Has it ever taken you a week to do one small errand?! @#$%!

[Winston]

Today, when I was about to leave for lunch and do an errand, I found out that all the jeepneys in Angeles were on strike and out of service. Dang, I wonder how all the thousands of workers and students got to work today. I asked the trike drivers who hustled me for a ride about this, and they just gave me that dumb brute look. How come when you ask a question with the word "Why" in it in the Philippines, many people just give a dumb look and can't answer it?

Questions like:
"How will thousands of people who have to go to work get to work today then?"
"What time will the strike end?"

... are over many of their heads. So it is not true that most Filipinos speak English fluently. Most only understand simple words and phrases, not questions that involve reasons and facts.

Likewise, when I was at the water refill station, I asked, "That truck that drives by everyday delivering water, is that from your company?" but the young guy did not understand the question. So there is a language barrier here when you are asking questions. Yesterday at the copy center in the mall when I was making copies of my Pamphlet, I asked the girl, "This is too light. Can you make it darker? The machine usually has settings where you can make it darker or lighter. Right?" But she did not acknowledge the question, even when I kept repeating it. Then I suggested, "Maybe you need to replace the ink or toner?" but she did not address that suggestion either...

Anyhow, that's the 9th time I tried to go to immigration to pick up my ACR card, and something got in the way. Before today, it was always something else - woke up too late to make it before 5pm, was on computer and lost track of time, had other errands, had a guest come from Couchsurfing.org, had to go to Manila for a work meeting, it was a weekend and the office was closed, etc. Yesterday I was about to go at 3:30pm but then Dianne's mom suddenly cooked a meal for me and after I ate it, it was 4:15pm and already too late to make it to the immigration office. Now today came and I had an early start to finally do this one simple errand, but then I suddenly find out that all the jeepney workers were all on strike, which I have never seen happen before. So that's the 9th time that I try to do one simple errand and have something go wrong or interrupt it or get in the way. f**k. Why does that always happen? My life is already delayed by two years!

Have any of you ever experienced this, where you just try to do just ONE simple errand that should take under an hour, yet every time you go do it, something gets in the way or goes wrong, so it ends up taking a whole week and wasting your time? I f***ing hate that. It makes my blood boil, yet it always happens in Angeles City for some reason. It's like a jinx where you can't get stuff done and you lose precious time that you can't get back.

It especially happens if you sleep late and have to do an errand before 5pm. If you get up late and do something online and lose track of time, soon it becomes 4:30 and you can't make it on time. It's happened to me thousands of times.

Some places seem to be a vortex where something keeps going wrong and you can't get out or get things done that you plan.

Do any of you struggle with that too?

When I want to do something, I just want to get it done, so I can move on to the next thing. Repeated obstacles and delays, one after another, are really frickin annoying.

[momopi]

When Jollibee first entered the HK market, it did brisk business with the large Filipino ex pat community, but had trouble attracting local customers. The Chinese managers wanted to make changes to the menu to better suit local tastes, but the PH management was extremely slow and adverse to change. They insisted on following strict company-set guidelines and procedures that took months to process at "Filipino speed". Finally all 4 Chinese managers quit because they felt that they couldn't get anything done and there was no point in staying.

Coming from the US, you have a competitive society mindset where things are supposed to run efficiently, which is not the case in certain countries. The trike driver in question does not care about your question, nor is he able to tell you exactly what time the jeepney strike would end. His job may also reflect his ability (or lack of).

[Jackal]

I've had sort of the reverse happen when it takes a long time to get something in my apartment repaired. First, the building manager comes and just takes a look. Then he comes back another day to fix part of the problem. Then later he tells me that a real construction worker has to come. Then when that guy comes, he just looks at what needs to be done and has to come back over several more days to actually get the real work done.

This is just another aspect of living in a foreign country.

Also, I don't like that most stores are only open til about noon here on the weekends, but it's not a huge problem.

[globetrotter]

Winston it appears that you are experiencing the mocking & ridicule stage of Culture Shock. Since you have lived in the RP for years you may need to move to another country.

[The_Adventurer]

Now that you mention it, and looking back, I have had this happen! I guess I just got so used to the lazy, laid back lifestyle that I just went with it. I can't remember how many times I had to go back and forth to the immigration office to take care of simple things. The same when I was getting my first visa for China. It never bothered me at the time, though. I really fell into the slow pace there and very little ever bothered me as far as time was concerned.

Looking back now, I wish I had used all that time I had better. I relaxed too much. I could have done so much more.