Filipina From Cebu

[Edwin]

I had a very unusual thing happen just after the first of January. I ordered the books that I thought I needed according the order list from the college for the nutrition class. Two were required, and that turned out that they were the text, and software to be used with the class. There was another book listed as optional, and I thought I would get it because, anything I could do to help me be successful in the class I thought was worth it. I got the text from the college book store, $160.00, couldn't believe that price. The book I thought was optional I got used online for $80.00, and it turned out to be another text identical to my new text book. There was a student repeatedly complaining that she didn't have a text book. I'm not sure whether they sold out, or whether she was short on money, and couldn't afford the $160.00, and I think she probably could get enough money together to buy the text. She was complaining to the instructor, and because it ended up on the BlackBoard which we use for our class interactions we all saw it. So I wrote the teacher, telling her I had purchase this extra used text by mistake, and I was wondering if the student would like to have it. The teacher wrote me telling me I should offer it to her, and that she would be thrilled to hear from me that I had a text that she could have. Long story shorter, I wrote her offering her this used text, that was every bit as good as my new one, in fact I was using it at that time, for $40.00 plus $10 to ship it to her. That is what I would get if I sold it back, so it was a very good deal for her, $50.00 for a $160.00 text. She was thrilled to learn that we have connections with the Philippines as she was from Cebu Island, and hadn't been home for 5 years. She is living with a boy friend, and is working toward a degree in Nursing. We became good friends in the nutrition class, and we have written a couple of times since. She is planning to return to Cebu to marry her boyfriend in year 2012, and she invited us to her wedding. I asked my wife if she was going with me to attend her wedding, but my wife is afraid to fly, so she won't be going. I probably won't either, but it was fun to think about, and to make connections with this young lady from Cebu after selling her a cheap text book. Her English is not completely refined, but I admire her, because she is taking 15 credit hours of college work, and working 40 hours a week, and I think that is more than I could do, or would want to do! She is just a lovely young lady and one more proof that filipinas are wonderful people!

[abufarsi]

great story Edwin!

Always in the back of my mind is to find an excuse to visit again the Philippines. I even checked ticket prices yesterday ($1100 EVA air).

Not too sure I would want to go to a wedding of such a casual friend, but if you needed an excuse, this might suffice.

How unfortunate that your wife has a fear of flying. I do not understand this... I understand fear but I do not understand why she is afraid, can you help me to understand? Is it a general unease or is it panic? Can you explain why you have not tried to motivate her by saying you will go on your own, or some other guise? Has it been this way all her life? Does she want to get over it? Does she see it as irrational?

Perhaps the answers to these questions are none of my beeswax, if so, just do not answer

Joe

[Edwin]

Yes, it was very interesting, this young acted like she was our best friend, and talked about stopping to see us on the way to a wedding they were attending in Spokane, but of course that didn't happen. I wrote and told her that I had been thinking about her, and wondering how she was doing, and she wrote back and told me that she was thinking about me too. We got acquainted in the class further after the book deal. Then she told me she was going home in 2012 to get married invited us to her wedding. I have never seen her, but I think she is a very nice person. I am like you I don't know that I would attend without knowing her better, but like you said, it would be an excuse to go to the Philippines, and that would definately be a positive.

None of us are quite sure why Carol is so afraid of flying. Before we were married in the 1960s she flew in Alaska as that is where she lived for several years, and that is the only way to get around to some places in Alaska, they are flying all the time there. I don't think she was afraid of it at that time.

Then in the 1970s I learned to fly, got a pilot's license, and did some flying with our kids on board. Carol would never go flying with me. She said it took me too long to make decisions, and she was afraid if I ran out of fuel, or the engine quit it would take me too long to decide what to do. But part of my training was shutting the engine down, gliding, one time I glided further than I was supposed to, and landed, and the instructor told me there was an airport right underneath me, but I glided a quite a distance and land. He told me that when I started for that airport he thought I would never make it, but I did.

Carol flew to the Philippines in 2006 with our friends, the filipina who has family in Manila and Dumaguete. Anyway her brother lives in the Philippines all the time. She went to see him. I couldn't go that year because of prior obligations. I guess the airplane dropped about a 1000 feet and scared her to death. She was afraid because of knowing they were over the water. She said that she swore that she would never fly again. I had a chance to go with these friends last October, and she encouraged me to go. Her brother offered to pay her ticket, and a lot of people begged her to go, but she didn't want to do that. I think it is an unhealthy fear, but I guess she is genuinely afraid to fly.