The Philippines was colonized by the Roman Catholic Spanish for 300 years, and the Americans for 50 years following World War II. The expression is that Filipinos spent 300 years in the convent and 50 years in Hollywood. The American influence is heavy, and on the surface, Filipino culture looks similar to American culture. In big cities, fast food restaurants and malls are prevalent. The little restaurants in my town serve burgers, fries, and spaghetti. Western music and movies are very popular. These surface similarities can be misleading for Americans living in the Philippines as they can lull you into a false sense of security. The artist Yang Liu was born in China and migrated to Germany as a teenager. She has firsthand experience of the differences between Eastern and Western culture. Here are some of my favorites. They are generalizations, of course, but I have found them to be accurate representations when I think about American vs. Filipino culture. The blue represents the West and the red represents the East. Independence vs. Dependence: Americans tend to value independence and being able to take care of yourself. Filipino families are very tight-knit and everyone takes care of one another. A salary does not belong only to the person who earns it; there is always a network of family members it is supporting. If a meeting is scheduled to begin at 8AM in the U.S., it will begin at 8AM. If a meeting is scheduled for 8AM in the Philippines, it will probably begin sometime between 8:30-10:00AM! Filipinos perceive Americans as busy and serious. Filipino culture is more laid back. If something doesn't get done today, no worries, tomorrow is another day. In the U.S., white people will spend fortunes and risk skin cancer to become darker. In the Philippines, because of a history of colonization, white skin is considered beautiful. The use of whitening products is rampant- it’s difficult for me to find lotion or deodorant here that doesn’t claim to whiten the skin. Historically, Filipinos who married white Westerners were high-status and wealthy. These mestizo families remain in the elite class today. If you watch Filipino T.V, you will probably notice that most of the people on the screen are not representative of how most Filipinos look. They often have European features- paler skin and pointy noses. In the U.S., we often call our bosses by their first name. Feedback from employees is sought out more often, and bosses and employees more often have casual conversations with each other. In the Philippines, hierarchy and status is important. The boss makes the decisions and employees follow! It is expected to call someone by their title (Engineer, Doctor, Sir, Ma’am) even in casual conversation. In the Philippines, animals are valued more for their practical purposes, and are only rarely kept as companions. Dogs are often named “Bantay”, which means “guard”. Cats are usually kept as a deterrent against mice and rats in the house. Americans typically say what we mean and mean what we say! Filipinos more often choose social harmony over expression of negative emotions, meaning that they are less likely to straightforwardly express anger or to say something they fear will disappoint others. For example, when accepting an invitation, Filipinos often say “maybe”, which can mean “maybe”, “yes”, or “no” depending on how it is said! Filipinos understand the subtleties of this communication style, but it can be difficult for Westerners to catch on.
You can see more of these infographics here. Thanks for reading and have a good week! Airplanes, jeepneys, tricycles, vans, ferries, bangka boats, etc- the Philippines has a wide variety of transportation methods! The majority of Filipinos tend to stay in their own region, as travel can be expensive. However, people from the provinces often travel to Manila in search of work. My province, Northern Samar, is quite remote in terms of the difficulty and time it takes to travel to other parts of the country. There are two options for travel from Northern Samar to Manila. The first is a mesyado mahal (very expensive) flight from Catarman, Northern Samar to Manila. We have a tiny airport whose staff now knows me by name, and the runway is a large road that is closed to ground traffic from 5-7 AM four days a week in order for the plane to land and take off again. The second option is a bus ride to the port in western Samar, a ferry ride from there to southern Luzon, then an 18 hour bus ride from there to Manila! Because the cost of a flight is so expensive (a friend of mine found Manila-Australia flights for the same cost as a Catarman-Manila flight) most Manila-bound travellers take the long bus ride. All of my travel to Manila has been for official Peace Corps trainings or meetings, so thankfully the organization has covered the cost of flying and I have yet to experience the infamous bus ride! I did experience a long bus ride from Manila to La Union (the surf capital of the Philippines). A few of us visited home for the holidays, then landed late at night in Manila to travel together for a New Years vacation with a group of PCVs. The buses run hourly through the night, so we arrived at the bus station at 2AM from the airport. We expected the station would be empty at this time, but we found a crowd of 700 people waiting in front of us! Luckily there was a Jollibee (a Filipino fast food chain) right next to the bus station, so we waited there from 2AM until we were able to board a bus at 8AM. Thankfully the time passed quickly as I was with good friends and Jollibee has coffee :). Let’s just say travelling in the Philippines is a good teacher of patience! Within the province of Northern Samar, we travel between towns on vans and jeepneys. Jeepneys became a popular method of public transportation after World War II. Americans left behind military jeeps which were refurbished into public transportation vehicles. There are two long benches inside facing the middle so as to fit as many people as possible. We have one long highway that passes through the province, so if I want to travel to another town, I stand by the highway and flag down a passing jeepney that is travelling in the direction I want to go. Boat travel is common as well. To smaller islands within my province, an hour or less from the mainland, I usually travel on bangka boats. These are traditional Filipino boats with wide bamboo outriggers for balance. They usually have motors. For longer trips, there are large ferry boats. I’ve taken overnight ferries a few times to the island of Cebu in the Central Visayas. These are larger boats, and for overnight trips, they are filled with bunk beds. - To travel short distances within towns in my province, we ride tricycles or pedicabs. A tricycle is a motorcycle with a side or back car, and a pedicab is a bike with a small side car. These are often decorated and sometimes the drivers have a speaker playing music! (American music and entertainment is popular here- Ed Sheeran is huge right now. Filipinos LOVE romance, especially now during Valentine’s Day season). I took the photo of the pedicab on the right during a fiesta (more on those in a later post), a religious holiday celebrating a town's patron saint, hence the nuns. If you look closely, you will see that it is decorated with a doll head. I rode in this pedicab on another later day and asked the trike driver, "Nano an ngaran sini nga doll?" (What is the name of this doll?) First he laughed at me. But then he told me he named it Chucky. There's a saying when it comes to public transportation: "There's always room for one more." Travelling in the Philippines is always an adventure and usually does not go as planned!
Hello and Happy Friday! You guys have some great questions! I’ll address the more personal questions this week, and then I’ll take on the rest in an upcoming blog post. An old Peace Corps ad campaign labeled volunteer service as “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” I first started thinking about the Peace Corps during my sophomore year of college after a recruiter visited my school. As a marine biology and environmental studies student, I was curious about whether I could combine these interests with serving in the Peace Corps. After some Googling I found the Coastal Resource Management program in the Philippines. I was interested, but scared! I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle a long two years away from home, but the idea stayed in the back of my mind. During my last year of college, I started thinking about plans for after graduation, and was still drawn to Peace Corps. I loved the idea of living in a foreign community long enough to make friends and to create a life there, while also doing environmental work! But the time and distance from home still scared me. After a lot of thinking and talking to friends and family, I took the plunge and applied- very close to the December 31st, 2015 deadline. I had a phone interview in January, received my invitation to serve in February, then began the long process of obtaining medical and legal clearance (sooo many doctors’ appointments!!!). On July 3rd, 2016, I met up with my batch of volunteers in L.A. We flew together the next day to the Philippines. For the first 3 months in-country, I lived in a community with 10 other volunteers, each with our own host family. We had busy days full of Tagalog classes, cultural discussions, and technical training where we practiced habitat assessments, boat registration, fisherfolk interviews, fish identification, mangrove tree planting, environmental education, and more! Here are some pictures of my host sisters playing at the beach, fish ID day at the market, and the day we learned to plant mangroves: In September I moved to my site in Northern Samar, where we speak Waray Waray. I lived with a host family for a year, but wanted the experience of living independently, so I moved to a duplex type unit in August. My host family’s home looked very American, but my home now is a bit more rustic. I fetch water from a pump (“bumbahan” in the local language). We use small buckets called “tabos” in the kitchen and bathroom for showering, flushing the toilet, and washing the dishes. Before beginning service, I expected that the biggest adjustments would be lifestyle related. However, water pumps, slow and intermittent internet, hot weather, power outages, and a lack of toilet paper become routine surprisingly quickly. My biggest shock has not come from any physical discomfort, but from being a typical individualistic American living within a communal culture. Personal privacy is not prioritized in the Philippines as it is in the States. My sweet nanay (host mother) used to go into my bedroom every day while I was at work to clean and sometimes even rearrange the furniture! Common questions of greeting include: “Where are you going?” and “Where have you come from?” It has taken a lot of adjustment to come to terms with feeling like I live in a fishbowl! In the U.S., the first question we often ask one another is, “What do you do?” This is how we define and categorize one another. In the Philippines, the first questions are usually about family: your siblings, parents, children. The first question I receive upon meeting new people has often been, “Are you married?” closely followed by, “Why not?!” This can feel invasive- but I also find it quite beautiful that Filipinos define people more by their personal relationships than by their work. Filipinos often view Americans as being very independent, and I sometimes hear the stereotype that our family ties are not as strong as Filipinos. Unlike the typical American who moves out of their family home in their late teens or early 20s, Filipinos usually live with extended family, continue to live at home during college, and may not move out until they marry. I have tried to combat this stereotype by telling my Filipino friends about my family and showing them pictures. They are sometimes surprised when I talk about how I miss my family and speak with them often. My typical day has changed many times throughout my service. Near the beginning, “work” meant studying the local language, talking to people, eating with people, and overall just adjusting to Filipino life and culture. Here is a link to a blog post about my typical days early in service. Now that I’ve been settled into site for a year and a half, I spend more time working on projects related to my primary assignment: environment and coastal resource management. This week, I’m working on a grant proposal for an environmental education project I am planning for this summer- more on that later. I typically wake up early with the rest of my town, around 5AM! I usually journal, run, take a bucket bath, and get ready for the day. I often pick up pan de sal for breakfast from one of the little streetside bakery stands scattered around town. I bike to work, a short couple of blocks away. I spent this morning working on my grant proposal then ate lunch with my counterpart at a little restaurant across the street that a family runs from their house. Our lunch was chop suey (chopped veggies and shrimp), langka (jackfruit) cooked in coconut milk, and rice (of course!) In the afternoon, I had meetings with the high school principal and the president of a community women’s organization. Today looked much like an average office work day, but other days have included attending fisherfolk meetings, playing environmental education games with high schoolers, watching fishermen bring fish aggregating devices out to sea, and even accompanying coworkers on a door-to-door dog rabies vaccination campaign.
Thanks for the questions and feel free to keep them coming! |
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