Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Culture Shock! (Musings of a Certified PROMDI: Part 4)

When I was still in Marbel and read about the 2 seasons in the Philippines in our textbooks, I couldn’t comprehend how the months of June to early October were called the Rainy Season and the months from late October to May were dubbed as the Dry Season. It’s because in Marbel, we enjoyed the same weather all year long—mostly sunny with scattered rainshowers every now and then. I just realized what our textbook meant when I had to remove my socks and shoes to prevent them from getting wet in the flood just outside our dorm all the way across UE. I was shocked at first but later on, I had gotten used to the harsh reality that in Manila, floods were prevalent during the Rainy Season of June to early October. I remember one time when it was like Pacific Ocean from our dorm on the way to San Beda Church. We were only wearing shorts inside our long cover coats. A tourist bus suddenly passed behind us, creating big waves that we couldn’t avoid. The passenger tourists were having the time of their lives watching us with their cameras and videos. We couldn’t do anything but suffer the consequence. We attended the mass with our undies soaked in flood water! 

Among the “6 sexy chicks of Room 6” of Holy Spirit Dorm, I was the baby of my room mates, being the youngest and still in 3rd Yr High Sch. My caring “momsies” taught me to use shampoo for my hair when they saw me using ordinary bath soap. In Marbel, we used to soak Gugo bark in a basin of water, rub the fibers to form lather, then use the suds as shampoo. I know you will find it hard to relate but yes, I am that ancient hahahah . . . Funny but one time, Gio’s classmate asked him what his shampoo was, because he’s having problems with dandruff. Gio told him he’s using Gugo Shampoo. His classmate thought that he was using Gugo bark so he asked Gio where he got the Gugo. When Gio answered him that his mom buys it from Mercury Drugstore, his classmate was really surprised that Mercury sold Gugo barks. As their conversation continued, the 2 classmates realized that they were not talking about the same thing. Gio was laughing when he narrated the story to me. He then discovered that long time ago, I actually used Gugo bark and not the commercialized Gugo Shampoo that we use now. We were both amazed how his classmate knew about Gugo bark as shampoo.

To be continued . . .

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