#USER-FRIENDLY #MANGGAGAMIT
When I started working abroad, I met a lot of people. Some of them became long-time friends while the others just remained as acquaintances. When meeting new people, it never occurred to me to take advantage of their kindness, especially in terms of paying for the food that we ate. I don’t remember asking others to pay for my meals. If I’m in the position to pay for the meal, I never shoved it to the faces of the people that I fed.
I don’t want to generalize it but some of the people that I met are unfortunately USER-FRIENDLY. In Filipino, it’s MANGAGAMIT. If they can have one free meal and you’re paying for it, they’ll stick with you. I remember feeding an obnoxious and overly obese co-worker on a daily basis. I never realized at first that he was just using me. It took other people to tell me for me to realize that he’s a USER-FRIENDLY. I never realized how cunning and sneaky he was until we travelled to French Indochina earlier this year. The fatso would not spend a dime if it would come from his pocket. He will not even buy a mineral water to quench his thirst if he pays for it. I paid for every food that we ate. When we came back to our jobsite, a common friend told me that the only reason he sticks with me is, you guess it, FOOD. After all the feeding that I did to him, he has the gall to say bad things behind my back.
My father when he was still alive (God bless his soul), would always tell me not to count the times I feed people. He says it’s bad and I’ve followed his advice up until my fatso colleague did the unthinkable to me. I felt that I should made an exemption to my father’s advice and I should start telling everyone and the amount of money I spent feeding the pig. If he has been badmouthing me after all the kindness I did to him, then he’s a fair game.
Aside from the food, the fatso also borrowed money from me that he never paid back. I just could not understand why he didn’t pay me back. If it happens to me and if I did borrowed money, I can remember it and I make sure that I pay it back. A promise to pay is sacred to the person you owe the money to. You can’t just forget it if it’s convenient to you. He would then pretend as if nothing’s wrong.
