I not Chinoise, I Pinay!

Friday June 6, 2008
1:48pm
I remember my young cousin who ,when once told to hurry, replied "I not Harry, I Danny!"

Every single day whenever I leave my hut, I get called 'chinoise' or Chinese.

It never fails. Sometimes I stop and correct them. Most of the time I keep on walking. Sometimes I feel like if one more person called me 'chinoise' or worse 'neehong'(which is their attempt at Chinese) today, I would scream what I put on the title or maybe "Hoy, Pinay ako!" which was an alternative title for this post.

Pinays are great and if someone called me 'philippine' instead of 'chinoise' one time I would definitely stop and be friendly.

Here's a photo I like of a Pinay (named 'Sally') that I took at a resort back in the Philippines. I like it because it exudes simplicity and kindness - things I witness and admire in most Filipinas I know (though I don't know if it includes me).

But I get called other names too.

There's 'japonaise' (Japanese), there's 'toubab' or 'toubako' (for white-person), there's Psssst to attract your attention, but the ultimately worst ones I've ever encountered are 'future Mrs. _________' and 'Filipina Wife'(at least I get called Filipina but it's still so wrong).

I guess I don't have to explain why this bothers me.
What do you reply to that? I'd laugh about it and I'm not that witty so I had to ask around.

And what do you reply to the marriage proposals you get? It's hard to look for culturally acceptable answers.
If you say "No", they'll see it as a sign to just keep on trying.

- "How many cows do you have?" To get someone's hand in marriage, the man needs to give cows (or their equivalent in value) to the woman's family. Thus, if the guy replies he has 40 cows, you say you want 200.
- "Go ask my brother." My 'brother' would refer to someone from work. I've used this and they never showed up at his house so it's a culturally acceptable way to tell someone to leave you alone.
- "I already have three husbands." Now I would never want to pretend I was married to ward guys off but this was a reply another volunteer suggested. I tried it with a relatively older man who retorted "No you don't" and wasn't amused so I felt bad about my feeble attempt at a 'joke'.
- Intervention to nip it in the bud. Ask someone to intervene and tell them nicely (while you're not there so that they don't lose face) that you're not interested. This I've tried and thankfully it's worked.

Why don't tell you these things on 'Lonely Planet'?

To be fair to Senegalese men, I've heard that in their culture, they are very respectful to women and they aren't rude or obscene. They will leave you alone if you play it right. But of course, it's always good to play it safe.