Shocking Cultures

Whenever I feel so doomed, missing home, feeling tired and bored, it is reminds me how I wanted to be here. This! A place exactly where I am. It reminded me of my everyday prayers a long time ago that I really wanted to go away from home. Not just to earn Dirhams, but for so many reasons. And one of them is to get a life away from my rants and raves of a tiring job that was never been fairly compensated.

Now here I am. Though I am not complaining, I am more on contemplating. What and where in the world am right now?

I remember when I used to go places, I always love to capture and learn the cultures of the people. My first struggle has always been the dialect, then the currency.

Natutuwa ako mag collect ng mga pera ng ibang bansa. They are so colorful and they look like "play money". Well of course, at first they were neatly filed on my wallet. But at the end of the day, I have to spend them all. Well, at least I have taken a picture of them before they're gone with the wind. Now, that's the Rupiah. A money in Jakarta, when I have visited my sister in Indonesia. I was the happiest kid then. My sister gave me 100, 000 Rupiah. Akala ko ang yaman yaman ko na. Only to find out that their money value is so low. My gulay!

Talking about gulay, the next thing that amazed me were the vegetables. I don't know why I always want to take pictures of them eh sa totoo lang d nmn ako mahilig kumain ng gulay...Though all my different encounters whether it could be in China, Jakarta, or even in ABu Dhabi, I always get a picture of a "Gulay".

So look, eto Ang Gulay! Bow!

peppers from Indonesia

Ang talong from Abu Dhabi...

And of course, ang tumatagingting na dirhams!


I sometimes find myself weird that I whenever I capture things, I have to think that maybe I could use this for future references. Maybe I could show the next generation how it was back then. The views, the food, and the things that seems to look different from what I used to see.

That was me in Macau...


Now, as I was saying, it is indeed difficult to be at a place where you didn't used to grow up with and adopt the culture as if it was really yours. The reason why I was comparing the things that has amazed me during my travels is that today, when I am working in a world that is entirely different from a Filipino culture, It is indeed a challenge. Meaning, it is difficult. Few weeks ago, I was battling with the dialect encounters. It was so stressful to deal with people, especially in my profession as a nurse pag hindi mo sila naiintindihan. Nosebleed talaga. I remember last night when I saw a book of my mentor and asked her if I could read it. It was all in Arabic. I told her, "how could you read this all? Isn't it difficult?" Then a filipino colleague came to talk to me in Tagalog. My mentor then asked me, "how could you talk in Tagalog so fast? Isn't it so difficult?" We both then laughed.

God is so amazing. He has indeed made the world so colorful and full of wonders. Whenever I travel, I always love to learn different cultures. And never in my dreams that I would be dealing with the arabic culture this way. In one way or another, I could not complain nor question God why He chose me to be here. In the first place, it was my choice. There were so many things though I have learned in here, and I know there will be more.

Now I am looking forward of more cultures and places that I will be visiting one day. I wanna witness myself that the world is indeed ROUND! =)