Living In The Philippines

[mystic]

I think a lot depends on the mindset of the person. People in the western world (especially from the English speaking world) tend to be super specialized. Put them in any water that is not their water, and they will sink. On the contrary, in the PI, you have to know how to do anything. General knowledge is more important than specialization, to survive. Example, you need to know how to fix the electric plug, fix a house, etc.

In my idea, super specialization is an added value, if you know how to use it. If you go to the proper place and open an activity providing a requested service that nobody has there... you can be successful.
If you have good general knowledge and creativity, you can do almost anything and have success. I saw people with the craziest and simplest ideas having real success. The PI do not have the strict regulations of western countries. You could easily put a frying machine over a cart and walk on the streets to sell french fries. I'm sure that a tourist look would attract many customers The trick is always to transform one's weaknesses in one's power point.

[red]

Yes Mystic, then a tourist selling fries on cart will surely have more customers esp ladies customers. That is the one thing I like in PI is that you can have a business easily like a sari-sari store by the house or an eatery. Just don't let neighbors abuse you being too kind for credit. When i was a college student in Cagayan de Oro, i saw this foreigner selling Papaya whitening bath soap outside a department store. Filipinos think he is a poor foreigner because he is selling bath soap. Which is a good perception coz robbers and snatchers would think the same and will avoid him as a prospect victim. lol

[Edwin]

Red, you bring up a kind of a funny idea. When I was in the Philippines in year 2010 in the stores that we went in I saw lots of whitening soap. Soap advertised to lighten the color of your skin! Often times people with dark skin have a complex about it and wish their skin were lighter. Years ago I worked with a large group of Mexican Indians who had dark skin. I have a little Indian blood in me, so out in the sun, my skin turns very dark. I was mistaken several times for being a Mexican. There was an American Indian who was mistaken for being a Mexican too, and he told me that some of the Mexicans would get really mad at him when he would not speak Spanish with them, but he was an Indian, and he did not understand any Spanish. When I was 20 years old I had a girl friend who had dark skin, and she was from a white family, but her family being from the South I suspect she had either Mexican Indian blood in her, or she might have had a little black blood mix, anyway she had a complex about it, but that made her beautiful. When I worked with the Mexicans one of my friends who hired some of them told me that they had a complex because of their dark skin, but he said that he thought their dark skin made them beautiful, and I agreed with him!

Anyway people who have dark skin want their skin lighter, and they should just be happy with the way the Lord made them. Obviously many of the filipino people want lighter skin, but they don't need lighter skin, because I think they are wonderful just the way they are. But, Red, yes there is a market for skin lightening soap because many of those dark skinned filipinos want their skin to be lighter. Within one country there is a quite a difference in the color of people's skin. In Asian countries, there are Amerasians, many born from Western Service men, and I think they are beautiful people with their western features, and skin color between the two nationalities. Then in the Philippines there are mixed races between the original native people and others. Then there's the Chinese, the Japanese, the Mexican, the American, and the cross between each race brings different facial features and skin tones. We have natural beauty from the way God made us, and also the racial mixes, and that makes people unique and beautiful. We attended church with a guy who after he was dead, we found out that he was a full blood American Indian. His tribe had light skin, and not even his family members knew that he was an Indian, and he was a full blood. We were all shocked when we found that out, becaues his hair cuts, his dress, his speech, and his mannerisms were white, not Indian, but he was a full blood!

[red]

Lots of women in Phils. like to have white skin because most think that having fair white skin is attractive. Ladies would like to please their boyfriends having flawless fair skin. I used whitening soap before but then having fair skin was just temporary coz when you quit using it it will go back to brown skin My stepmother likes to use whitening cream exfoliating toner etc after couple of weeks her face is fair but the neck is brown.

[Edwin]

Red, this is really an interesting topic! I can understand why people use the whitening soap/cream. I think it gives them a lift emotionally. This is similar to, mostly the kids, dying their hair. It seems rediculous to me, but it isn't to them. Our next to youngest granddaughter, now 20 years old, a number of years ago when she was temporarily living with us, dyed her hair this really white, white blond. She was already blond, but what we would term as a dirty blond, with a brown shade. She just loved that dying, and she got lots of compliments on it. I would think, "that is not Amanda, she is trying to be someone else." But, she was really happy with it, and that was the most important part of that. Since she has dyed her hair various shades of red. Presently the bottom part of her hair is this shade of red, and next to her scalp and down a few inches is her natural color of her hair.

Carol is 71 years old, and she still has most of her natural hair color. Mine went white/grey a long time ago, but until fairly recently you couldn't see any white/grey in Carol's hair, but now you can see some, but it is still mostly her natural color, so that when you look at her you don't think of her hair as being white or grey.

A lady where we used to live would put this brown coloring on her skin. Some of you guys are whitening your skin, and she is darkening it! It didn't look natural, but she liked it, I guess. It definately make her legs look like they had been painted. Someone coming in on the boat commented on Carol's white legs that the relection of the sun off Carol's white legs were blinding them!

[crisipicada]

Prices gets higher especially the basic commodities. Rice per kilo increase since harvest time still in a month. Many of the neighbors in the barrio tend to buy corn rather than rice, since it is much cheaper. A while ago, we buy rice in valencia city at 2,000 per sack.

[jetman51]

Hello all. Reading through these conversations is certainly a good education for me. Salamat to you all.

I do not plan to have to work to make money in the Phils. I would enjoy the chance to do volunteer work of some kind. Is this something that would be welcomed?

Of course, one never knows what might happen, so I will heed the good advice to keep enough in reserve to deal with an emergency.

I am not a flashy type. So other than whatever unavoidable attention I might draw as a foreigner, I don't think that I will be one to stand out as someone to target.

What Mystic says about specialized Westerners is certainly true. I am no "Mr. Fix-It", but I think I can do the basic things, at least. How do people handle harder jobs for which they do not have the skills, such as major plumbing or electrical work? I assume that it is not so hard to find skilled and reliable people to do these things, if need be.

Filipinas have told me before about skin-whitening. I admit that I do not understand this, but then I am sure that many Western cultural ideas seem strange to non-Westerners. It's just that I wish Filipinas would embrace their natural skin color as being one of the many things that give them a beauty that is unique in the world, in my opinion.

Is there inflation in the Phils generally, or is it affecting only rice for now?

[mystic]

In tropical countries, all are concerned with taking sun baths, darkening one's skin, etc. They say the sun is good, allows you to fix vitamin D in your bones, etc. I am an exception, because I always hated being under the sun, and all tease me that I am white like a ghost. Indeed, the sun has many harmful consequences. We have a wrong tradition of skin darkening, which is known in medical papers.

In equatorial countries, the sun is stronger and actually produces severe burns and skin aging. That's why filipinos (and also thais, and all those people living at that latitude) are crazy for skin whitening. A white skin means a healthy person. It also becomes a social phenomenon. Poor people, who do not have enough money and live with poor standards, have a dark skin, simply because they have to stay all day under the sun to find some work and make a living. Rich people can allow themselves to stay under the shadow and have air conditioning.

I heard another saying in Thailand (I guess it's similar in the PI): prostitutes tend to have a dark skin. Simply because they know that tourists like it. So, there is an easy way to tell if a girl is bad or not: Just look at her skin. Or, at least they say so.

[mystic]

Oh... by the way, if you open a small shop for skin whitening, showing your white skin and being a stranger... maybe you can have good success

[jetman51]

Mystic, thanks so much for your thoughtful and insightful explanation. This is exactly the sort of education I was hoping for in opening this topic. My simplistic thinking on the subject shows just how easy it is to miss the cultural subtleties underlying one practice or another.

I learned more about how dangerous the sun can be while spending time in Singapore! It is not a place for a person of English/Irish/Scottish/German heritage to be careless in failing to use sunscreen. I am not ghost-white , but I can burn easily until I get a base tan.

Thanks also for the tip about the shop. Maybe there IS a way for me to earn money in the Phils after all!

How do Filipinos react to a Westerner's facial hair? I have a beard that I keep pretty short (although maybe I would shave it after spending some time in the heat and humidity of the Phils).