3000 pesos worth of fruit in Tagbilaran

The time in the Philippines has had some unusual paths. I spent only 20 days but it seemed me like a lifetime. Many meetings, many relations, so much effort, so much beauty. I find the cities quite chaotic, gray, polluted, but alive, to be explored until the last corner, even in the shack that seems more unstable you can find a motorbike rental. Outside the cities is very green, narrow streets seem to slip shy where nature is still master, traditional wooden houses retain their primacy and traffic is sparse, so that people using the street as a courtyard. I really like it.



I like eating on the street in traditional restaurants, where you choose what you want in some pans, and they add it to a plate of rice. Compared to formal restaurants we're used to, it seems to me to be home. For one passing so much time alone, it is a gift.



People are very interesting. Many young people smile and greet you, some are intimidated, others look at you without shame, a few elderly people ignore you. Some girls are embarrassed, they laugh nervously and watch you from the corner of the eye, some smile at you openly, others just gaze exchange. Often the request comes after the greeting, you need a taxi, you need a guide, you need a girl, come to my gym, buy this stuff, you look for a Filipina wife. And then the kids.



One morning I was going to walk to the soccer tournament and I had bought fruit and pastries for lunch. One after the other barefoot and dirty kids, with even smaller children in her arms, stopped me looking at me with eyes wide open as the Puss in Boots from Shrek and they don't ask for money, they ask you to eat. A banana, a piece of candy. How do you say no? You would give him everything, you would give him life. That day I arrived at lunch with 2 pieces of mango.



At the end they become exhausting, they wait from you in the street, they follow you and you see that they break the balls only to you who are a foreigner and it becomes difficult for me to have always an satisfying emotional reaction.



When Aiko asked me to buy 3000 pesos worth of fruit to go out with her and her cousin. When Lea, just for some chat in a bar (where I had also paid to drink) and never seen her anymore, she asked me to give him a stuff toy to hug and remember me. When the gays stalked me to go out together (but free), and unknown people continuously called me on the phone and when even Cristal asked me the stuff toy, and the kids outside the hotel were still waiting for me, I would have wanted to clean by kick in the ass the main street of Tagbilaran. I left glad to go, almost in a hurry.



But, I mean, it's my fault. Every step I take on this trip seems to tell me that I must leave my hypocritical innocence fake feel-good, and learn how to send to hell honestly and calmly when it's time, before I have the 5 minutes. The truth comes back and surrounds everything. That said, clarified the concepts, I believe that the Philippines is a rather pleasant place to stay, I felt more at ease than anywhere else and the people, understood how it works, it is wonderful.