In the Philippines, if someone asks you that question, you will either
grin or get offended, but normally, you will never respond back. Nobody in
their right mind will ever ask you about your night unless the person asking is
a close friend and something interesting really happened that night or your
life is an open book to the world.
My first time, I booked an Uber to take me somewhere (I couldn’t
remember). It was a morning ride, I didn’t have enough sleep the night before
because of jetlag and alcohol.
“How are you ma?” (ma = ma’m)
“I’m ok, thank you”
“How was your night?”
“Excuse me?”
Yes, that stranger guy, the Uber driver just asked me how my night
was. Why does he care? Do I look like someone who was just hit by a bus? Do I
have something on my face? WTF.
My second time, I was leaving the hotel when the security guard
smiled.
“Good morning ma”
“Good morning, how fa?” (that’s me trying pidgn english for “how’s
everything”)
“I dey fine, how was your night?”
Seriously?
Yes, folks. After several
encounters, I realized that Nigerians don’t really give a damn about your night
- it’s just an extended way of asking how you were.
And what is my point here?
Culture. Customs. Social
behaviour. Way of life. If you go to other places and you see how others do
things differently, you will realize how amazing diversity is. How strange
people say their greetings. How they celebrate birthdays and special events. How
they treat each other and outsiders. How they enjoy and have fun. How they
value things that you and your people from home take for granted.
How they live.
But you will never appreciate all
these things until you learn how to really observe and understand it. The
comparison, the complaining and liking. I guess all of that is part of
learning.
I can make friends, sure. But I
never liked talking to taxi drivers on the road. I’d rather check my phone or
sleep. But here? I lost count how many times I had a good conversation with my
Uber driver. I told a friend once that you can’t really be sure how sociable
you are until you travel alone and test your social skills.
Social skills? Ok, that’s another
story. That’s for next time.
But have you ever wondered why
you suddenly become a different person when you are out of your box? It’s a
“survival” thing and we have that instinct for survival. We adopt and adapt.
And when you’re out there, you move,
and you change. And when it’s time for your return, you go back with more
things. More experiences. More stories to tell.
In the meantime, I have quite a
list of things I’ve learned and still learning about this country and I assure
you, it gets more interesting.
Cheers.
