The language Alana & I are learning is Cebuano. At the time Tagolog was chosen to be the national language, 2001, more people spoke Cebuano than Tagolog in the Philippines, yet the president spoke Tagolog, so it won out. Although Cebuano is a cool language and we are enjoying learning it I have two issues with the language itself.
First, Cebuano only has 19 letters in it's language. It does not have Z, X, V, Q, F, J, or C. How can the first letter in the spelling of a language not be in the alphabet of that language. "Cebuano" is spelled with a "C" and "c" is not a letter in the "Cebuano" alphabet. Confusing.
Second, the word for "walk," "leave," and "go" are all the same. The word is "lakaw" and means all three. So when I say that I'm "walking to class"" (which is 3.5 km away) the local people hear that I'm "going to class" and probably assume I'm talking a trik ride. My problem is that I really want the credit for walking since I walk about 10.5 km a day. I don't want them to think I'm "going" 10.5 km and taking trik rides! (whine)
I feel like I'm needing an adjustment in my "walking attitude." When I got to Dumaguete, I originally made an adjustment because of the heat to walking very slow in order not to be a sweaty mess when I arrived wherever it was that I was going. It was also helping to depart very early because Peace Corps has high (unculture like) expectations of us about being on time. So I'd give myself plenty enough time to stroll on in as dry as possible (not achieved often).
Today, I didn't have class until 10am. I piddled around and didn't get going until 9:30am. When I really take my time it takes about 45 minutes to walk to class. Since the temperature was at least 5 degrees cooler, there was cloud cover, and I thought I was late, I was passing Filipinos walking the same direction as me like they had blown a gasket and I had hit the nitro button. It will be nice, and I will more confidently know I have "arrived" in the Philippines when I'm late, the temperature is cool, and I'm still able, especially unconsciously, to stroll instead of speedwalk. Can one truly leave their "type A" behind?
I pick up change that people have left on the road. When I say change, I'm talking sentabos. They come in 25, 10, 5, and 1 sentabos coins. 25 sentabos is 1/4th of a peso and worth half an American cent. A 5 sentabos coin is worth 1/10th of an American cent. I can't even compute what 1 sentabos coin is worth in American terms. Anyway, it's fun to be walking everywhere and in a big city like Dumaguete it is fun to be picking up change off the street that people obviously don't want. Sometimes I have to pry the coins out of the tar on the road with my leatherman because people have dropped them, getting payments out of purses and pockets for trik rides no doubt, and the vehicles have ground them into the road. I can make 45-60 sentabos of tar coins on 2 kilometers of Rivera any given day.
After other Peace Corps Trainees found out I was saving my pesos by walking many of them started walking also. When a few of them found out I was picking up change off the street, they started picking up change and giving it to me. Mostly it has been Alana, Trish, Blake, and Evelyn. Seems like they love celebrating with me that they've found money on the street and we are willing to bend down to pick up such small coins when it is not even worth the time or effort for others.
The big scores;
Alana and I were walking to the mall many weeks ago and she made the first big score when she found a 10 peso (20 cents) coin on National (the big main road through Dumaguete). A few kilometers later she found a one peso coin also.
A couple of weeks ago we were snorkeling for the day at Apo Island, a beautiful 1/4 square mile island with amazing protected reefs right off the coast of Negros, and as I was waiting for Alana to get in the water I decided to dive down and touch the bottom. We were in about 8 meters of water. I took a few deep breaths, held the last one, and headed for the bottom. While clearing my ears about every 5 feet and about half way down I noticed I was headed for a little round shell on the bottom. I stayed my course and barely made it to the 5 peso (10 cents) coin, grabbed it in disbelief like it was sunken treasure, and pushed off for the surface eager to show Alana, Trish, and Evelyn my find.
Last week I thought I saw an old 25 sentabos coin and when I picked it up I was amazed to discover it was a good old 1985 American penny. Wow, I'd love to know her story, her adventures for the last 25 years, and how she made it to the streets of Dumaguete.
My language instructor, WenWen, asked me today, in Cebuano (the local language), how much I had picked up so far and I estimated about 25 pesos (50 cents).
Then . . . on my way home today I had just gotten on Rivera in front of the day care center where Lucy, Melda, Edna, and Maria work and I looked down and almost stepped on a 20 peso bill. I picked it up and looked up and down the street to make sure someone wasn't looking for it yet I was all alone. Unbelievable!!! The biggest find yet!!! That almost doubled my total findings!
I was so excited I stopped at the corner store where Ralph (the dog) lives to buy load for my phone. How do I explain load? You see, our cell phones work differently than American cell phones. The phone only cost say $10 and we get to keep it . . . it is ours, and almost everyone has one here. Then we buy pesos worth of load to make calls and texts. We receive calls and text for free. To send one text cost one peso. To send one text to the US cost 15 pesos. To make a call costs 7 pesos a minute. No clue what it would cost to call the US. I knew Alana and I were both low on load and had less that 5 pesos left on each of our phones and once one of us has load we can transfer it to the other's phone.
So, to celebrate finding the 20 peso bill I stopped to get load. I thought I'd send it to Alana's phone as a surprise then I could tell her the story about how I found the 20 pesos. When I got home she hadn't gotten the load on her phone and of course I was suspicious that they hadn't sent the load after I paid them. Then I realized I sent the load to the wrong area code! Life seems to be a series of circles; things come and things go. I did text the wrong number I sent the load to and asked for the load back. Maybe there are very nice Filipinos who can have compassion for confused a foreigner like me . . . magkita kita (we'll see).
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