What is "a little late" ? How late is late? Are there any differences between a date and a business meeting?
People look at time differently in different parts of the world. In rigid-time countries, people are time-worshipped or clock-obsessed. Punctuality is very critical for them. On the contrary, in fluid-time countries, people place less emphasis on strick punctuality and are not so obsessed with time. The Philippines happens to fall in the category of the "Fluid-time" zone (Or what's so called Polychromic cultures). In a nutshell, the closer you get to the equator, the slower the clock seems to run. I had learned of this before I headed to Boracay. However, I didn't expect that I would experience this in person.
I made several nice and hospitable local friends while I was swimming. One of them is Mike. He showed me around Boracay and introduced his friends to me. We hung out at a lot of cool places in Boracay, even local karaoke stores. He even took me to a cyber cafe and asked the clerk to put together a lot of English songs either by Filipino or foreign artists that we listened to at the beachfront bar, Pier One, and burned them into one CD for my remembrance, because he knew that I loved those songs so much. Before I took off, he also took me to some Talipapas (Souvenir or gift shop in Filipino) so that I can save more bucks. He's been a good friend to me.
However, one day before we said good night to each other after we came back from bar hopping, we made an appointment for the following day at 11:00 AM. The next day, I showed up at 11:00 AM on the dot, but he didn't. I thought he might have a hang-over and slept in. So I took it easy and decided to have sun-bathing for a while before he turned up. After 1 hour, I still didn't get to get a glimpse of him. I was so famished that I went to grab something to eat. After I got back to my hotel around 03:00 PM, the hotel cherk told me that someone was looking for me around 1:00 PM. And I knew it was Mike. I wasn't mad at all because he had been nice to me and it hit me that it might be due to either the cultural difference or his hang-over. While I was in the middle of a nap, he knocked on my door and called my name. He apologized and said he had been looking for me earlier. And I said that was okay.
Also, one time I invited Mike and his friend, Joey, to go out for dinner, and the designated time was 06:00 PM. They showed up around 10-15 minutes late and they apologized to me. I took it lightly. We still had a good time at dinner.
Those two cases proved the people at different parts of the world have different ideas about time. If I hadn't known this, I would have gone ballistic or left on the spot and lost several nice friends. After coming back to Taiwan, I asked some of my Filipino friends or Chinese friends in Manila, they all told me things like those happened now and then. Filipinos are more laid-back and not that time-conscious. Unilke us, sometimes we might feel we are slave to the time clock. One Filipino even wanted to apologize to me on behalf of his fellow campatriots. In fact, I've never blamed them for their tardiness because I know that results from cultural differences. Plus, they were always nice to me and even cooked a great deal of seafood for me as one of them used to be a chief.
This trip is really a wonderful expereince and I won't forget those great friends over there. Most of all, I did learn a lot from them and got the chance to prove the theories or what I read in the books as well. Travelling really helps people grow and enrich more real-life experience and cultural knowledge. If I have free time, I'd like to go back there sometime.
Today, it's the 20th anniversary of the "people power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. So many people took to the streets in Manila and asked the incumbent President to step down. However, Philippine President declared a state of emergency and made a televised speech saying that the suspects in an attempt to treason had been arrested. It's a mess in Manila right now. I hope it doesn't have much influence on Boracay. Also I'd like to solute my fellow Taiwanese who went to the disaster area to assist in relief effort and to pray for those families that lost their loved ones in the landslide, hoping that they can go thru all the sorrow and sadness and have a better life in the future.
Today, I wanna talk about the mail system in the Philippines. The reason why I want to bring this up is that it is kind of special to me. There is no NUMBERS in an address in the Philippines. It's very common for us to see an address like "No.14, Chung-Shan Rd, Hu-wei Township, Yun-lin County, Taiwan". But it's definitely not the case when it comes to a Philippine address. You can only see the name of the street or the road in the beginng of an address. I didn' t know that until my friend Michael tried to write down his address to me. Interesting, huh? I'm wondering if the road or the street is too long, how can you find the recipient? As I know, most buildings in Manila has its own name. Maybe that's how a mail carrier deliver mails.
Speaking of address systems, I must have to talk about the zip code in Canada. I believe that almost everyone knows that a zip code contains several numeric numbers. However, in Canada, a zip code consists of English letters, not numeric numbers at all. I didn't know that until one day I wanted to mail something to my Canada friend.
Anything goes in the world. There are so many things that we can't learn from school or books, but from travelling. That's why I love travelling so much. I will talk about more next time on what I learned from Pinoys. Please stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. hehe
The first lesson that I learned is that life can be simple and easy. As we all know, the Philippines used to be very prosperous in Asia and it is the second country in Asia to build MRT systems. However, when you step out of the Manila Airport, you would be totally blown away by the traffic scene. It's a truly nightmare. A lot of people in Taiwan complain about the traffic congestion and mess in Taipei. But if you look at the scene in Metro Manila, you will know it's like comparing apples and oranges. Due to political corruption, Pinoys (the term filipinos call themselves) learn how to put up with it and be happy about it (Maybe they are just used to it and not that happy about it). I remember once I asked one of my friends working in Manila what he thought about filipino culture? On second thought, he described Pinoys "窮開心" (they are poor but be positive in their lives.) When I went to Bay Walk (Manila Bay area), I saw a lot of beautiful men and women chilling out over there after work. While most people here in Taiwan work overtime, sipping some Red Horse or Sam Migual (two local brands of beer) and listening to live band performance are those activities I saw getting started in Manila. It's a place with a lot of beautiful decorations and full of romantic and exotic vibes floating in the air. Holding each other's hands, sitting at the bank of the bay and taking a snapshot with your loved one with background music could be seen here and there. And during the daytime, if you go to the Rizal Park, you will be taken by surprise how many people are there hanging out with their families and having a good time in picnic. Once you walk across the street, even more people jump into the water and dip in the sea water with smily faces. I love the way they live their lives. Simple and easy. Most of all, they are positive about their lives. Although most Pinoys are not satisfied the performance of the government, and even though some doctors would rather immigrate overseas as nurses just for getting out of the country, they are still trying to live their lives to its fullest. I admire this a lot. Money talks. Without money, there are a lot of things that we can't buy or do. However, life shouldn't be just all about money. There are still a lot of important things. Once we can make ends meet and support our family, isn't it the right thing that we should enjoy our lives?
This is the first lesson I learned from Pinoys. I think I'll try to keep that in mind. Every time I get lost in life and work my ass off for something unimportant, this could be a reminder. I'll share other lessons I learned or experience in this trip next time. If you've got anything to say or any your experience that you want to share with me, just feel free to post them.