I work in a Japanese restaurant in Manila, Philippines. I’m serving a table of American tourists.

Customer: “I want the California rolls, but without the crab.”

Me: “So, did you want the veggie rolls?”

Customer: “No, I want the California rolls, but without the crab.”

Me: “Ma’am, California rolls without the crab are just our veggie rolls, which are 150 pesos cheaper.”

Customer: “I’m from California, so I want California quality! California rolls, but without the crab. Where I’m from the customer is always right!”

Me: “Certainly, ma’am!”

She paid extra while the chef just laughed and shook his head. We discussed her among ourselves after she left and surmised that she just thought the California rolls came from California.

I’m a Tier One support rep for a major US internet service provider.

Me: “Thank you for calling [ISP], my name is [My Name], how can I assist you today?”

Caller: *Already shouting.* “Of course I get someone in another d*** country. What are you going to do, read a script at me in broken English?”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear you’re upset, sir. I’ll do my best to resolve the issue. What seems to be the problem?”

Caller: “My internet’s down, you clown. But I bet you people don’t even have internet over there!”

Me: “Actually, sir, if we didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to take your call or remotely access your router logs.”

Caller: “Whatever. Just fix it. And try not to screw it up.”

I stay calm, run the diagnostics, and walk him through resetting a misconfigured router he bought from a third party. After just a few minutes, everything is back online.

Caller: “Huh. Well. I guess even you could figure it out eventually.”

Me: “Sir, respectfully, you called because you couldn’t figure it out. Instead, you insulted me, my country, and my job, and I still fixed your problem faster than you could Google it.”

Caller: “You best hope I don’t get one of those after-call surveys, boy!”

Me: “Don’t worry, sir, you’d have never given me a good score anyway. Good day.”

We’re not supposed to end the call, but we can if we deem it necessary. I deemed it necessary.

Related:
A Development For The Lesser Developed

I am driving my car in Manila, the capital of The Philippines. I am approaching a street corner near a busy intersection, and I see a policeman flag me down to pull over. I recognize the location and sigh. This is a common spot for the police to bring up a fake traffic violation, but they can make it “go away” for a fee.

I pull over and immediately start recording the interaction on my phone. The policeman comes over and starts speaking to me in Tagalog.

Policeman: “Put down the phone. Filming is illegal.”

Me: “No, it’s not.”

I respond in English, and I maintain my English throughout my portion of the entire conversation as it can sometimes throw the police off.

Policeman: “Yes, it is prohibited. Put down the phone, or I will confiscate it.”

Me: “There is no prohibition. It’s a constitutionally protected right.”

Policeman: “Put down the phone, or you’ll be at risk of arrest!”

Me: “Article 3, Section 2 of the Bill of Rights: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and for any purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant or warrant of arrest shall issue except upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses he may produce, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”

Policeman: “You think you can just shout some fancy words and—”

Me: “I know my rights, and I know what usually happens with the police at this intersection. A regular traffic stop usually escalates into something else. The unreasonable search of the vehicle can happen, and the planting of evidence is also a likely possibility. So, with this in mind, an ordinary citizen has all the right to protect themself, in accordance with the article from the Bill of Rights that I just quoted.”

Policeman: “Okay, fine. Just pay the fine and you can—”

Me: “Also, a video recording is admissible evidence in a court of law. Therefore, I will be keeping my phone recording while you explain why you’ve pulled me over, confirm your name and rank, and confirm that you’ve reviewed my dashcam footage which can prove or disprove whatever traffic violation you claim I have committed.”

The policeman is suddenly aware that I have a dashcam and looks like he’s a combination of afraid and angry.

Policeman: *Waving me forward* “Move along. Drive more carefully next time.”

I complied. I’d made my point, and I have learned that it’s not healthy to push the police in this country. I’m lucky that I am a law student, but I hope other citizens of my country have a better knowledge of their rights for such future encounters!

In our country, there a lot of people who don’t have bank accounts. Therefore, to get credit on their cell phones they need to buy prepaid cards and ‘load’ the credit on to them. Doing this can be an elaborate procedure, especially on older phones.

A lot of older customers have older phones, usually hand-me-downs from younger relatives who have found ways to upgrade.

I work in a phone kiosk in a mall, selling the prepaid phone cards along with other phone-related merchandise. A really old lady approaches me and starts speaking to me in very slow Tagalog.

Old Lady: “I… can… buy… load… for the phone?” 

Me: “Yes, I can sell that to you.”

This old lady then opens a plastic bag (she doesn’t have a purse) and starts putting out smaller bags, each containing coins. 

Old Lady: “I’ve… been… saving!”

I can tell from her accent that Tagalog is not her normal dialect. She actually sounds like she speaks my home dialect.

Me: “Excuse me, but do you speak Cebuano?”

The old lady’s eyes go wide and she suddenly explodes in a flurry of Cebuano.

Old Lady: “Yes, I do! Oh, The Lord has blessed me with you! I don’t like speaking Tagalog but I moved to the city, and I have to learn and usually my daughter helps me but she works two jobs now and I need to help her by helping myself and the least I can do is figure out my phone and…”

She continues on like this in a long, single, running sentence. Luckily, I have similar fast-speaking matriarchs in my family, so I am used to processing verbal information at this speed. At some point, I do need to steer the conversation back to why she is here, though.

Me: “—so, ma’am. You want to buy load for your phone? How much?”

Old Lady: “I’ve been saving! I think I have 500 pesos. Is that enough to call home?”

This is about $9 USD. It usually isn’t enough to do too much, but I get the feeling I am looking at the amount that this woman has been saving for a long, long time.

Me: “You need to call Cebu?” *Our home island.*

Old Lady: “Yes.”

Me: “I can set you up for a 500 peso deal where you can call Philippine numbers unlimited for a month.”

Old Lady: “A whole month! Bless you! I thought I would be getting maybe a phone call or two? One time I bought a 250-peso card and I only got one phone call.”

I didn’t say it, but sadly whoever this old lady spoke to before must have conned her. As for me, I also am telling a little lie; she would not be able to get a whole month of unlimited calls for 500 pesos. It actually costs double that, but I am not about to leave this poor old lady without a means to call home when she’s alone and scared in the big city.

Me: “I have a special card you can use, ma’am.”

She buys the card and then holds it in her hand, almost protectively. This $9 single piece of card in a plastic wrap is likely the single most expensive purchase she’s made in a while.

Old Lady: *Nervous and slow.* “I… don’t see too well. I can’t see all the numbers.”

Me: “Shall I add the load to your phone?”

Old Lady: *Quick and excited again.* “Yes! Bless you! The Lord sent me to you today!”

I go through the over-complicated process of adding the money on to her phone, and then selecting the package she will need to get unlimited calls.

Me: “You should be able to call home now.”

This old lady then reaches into the same plastic bag and shows me a phone number.

Old Lady: “I can’t see all the numbers. Can you call this number for me?”

My heart breaking, I decide I am going to make sure this old lady never has problems talking to her relatives back home ever again.

I save the number into her very old phone, and then I figure out how to speed dial the number using the minimal amount of button presses. I manage to set it up so that she simply has to press three buttons a second apart to be able to auto-dial the number she gave me.

I explain this process to her:

Old Lady: “Young people! Really you’re so smart! You speak Tagalog, and English! And you know the phones! When I was young we just knew about fetching the water and cooking rice. So smart! Young people are so smart!”

She tries it out, and it works!

For the next hour she sits down next to my kiosk and talks to her sister and tells her about all of her adventures since she moved from her rural province into the big city. She is overjoyed and talking furiously. She keeps coming up to me to ask if she will run out of time soon, and I happily remind her that she can keep talking for thirty more days and she still wouldn’t run out.

After her call she thanks me and eventually leaves, with me smiling from ear to ear.

Since that day she comes back every month, with a bag of coins and asking for me to upload it to her phone. I don’t even count the bag of coins anymore; I know she’s good for it.

It can be scary for an older person from the country to move to the big city. If I could help her maintain a connection back to the home village, then that was what I was going to do. 

I look forward to her visits every month.

This story is part of the Best-Feel-Good-Stories Of-2023 roundup!

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Client: “Can you please add a QR code to my website’s homepage?”

Me: “Absolutely, do you have the QR code already or do you need me to create one?”

Client: “Please create it for me.”

Me: “Sure. What is the link that you want visitors to go to if they scan the QR code?”

Client: “My website’s homepage.”

Me: “…”