Travelling and Meeting New People

Today was the first meeting of all the volunteers. Today is definitely a better day than yesterday. I met 9 other volunteers who were all intelligent and smart; they came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Germany, Canada, Australia and another Filipino, Kareen. We were asked to introduce ourselves, and mostly the people involved in this conference are of course either into the environment or tourism.

Before I left for Malaysia, I went to buy some Philippine souvenirs to give to the other volunteers. I went to Quiapo and bought 9 fibreglass carved jeepneys, and a Philippine flag pin for Kareen. I was so happy that I did this; it was such a good idea to give them something to remember me by. A jeepney that costs PHP 45 is not only just a remembrance but they would probably think of travelling to the Philippines! Not so bad for an investment for Philippine Tourism, eh? Everyone was surprised, happy, and were very appreciative of the gesture.



Since I’ve become a Mabuhay Guide, I've become even more intrigued with other people’s culture and also sort of obsessed talking about the history of the Philippines! “...300 years in convent and 50 years in Hollywood...and the Spanish just handed us over to the Americans, as if it were theirs to give...” relearning our Philippine history is one of the best things I have ever gotten for free.

I found myself asking my new friends about their country’s history: “who were your country’s invaders?” haha. Shehani from Sri Lanka told me their history in a nutshell, they were also conquered by the British and she said, that on the northern part of Sri Lanka there is a group of African tribe in which their culture are still very intact because when the British came into Sri Lanka they shipped the Africans to become slaves and when then Brits left, and they just stayed there (or were just left there). It’s amazing. I’ve never ever thought of travelling to Sri Lanka before but now, it’s a totally different story. This is one of the things why I love travelling or meeting new people...conversations like this is what I look forward to having.