Arriving on the Islands

Days or weeks before you leave your home country, you were trying to get some information on what to expect in the Philippines.  Some people you know who have traveled there have told you stories how it is "more fun in the Philippines".  Then you start imagining yourself in a tropical island, drinking your mango juice and surrounded by happy Filipinos - this is how I think people would imagine their trip to the Philippines.

You have all these sources of information like the Lonely Planet on what to expect.  The take-aways are always the following:

• Filipinos have less to no sense of time - talk about Filipino time
• Filipinos will ask you personal questions the first second they meet you - our way of small talk
• Filipinos will force you to sing and eat Balut - the way we socialize
• Filipinos want to be white - our concept of beauty
• Transport in the Philippines is annoying - we have one of the worst airports in the world

And many other things.  I don't totally agree nor disagree on those things listed above.  What I want to drive at is the understanding of the context why those things are how they are.

Those five listed things above are just for starters.  I would be willing to discuss other topics that might be interesting for you - just drop me a note. 

I also want to remind you that this is an open discussion.  It is for the foreigners to understand the Philippines and its people and also for the Filipinos to understand their context which is much needed as most of us will just accept the stereotypes and the generalizations of other people.