Central America in Asia

It's been a while since I last posted. I apologize. I've been
quite busy. For a while, there wasn't too much interesting to say. I
was just finishing up with finals, writing papers, and what not.

Then, Lisa arrived. It had been 8 months since we had last been
together, so yall might imagine that I was somewhat excited.

After a few days of tying lose ends together, I left Nanjing. Lisa and
I traveled to Macao and Hong Kong, and then on to the Philippines. We
spent almost three week in the Philippines, and then, after a brief
stopover in Nanjing, Lisa returned to the US, and I left Nanjing for
good.

Now I'm in the south of China, just a mile or two from the Burmese
border. But more on that later. The next series of emails will try and
catch yall up on my travels, from the Philippines to here.


While in the Philippines, I was been struck by how much it reminded me
of the trip Lisa and I to Central America in the summer of 2008. Like
Central America, the Philippines was colonized by the Spaniards, but
then was dominated by the United States for most of the 20th century.

The Spanish influence appears widespread. Most people have
Spanishesque names, Romeo, Juan and Gloria. And Catholicism is big.
The few Sundays we spent there, we saw people standing outside of
cathedrals, peeking over the heads of their neighbors, trying to hear
what was being said by the priest.

But the Spanish influence is more superficial, whereas the American
influence runs deeper. American English functions as the lingua franca
in the country where almost 80 languages are spoken, and hotdogs are a
favorite breakfast dish.

This seemed to have created a culture similar to nothing I had seen in
Asia, but instead, something a lot like Central America. Rum is cheap,
$1.30 for a big bottle, and the people indulge in it, much like
Central America. Getting things done is not so important and the
somnolent atmosphere of siesta seems to hang over all activities.

10% of the country's economy comes from remissions of Filipinos
living in other countries, working on cruise ships in the Caribbean,
as nurses in Los Angeles or as maids in Oman. Filipinos who want to
work hard get out of the Philippines, because something about the
country seems to stifle opportunity.

And just in the way Central America took the US boring yellow school
bus and painted the heck out of them, Philippines took American jeeps
and converted them into 'jeepneys', about the size of a short bus but
only as high off the ground as an SUV.

Wandering through the Philippines has been strange, like a journey
back to a place you had traveled before.

Anyways, I'll tell yall more in the next post.
writing 1 mile from Burma,
Lee