[Tonchi]

Slang, it's good to know that you are one big mo fo, and you are right, that will protect you in many subtle ways. You have discovered the most important way to operate in the Philippines: Intimidation. They are used to being threatened and mistreated there, it is deeply ingrained in that culture. So if anybody even looks like they could enforce their will, people will automatically get out of his way. Money is a key also. You could be on a shoestring by US terms but you will seem to be a god to the people there. The problem with money, though, is that although the people will defer to you and smile and offer you all kinds of considerations, their drive is to separate as much of that money from you as quickly as possible. I have discovered over the last 8 years that their generosity is very two-faced. What they are doing is creating a "debt" which you will owe them FOREVER. Luisa has told me about traditional social relationships there which guarantee your debt to a person or clan who has "helped you out" unto the third generation of your descendants. Filipinos will hotly deny this if confronted, then they will talk bitterly about your "ingratitude" behind your back and will slander you to the neighbors.

Please understand that I am in no way profiling your hosts, I don't know them and can't in any way tell you what they are thinking or how they were raised. After all, my best friend and sister is Filipina, and she is as fine and honest a person as I have ever known, although she will be the first to admit that she is deeply hated by many in her extended family because those characteristics are an obstruction rather than a virtue in their view. Your judgment of people must be finely honed by now, anyway, and I sense your appreciation of individuals and their diversity. There are still some fine people inside that society, and those who worked with the Americans when they were in charge are in much better shape to deal with now. But the majority of the country operates on the most depressing Third World level and seem determined to sink even lower. Poverty, filth and ignorance, when there is no exotic jungle/tribal setting, is just best avoided. This is unfortunately what "modern life" in sprawling cities has done to so many cultures around the world.