A Pasalubong Story

I do not know about other people but we Filipinos are fond of bringing gifts whenever we go to another place. We call it Pasalubong if the bearer personally bought and brought the said gift. We call it Padala if the bearer was just requested to pass a gift bought by someone else. Often such gifts are mainly food items, native delicacies, food that can only be obtained from homes. One can imagine the array of stories a Filipino traveller can come up with because of the pasalubong or padala. This joke or story made the rounds a few years ago. This was about a Filipino who goes by the name of Jose and his encounter with a customs official in a foreign land, and an incident involving a pasalubong. Jose is at an airport in a foreign land. He is lining up at line for customs. Its now his turn. The customs officer seems to feel something is amiss and proceeds to open the luggage of Jose. And there it was the unmistakable odour of dried fish or daing criss-crossing the air. The customs man (a big man even by that country standards) towered over the dimunitive Jose (who was small even for my country standards) and looked glaringly at him. Then pointing his hand at the fish asked Jose, "What’s this?" The apologetic Jose smiled - a smile one does in such situations, a silly smile - looked at the Customs man (who was a giant man and whose deportment slowly seem to take on the nature of magma found in the mouth of Mayon Volcano) and said, "That's Daing". The answer seemed to infuriate the customs man more and he said, "Are you crazy?!" "No, that is Daing,” replied Jose His fingers now holding the dried fish in front the customs man said, "This is DEAD not DYING!" Additional Posts for Today Creature from the Black Lagoon Coral Reefs Tricks of the Trade