Market Melees (10/05)

My wife and I were inviting people to church at the market, I using my limited Tagalog invited a group of fellows and a couple of them began pointing and saying something to me that I didn’t understand. There is another language here that this province uses that I do not know at all, and my Tagalog is still limited. He was pointing at me and laughing, “You Pogey!” He gave me the impression that he was calling me a punk, calling my bluff that I wasn’t fluent in the language and he could use a term to my face with perfect impunity. I became very uncomfortable, and asked him if he was speaking in Tagalog, he said he was, and all I could do was smile and make my exit. Later I had a chance to ask the other minister here (a Philippino) what the man was saying to me. I hesitantly spoke the word, after all, it could be a curse word the man was using, my fears were allayed when I found out it means “Handsome”. Suddenly my opinion of that fellow improved. He was a pretty nice guy after all. Follow @ddevonshire