Saturday, April 9, 2011

Pato


I though a nice light-hearted blog about my new hobby would be in order. After my mom went back to the USA, I started raising ducks. For the first few weeks I just had 2 ducks, a male and a female. I had been looking to buy 2 more females the whole time. However, nobody has given me a fair price on the ducks. Out here it is assumed that white people are all filthy rich, and don’t know the price of anything. Whenever I have inquired about buying ducks, everyone has doubled the price and explained to me how they were giving me a good deal. Finally, while I was visiting a wonderful local church, I found a house open to selling their ducks. When they found out a white guy wanted to buy 2 ducks, they didn’t see dollar signs, they just laughed. They loved the fact that I was raising ducks. They didn’t sell me the ducks for market price, or even Filipino price. They sold me two ducks for a friend price. They did this because they appreciated that I was raising them (They also said that I would be in big trouble if they find out I took them home for butcher). They really made my day.
Experiences like this are exactly why I came to the Philippines. I am here not only to assist as a technical advisor, but I want people to see me enjoying work they consider to be “below” white people. I can only imagine the amount of gossip that take place by people who have seen me raising ducks, harvesting rice, or walking down the road. They laugh because it is signs that you are poor or rural, and I am white, therefore I must be a rich city-slicker here to look at rice paddies and marry a Filipina. I don’t mind getting laughed at during times like these, because they are laughing at the absurdity of a white guy doing Philippine work.
I really have enjoyed raising these ducks for the last few weeks. They have subtle personalities and complex social structures. Plus, feeding and observing them actually gives me something to do after work. I find the ducks to be so low maintenance (and delicious) that I may continue raising ducks once I get back to the States.