You know your in the Philippines when...
Trip Start
Mar 27, 2004
1
13
15
Trip End
Jun 27, 2007
Ifugao,
Philippines
Friday, December 2, 2005
2. A person can remove a peso from their ear and no one considers it magic. Pesos are stored in ears of men/boys, maybe because their pockets are full of moma. Moma: beetle nut, leaves, and lime powder simultaneously placed in the mouth and chewed over and over kind of like tobacco but much more messy and spit requiring. It goes in brown, white, and green and comes out bright red! All over Ifugao the streets are littered with grainy red stains. I've tried it once, better than tobacco I imagine (never tried), but luckily for me it isn't chewed as regularly in the capital town as in the barrios (rural villages).
bathroom
3. A person will pick their nose in public but they won't pick food from their teeth with a toothpick. This they cover with their hand. Nose picking everywhere though whether you are walking by a busy mall with your friend or sitting on a jeepney.
4. Some guys keep one fingernail long to show they are not laborers. This is also true in other Asian communities like China I've heard.
5. There are ants in your peanut butter and you eat it anyway because its American peanut butter damn it not that cheap sugary stuff they make here. What's a bit of added protein anyway considering you probably don't get enough anyway. This has also happened with cereal and other various foods. Where will the ant-eating stop!
6. There are always cockroaches in your apartment and you don't think it's dirty or complain, instead you conspire a super sting operation with your best feline friend to trap and torment them all. And are extremely entertained...but don't tell anyone.
7. You wake up at 5:00 am to videoke singers next door singing Christmas songs (NOEL actually)......in the beginning of November! Some people also leave the décor up all year round, and the music begins in September.
8. One mosquito lives in your apartment, yes only one because you have screens yet every night you use off and have a mosquito net but still wake up with twenty new bites every morning
bedroom
. You should see the white scares on the back of my arms, the only response I get from Filipino friends is 'well at least its white and not brown! Everyone wants to be white around here. I saw on National Geographic that mosquitos like white skin blondes better.... How lucky I am!9. In one-week time I saw more animal's reproducing then I have in my whole life even on NG!
10. You've lost sixteen pounds with no exercise or diet! Gotta love the viruses/amoebas/or other unknown sicknesses you get! The Peace Corps weight loss program its great!
a. Your mom says wow your butt got bigger. How are you supposed to respond to that? I enrolled at the gym the next day and have been going ever since!
11. You are walking home from a friends house at night and a man standing in a row of four interrupts his urination to turn and say hello to you, and you don't think anything of it. This is normal. I'm not sure if I knew him or he just knows my name because I am the only white person living here, but what was I gonna do go talk to him and find out? I ignored him and walked on.
12. Tatang (father) has and wears a hat that says I'm with stupid bitch but doesn't know a lick of English. Similar situation with the marijuana clothing articles, kids and adults wear them. The best was at the girl scout camp they were selling purses with a pot leaf and it was not a big deal.
13. You go to the CR (restroom, comfort room actually) only to find what appears to be a dead crab on the floor only to find out by poking that it is real, and hope that is not where your dinner came from.
