The Philippines!

I know you've been waiting with bated breath for a report of my trip to the Philippines, so suffer no more!

After a dramatic (traumatic?) experience at the airport, where I was informed that I had never actually rebooked my ticket, only secured a place on the waiting list for a flight that was now overbooked, the flight staff took pity on my poor, weeping self, or rather, wanted to get me out of their hair, and sent me on my flight as scheduled to Bohol, connecting in Manila.

Before I went to the Philippines, I had read a few travel guides and descriptions of the country. "The people are so friendly!" claimed a travel guide. "The people are so religious," said another. "The country is juuust right" said Goldilocks. But I was fully unprepared for how fully accurate these descriptions are.

Sheer, unedited beauty

The people were extraordinarily friendly. Here in China, I am accustomed to getting a free drink here and there, a chatty taxi driver who wants to know my opinion on Obama, or a friendly grandmother who insist I play peek-a-boo with her granddaughter. But everyone I met in the Philippines was friendly, and I wasn't always in tourist-y locations. I can't think of a single exception. The families whose houses we worked on. My bus rides to and from scuba lessons. Every tri-cycle and habal-habal driver I encountered. My voice got hoarse from talking so much!

New friends

I'm sure part of my different experiences in China and the Philippines stems from the fact that English is a national language of the Philippines, and Philippine people likely felt more confident talking to me in English than Chinese people do (although they always apologized for their poor language skills.) But that can't be the only reason, plus I didn't have the same friendly experiences in Thailand or Cambodia, where more people speak English as well. I hate to make a sweeping generalization about a people and be culturally insensitive, but the Philippines routinely tops the "world's happiest countries" list and I can see why. Maybe it was the beautiful weather, maybe it was a cultural attitude toward treating others the way you wish to be treated, I couldn't say. But damn I met a lot of friendly people!

The Philippines is probably the most religious country I've ever visited, and I've been to the vatican. OK, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but still. I first noticed it when I hailed a tricycle to the campsite. All the tricycle taxis have religious words printed on the back, and are called "Jesus" or "Maria" or other Christian names.

I can do all this through HIM who gives me strength"

I often cleared religious paraphernalia out of the houses we worked on. "The Lord sent you," "May God bless you," and other phrases were usually our form of thank you from the people whose homes were destroyed. Not that it made me uncomfortable in the least. In fact, an elderly woman and I had an interesting conversation about religion after I told her that I'm Jewish. I knew the Philippines was a pious, religious country, but I had no idea how widespread or pervasive Christianity really would be.

The Philippines was just a wonderful place to spend close to three weeks. All of the things that happened that seemed "bad" at the time, like a mini-typhoon that evacuated me from my tent and the loneliness of staying on an isolated beach by myself, don't seem as bad in retrospect. More details soon!