It's 9:47 pm in Manila and I'm officially worn out, yet unable to put myself to bed! Yesterday I hit a wall--the "I wanna go home" wall. I really enjoyed being here, but I'm tired of living in a hotel. I don't mind the constant staring so much or the fact I don't understand what most people are saying. It's the simple things you start to miss from home; of course I miss my family and friends (if you all would get hip to Skype, we could talk for free!) but I miss things like trafic lights and stop signs, American toilets with toilet papers in the stalls, price tags, not being called ma'am all the damn time, not having to divide everything by 40...the list goes on. If I moved to the Philippines or were living here for an extended period of time I would acclamate to the changes and move on, but I'm at that point where I'm so close to being home that I want it to be Friday already.
Today Melissa and I spent 2 hours haggling over pearls and jewelery...it gets tiring. We went to this mall called Green Hills (if you're ever in Manila you HAVE to go there). There were what seemed like hundreds of vendors setting up shop and selling very similar things. We walked around and bargained quite a bit. Filipinos are aggressive when it comes to selling things. First, they call out to you "you buy ma'am" and then they pick out a random necklace and attempt to put it around your neck. You are always the "first customer of the day," the product is always "good quality," and they always "give you good price....for you i give you 250 P." Over the course of 2 weeks i've definitely improved at the bargaining, but I'm still not quite as good as Melissa. The strategy is to automatically cut in half whatever they offer you to start; it's viscious but I've seen it work!
After an exhausting trip and a long taxi ride back to the hotel we did some work and then met up for dinner with Edgardo Garcia, the President of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines . Edgardo was so sweet; he took us to a very nice Thai restaurant and we chatted about microfinance as well as his grandchild that lives in the states. Afterwards, Melissa and I went to the supermarket and picked up some fresh fruit. I have now tried 4 new fruits: mangostein, Ruben-something, dragon fruit, and durian. I wasted my money on the durian though; it's known all around the Philippines for smelling horrible--like hot ass mixed with nasty feet funk, might I add. Many hotels will actually prohibit durian in their hotels b/c of the smell. They say it tastes good, but I bought some this evening and I say it tastes how I would imagine rotten mango would. Gross. I have it wrapped in two plastic bags, in the trash can. The other fruits were really good...dragon fruit is sort of like a mixture of watermelon and kiwi, Rube fruit looks red on the outside with little spikey things, but has a opaque sort of fruit inside. Not a lot of the fruit is actually edible, but what is still tastes good. I can't really explain mangostein; it's nothing like a mango. It's purple on the outside, with a thick skin that's red on the inside and the part you eat is white--like big lima beans. Some of the "beans" have a seed in the middle. It tastes really good, but it's a lot of work for little fruit.
I'm in the final stages of my packing. I literally want to roll out of bed tomorrow, put on my clothes and walk out the door. I have to catch a cab at 3:30 am! So here ends my trip to the Philippines....
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