Man's Hope

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Colonel David Tarrant, U.S. Air Force, gazed out the window of the Jollibee fast food restaurant, munching on his odd-tasting hamburger and deciding that he liked the Philippines.

Oh, it was a third world country, with all the poverty that entailed, the hungry from the provinces escaping to the cities, where they became 'squatters', building scrap metal and wood shacks in any unused space and struggling to scrape up a few pesos to feed their families. If they were lucky, they might get jobs as domestic servants for those more prosperous, earning the equivalent of $70 per month. And there was the crowding, of course. The Philippines is comprised of over 7100 islands, but the total land mass is only slightly larger than Arizona, and is occupied by over 90 million people

However, there was none of the hopelessness, the grimness found in most third world countries. For the most part, Filipinos were cheerful, smiling people, friendly to strangers, especially the westerners they called "Kanos." The government billed the Philippines as the "third largest English-speaking country in the world," after the United States and Australia. The schools here taught in English, and it amused David to see how some Filipinos delighted in trotting out their English, while others, perhaps lacking confidence in their ability, refused to try to speak it at all. Even after only a few days, David could feel the vitality, the confidence, of the people.

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