Soundtrack of the Philippines

Close your eyes (actually don’t, you won’t be able to read this) and let me take you on an auditory tour of the Philippines.  If you were to make a soundtrack of this country, it would go something like this:

Track 1: Cock-a-doodle-doo (or in Visaya: Tuk-tu-ga-uuk)

The sound of rooster crowing is ubiquitous in the Philippines.  Honestly, at ANY time of the day or night, no matter where you are, if you listen hard enough you can hear one. Most of the time you don’t have to listen hard at all, you can hear it loud and clear without straining your ears one bit.  My first week here I was convinced I’d never sleep due to the persistent rooster crowing that was happening outside my window.  One would get going, setting off about 5 others throughout the night.  Indeed, I’ve discovered the concept that roosters only crow at dawn is a MYTH! Luckily I’ve been able to tune them out now, so while they still crow away, I get more sleep.   Adding to their persistent crowing is the fact that there are millions of roosters here.  Seriously, the rooster should be the national bird of this country.  Roosters are kept by many household and kept close to home by ankle leashes or small cages.  Roosters are also used for cock-fighting here, but we’ll get into that another time.

Track 2: Karaoke

Almost as pervasive as the crow of a rooster, is the sound of nearby karaoke.   Filippinos LOVE it and you can hear karaoke being sung at almost any time of day.  A little sing-a-long with breakfast? Sure.  Late night, heart-wrenching pop aria?  But of course.  The most common karaoke tracks are super soppy power ballads: Celine, Bon Jovi, Evanescense, Whitney Houston- you get the picture.   Now at home, karaoke is an activity for drunken goofs belting out YMCA in cheesy bars- where groups get up and make asses of themselves.  Here, it’s sung by anyone, usually sitting down and very serious.  It appears to be as common an activity as going out for a coffee at home. Karaoke machines can be found in many homes, shop backrooms, restaurants, and bars.  My favorite thing: the video background they use for tracks.  It’s suuuuuper random: film montages of horses in fields, English countryside scenes, 80s basketball featuring Larry Bird, and even porn.  Very, very strange. 

Track 3: Honk

Our next track is perhaps the most annoying: the incessant honking of car horns.  And truck horns, bus horns, trike horns…you get the picture.  Every vehicle has a VERY well-used horn.  As a pedestrian in the Philippines, you must get used to hearing one almost every time any vehicle passes you.  The horn, however, seems to have a different meaning than it does at home.  It’s not usually aggressive like a horn would be considered in North America.  In fact, I’ve deciphered several meanings for the horn here:

• Honk = “Watch out! I am coming up alongside you.  Despite the fact that you are far over on the shoulder and not actually walking on the road, I am concerned that you might randomly hurdle yourself at the last minute in front of my moving vehicle, so I want to let you know I am here.  Beware!”
• Honk = “Want a ride?  I am a trike/bus/passenger van and can pick you up.  No? Sure?  Really? You aren’t even facing my way, looking like you want a ride or trying to flag me down, but I better honk another 8 times just to make sure you don’t change your mind.”
• Honk = ‘Hello.  Hey there.  Hi!  Wow, neat, you are a Caucasian walking down the street. Hey, look at me.  I want to wave at you. Pay attention.”
• Honk = “This has nothing to do with you.  I am a vehicle overtaking another vehicle.  Probably on a blind curve and instead of waiting, I am going for it and hoping my honks will alert any speeding oncoming traffic.”

Track 4- Hello, hello, hello, hello

This may seem like a weird one, but I have heard more ‘Hellos’ per day since arriving in Philippines than ever before.  Everyone says hello to us.  It goes along with the Caucasian novelty mentioned above (Jagna doesn’t have a big westerner draw most of the time), but I also think people are just genuinely friendly here (most of the time, sometimes it’s a repetitive, demanding hello that gets a bit tiresome).  The ‘hellos’ come from kids and adults alike.  With kids, they are often incessant- repeating themselves until you locate where they are shouting from and say hello back.  It’s often then followed by a lot of giggling.  Sometimes they then ask you your name, proud to show off their English prowess.  With older adults, it’s usually just a singular hello or a ‘good morning’/‘good evening’ depending on the time of day.  With younger adults and teenagers, it is often followed by a ‘where are you going?’ This is an intriguing question to me since I don’t think I’ve ever asked a stranger where they were going, but it seems a pretty common here and based in honest curiosity.  We often confuse people by replying ‘home’, which usually elicts a puzzled response.  Sometimes the greetings directed towards guys are ‘Hey Joe’, an interesting throw back to the American colonization of the Philippines through the 20^th century.  Joe refers to a ‘GI Joe’.    

Track 5- Evening music (a call to eat duck fetus)

“Balooooooooooooooooooooooooooot. Balooooooooooooooooooooot.”  When the sun goes down, you will begin to hear this soft chant.  What they are calling out is ‘balut’ but pronounced with a long ‘o’ sound, drawing the word out almost like a song.  Balut is one Filipino delicacy that I can’t quite wrap my head around.  It’s an egg that contains a semi-formed (16-21 day) duck fetus.  It appears to be consumed mostly in the evening , as this is when you can hear the hawkers call, and is sold by a guy on a motorbike who pedels the ‘treats’ out of a Styrofoam cooler.  Mmmmmmm…duck fetus for dessert.  According to my Filipina colleague, it’s usually consumed while drinking.  Which I guess makes sense, one would probably need to be intoxicated in order to think that soggy semi-formed baby bird is a tasty treat (and yes, I realize I am not being very open minded about this, but seriously….) 

A random photo that has nothing to do with the post.