American Invention: The Personal Space Bubble

I spend many minutes of my day reflecting about the different situations I go through. These reflections cause moments of joy and laughter but never really disappointment. The one thing that many volunteers learn in the Philippines is to laugh at adversity, just as many Pilipinos do. One of the greatest differences in culture between Americans and Pilipinos is the concept of privacy. In America we have a form of hyper-privacy where people guard their thoughts and possessions with a passion. We even have a term in America which is the "personal space bubble". This term represents our individuality and need for isolation. The Philippines has no such code and Pilipinos live in the opposite manner of the American expectation. The below stories should more than explain exactly what I mean.

• I had been in the Philippines for about 2 months and was on a field trip for CRM. We had just been introduced to the staff of the CRM department and after a five minute introduction one of the staff members grabbed me by the arm. As we were walking down the stairs he informed me that his sister had been kidnapped and the governor of his province was working very hard to get her released. I was left speechless and just responded by nodding my head with my mouth wide open. (side note: having your mouth wide open is another way to say what in some parts of the Philippines) I didn't know this at the time but I wasn't expected to give an extraordinary response just an acknowledgement of the situation.
• About a month ago Rebeka and I were riding on a jeep home (tightly packed public transportation) and there was a women with an infant on her lap to my left. The baby started to cry and the next thing I know the mother was breastfeeding her child. Lets just say this was incredibly awkward for me. I was trying to face forward to give her some kind of privacy but kept having to turn towards her to collect money from passengers passing their payment forward. Then I felt a heavy object resting on my arm and come to find out it was the kids head. Heck, the mom must have gotten tired of holding her kid and my arm was available so it was the logical solution. I did sign on to Peace Corps to help in anyway I could. I wonder how that would look on a job resume: used as headrest during breastfeeding.
• Two weeks ago I was at work and one of the municipal employees who was a women was saying masakit which means pain. So I unknowingly asked what's wrong and her response was simply my flow. At that moment I wanted to cram my question back down my throat but it was too late. The next thing I know is I know too much. She is a 49 year old women, with two children, and she has started going through menopause..... That is the abridged version, the full length version includes descriptive terms that I am doing my best to forget in order to relieve Peace Corps of future payments to a psychiatrist.
  
• Our 3 and a half month house sharing experience came to an end yesterday. So after sharing meals and a house with our Pilipino family we are on our own. The last time we lived on our own was 7 and a half months ago when we left our apartment in Montpelier. We then spent a month bouncing around the homes of our family members, then three months living with our first host family and the last three and a half months with our second host family. Our last experience included a 8x10 foot bedroom that shared a 1/4 inch wall with a family of four. One bathroom, one kitchen, one couch, two chairs, two bedrooms and six people all under one roof. The experience wasn't easy by any means but it will be unforgettable for so many reasons. It is unbelievable that our host family invited two foreign strangers into their home and treated them with such compassion. I only hope one day that I can repay the favor to them or any person that is in need. I just want to say thank you to our families (American and Pilipino) for all that they have sacrificed.