American in Davao

In part 1 I mentioned a lot of the things I like about Filipinos.

Now some of the little things I do not like. One is courtesies. In driving, walking in the mall, market or on the street.

With driving, they change lanes without looking. At intersections it is who can force themselves through and block your way. Very rarely does a car or jeepney stop and allow you in.

At times, as someone is crossing the street, I will let them pass and they sometimes look at you to make sure you’re not going to go and hit them. When you have directional on signaling to make a turn, you sometimes see them flash their lights, but it sometimes means they will stop and let you go, and others that they are not planning to stop.
Horns are used the same way. One night I was getting ready to turn into my driveway at my home, I had hand out, signal blinking and from a way back a taxi pressed on his horn and keeps it there all the way until he passed me.

Some motorcycle drivers think they are immortal more than car drivers. They will zoom past you on the left side, the right side and even in oncoming lanes.

In the malls, if there is any space between you and another person, they will cut right in front of you.

One day I was at Dunkin Donuts. The clerk was taking care of another customer so I stood back a little. A woman comes in, walks in front of me, squeezes to the counter and starts calling out her order, interrupting the clerk with the current customer.

In the market at the checkout, the carts cannot pass through, so when you unload, it has to be pushed back and out of the way. Sometimes you see someone will be unloading their cart, and then throw things back that they changed their mind. It is not that they realize they do not have enough money since their order has not started to be rung up. I wonder; if you really did not want it, why put it in your cart. Then they are usually the ones that move forward to the cashier and just leave the cart in your way.

Also in the market, there are items you see for weeks, then not see again for months. In a lot of restaurants, both higher end to fast foods you will see things on the menu and be told they are out of it.

One fast food place, Jollibee, has big posters showing they have Chili Cheese Dogs. When we went in to order, we were told, “Oh, that promo has not started yet”. The poster did not say in future or a date it will start. Next time we were told they were out of stock.

There is a foreigner run restaurant that sells some of their products in the mall markets. One item that caught my eye was Veal Sausage. I picked up the package and read the ingredients. Veal Sausage made with chicken and pork. Where is the Veal?

At the office I was working at, so many times employees either come in late or not at all or have never contacted anyone to let them know. When I was asked to leave because of my status not yet arrived to work legally, one thing I heard from the architect, the supervisor told the boss, “Do you know, Bruce always arrives on time and if is to be late or absent, he will always contact us.”

Well, as most things here, you cannot let these things bother you to the point of anxiety or stress; you just need to accept the way things are here.

I have been living here almost a year now and I am still learning how different life is here, and I am sure it will never stop to amaze me.