highlights of 2006 - part 5

january 1st - 12th

i'm in the philippines and having a wonderful time. i have two very powerful moments during my travels.

on new year's eve i meet a young guy who is a guitarist in the band playing at a bar i'm waitressing at (to get free room and board....long story). he's around 18 years old and a real sweetie. he offers to come with me the next day and show me around his town. i take him up on his offer.

we hire a motorcycle taxi - i'm in the middle, the driver in the front and he on back. so safe! we visit local sights and have a fun day. he tells me he and his roommate have just moved here and he wants to show me his very own place. is it safe? sure! we get the taxi to drop us off at his 'home'. it is the first time i've left highly traveled areas and am in a 'slum' area. jagged glass pieces are stuck in cememt along the brick fence that surrounds the area he lives in. his neighbours have this too in hopees of preventing people from breaking in - or big scary dogs. i go into his 'house'. he is so proud.

what i see i would hardly call a home. it is about 10feet long and 6 feet wide. there is no window just a metal door that sort of shuts. no electricity, no running water. the only thing inside is a bamboo mat that they both sleep on. he is so proud. he plays in the band and with the money he earns he pays his part of the rent. he uses a sink outside to get water and cannot cook any meals. what i would call a dump he calls home. with pride. what a snob i am.

a few days later i am visiting another island. my tricycle driver and i become friends and he stops charging me fare and instead we just hang out. he offers to take to me a party one night. i feel a little nervous. the media always reports how tourists get raped/mugged/beat up by poor locals in 'developing' countries. surely my 'luck' can't be good enough twice?

i decide to go anyways. we venture off from tourist-ville and along narrow foot paths in the forest. i'm feeling nervous. we get to a small village and onto his cousins house. everyone greets me warmly - sisters, friends, cousins, aunts and uncles. there is so much good food. i think i even eat meat. we drink rum and laugh and dance. when i decide to go home he takes me back to ensure i don't lost and that i arrive safely.

i go to vancouver in september. it's the scariest place i have ever been. i don't feel safe. no one is friendly. i think of yule and christian and feel ashamed for the racist and poverty-fear i felt while in the philippines.