Cacao and Guns

Did you know that you're not supposed to bring guns into buildings? Evidently there are a lot of people in the Philippines that don't know that.

We had lunch today at an authentic Filipino place. It was upstairs in the building across the street from the People Support call center. I was told that this whole area is full of 24 hour call centers so there are a lot of places open all night.

As you walk into the building, there is a large white sign which at first glance looks like a "no smoking" sign. Upon closer inspection, it's actually a picture of a gun that has a red circle and line through it, not a cigarette. It's okay to smoke, just not to shoot anyone. Sounds reasonable. Actually, I'm pretty sure that smoking is banned in the building as well.

So I had a chicken roll, which was a delicous breaded and deep fried stuffed chicken something with cheese and some other kind of meat in the middle. I think it was ham. It was some kind of smoked, salty cured meat. Yum.  I also had some authentic homemade Filipino hot chocolate from roasted and ground cacao beans.

They are serious about security over here. On every street corner is some kind of cop or security guard with a gun. Some of them toting shotguns. Pretty intimidating. They also have a security guard with a drug-smelling dog at the driveway of the hotel. Every car has to stop and be sniffed for drugs. At the door to every building is another security guard that checks your bag for weapons. It's kind of like going to a ball game everywhere you go. I've never had my bag checked so many times in my life.

The other interesting thing is that these security guards, while intimidating, are super friendly and will open the door for you. I wonder if they smile and chat with the drug dealers too, before they blow their faces off.