tickledpink

I guess I’ve developed the habit
of running into colorful characters in the city. First there was that cranky,
dumpy, rich spinster-y fart that had an ego the size of a shopping mall (see
post: I was attacked by a rich old fart). Yesterday, it was a wrinkled, broke
Aussie bloke.

I was on my way to school two
hours past noon. I was in the front seat
of a jeepney that was waiting for more passengers. Then this old foreigner,
probably seventy-ish going eighty, climbed onto the passenger seat beside me.
From his accent, I guessed he was from “down under”, but I asked him to be
sure. I deduced he was broke – (1) he
was taking a jeepney, not a taxi (2) the bag he was carrying was as old as he
was, dirty, and with broken straps hand-sewn in brown thread (3) he carried an
ugly purse that was attached to his belt through a garter that he claimed was
“dirty – Pinoy style” and (3) he was staying at a cheap hotel downtown.

He was chatty – talking about how
warm it was and that he had just taken a swim in Liloan. It would have been rude of me to ignore his
ranting. Lest this tourist take another
bad impression of Filipinos, especially Cebuanos, I politely responded to his
queries – was I going to school or work? I said school. What was I taking up? I
said accountancy. How many years into my
course was I? I said I had just graduated and was taking review classes. Where
was I from? I said, actually, I live in Liloan. Do I know the priest there? I
said some of them, not all.

He said he had asked the priest
if he could take a swim in the beach behind the Liloan church. The priest was accommodating and even let him
shower in his personal rest room. I told him he had just received special
treatment, because normally, that beach was off limits to locals. Then came the expected, he started makings
passes at me. First was a hearty laugh
but with a moderately strong pat on my knee. I almost squirmed in my seat. Then the old guy probably underestimated me and thought I was one of
those desperate Pinays ready to jump into the arms of any fair-skinned alien
(stating facts, no offense meant; I have an aunt married to an Italian, another
to a Swiss and two cousins married to Swiss nationals). He asked, Do I like to
swim? I said, no, I can’t swim. He said, I could teach you to swim. Amused, I said, no thanks. He said, if you
want to roam the city, I can roam with you. Laughing out silently now, I said,
no thanks.

I wasn’t offended by his
proposals – decent on the outside, but otherwise inside. I was just concerned
(embarrassed, actually) how the two of us – chatting in the front seat of a
beaten jeepney – looked like to the rest of the world.  He, an old foreigner, and I, a young Pinay.  The normally 10 minute ride felt like
eternity. And feeling the long hair on
his arms brush against my arm, I wish I had taken a taxi.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.