a funny story and other faulty assumptions about foreigners

A few of us went up to one of the villages, and I already posted some pictures below. Now I just want to post a funny story before I forget it. We walked from the Kalanguya center to the street in a group of 6, I think. The others got into the first tricycle, then my husband and I got into another one a few minutes later. After we were already hiking up the mountain, one of the people in the group, a former house mate, was laughing about something the tricycle driver had said. He had asked, "Isn't that foreigner going to ride, too?"
She told him that she thinks the American will walk to where we were going.
"Oh," the driver said, "Does she know how to walk?" He obviously believed that a foreigner wouldn't have ever walked more than a few steps.
She didn't want to offend him by saying that of course the American knows how to walk, and answered, "Well, maybe her husband will teach her how to walk."

Here in the Philippines, I run into funny assumptions about foreigners from time to time. Not all Filipinos make any or all of these assumptions. Many (or most) know better. Obviously my former house mate knew better. I also learned some from a few of the Burmese students at school that I go to. Here are some other faulty assumptions about foreigners that I've run into during my time in the Philippines:

1) All foreigners are very wealthy and have an unlimited supply of money. I don't agree. I know many who barley scrape by from paycheck to paycheck, and many who were not able to go to college because they couldn't afford it. Of course, about half of the population of Manila lives in squatter communities, so on average, I think we are better off.

2) Foreigners have never had to stand up on a bus. Yes, sometimes I will be just about the center of attention when I have to stand on a bus, and people will be worried that I'm going to fall. I've had to stand up on buses at least several times before coming to the Philippines, and I think I do pretty well at it.

3) The US is built on a slap of concrete with no grass, trees, or countrysides. I inferred that from a conversation I had with a few Burmese students. They were probably thinking of things they had heard about US cities or something and forgot that there are many people who live in the countryside, too.

4) Some seem to think that there is very little crime in the US, and that it would be a safer place to live. I haven't compared statistics, but there is a lot of violent crime in the US. There may be more snatchers here, but fewer who will kill you for your wallet. And almost everyone in the Philippines has bars on every window, so robbers have a hard time getting in (but it would be hard to get out if there were a fire). Houses are often broken into in the US, though, and the fire code does not allow people to put bars on their windows. Every house on the street that I used to live on in a suburban neighborhood in the US has been broken into. Murder and rape seems to be too common in the US. And I think laptops get snatched just as much in the US as they do here.

5) People never have to work their way through school. I know one very kind older Filipina who was telling about how she had to work her way through school, and her story sounded a lot like mine and many of my friends. Then she looked at me and indicated that she thinks I've never had any hardships in my life. Humm... But I was too polite to correct her.

6) Some Filipinos assume that foreigners think that they are superior to them. Well, lowlanders seem to think that people from the villages are inferior to them (I disagree). I suppose the natural assumption, then, would be that foreigners would think that we are superior. Not only that, but they have known foreigners who seem to have had a bad attitude toward their culture. I know some older people are prejudiced based on skin color. But what I and many other middle aged and younger N. Americans have been taught and believe is that everyone is equal no matter what culture they are from. I came here thinking that way, and was surprised when people thought that they were inferior or suspected me of thinking that I'm superior when I tried to relate with some by mentioning things that I found interesting or liked about the culture or whatever.

a short trip to a village

We went to a village recently, but just for the day. We left about 5, hiked and jogged madly down the mountain in an effort to beat the oncoming darkness, and arrived at the base of the mountain about 6, inspite of stopping to take a lot of pictures. The tricycle drivers there wanted a lot to drive us back to the town, and instead of riding, we walked quickly through the darkness for almost another hour to a place where some relatives live. The air had cooled off enough that it was enjoyable to be out walking. They stopped a tricycle headed to the town with a load, and we got on and made it back to the center.

This is by the church in one of the villages.

Kalanguya old people (naama 'old man' and nabakol 'old woman')

on the road to Baguio

Baguio

Christmas Pudding

I was fortunate enough for

once in my life to be invited to dinner by a British lady who made Christmas Pudding for us. I'd heard of Christmas Pudding in old poems and such, but never knew what it was. It's the brown mound of stuff sitting near the center of the table in front of the tea pot. It tastes like very strong tasting fruit cake, but has a softer consistency. I thought it was quite good, but it definitely made me thirsty. She said that people usually pour brandy over it and light it before eating it.

This is at an open house that we went to at one of the SIL centers before Christmas. There were many Christmas foods, or at least those that I seem to associate with Christmas, such as fruit cake, shortbread, gingerbread, various other sweets, and a cheese ball with crackers:-). There was also toast with real melted cheese, not processed cheese, and an Australian spread called Vegemite, which is a kind of yeast that provides many B vitamins. It's a little bitter, but it's supposed to be spread so thin that it actually tastes really good and everyone seemed to like it. Not only that, but there was a chocolate fondue (but the chocolate never hardened) with strawberries and marshmallows, homemade strawberry ice cream (or was it frozen yogurt?), a kind of dessert made with coconut milk, rice balls, sweet potatoes, bananas, and other good ingredients, pancit (I didn't eat any of it cause it's common enough that I can eat it any other day), tea, punch, coffee, Hershey's kisses, carrot sticks, hummus with pita bread, and some snack foods, and more. I ate and ate until my stomach was so full that I didn't want to eat any more:-).

There were also many nice people. Some of the missionaries are such kind and happy and positive people that you can't help but liking them. The woman standing beside me is from Russia, and, if I remember right, she said that part of her family lives in Spokane, and part in Seattle, and the other half is in Russia. She is in the Philippines teaching one of the classes at AGS. Afterwards, the host of the party drove us all the way home, which took about 45 minutes.

Christmas and New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! This isn't our Christmas letter, just a brief account of what I've been up to this Christmas and New Year.

For Christmas, we were at the mission center where we've been staying with a Kalanguya family when we're not in Manila or Baguio or in the village. The people here made Filipino Spaghetti for New Year's Eve dinner, which I think you could make with ketchup, water, extra sugar, hot dogs, ground pork or beef, and optional processed cheese food, if you're in the US, Canada, or anywhere else where they don't sell Filipino Spaghetti mix. They also had Filipino Macaroni salad, which is made with sweetened condensed milk, mayonnaise, macaroni, canned fruit, and processed cheese food. No offense to anyone, but I think I can never get used to sweet macaroni or sweet spaghetti. It just doesn't taste right to me. I guess I just can't stretch my mind far enough to think of macaroni and spaghetti as sweet, dessert like foods.

On Christmas day, we had lunch with some of the other people at the center. Once again, they made big pots of Filipino Spaghetti, as well as Agar Agar, a kind of jello that they make into strands, then add milk, sugar, and fruit to it. It's not bad.

After Christmas, we headed to Baguio city to visit the family we stay with at the center because their daughter was in the hospital. She had just gotten out of the hospital when we arrived. Someone was burning all the time next to the place we stayed for the first two nights (a doctor's house), and I caught a cold because of my allergy to smoke:-(. We also stayed with some friends of Bob's before we came back on Christmas Eve.

It was a little scary when we were almost to the center cause, by then, people were already throwing firecrackers into the streets in front of vehicles, and I was afraid one might land inside of the van that we were riding in. (No one rolled up the windows even though it was getting cold.) Many Filipinos get badly injured every year from fireworks on New Year's Eve and even in the days leading up to that, so it's best to stay inside on New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve dinner at the center was duck, duck soup, fish, rice, a vegetable, and pancit. I age a lot of duck, which isn't full of fat here cause their home grown ones. As you can see, New Year's is a much bigger celebration than Christmas for the Kalanguya. Then the electricity went out and everyone went to bed.