My Philippine Monkey bit another kid this week.  A few days ago , the yaya told us that Juliet bit a child.   Seems he dropped something and it rolled under her cage.  She grabbed his hand and wouldn’t let go, then sunk her teeth into it.

Juliet Strikes Again

Today, I learn the boy’s mother has been by twice to collect money because of the bite.   She wanted P100 this morning and I told Jessie to give it to her but tell her to keep the boy away as there would be no more.  It made Jessie really mad, she told the boys

George Was Nearly Tame. Juliet is Not.

mother that if he came back she would report it to the Barangay Capitan.  She also said the boy was teasing Juliet.

The boy’s mother first said she needed money for something to do with school but Jessie told her that didn’t cost anything.   I didn’t know about that one.  It was the same day that it happened.  She came back today though wanting money for medicine.  She wanted only P100.  Jessie said the wound had not been cleaned “they just let it rot!”

I don’t know, I think they should pay me, their boy might have poisoned my monkey when she bit him.

Yesterday, I ran some kids off.  They had their hands on the cage.  Juliet seemed to be enjoying them as they were feeding her.  I suspect that this boy has teased her before and she got her just revenge.   I wish I could keep the kids out of here.   I enjoy them but I don’t want trouble.

Jessie warns me often, “they see you as an ATM.”  I guess that’s the darker side of the Philippines.   She would know better than I.  She is the one that grew up here, she knows the culture.  She knows what Filipino say and do.  She has far more insight into Filipino than I ever can so while I don’t follow blindly, I do listen carefully to what she tells me about the culture of the Filipino.

Most don’t treat me like they see me as an ATM.  However, I have seen it a couple of times.   I had a friend that I grew weary of as every time I saw her she needed money.  Or she needed load (credits of her pre-paid cell phone) to text with me.  Oddly though, every time I saw her in the street she was texting someone.  Why did she always have load when I saw her out but never when I sent her a text.  I sent her a lot before I caught on.    Her friend was sending me a lot of text messages about my upcoming trip to a resort.  When I told her I was already at the resort, the messages stopped.   Not another message from that girl since.  🙂  So, these things do happen.  That does  not mean you should think every Filipino is out to fleece or even beg from you.  Most would NEVER do so.   If you’re hungry though, what would you do?  You might not know how bad a person’s situation is, so don’t be quick to judge harshly.

I tell her to get a sign made, a sign that says monkey bites.  She gives me a strange smile when I say that.  Well, its full disclosure, in my culture, you warn someone and they stick their hand in there anyway, shame on them.  Its there blood spilt, their problem.  That’s some of the vanishing American common sense.   Common sense is more frequent in the Philippines than in the USA.  Seems like some might need to be applied here.

If you stick your hand in a monkey’s cage, the monkey just might bite it!  Having the monkey makes it seem more like I’m living in the Philippines.

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Filed under: Cost of living in the Philippines • Expats Living in Cebu

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