Group Therapy

It’s official, I’ve found a new favourite game! On Boxing Day I celebrated Christmas with some fellow Aussies and discovered a really cool game. I’m not sure of the name, so let me just try to describe it. There is a central disc with four hand triggers wired to it. Up to 4 players hold these triggers and wait for the central disc to change colour to red while a suspense building siren goes off. When this happens the players need to squeeze their triggers. If you do it too early or are the last then you get zapped. It reminded me of the group therapy Simpson’s episode. A good family game when you’re all feeling a little stressed with each other. Just kidding, but it is quite fun. Warning: watch out, it packs quite a punch!

Hey Pogi!

In my last blog I mentioned that people thought I was a celebrity because of my good looks. Please don’t choke, I’m not having delusions of grandeur or becoming vain. To tell you the truth I’ve never really thought of myself as very good looking (until I came here... cough, cough). Nearly every white person here is considered more handsome or cute than the average Filipino because of their white skin. Unlike Australians, Filipinos have an obsession with becoming whiter. It’s true! It’s so hard to buy skin stuff here that isn’t whitening. Anyway, nearly every time I go out I hear people call me “pogi” or “guapo” which means handsome. That’s kind of good for my self esteem but one trip to the town of Tanauan with some friends of mine gave me a boost that almost pushed me over the top. I was casually walking amongst the market stalls when I heard a lady say something that I couldn’t quite make sense of. I knew it was something about me being handsome and her boyfriend but the rest was a bit of a blurr. Then my Filipino friend started laughing and said, “Maybe she’s talking about me”. I laughed back and said, “I don’t think so. What exactly did she say?” He then gave me the boost that my ego didn’t need. She said, “I wish my boyfriend was that handsome!” Don't worry it's not going to my head.

Flirting with Fame

“Cano, Cano, Cano”, “Hey Joe” and “Yo man” are words I hear all the time here. It’s easy to have an identity crisis and forget you’re Australian in the Philippines because everybody thinks you’re an American if you’re white. I won’t comment on that at all because I could get myself into trouble with my American friends. Besides I wanted to tell you about my flirt with fame as a white man in the province. Every town here has a fiesta and just before Christmas I got to be a part of the Science City of Munoz town fiesta with my friends from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). They had a float in the parade and asked me to join them. I thought it would be fun so I tagged along in the back of one of the utes. Little did I know the attention that it would draw. I should have realized earlier that a white man in a sea of brown ones on the back of a ute might stand out a little. But once the parade had started and everyone started calling out to me it was a little too late to back out. Everyone thought that I was some sort of artist with my camera or celebrity with my good looks (don’t choke, I’ll comment more on that another time). A little embarrassing, but fun at the same time. It did, however, give me a chance to practice my language. When people called out to me in Tagalog and I responded to them in Tagalog it gave them an even bigger thrill.

Language bloopers

Learning a new language is always a tricky business and everyone has a story to tell of a slip up that landed them in trouble or caused them major embarressment. Thankfully I've been doing quite well with minimal embarrassment and trouble. The biggest issue that I've had to deal with is the word for "friend" (ka-I-bigan). The problem is that exactly the same word emphasised differently (KA-i-biagan) can mean "lover". This means that instead of saying "ka-I-bigan kita" means "You are my friend" whereas "KA-i-bigan kita" means "You are my lover". Not a mistake you want to make! Thankfully I have not made this one yet. But almost made one just as bad.

A few weeks ago I was driving near my place in Munoz, Nueva Ecija and saw a billboard that said, "kam-BING-an". I wasn't sure what it meant so I said it out loud so I could hear it and figure out if it was the same as "ka-I-bigan". When I said it I realised that they weren't the same but my filipino friend and tagalog teacher thought that I was confused and called him "kam-BING-an" (a goat dish - taken from the word for goat "kam-BING") instead of "ka-I-bigan" (friend). I managed to convince him that he was my friend rather than food so now we have a little joke about it when we use the word "ka-I-bigan".

Help, I'm becoming a filipino driver!

I don't care what anyone else says, the people here are crazy drivers! I have recently started driving in the Philippines and I can't believe how intense it is. It's one thing to get used to driving on the right (or is it wrong) side of the road and on the left side of the car, but getting used to the traffic is another thing all together. I've been finding my way around the province okay. Occassionally I get a scare from someone who brakes suddenly or a tricycle who pulls out in front of me but this is nothing compared to my last scare the other day. I had just driven 4 hours from Munoz in Nueva Ecija where I am now doing language study and no sooner had I reached EDSA (a major road in Manila) did two buses sandwiched me. One pulled across in front of me and just stopped to let passengers out so I pulled left to avoid him another but then another one cut off my escape route leaving stuck between the two with nowhere to go. This was in the middle of the road mind you, not the side! But I'm slowly adjusting. I'm finding that you have to join them in some form of craziness in order to survive on the roads here. In the back of my mind I am thinking, "What on earth is going to happen when I try to drive in Australia again". I know some of my friends already think I'm a crazy driver, but come and visit me and I'll show you some that I will never surpass in craziness.