Indeed, Isles.
When I arrived in Bohol and visited Leyte, my uncles tried to dissaude me from eating the local food and tried to take me to the nicer restaurants, however, I requested that we go to the local restaurants and eat the local food as much as possible, only because I wanted to experience the natural delights that the people of the locale enjoyed. I disregarded the fact that I was raised in America, I reverted back to my Bol-anon , specifically, my Valencianon identity when I was in Bohol. I had no problem eating 'kinamot' style when I was in Leyte, nor did I complain on eating only buwad and suka and rice with ginamos nga pait kaajo when I was in Leyte. I enjoyed it actually. I preferred that kind of food and that kind of cultural experience. (I actually developed a fondness for Valencianon ginamos nga i pares sa Kamote
)
A foreigner once said, "The people in Bohol are pretty poor tho..." I disagreed with him outright. Poor to the senses of the European or to the priviledged American with his or her comforts of technology and the plenitude of all things, however, there is beauty and totality in sweet simplicity, as I told him.
I did not come to Bohol to experience the urban hum drums nor did I came to Bohol to be stressed with the precariousness as seen and observed in American City dwellers. I came to Bohol to enjoy the beauty of nature, the exquisite green, the fresh open air, the amiable gentleness of the Boholano, to hear the locale tongue, and to be amongst
my people.
What is poor to one person, is rich and cultured to another...
way to go, lorenz. sometimes, less enlightened westerners impose their material standards on easterners. it diminishes humanity. meanwhile, what's the use of going somewhere-- a vacation in your case-- to experience only more of the same?
that's why i like mark twain who was vocal against american imperialist designs on our country at a time when an american president named mckinley and his blah-blah "manifest destiny" aimed to christianize the philippines, never mind that our country at that time was already largely catholic.