After leaving my parents and my youngest sister, Marie (better known as Flarie), at the airport of Brussels, I realised to the fullness that I was leaving Belgium for one year on my own; a strange feeling, but definitely an exciting adventure is waiting for me!
After a long flight I arrived at Metro Manila; a city with 11 million inhabitants during the day (as my first taxi driver told me). As Minette (an ex-colleague of IMRD last year in Berlin and also a Pinay who lives in Manila) told me, I took a taxi at the second floor of the airport; those are supposed to be cheaper... I had to go to the Office of the Secretary at the Department of Agriculture, Quezon City – where Minette works – because she was so kind that she arranged a bed for me at the apartment of one of her friends. After almost 30 minutes we finally arrived, at Elliptical Road in Quezon City. I could not find Minettski immediately, but luckily a girl took me to her office, called Minette for me and invited me to join their lunch... Then Minette arrived, but she had to work until the evening so I was glad I could rest a bit in the shadow and try to get rid of my jet-lag... My Philippinian adventure had started for real now.
I do not want to offend any Pinoy or Pinay, but I really did not like Metro Manila. It exists almost completely out of skyscrapers and huge malls (they have the third biggest mall in Asia, which is bigger than Zaventem!!), and cars, cars, cars and cars... There is a strange thing about these malls, the people here like to go the mall just to walk around (suroy-suroy, which more or less means walking around without goal, looking at the different shops). The mall is a place to meet each other, to go for lunch and to shop. Probably the large amount of people there has something to do with the fact that those malls have air conditioning, which is most welcome for me here, because at the moment it is more than 35 degrees in the Philippines. Luckily the Philippines people are so warm and hospitable.
The second day we celebrated Minettes birthday at a restaurant, close to Manila Bay where you have to give your fish (that you bought earlier) to the cook, who prepares the food. Immediately I was also confronted with the open mind of Philippines towards ga
y people; lots of she-males tried to convince me to go and eat in the place where they worked... Funny! Philippines like music, and especially if the music is played loud and if there is possibility for karaoke. Like in our restaurant, there was a man and a girl singing famous English love songs. All these songs are remakes of the origins, with digital equipment and no text of course, there are enough people willing to sing. As so did Minette for her birthday.
Celebrating the birthday of Minette at Manila bay, with – of course – karaoke!
Another sad thing about Manila is that is was completely bombed by the Japanese during WW II, except for one church, so it had to be completely rebuild. There is the an 'old part' called intramuros, with new buildings, build according to the old style.
During my short three day visit in Manila, I stayed in two appartmets, with both different views as you can see on the pictures. The first one was located in a skyscraper district, where there are no shops or restaurants in the streets; the place to be is the mall. The second one was more charming, but also poorer. Low houses, small shops and eat stand in the streets.
Appartment view from where Eden lives and from where Cherry lives.
On Friday morning it was time for me to leave Metro Manila and take the plane direction Mindanao Island, Davao City! Early in the morning I said goodbye to Minette and Cherry, thanked them for their hospitality (and of course I am not forgetting Eden!) and took a cab to the airport.
Metro Manila from the airplane.
After one hour and a half I arrived in Davao City, where my brothers form Broederelijk Delen (BD – my Belgian ngo) Arnold, Frithjof and Pieter were waiting for me. After having lunch with them, they took me to my new Philippinian family. There is Rudi and Merlin, the father and mother, Tata, their daughter and Dong, the son. They live in the Pampanga, a cery charming neighbourhood close to the airport, with small houses and full of fruit trees (banana, coconut and papaya) and flowers. I had a very warm welcome and I knew immediate that I was in good hands! My nanay (mother) is an ex-cook from the school where I study Cebuano/Visaya. And although they probably never heard from somebody that does not eat meat/fish, they do their best to satisfy my needs, which they do with great success! Because it is quite difficult for a vegetarian here, I am eating some fish, to be sure to have all the necessary vitamins and proteins. After a quite weekend of acclimatisation, my language classes started on the first Monday of March.
The view from my room in barangay Pampanga.
This month there are not too much students in the language school, in fact I am the only beginner. That is good on the one hand side, because I have private lessons, and so I have the possibility to progress according my own effort (weather that is quickly or slowly, I still have to find out...). There are of course other students who are already following the classes for some months now. Originally the language school was designed for missionaries to learn the local language, and until now it is still runned by the Maryknoll Congregation. Likewise all my fellow students are sisters or priests. There are two woman, one from Korea and one from Japan and three priests coming from France, Poland and Indonesia.
Some views of my barangay, Doña Asuncion – Pampanga
Everyday on my to school and back, I have to walk for fifteen to twenty minutes through our neighbourhood. And every time I do that, I feel all eyes of the people in the streets fixed on me. Most of the time they shout to me “Hey Joe!”, “Where are you going?” and “Give money?”. The fact that they call me Joe is not so unusual here. It comes from the period when the Americans occupied the country, referring to G.I. Joe. All Philippes also think that every white man is an American, although I did not met one yet... When I say I come from Belgium, it is suddenly very quite, until one asks, where in America is Belgium... Apparently no one paid good attention during geography classes.
In the Maryknoll language school.
Another typical thing here in the Philippines is the public transport. It consist mostly out of tricycles (6 Philippine Pesos – Php) and Jeepnys (7 PhP for the first 4 km, 1 Php for each km more). Those Jeepnys used to be US military truck that were converted. Later they made them according this US military vehicle. There are very funny those Jeepnys; the owner decorates them a lot, even putting Mercedes of BMW signs on it (although they are not at all Mercedes or BMW), apparently those brands are considered high in social status.
With my first blog, I would also like to take the opportunity to thank everybody who was so kind to sponsor my voluntary work here in the Philippines! Dankuwel iedereen!
On Monday there is a festival in Davao City, I will be there and will write again on my blog after that.
Greetings!
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