Filipinos have claim to many wonderful characteristics, but there are three that stand out on my list. To have observed them all during a short lunch break at the Gingerroot Restaurant seemed like serendipity.  I have seen them displayed in so many other settings, say in the airport or during a 13-hour flight while traveling back to the Philippines, that I’m convinced they are what an outsider would notice and remember about Filipinos. They are: friendliness, a sense of cooperation and the ability to laugh and have fun.

I have lived in the US long enough to have taught in four public and private schools from the  East Coast to the West, much longer than the two years in Manila. While in this country, I immersed myself in the American culture; apart from the Filipino milieu. It doesn’t help that I didn’t go back to visit the Philippines until lately (when my parents’ health started to decline).

Last year, I traveled to the Philippines almost feeling like a foreigner. As I approached a large and noisier- than- usual crowd, I knew that I had found the right waiting room at the San Francisco Airport. I overheard people sharing jokes and asking each other questions like what part of the province they were from, or what part of the US they lived in and oh, did they know this family of the same last name?

In the plane, I sat by an engineer whose new passion is to go back and help his relatives who are still tilling the farm with no machinery. I even learned what kind of student he was, about his wife  and how they met, how he earned her Indian father’s approval by cooking a “masalaa”- spiced dish for him and his encounter with a rattlesnake in his new home. Once the plane had stopped and it was time to depart, I heard people introducing themselves, shaking hands and saying goodbyes.  All the while I had assumed they were family members or relatives chatting merrily among themselves, but were actually strangers.

On my way home from the airport I stopped by Manila Science High School to drop off some books.  A brief check of the school website prior to my trip inspired me to pay a visit, despite strong doubts about any one taking notice. It so happened that the upcoming weekend was alumni homecoming and, could you attend the program? Before I knew it, I was sharing the stage with a former classmate who was being awarded the school pin along with other teachers. The most heart-warming part was meeting the batch that I taught. One member, who has become a pilot for Philippine Airlines recalled, “Ma’am, you said ‘what goes up must come down,’ but I found out that satellites are in their own orbits and have not come down.” I refrained to add that they are actually still coming down due to gravity but are staying “up there” because of other forces in accordance to Newton’s laws of motion.

 The next evening I had dinner with four of the alumni and on another day I visited one of them at his office in the financial district of Makati.  When I got back to Arizona there were e-mails from former students who heard about my visit.  One, who now works in California, was delighted to have found me “after all these years of searching!” Another one, now a science writer for the Manila paper, sent a message about “Algebra - the weapon of math instruction.”

 A year has transpired since that auspicious trip and I have since started to get my feet wet in what is “pinoy”. Thanks to the line of Filipino restaurants on Alma School in the East Valley, re-acquainting via food was a good place to start.  I had been a working mom who relied on anything easy to put out for my family - pizza, Costco microwave dishes, create- your- own salad, or vegetarian fixings from my friend Trader Joe.

One early afternoon, I went to Gingerroot expecting the T.V.to be tuned in to “Wowwowee,” and it was. As I opened the door, three of the staff, huddled at one table, looked up and smiled, one commenting on the logo on my shirt.  The person at the counter asked, “one or two scoops of rice?” Before I could answer, he already had scooped one and a half, which I usually ask for. He casually commented how he enjoyed reading my articles in the Arizona Filipino Forum.

While eating, I heard laughter and exchanging of jokes from the corner table, reminding me of the scene at the airport and the dining table with my family in Manila.  While paying for the lunch, we had a brief conversation about the business and how they organized the recent stand-up comedy show but, because of space restraints, held it at the Barrio Fiesta Restaurant. He explained, in a matter-of-fact way, how it was better to work together despite the proximity of the businesses. 

Only now do I have a full appreciation of what I had read in my elementary school textbooks as values of Philippine culture: Hospitality, “pakikisama” or “baranggay” spirit and a fun-loving attitude. Without really trying, these are the three that, as a cultural group, we can positively bring to the diverse community that we now find ourselves in.