A Cross Cultural Conversation

One night we were riding the jeepney home from the market/downtown area and met an elderly filipino woman. She started the conversation by telling Meghan that she is very beautiful.  She repeated herself about 5 times before she told Craig he is very handsome. She asked if we were married and told us we were very lucky and should pray for children (which we agreed to!)  Then she asked what state we were from. When we said we were both form Virginia she said, “Oh, I thought you would be from different areas because your noses are different.”  This sounds SO funny and absurd to an American- but it makes COMPLETE sense to a Filipino!  Let me explain.  Filipinos are very regional- they have regional people groups, languages (not dialects- completely different languages) and culture. They are very proud of their region and traditionally stay in that area their whole life (though with modern life people are much more transient- but they will still define themselves by their region. (Reminds me of  pre- civil war Americans defining themselves more by their state than by their country.) Because people have traditionally stayed in their region- there are distinct differences in the way people look from each region.  For example, the people up in the mountain province are more Asian/Chinese looking because the earlier settlers came here from Asia (I think Indonesia and China). Later, the Philippines were conquered by Spain (thanks to Magellan and crew- 1521).  The people in the area where the Spanish were more prevalent have more of the Spanish characteristics in their eye shape, skin tone, nose etc.. People in the mountain province around us retain more of the Asian attributes because 1. They are high up in the mountains- not as easy to get to by the Spanish or others  and 2.  The people in our area were head hunters and had a great reputation of being fierce fighters- thus warding off many outsiders!  :)   
I hope I always remember that jeep ride and that lovely woman we met.