipino lifestyle. hopefully that will come together soon. either way, mama bueno has lots planned for me, including a traditional filipino wedding this weekend. hope everyone is well, thanks for the emails keep them coming, i can check the Internet every few days i think. talk soon,
dunc