Your brother’s body is shipped back home from the foreign land where he died.  You and your family have made all of the arrangements for a nice funeral and you are hoping to get over it and hopefully get back to a normal life as time passes.  After the body is repatriated, though, you and the family open the coffin and the body inside is not your brother after all.

How would you react?  Would you rejoice, thanking God that perhaps your brother did not die after all?  Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity when he was reported dead.  Certainly, the person in the coffin was not him, so you have a glimmer of hope.  You have a little glimmer of happiness and joy in your heart when you realize that your brother is not the one in that casket, after all.

My friends, it is rare that I write about the same general topic twice in a single week, but today I felt that it was justified to do so, given some new information that just came to light.

The situation described above played out in real life three times Wednesday in Hong Kong.  Remember those Chinese Tourists who were killed after being taken Hostage in a bus in Manila last week?  I wrote about the incident on Monday in my article, The Manila Massacre.  You see, when the bodies of the dead tourists were sent back to Hong Kong, three of the caskets were mislabeled.  Three of the families received bodies of somebody other than their loved one!  Can you imagine toiling with a grieving family like this?

Grieving relatives in Hong Kong - But are they grieving for the right body?

Back in the Philippines, who is minding the store?  Has the whole country gone on vacation and just left things to operate on autopilot?  It would seem so.  Stupidity.  That’s what it is.  It’s stupidity, ineptness and a general “I don’t give a crap” attitude that allowed this to happen.  There can be no other excuse.  It is shameful for the Philippines.  I love the Filipino people, and the country, but there is no excuse for this.

The country was already hanging their head in shame when the botched rescue attempt happened last week and 9 people were killed.  But, to send the wrong bodies to some of the families is a slap in the face to the loved ones left behind.  There is no excuse for it.  I certainly would not expect the President to personally check every casket to ensure that they were correctly marked, but somebody under the authority of the President should have been following up to make sure that everything went as smoothly as possible to ease the burden on the grieving families in Hong Kong.  I can think of no botch up that could have been worse than what happened.

Somebody did a poor job when labeling those boxes!

Frankly, a lot of what happens in the Philippines happens because a lot of the people just don’t care much.  Every day I see attitudes of people that don’t really care if they do their job correctly or not.  You go in office buildings and look for help, and you have 30 or 40 employees sitting around doing their makeup and such while dozens of people are waiting in line to get their business taken care of.  It is this kind of “I don’t care” attitude that caused this foul up to occur with these victims of the Manila Massacre.  Does anybody care?  I suspect that the number who actually care is quite small, and I’m ashamed to say that.  Like I say, I love the Philippines, but sometimes you have to stand up for what is right, and that time is now for me.

Certainly there are Filipinos who take pride in doing a job right.  I don’t think that could be said for the people involved in repatriating these bodies back to Hong Kong, though.  The simplest of work could have ensured a more peaceful time for the relatives of the victims.  For nearly 2 weeks we have heard a lot of Government people here saying that they are so sorry for the incident and such.  But, to let this happen is shameful.  Not much else I can say about that.

Venus is quite a beauty, I must say.  I first saw her a couple of weeks ago when Feyma told me about her.  Feyma told me that Venus Raj, the contender for Miss Universe was half Indian.  It’s true, Venus was born in 1988, the daughter of a Filipina mother and an Indian father.  Shortly after Feyma told me about her, I saw her on a TV commercial promoting the upcoming Miss Universe Pageant.  When I saw her, I really was struck by her beauty.

Miss Venus Raj, 5th Runner Up, Miss Universe

A few days before the Pageant, I was watching the news on Philippine TV, and a reporter ventured to Bicol, where Venus is from.  She visited Venus’ house, and I was quite surprised.  Her house was a very simple Nipa Hut!  It really amazed me that such a simple home had produced such a stunning beauty as Maria Venus Raj.

Over the years, whenever there have been beauty pageants, the Philippines has always been represented by very beautiful women, no doubt.  The last time that a contestant for Miss Universe from the Philippines did as well as Venus did was in 1999, when Miriam Quiambao represented the Philippines in the Pageant.  Miriam placed 1st Runner Up in 1999, something that made the Philippines very proud.  Probably Miriam Quiambao’s most memorable event during the Miss Universe Pageant was that she slipped and fell on stage!  However, Miriam regained her composure and went on to become 1st Runner Up.  Miriam has gone on to be a TV News Anchor in the Philippines and has done TV commercials and such.  She is very successful to this day.

Previous to Miriam Quiambao and Venus Raj was Margie Moran, who was Miss Universe 1973.  Margie Moran now lives in Davao City and is a big advocate for Mindanao.  As a matter of fact, Margie used to have a TV show called “Margie on Mindanao,” which I watched regularly.  In the show, Margie addressed Mindanao issues, traveled to different points of interest on the island, and generally featured anything about Mindanao.  To this day, although in her 50′s, Margie Moran is still quite a beauty.

Venus Raj showing off her Philippine Passport

Getting back to this year’s Philippine representative in Miss Universe, Venus Raj, Filipinos were very delighted when Raj made it to the top 15, and ecstatic when she placed in the top 5.  I happened to be passing by the TV on Tuesday morning, while the pageant was being shown live here in the Philippines (Monday night in the States) and Feyma and my nieces were glued to the TV watching.  I didn’t realize what it was, but when I noticed, I stopped for a minute to see what was going on.  Just as I stopped in front of the TV, Steven Baldwin was asking a question of Venus.  Baldwin asked Venus what was the biggest mistake that she had ever made and what she did to correct the mistake (I’m paraphrasing).

Unfortunately, it was Venus’ answer that probably cost her a higher place in the pageant.  Venus replied (paraphrasing again here) that she had never made a “major, major” mistake in her life, and she was just thankful to have made it to Las Vegas for the pageant.  A lot of people have picked up on her “major, major” answer, and it has kind of become a source of light hearted ribbing around the world for Venus.

Anyway, 5th place is still a very respectable place for Venus!  I am sure that after bringing such a high honor to the Philippines, Venus Raj will go on to be very successful here in the Philippines.  Without a doubt, she can get into modeling, acting, TV, commercials and such with no problem at all.  Coming from such a modest background, I feel certain that Venus is now set for a very good life!

Good luck, Miss Maria Venus Raj.  If you ever make it down to Davao… give me a call… just don’t tell Feyma!

Seth was talking about people and how they work.  Seth said that a professional is somebody who is expensive, but worth more than you pay because of the quality of the work that they do.  An amateur is somebody who is cheap, even free, because they are not doing it for the money, but for their love of what they are doing.  The “great unwashed” are people who are only doing it because it is a job.

Professionals? It seems so.

How many of us are the great unwashed here?  Sorry to say, but I expect that most of us are.  Too many people do what they do only because that is how they make money.  Some people start off with a passion for what they do, but later it becomes nothing more than a job.

Amateur, but loving what he does

After reading Seth’s article, I took some time to think about myself.  What am I?

• A Professional? I believe that in many ways I am a professional at the things that I do.  I strive to be the best.  I make a sincere effort to improve my skills and provide a good value for my clients.  In many cases, my services are expensive, but I believe that even though my fees may be higher than others in my field, the services that I provide are high quality and thus a good value.
• An Amateur? Sometimes I do things for free or for a reduced price because I do love what I do.  But, in the end, I mostly want to be paid good money for the value I provide, so I suppose that puts me more toward a Professional.
• The Great Unwashed? It’s easy for me to say that I am not in this class.  Why?  Because I only do things that I enjoy doing and that I am good at.  If I enjoy something but am not good at it, I improve my skills and make myself good at it.  If I do something to the point where it’s nothing but a way to make money, I change what I am doing and reinvent myself.  I have gone through a lot of careers over my life, because if I get tired of my “job” I change to something that I want to do.  That’s one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur like I am now.  I choose what I’m going to do.

So, what am I?  I would say that I am 80% Professional and 20% Amateur.  What are you?

Doing things that you love doing, and making sure you are good at them is a great habit to get into.  If you are just doing a job to make money, how can you enjoy life?  For me, you can’t.  You do hear, though, a lot of people say they are wage slaves.  Why would anybody want to be a slave to their job?  These days, it’s so easy to change what you do, and do what you enjoy!

Oh, people are not calling this the Manila Massacre, that’s my name for it.  I mean why not, I think it’s fitting.

I am sure that almost all readers of this article know what happened, but in case you do not, I’ll make a quick recap of what happened.  Basically, last Monday, August 23, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) officer, Rolando Mendoza, took a bus load of people hostage.  He forced the bus driver to park the bus at the Quirino Grandstand, basically in an empty parking lot.  He held the hostages for the better part of the day, something like 11 hours or so in all.  Over the course of the day, some hostages (mostly Filipinos and Children) were released.  Almost all of the remaining hostages in the bus were Chinese citizens from Hong Kong, people who were vacationing here in the Philippines.  When all was finished, almost all of these Chinese were dead.

Police Storming the bus to "rescue" the hostages

Firstly, let me say that bad things like this happen in any country, not only in the Philippines.  In fact, I think that the may be even a little less common in the Philippines than some other places.  However, that said, the situation was handled very ineptly by the Philippine Government.  Hey, Governments, Police Departments and everybody else makes mistakes, and nothing can be done to bring those tourists back to life now.  However, something can be done to stop a situation like this from happening again.  Training is the biggest thing.

The BBC has a webpage that is an interview with Charles Shoebridge, who is a security analyst who used to work with Scotland Yard on incidents like this hostage situation.  Shoebridge points out ten mistakes that he feels were made and could have caused the situation to turn out differently than it did.  I won’t go into the mistakes here, I will let you read that article if you are so inclined.

I do want to talk, though, about some things that I have seen in the aftermath of the massacre, which I think the Philippines should seriously consider.

That's the hostage taker in the bus - couldn't he have been taken at this point?

Firstly, there is a mad dash to find somebody to place the blame on.  I mean, they want to find a single individual to blame, and it seems that then everything will be better.  Frankly, in my opinion, this is not about a single person making a mistake.  It’s a systemic problem.  It is a lack of training.  It is a lack of adequate equipment.  It is most seriously a lack of adequate procedures in place.  I mean, either there was no set of policies in place of what steps should be taken to deal with such a situation, or if such policies are in place, they are either inadequate, or they were not followed.  This needs to be seriously addressed.  In the past, during my years of living in the Philippines, there have been many times when people from other countries have come and offered training to the Philippine forces (Army and Police).  I know of many instances where the USA has offered such assistance, and I also know of times when Australia has made such offers.  I feel certain that other countries have offered such training as well.  In every instance I can remember, many Filipinos get defensive and say that such training is not needed, and they already know what they are doing.  A very nationalistic uproar.  Such training is needed badly.  I am not saying that Filipinos are not good, or other Nationalities are better people, or smarter than Filipinos are.  I don’t believe that at all, but what I do believe is that in the area of such Police and Army operations, training would be beneficial.

The most troublesome problem that I see, and I have not seen this mentioned anywhere else, is that the biggest uproar in the Philippines is about how tourism will be impacted.  There has been a lot of discussion about how the Philippines needs to show people in the rest of the world that this is an isolated incident and that the country is safe.  I heard these comments just 12 hours or less after the incident happened.  My God!  How about at least waiting until the bodies of the dead are cold before worrying about tourism dollars.  Look, yes, tourism will be impacted negatively due to what happened, but let’s mourn for the dead before we address that.  It really troubles me deeply when the financial impact is the first thing that comes to mind while blood is still dripping from the bus at Quirino Grandstand.  How about some respect for the dead and their families, some serious offers of condolences.  I think in a month or so the Philippines can begin analyzing the impact on tourism.

One of the more serious blunders that I saw, in terms of further offending the families of the dead was that when it came time for the body of Mendoza to be put in his coffin, his coffin was draped with a Philippine Flag!  When the Chinese saw this, they immediately lodged a protest with the Philippine Government, and rightly so.  I mean, when a coffin is draped with a flag, it is generally a sign that the dead is being honored as a hero of his country.  Mendoza was a former PNP Officer, but it would seem that his action of killing these hostages would eliminate any honor that he might have had from his police service.  And, oh, do you know why he was no longer a Police Officer?  He was fired due to corruption.  Mendoza took hostages in an effort to get his job back, and he loudly protested that he was not guilty of such corruption charges.  However, the act of hostage taking alone is enough to erase any honor that he deserved (or didn’t).

Frankly, this whole hostage situation was a real black eye for the Philippines.  My fear is that the way it is being handled in the aftermath is going to blacken the other eye, which is not necessary.

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been having examinations as part of my Bisaya Class.  For new readers who don’t know, Bisaya (or Cebuano) is the main language used in the Central and Southern parts of the Philippines. As the name implies, Cebuano originated in Cebu, but much of the Visayas and Mindanao speak this language, or a variation of it.  For the past 3 years I have been taking Cebuano classes and learning to speak the language.

The textbook that I am using includes 60 lessons in all.  My teacher is Bebe Metillo, and she has been a real inspiration to me, and is really a great teacher.  A number of regular readers of this Live in the Philippines Web Magazine are also studying with Bebe, upon my recommendation to them.  Bebe and I have now completed lessons 1 through 50.  Lesson 50 is an Exam that covers the lessons between 41 and 50, and we just completed that exam over the past 3 weeks.  The first two weeks, I had to translate sentences from English to Cebuano and from Cebuano to English.  This week, I had to read a short story in Ceubano, translate the story into English, and then answer a series of questions about the story.  The questions asked about the story were in Cebuano, and I had to answer in Cebuano as well.

Bob with his Cebuano Teacher, Bebe Metillo

I found the story kind of fun.  It was interesting, and also just fun to read a full story like that in Cebuano.  For my article on LiP today, I decided to tell about my current lessons, and then to write out the short story (in both Cebuano and English) for you to read, if you wish.  Also, included with the article there is a podcast where you can listen to me reading the story.  All of this will follow.  The way that I am going to compose this article will be different than I have ever done on LiP in the past.  This article will span 3 pages, and you will need to click next page at the bottom of each page to get the full article.  Page 1 (this page) I will talk a bit about my language learning experience.  Page 2 will consist of the short story that was part of my test (in Cebuano).  Page 3 will be my English translation of the short story, and the podcast will be available at the bottom of each page.  I am sorry this will be a long post, I hope it doesn’t bore you.

Oh no! Test Time!

So, now, I have just 10 more lessons to go in my Cebuano Class with Bebe.  I started out fast with the language learning.  Lessons 1 through 30 were complete in a year or so.  Usually, I completed a full lesson every week, sometimes it took 2 weeks.  Starting on Lesson 30, though, things started getting complicated, and took much longer.  Much of the new material in lessons 31-40 was stuff that required me to “unlearn” my first 30 lessons, because it was new stuff that was almost completely opposite from the first 30 lessons.  It took time, but once I got my head around it, it was not too difficult.  Lessons 41 through 50 were the same – new concepts that were difficult to get into my head.  But, I’ve made it.

So, ten lessons to go.  I am thinking I can do that in 6 more months or so.  Possibly by the end of the year, but I don’t want to push myself.  I want to just enjoy the ride, and take enough time to learn the material well.  I already know enough Cebuano that I can have a good conversation with anybody, and even if they say something that I don’t know yet, I can figure out what they are talking about.  It gets easier every day, it seems.

Next Page

In my time living in the Philippines, more than a decade already, I can recall dealing with warranty issues three different times.

My first warranty experience in the Philippines involved the warranty on my automobile, a 2000 Mitsubishi Adventure AUV (Asian Utility Vehicle).  Anytime you purchase an new automobile, invariably there will be things that need adjustments, or parts that may fail within the warranty period.  When I had such issues, which were actually very few, I always received excellent service from the Mitsubishi Dealer in General Santos City, where I purchased the vehicle.  In terms of the quality of service, and the treatment we received, it was at least as good as a car dealer in the States would have given us, and we were always very happy.

My second experience in dealing with a warranty issue was not as good, though.  In 2002, I purchased a CD Writer for my computer.  I bought a high end one, one of the higher priced units being offered at Columbia Computer Center in Davao City.  I used the CD Writer for only a month, and it quit working.  I removed the unit from my computer and brought it to Columbia Computer Center for service.  The unit had a 1 year warranty, and it was a major brand, although I do not recall the brand name any longer.  Columbia Computer Center sent the unit to a service facility in Manila.  Although I kept calling and visiting the store to check on the status of my unit, it took 11 months before I got it back.  When I tool it home and hooked it up, the CD Writer still did not work.  So, let’s see, I used it for one month, and it was in the service facility for 11 months, so the 12 month warranty had already expired.  I went back to the store and explained that the unit still did not work after warranty service, and they basically told me – “too bad.”  So, basically the warranty was useless, even though this was a high end major brand name product.  At that time, about 8 years ago, a CD Writer was not cheap either, although they sure are today.  I had no choice but to throw it away.

My new Samsung Monitor

Back in February, I bought a new PC, and also a new 22″ Samsung Monitor.  I loved both the PC and the Monitor.  Without a doubt this was the nicest Monitor that I had ever had for a PC.  I use my PC extensively, it is my business, and also my lifeline to the outside world, so owning a high quality monitor was something that I thought would be worthwhile for me.  I had a bit of a hassle buying the monitor, but I considered it all worthwhile, because when I finally was able to purchase it, I really loved it, and felt that the quality was very high.

Back in mid-July, though, I came into my office to check my e-mail, and the Samsung monitor did not work!  I tried all kinds of things to check it, but could not get it to function.  I even hooked it up to a different PC in case the video on my PC had quit working.  All of this, though, was still not able to get the monitor working.  The next morning, we contacted the store where I purchased the monitor, and they advised us that since the monitor was 6 months old, it was still within the warranty period, which was 1 year.  They advised us to take it to the Samsung Warranty Center, and told us the address where we could find the Samsung Center.  We took the monitor to them on July 24.  They told us that since it was a warranty issue, they would work on the monitor right away for us.  We called 5 days later, and they said that they were waiting for a new main circuit board from Manila.  We called again in about 5 more days and they told us that the monitor was fixed and ready for pickup.  I was very happy.

Warranty Issues in the Philippines

When I sent my niece to pick it up, though, they told her that the monitor still did not work.  They said that they were in error when they told us that it was ready for pickup.  They advised us that if the monitor could not be fixed within one more week, they would give me a new monitor.  By the end of that additional week, they were still unable to fix the monitor.  So, at that time, we asked where we should go to get the replacement monitor, but they told us that before they could give us a new one, they had to “get approval from Manila.”  Hmm?  They said nothing about that earlier.  They told us that it would take up to a maximum of two weeks to get the approval required, but no longer.

Over the weekend, as two weeks had already passed, Feyma called to inquire about the replacement monitor.  Remember, by this time, they had my monitor for one month already.  They advised Feyma that they still had not heard from Manila, and it would not take much longer because all that was required was an e-mail from the Manila Samsung Philippines Headquarters.  Well, an e-mail only takes seconds to transmit, and they already had been waiting for two weeks!  Why should more time be needed?

Over the weekend, I filed a complaint via e-mail with the Samsung Headquarters in Manila, and I also posted a message on Samsung’s Worldwide Facebook page, explaining the situation.  So far, no word from Samsung, though.

At this point, I am starting to think that my warranty experience with Samsung is going to be the same as what I experienced with that CD Writer years ago – they will keep dragging it out and end up giving me back a broken unit with the warranty expired.  Is this the way that manufacturers deal with warranty issues in the Philippines?  Samsung is a major worldwide company and they should take care of their customers, but at this point, it appears to me that they don’t care about their customers.

We shall see what happens as time goes on.  At this point, however, I am left unimpressed with how manufacturers handle warranty situations in the Philippines.

Update: Apparently, somebody at Samsung Philippines reads LiP.  I got a phone call from Samsung in Manila today.  They mentioned this article, apologized to me for the problem, and told me that the new monitor was approved for me earlier today.  They told me that they only have to work out the logistics of getting the monitor to me.  We shall see what happens!

John came to Davao to sort of enjoy a get-away from the city, and all that is associated with it.  John and Rebecca chose a great time to visit Davao, because this past weekend was the climax of the famous Davao Kadayawan Festival!  John and Rebecca, along with Juanito were able to watch the Kadayawan Street Dancing festivities right from their hotel, and from everything John said, I think they enjoyed it!  I am not going to get into details of other things they did in Davao, as I believe that John is also planning to write an article about their trip down south, so I will let him share those details.  I will try to stick with our meeting between the two families.

Bob & Feyma Martin with Juanito Miele

A couple of days before flying down, John asked me if I could arrange for Rebecca to get some Durian, as she had told him that she wanted to sample the Durian from Davao.  One of the things that Davao is very famous for is that it is the Durian place of the Philippines.  No problem on that, I was happy to make arrangements, as Durian is also something that I really love.

We went to the hotel at 5pm and picked up John, Rebecca and Juanito.  My first plan was to take them to the Waterfront Insular Hotel, because it is right on the Davao Gulf, and the grounds there are beautiful.  I thought that Insular would give John and Rebecca a nice taste of what Davao was all about.  Unfortunately, because of the Kadayawan Festival, as we tried to head to Insular, the traffic was terrible.  What is normally a 30 minute trip could have taken hours, so I decided to cancel that.  Instead, we headed to “D’ Farmer’s Market”  just off of F. Torres.  D’ Farmer’s Market is one of the places in town that features many different varieties of Durian, so I thought it would be a good place to visit.

A statue outside D' Farmer's Market in Davao - A Native Filipino holding a Durian

There are many varieties of Durian available, and I have my favorites.  My three favorite varieties are 101, Puyat and Arancillo.  Of the three, I will go for 101 any chance that I can find it.  101 is a relatively new variety, and it is very hard to find.  I find it to be a rather smooth flavor experience, and I like the texture a lot too, it is a bit more firm than some other varieties.  So, choosing D’ Farmer’s Market was kind of a natural, because they always seem to have a pretty wide selection of Durian Varieties available.

When we arrived at D’ Farmers’ Market, you could really smell the aroma of Durian in the air!  I was loving it, as I really love the fragrance of Durian.  John, though, was almost gagging!  For those of you who don’t know about Durian, a common saying is that it “smells like hell but tastes like heaven”.  Well, I personally love the fragrance of a good durian!  Rebecca seemed to be OK, though!   I immediately went to one of the workers and started asking him about which varieties were available.  I was surprised, as some of the varieties that he named were new to me – I had never heard of them.  I asked if they had 101, though, and sure enough, they had it!  So, we bought one piece of 101, since only Rebecca and I were planning to eat.

We chose a table and sat down, and in no time the waiter brought our Durian to us, already cut up and ready to enjoy!  Rebecca and I dug in and started eating.  John and Feyma were just watching, though!  Soon, John said that he wanted to see if Juanito would eat Durian, so we got a little piece and put it in his mouth.  Suddenly his face got kind of sour looking and he spit it out!  Oh well… it left more for Rebecca and I to enjoy!

The Martins and the Mieles - Bob and Rebecca are enjoying a 101 Durian

After having Durian, we all went to the Martin household for time to sit down and talk for a while.  It also gave Juanito a chance to meet our kids (and a niece and nephew who are visiting right now).  Our kids love little kids, so they enjoyed playing with Juanito and entertaining him a bit.  Chris, in particular seemed to form a nice friendship with Juanito.

After a short time at our house, we all went to the Lotus Court Chinese Restaurant at Marco Polo Hotel for our dinner.  John had generously offered to take us out for dinner, and I thank him for his kindness.  Lotus Court has always been a favorite restaurant of mine.  Recently, they closed it down for a full renovation, and it had been a while since Feyma and I had been there.  The newly renovated restaurant was beautiful, a real show place.  Unfortunately, both the service and the food, though, were not up to par.  It seems that most of the food that we ordered was “OK” at it’s best, and several of the dishes were downright poor.  One thing that disappointed all of us in particular was the soup.  We ordered a “Pumpkin and Crab soup” which seemed to have neither pumpkin nor crab in it.  It did have the “fake” crab sticks in it, which were flavorless.  We all came to the conclusion that this was nothing more than a packaged instant soup with water added – that’s how it tasted.  This being at a 5 Star Hotel, and one of the best restaurants there.  Sorry, Marco Polo, but I doubt that I’ll ever go back to Lotus Court again.  Not only did the food taste bad, they tried to charge John for food that we ordered, but was never served to us.  Very poor service and food.  But, the important thing was the people that we shared our dinner with, and that more than made up for the food problems.

Feyma and I really enjoyed meeting John, Rebecca and Juanito!  We hope that we’ll have the opportunity to spend more time with them in the future too, because they are very nice people.  My only problem was that the evening just went by too quickly, I wish that we had more time to share together!

Thank you again, John!  Your generosity was greatly appreciated!

Oh wait… some of you are asking… what the heck is a “parrothead?”

Well, a Parrothead is a fan of Jimmy Buffett.  For the uninitiated, Jimmy Buffet is an American Singer.  His music is hard to categorize.  It is not quite rock.  It’s not quite country.  It’s somewhere in between the two.  Jimmy Buffett primarily sings island style music.  He is a man who loves the tropics.  He sails boats.  He flies a sea plane.  He parties a lot, or used to when he was younger.  A lot of Jimmy’s songs really sound a lot like the life that I lead here in the Philippines.  Songs about Coconuts.  Songs about the beach.  Songs about the ocean.  These are the things that surround me each and every day.  And, it would be rare that a day would pass that I don’t listen to some Jimmy Buffett music.  Usually, if I am in my office, I have some Buffett tunes playing in the background.  Sometimes, it’s a little more than just in the background too, admittedly.

Jimmy Buffett

In fact, there is one song that I consider as the “MindanaoBob Theme Song” which is “Far Side of the World” by Jimmy Buffett.  In Far Side of the World, Jimmy sings about spending his time on the “far side of the world” which, I suppose is where I am.  He sings:

Following my song line
Past bamboo shacks and shops
Behind a jitney packed like sardines,
With bananas piled on top.

Coconut Telegraph Album Cover

I admit, though, when I sing it, I say “jeepney” instead of “jitney”.  So much of what Jimmy Buffett sings about rings true to my life here.

I have been a Jimmy Buffett fan for about 35 years now, since I was in high school.  I never dreamed at that time that I would end up living the life that Jimmy sings about, though.  I am glad that I do, though, because I have found that this is really the life for me.

Marvin Gaye told us about the Grapevine, Jimmy Buffett has his “Coconut Telegraph” which is much the same thing.  In the song Coconut Telegraph, Jimmy tells us about how the word can spread on the island:

Tuesday on the island
Not much goin’ on
The parties are all over
They ended just past dawn

The jungle drums are beating
With the tales from late last night
‘Cause stories bear repeating
For everyone’s delight

Chorus:
You can hear ‘em on the coconut telegraph (telegraph)
Can’t keep nothin’ under their hat
You can hear ‘em on the coconut telegraph (telegraph)
Sayin’ who did dis and dat
Dis and dat, Dis and dat

Now I’m not one to deal in gossip
But was he that big a fool
To do a belly-buster high dive
And miss the entire pool

And what became of sweet Melissa
And the boy nobody knew
Did Ricardo ever find her
I swear it’s just between me and you

I suppose this is part of the Coconut Telegraph

Oh yes, it’s just between me an you!   But, it’s true, we really do have a Coconut Telegraph here in the Philippines.  Even among fellow expats, we always hear all the gossip about the other expats!  I am just always happy that I am usually not mentioned on the Coconut Telegraph myself!  But, I always seem to hear from other expats whenever there is something notable to hear!

As far as I know, Jimmy Buffett has never been to the Philippines, but I expect that he would like it pretty well here.  Most of Jimmy’s songs revolve around the Caribbean, and a few in places like Fiji too.  I think the Philippines, particularly the more remote areas would be right up Jimmy’s alley, though.

Something unexpected happened, though, on the way home.

When we arrived at the Ferry terminal for the boat ride back to the City, there were a lot of cars waiting.  I told Feyma that we would be lucky if we were to make it on to the next Ferry, and that we would likely have to wait until the following Ferry, because the first one would likely be full.  Sure enough, I was correct in my assessment.  We almost made it, but when the Ferry was full there was us and one other vehicle left to wait for another ferry to come!  Oh well, we didn’t feel rushed anyway, and were just enjoying the day.

Canter - Can't?

If we had made it on that first ferry though, we would have missed out on an interesting show!

Only 10 minutes or so after the first ferry departed from Samal terminal, a second ferry appeared, and we were happy that we would be able to leave more quickly than we expected.  As the ferry tied up to the Samal port, the gateway was opened, and vehicles were directed to dapart the ferry.

The first vehicle that was to depart the ferry was a small delivery truck.  They call it a “6 Wheeler” here.  This particular 6 Wheeler was a “Canter” vehicle, which is a type of truck made by Mitsubishi.  The Canter started up the ramp, which lead to the concrete terminal, and as it neared the top of the ramp, it became slower and slower.  Feyma and I were watching, and I told her that the truck was not going to make it up the terminal!  Sure enough, it did not.

He Cant Make It

The Canter truck came to a slow stop, and then started rolling backwards, out of control!  The reverse speed of the truck got very fast, and it appeared that maybe the brakes were not working.  Bam!  Smash!  The truck just rolled back into a bus that was waiting behind it!  The bus driver and some of the truck passengers all got out of their vehicles to inspect the damage.  After 5 minutes or so, the truck made a second attempt at the ramp.  It could not make it again.

After a while, from somewhere a tow rope was produced.  The ferry operators saw that a second Canter truck was waiting to board the ferry, and they motioned for the second Canter to come over and pull the stuck Canter off of the ferry, which it did.  Well, let me rephrase, the second Canter came over and hooked up, but it was unable to pull the first Canter off of the ferry, it just didn’t have enough power!

I turned to Feyma and told her that the name “Canter” was a very good name for the vehicles.  She asked why.  I said because they “Can’t” get off the ferry, not enough power, so it was appropriate that they were “CAN’Ters”. 

It took about a half an hour, but finally they got a bigger truck to pull the Canter off of the ferry successfully.  Next, the bus started off the ferry, and Feyma and I were anxious to see how much damage the bus had.  Luckily, the damage was evident, but relatively minor.

This truck is big enough to do it!

Well, it was an interesting way to cap off a day trip to Samal Island.

Bus had only a small dent

Free entertainment at the Ferry Terminal!  Thankfully nobody was hurt, and damage was very light.

On Thursday evening, my oldest son, Chris, mentioned to me that he wanted to go get a haircut on Friday.  I needed a haircut myself, as I had not had one in 2 weeks.  I usually get my hair cut every week, but I had been busy and not had a chance to make it to the barber shop, so I told Chris that we would go together on Friday.

I don’t recall having gone with Chris to the barber shop anytime recently.  Usually, all of our kids go for a haircut with their cousin, Deo.  I usually go alone.  We all go to the same barber shop, though.

Chris Martin at the Davao Crocodile Park

I enjoy going to the barber shop, because all of the barbers, there are 6 there, know that I can speak Cebuano, and they are friendly to me, and enjoy chatting with me.  One of the subjects that always seems to come up is about my kids, since they know who my kids are.  I never thought much of it, though, I just considered it small talk.

For those who don’t know, my oldest son, Chris, is mentally retarded, or as they would say here, he is a “special child.”  Chris is 18 years old, nearly 19 now.  Chris is one of the big reasons why we decided to move to the Philippines.  We felt that the society here was more accepting of a person with Chris’ disability, and also we knew that the large extended family that we have here would be helpful in raising Chris.  Caring for a person with a disability like what he has is difficult and very demanding on the parents.  Raising Chris here from the age of 8 until now has worked out very well for us, and for Chris too.

When we first got to the barber shop, only 1 of the 6 barbers was available – the other 5 were busy cutting hair.  I told Chris to go ahead of me, and I sat down to read the newspaper.  After 10 minutes or so, another barber was available, so I went and sat down in his chair.  We made small talk, and he began cutting my hair.  After a while I realized that it was quite loud in the place.  Lots of laughing and such going on, which I had overlooked before.  So, I looked around to see what was going on.  I saw that there were about 10 people all gathered around Chris’ chair while his hair was being cut!

It seemed that Chris was telling jokes to the crowd, and everybody was having a great time!  He would tell a joke, or a story, and suddenly everybody would break out in laughter, clapping even.  I sat there silently, just watching in the mirror as my barber continued cutting my hair.  I really enjoyed watching the activities around Chris’ chair.

Swimming at the beach on Samal Island

When Chris was a young child, starting around 2 years old, if we took him anywhere, he would seem to make friends.  When he was sick, we would bring him to the Doctor’s office, and he would go around the waiting room introducing himself to all of the other people waiting there.  He would shake hands, give his name and ask “What are you doing here?”  We would always have a laugh.  Feyma and I would always joke with each other that Chris was probably going to become a politician, the way he would go around and talk to all of the people.

As I sat at the barber shop and observed the happenings around Chris’ area, I could not help but think back at the days with Chris in the doctor’s office, or the grocery store.  He always seemed to make friends.  It really made me happy to see the way things were going.

After they finished cutting Chris’ hair, and they were still working on mine, Chris got up and he would walk around, talking with the various barbers.  He would even open up the drawer at the barber’s station, get a comb out and comb his hair and such.  The barbers would not even bat an eye at this, it was just fine with them.

It was apparent to me that these barbers were his friends.  Not just somebody that had just met him.  Over the years of getting his hair cut at this shop, Chris had really gained a bunch of friends there, and that made me happy.

I always enjoy getting my haircut at a Philippine barber shop.  I enjoyed it even more last Friday, thanks to Chris.