Posts tagged cultural differences

To Filipinos, I’m not sure which was more confusing.. the fact that I am:

- Single
- Traveling solo
- Don’t believe in any sort of god, Christian or otherwise

Alone and Single
Everywhere I went, some of the first questions that were asked were, “Where is your girlfriend?” and “Who are you traveling with?”. I of course replied with the truth, “I don’t have one” and “I’m traveling alone”. Every.single.time I gave these responses, there was always a pause of what I think was disbelief. They looked at me, often with confused or even offended expressions; it was always followed by “Why?”. To this, I didn’t have an answer that made sense to them. To me, the answer seemed obvious - “Because I want to”, but this appeased no one.

This was not just me. I met other travelers with the same experiences and it is such a significant phenomenon that even my Lonely Planet travel guide discusses it.

I’m still unsure of all the cultural reasons for this. From what I can tell though, Filipinos rarely travel alone or even do local activities alone. Living alone seems objectionable to many of them. They place a huge emphasis on family.

Religion
During slightly deeper discussions, the question of religion came up a lot, especially around my relatives. I think the question comes with the expectation that you will be of some Christian denomination. I also think it is not a taboo conversation topic in the Philippines because, to them, it’s close to unheard of to be non-religious. They don’t anticipate that you will answer in a way that might be foreign to them.

I didn’t often dive deeper into philosophy while there… Atheism is as foreign to them as their country and language was to me. 90% of the population in the Philippines is Christian and about 80% of that is Catholic. Evangelizing is minimal and everyone remains friendly when they discover my beliefs - certainly a step up from much of what I find in the US. However, there is always the comment that they “hope I find god”. The attitude seems to be that my belief is temporary, that I am lost, haven’t given it much thought or that I just haven’t found god yet. I felt like they saw me as a child who just “didn’t understand”.

If you’re looking for Jesus, I’m pretty sure if he’s anywhere, it’s in the Philippines. Displays of worship are bountiful. Not a day went by where I didn’t encounter something to do with Jesus and it’s usually closer to 5+ encounters. Almost all the jeepneys, the primary form of transportation in the Philippines, are decorated inside and out with tributes and messages about Jesus and the Christian god. You’ll find “Jesus is LORD”, pictures of Jesus and Mary, crosses, airbrushed paintings on the side of jeepneys, shrines, t-shirts and messages painted on the side of buildings basically everywhere. You’ll even find things in places you would not normally expect to find religious displays such as restaurants and hotels geared toward tourists.

As far as I can tell, the knowledge and understanding of things such as evolutionary science is about as common as one would find in religious communities in the United States. It is seen here, just as it is in the US, as a competitive belief to creationism. I see signs every now and then outside churches advertising “Science day”s. Not entirely sure what that would cover and I’m still curious to find out.

Reproductive health is a huge and controversial issue in the Philippines currently. The Catholic Church has an overwhelming influence in government there. The fact that things such as contraception come up here as issues at all is surprising and mostly seems to be brought about by the realization of how much it contributes to poverty and government spending. Abortion is illegal there and divorce is nearly impossible for most people.

I’ve changed hotels since the whole mugging thing. Now I’m in one of the towers in Rockwell Center, a 38 acre (15.5 hectare) area that is effectively roped off from the rest of the city. You could easily forget the entire culture of the Philippines by being here. No jeepneys drive through or even near it; the only tricycles I’ve seen are across the street in the neighboring village, but they’re all bicycle style ones - none are motor driven. It would seem there are restrictions around what types of vehicles can be in and around this area.

I actually booked this place before the mugging happened - I came here for the internet connection. The place I’m staying, Joya, has apartment-style housing and each room has it’s own modem straight to the ISP - no shared funny business here.

It’s different here… almost the complete opposite of the rest of the country. The people are cold, formal and standoffish. They don’t smile. They all speak English and even mostly sound like Americans, but you can hear a touch of misery in everything they say, as though it is painful to speak. They don’t walk, they drive. There is an added physical separation everywhere - less occupants per residence, no jeeps or buses, no street vendors.. the streets and even balconies are empty because people are couped up in their air-conditioned apartments, taxis and luxury cars.
There are no strangers who approach me here. Maybe reasonably so because there is basically a physical lack of opportunity to do so. The hotel staff and staff at the places I eat don’t try to make conversation or befriend me like they do everywhere else. There are few young people and hardly any children to be seen, even on the weekend. I went across the street to the village next to Rockwell Center to find the streets littered with children and their families.

Is this a taste of the reverse culture shock I might experience when I come back?

One of the coolest things about businesses over here is that they all have cellphones and texting is an accepted medium of communication for just about anything. I can text to make a hotel reservation, order food, talk to the hotel front desk staff, book a tour, book transportation, get a cab, let my hostel know that I probably forgot my towel with them.

To Filipinos, this all seems second nature. I don’t know if there is really any business in the US that I would text. Email is a much more acceptable mode of communication and most phone numbers that are listed for businesses are landlines, so you can’t text them.

What is even more interesting here is that businesses will text you back using SMS language. For example: “hell0 sir, h0w cn i help u?”. I guess professionalism in written communication isn’t as valued here.