kumusta

Okay fine, it was a depressing post. But I'm trying to get at some of the profound contradictions that I've seen here. Here's the happy stuff:

Filipinos pride themselves on their hospitality for good reason. I've been told several times that if I were here just before Lent, I should walk around to people's houses and get fed. I'm to tell them that I'm a relative and I will immediately be forced to eat really, really good food until I cannot eat anymore. Everyone does it, it's just what you do. Some houses become noted for offering particularly good meals and are inundated with extended 'family'.

Everyone has a connection to everyone else and avails themselves of the connections. The same has proven true for Amaraine and I, who've been the recipients of a wide variety of things because someone knows someone's aunt whose niece's husband has something that can be given to us, from hotel rooms to food.

We're also Catholic here. When I reply 'no' to the frequently asked, 'are you Catholic?' the response is invariably, 'oh, so you're Protestant.' There is no checkbox for 'other', or 'religion-is-the-opiate-of-the-masses'. This is one of many reminders that this country was colonized by Spain for 400 years and I believe that a particularly Spanish Catholicism has worked its way into the culture in the same way it has into the language. It has become Filipino. Saints are paraded on saints days, fiesta's happen in plazas that face a church, and funeral parades include families that spill out of slowly moving Jeepneys. I feel that people generally 'do' catholicism with the same vigour as Victorians who assert that Victoria, BC is more British than Great Britain or as Quebecois who protect their language more assertively than the French. That said, what I find refreshing is that no further conversation continues past, 'are you Catholic?' - which could either be because my soul is destined for eternal damnation and I'm a lost cause or because generally speaking, Filipinos are profoundly respectful and would never embarass you or directly criticize you. Uncomfortable things are not brought up with strangers (or, for that matter, with tourists).

Before I came here, I was wary of the suggestion that Filipinos are really friendly. It's a phrase too often used by happy white backpackers to describe citizens of foreign countries who patiently indulge said backpackers' desire to go native. But it's true: Filipinos are really friendly; unabashedly, disconcertingly friendly (at least to happy white interns whose desire to go native has included saying 'oh-oh' and raising their eyebrows instead of saying, 'yes'). I have never, in my life, been greeted by so many people ever: people smile, wave, ask where I'm going or say 'hi, Joe' wherever I go. Seriously, wherever I go. [Note: Joe is what white dudes are called - stemming from WWII and the continuous presence (until the early 90s) of US G.I. Joe's]

The cynic in me wants to ask, 'what is wrong with you people, why are you so friendly?' and for a time I wasn't sure if the friendliness was genuine. I don't suppose that I'll ever know the answer to whether it is genuine or not (though I suspect it actually is), but I do know that when you feel lonely and sad and far from home, it feels really nice to have someone ask where you're going or just say, 'hi'.