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Junior Huiso and his wife, Lilit, outside our resort in Panglao Island, Bohol (Philippines, 2011)

The guy we hired to drive us around Bohol for the whole day told us that we would have to pay for the fuel he would spend on his way back to Tagbilaran. While we knew that he was just following company orders, we still thought it was an unfair deal, especially since we had just given him money for a full tank’s worth of gas.

We immediately asked him to drop us off in the city instead of our resort in Panglao. It didn’t matter if it would cost us more to hire a tricycle — there are very few cabs in Bohol — to take us back to the island. We just didn’t want the money to go to a company that didn’t know how to do business.

It turned out to be a good move. We hailed a tricycle in front of the Bohol Quality (BQ) Mall and met this lovely couple, who offered to pick us up the next day if we needed a way to get around. I exchanged numbers with them and texted them the following morning to ask whether they could take us to the Tarsier Research and Development Center in Corella, which is 10 kilometers away from Tagbilaran. They met us at the same spot in front of BQ Mall and even let us set our own price.

I soon learned that Junior Huiso was a retired seaman who had probably seen more of the world than I have. (“Maybe that’s why he looks so much younger than his wife,” I remember thinking, and feeling guilty right after.) I couldn’t help wondering how it must have felt like to go from the vastness of the ocean back to the remoteness of provincial life. Later, I found out that he and his wife had three fairly accomplished children, one of them shaping up to be a seaman just like his dad.

I feel a little uncomfortable when I engage in small talk with some drivers I meet in Manila — many of them get so caught up in self-pity, and I can’t really blame them — but talking to Junior Huiso and his wife Lilit felt different. They seemed content, maybe even happy.

(via moviescriptendings)

(Source: littlefoxhole)