Some sketches of life in Manila

Leather sandals?

Filipina  women take great care of their look. The members of Soph's team are all very elegant. Their make-up is always perfect, colour matching their clothes: green one day, pink the next day and violet another. The same for their earrings. Not that different from some groups in other countries you will say.  But ... shoes .... elegant shoes are available everywhere here : nice sandals, with glitter, semi-precious stone decorations, a lot of high heels ... however, you seldom meet people on the street or at the office with these shoes: in 10 minutes the rain can transform them into unusable pieces of leather ....

Therefore, the national shoes are .... flip flops, plastic and rubber shoes for men and women. But elegant flip flops! You cannot imagine how wide the offer is, also with heels, glitter, semi-precious stones, etc.... and there are many specialized shops that sell only these shoes, on top of which department stores offer hundreds of different models! Soph too has already became an addict!

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Brands

In our countries, young people love brands, for jeans, smart phones, games, etc. Snobbery is often associated with adults exhibiting polo-shirts with a crocodile logo and other clothes with "discrete" symbols which are nevertheless recognized by all.

Here in the Philippines, everything is organized by brands! ... At the office, for any and every item, of whatever sort, simple or sophisticated, people talk about brands: this one is better; this one awful; that one  expensive and of bad quality or the one everybody has/must have ... be it a notebook, a pizza or a tee-shirt...

In all areas of Manila, in department stores and others shops, staff and displays are organized by brand and, nobody could confirm this to me, but I would not be surprised if at least part of the salary of each employee was not based on his/her turnover for a given brand. Therefore you do not go for soap, a saucepan or glasses, you need first to go for a brand, possibly look at several brands to make your choice, without ever being quite sure if you have seen every variety  of cutlery, plates, or orange juice, olive oil .... Question of habit you will say ... maybe, but believe me, you get the impression of always being kidnapped by one brand and it takes time... especially if you do not know the brand you need/want, or do not care, and just want for example 2 or 3 white panties ... they will send you to the most expensive brand (... expats = money ...), from there to the one with the next lowest prestige, etc. ... and each time you speak to another vendor in charge of the brand, explain what you are looking for, and the vendor wants to convince you that what he/she proposes is what you need, must have, the only existing one, which will match what you are looking for ... even if the material, the color, is not the one you asked for, the price totally exaggerated, even sometimes by Swiss standards, etc .... But one gets used to it!