By Monsi A. Serrano
There’s no better way to value our country’s beauty and the richness of our culture than reading a book from someone who was swayed by his fate and settled in the Philippines and chronicled his adventures and misadventures as how he called them.
This was what David Haldane shared during the launching of his book last March 7 at the Ortigas Foundation Library, Greenhills, San Juan City.
It was a sort of love-and hate-experience for David during the early stage of his stay in the Philippines. But nonetheless, he continued to live each day and enjoy the journey.
When asked if he got frustrated during the first time he settled here, David frankly admitted to the author.
“Yes, of course, there are always frustrations and there are still frustrations, you know, things do not go as smoothly here in the Philippines in some ways as they do. Where I come from. It’s harder, especially in the provinces. You know, we don’t live in Manila, we live in the far province. So of course, some things are hard to find hard to get. Services are sometimes lacking, you know, and all that has been frustrating. But as my wife has taught me, it takes a certain amount of patience to live here, but the rewards have been great. So I have I’ve adapted to some extent. It’s acceptance and loving I think,”.
How the book came into being
David bared that his purpose in writing this book is to tell his story about reverse immigration. Citing that a lot of Filipinos go abroad.
“We hear less often about foreigners from America and other places coming to the Philippines and this is a place I never would have predicted that I would end up it happened through a series of events that I’ll be talking about later including my experience for the laid off at the LA Times during the mother of economic downturns. I just ended up sort of a person in distress and I was married. I was fortunate to be married to a very lovely Filipino woman who comes from Siargao Island and Surigao. So that’s how the idea started. And I think I just, and of course, being a writer, I couldn’t stop writing because the venue changes but you don’t stop writing,” he explained.
“I haven’t seen too many books about it. So I wanted to share my experience in the Philippines and what it’s like for foreigners to come here. To adapt to the culture within this culture. So I wanted to share that story, and this is what A Tooth in My Popsicle is all about,” David concluded.
