SS says...

To Mr. Vic,

Thanks for welcoming me back home.

Making the transition after a travel from an entirely different cultural setting is definitely a big deal. To your unforgettable features of a Philippine holiday (roosters crowing, dogs barking, tricycle engines revving up in front of your house during unholy hours), I would add mine (smell of rotting strewn garbage when commuting between Manila and my place of residence south of it, open manholes ready to gulp in any unsuspecting senior citizen who hobbles on them, carbon monoxide fumes from smoke-belching vehicles especially during rush hours).

Speaking of open manholes: there is one near the PNU gate along Arroceros Street near Manila City Hall. Believe me, I’ve just returned from Manila. (Who says it’s more thrilling to live elsewhere than in our own native place!)

To RICKYTAGAMANAOAG

About your problem in changing mindset (when) coming from abroad (new world) going to the Philippines (old world), I think the clash of these two worlds when stepping out of one and in to the other is normal in the person making the transition.

Such ‘cultural shock’ was sensationalized in the Australian (new world) movie "Crocodile Dundee" starred by Paul Hogan. In one episode of the movie, Dundee strayed inside the Ladies’ Room in one European City (old world) and was surprised to find two bowls: the first being used to take care of a woman’s posterior need, and the second to take care of her anterior need (Europeans are ‘uncultured’ in the used of the ubiquitous Filipino ‘tabo’). Without knowing the specific purpose of the second bowl, Dundee used it to wash his face!

Speaking of Europeans, I found some of them too proud to think that there wouldn’t be a "new world" without them, that things outside their world necessarily began with them.

On one ship as a seaman I sailed with a Swiss guarantee engineer. On one beer huddle, I asked if he was not excited to go and live in America. His answer was a terse "No, they (Americans) have got no culture". I considered impolite to ask him for elaboration but I assumed then that by "culture", he perhaps meant the period of the classics in literature and arts in which such great names as Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, Mozart, Beethoven, Johann Strauss, to name a few, have lived.

Mr. Vic & RTM (let me call you this shortened name to cut down on reading time and irritability), your and my experiences typify the uniqueness of the culture we were born into. As one can’t afford not to go back, it has got only to steel oneself to absorb the shock.--#

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(To add a few more episodes on our 1988 trip)..From Paraniaque, we took a taxi going to Sta. Mesa to visit some relatives we have not seen for over a decade. We passed by a wall full of billboards and grafittis and that ubiquitous sign that said BAWAL ANG UMIHI DITO..

"What does that sign means?" asked my daughter.

"Do not piss against this wall.." I said nonchantly with a faint smile..

She crinkled her nose and said:

"Ewww.."

--vic

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