Eventually our goods arrived on Friday.  We just had to accept that we had no choice but to pay the “damages” the brokers imposed on us.  Besides all the goods arrived in good condition.

Right now, with all our important stuff with us it is not hard to admit that it adds to the feeling of being at home.  In spite of all the bumps along the way and the disappointments and unhappy surprises that dealing with Filipinos has shown us we are again one step closer to getting to know our new home and our surroundings better.

Today, we just came back from a business trip to Baguio where we spent sometime with our business partner and the first programmer.  Our business partner, is of the same nationality as MrC and through all our long talks he and MrC still shared that still the Filipinos are one hell of a mystery for him.  I share in their sentiment.  Even I don’t understand why some people say things and act a certain way.   Being late is one of the things that standout among the list of things foreigners don’t understand — even me sometimes.   I also for instance, remember again that in here there are meanings behind what someone would say or do.  For this, I am sometimes suspicious of motives behind people’s actions.   I wish people could have been upfront with us, with the brokers for example and things in general.

We also covered the topic of “crab mentality”.   I was actually the one who provided them with the right terminology.  It came up as a result of a surprising move of his maid who recently left them and while leaving started to backstab the Filipina wife of our business partner.   It’s sad but true but envy is something we see everyday here.

As for me, I would add that here in the Philippines the resources seem quite not enough that I have never seen so much competition and this I did not see in US or Netherlands.  That is, in jobs, in business, in relationships and hell yes, in being attractive!  Is it just me but I noticed a huge bombardment of pressure to be whiter, to be sexier, to have better skin, better, shiny hair!  And what is this I hear about 80,000 nurses took the latest board exams? I see a lot of review centers everywhere for all things, IELTS, and all acronyms as such and even getting to Ateneo, DLSU or UP.  I even saw a review center to get into Philippine Science and Ateneo High School.   In my time, I never felt this amount of competition and pressure to actually go through hoops just to get into the right places.    I am guessing it’s just that the amount of people twenty years ago had just grown tremendously and that the resources that should gave grown with it did not. Maybe this is the reason.