Day 3: I cosy up to a man with a big gun

But that comes later.

The day began with the early morning cab ride as usual. This time we got about halfway to work when the cab driver started calling out to the next cab over, then started muttering something that sounded like 'transfer' to himself. Not about to be thrown out on the side of the road right outside a slum, I decided to try out my 'angry foreigner' voice. It worked! All it took was a stern "no", and a narrowing of the eyes towards the rearview mirror for our driver to turn away from his mate, and back in the direction of our destination.

When we arrived at work, we found out that we had lost a trainee. I don't think I've spoken about Abby (aka Brian the ladyboy) in this blog. "Abby", as he/she likes to be known, turned up to day 1 of training in a pink floral print maxi dress and a beautiful set of heels, with amazing face makeup and hair curled to perfection. We accepted this as a humorous lesson in Filipino culture, and were happy to have such a pretty "girl" in our midst. Filipino management were not so convinced. Apparently it is taboo here for ladyboys to wear womens clothing in the workplace. And not just in our office, but right across the workforce. The Filipino team leader had a chat with her about the dress code on Monday arvo, being careful to explain that while the company does not discriminate against the "third gender" (yup, that's what they call it), they do not condone crossdressing in the workplace by someone who is still technically male. Ladyboys are required to wear pants to work at all times. Abby didn't show up to work for Day 2. Nor did she call, text, or answer any of our calls to her. So it was with great disappointment that we had to make the decision to replace her, to ensure we have enough trainees to feed to the angry customers on go live day. I was sad. Besides grief over losing the opportunity to sneak glances at her skirt in the hope of a brief outline of lurking parts, I actually liked Abby and thought she was a cool addition to the group. But such is life...

The rest of the day was BUSY. Because systems and schedules were fucked yesterday, we were working hard to squish a lot of material into one short day. Fortunately (?) this was made easier by the revelation that the systems were still fucked, and neither my company's IT or the client's IT department had a clue what was going wrong. So again, another part of the schedule moved to another day.

I asked the Manila trainer to deliver the morning's training session to get her involved, and to allow me to see if she was really as militant as reports had indicated. She did really well. Having obviously taken earlier feedback on board, she was interactive, related well to the trainees and got them involved in activities. Having only recently gone through the training herself, she was better able to understand potential points of confusion and provide additional explanations. I was pretty impressed, and really enjoyed the opportunity to rest both my legs and my voice!

The afternoon training session was all about Sydney geography, and was therefore ridiculously confusing. Sydney is hard enough for locals to navigate, so was near impossible for foreigners to make sense of! We used a LOT of pictures and google maps, and giggled a lot. Giggling seems to be the first line of defense here. When they're nervous, they giggle. Don't know the answer? Giggle. Feel embarrassed? Get an answer wrong? Yup...again we giggle. It was a day chock FULL of silly laughter.

I think the highlight of the day was afternoon break, when Crissy and I ventured out into the heat with our cameras to try to take sneaky photos of the office guard. Sneakiness rapidly flew out the window as we saw an awesome photo opportunity. And this is what followed:
You got it. That's a man with a rather large rifle. I didn't get one with the dude with the machine gun...I need a couple more days to work up the courage. But yes, I feel much safer here in one of Manila's major business districts knowing that this man is here to protect me.

I'd also like to share something else that amused me today. This is a sign up in each of the cubicles in the work loos:
It reads "Please remain seated for the entire performance. Do your mission then flush and close and make sure everything goes down - we don't want any surprises!" Enough said.

After work, Crissy and I decided to check out one of the local malls (there are 4 or 5 in our immediate vicinity). Upon entry, I realised why Filipinos get paid a pittance working in retail. Its because stores hire so many of them! There were about 20 staff for each 50 square metres of floor space. There was literally one at the end of each clothing rack, watching customers like hawks for any indication of purchase interest. I'm one of those shoppers who likes to rifle through clothing racks in search of interesting finds. I also like to be left alone to forage until I'm ready to ask for assistance. Manila is obviously not the place for me. One by one, the staff closed in. Everywhere I looked, there was an attendant wating to attend to my every wish, even if I didn't wish for anything! My heart raced, a carefree shopping trip now became a desperate effort to make it through a gauntlet lined with eager attendants. I tried changing direction, zig-zagging through the racks in an attempt to throw them off. I tried camouflaging myself against the clothing racks, looking down, ignoring the smiles and greetings of "hello ma'am", but to no avail. I finally escaped into an open area of the store that was empty of staff. But in my desperation to outmaneuver my stalkers, I'd lost Crissy. So back I went - ducking, weaving, practically powerwalking through the rows of clothing, leaving a trail of staff in my wake. I finally found her, and we escaped together.

I survived the first of what I'm sure will be many shopping trips here. I might wait a few days before trying it again.

I'll leave you tonight with a pic of some of my trainees that I'm rapidly growing to love