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.