I traveled from Maragusan, Compostela Valley, then I drop by
in San Vicente, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur to visit and have business meeting
with the Cooperative Manager last February 16, 2017.
After my meeting, I took an air condition bus bound for
Butuan City. I saw this tall and
elderly man with no one beside him. He looks like an Indian man. I asked him in visayan language “naa ba kay
tapad sir?” (Is somebody setting beside
you sir?) He just responded with sign language to take a sit and I said, thank
you.
Without a word, the person next to me looks so serious and doesn’t
seem to smile. I am apprehensive to talk
to him from Prosperidad. And finally this man broke his silence and asked
me what place is this? I replied, this
is Bayugan City sir and he got his notebook with a list pointing Bayugan. Then he asked me again, how many hours from here to Butuan City? I told him it’s about an hour. By the way his name is HARVEY.
So I started to ask him where he came from? He
answered, I’m from South Africa. And he traveled from General Santos City,
Davao City and now he is bound to Butuan City, then CDO, Ilo-ilo and Manila. I asked him, what are you doing here,
sir? He said, I’m here for 2 months’ vacation in the
Philippines. I love the Philippines. It is a beautiful place. He is already 63 years old, enjoying his life
after retirement.
He then asked me about my work. I told him, I am working in National Confederation of Cooperative
it is a Federation. We have plenty of
coop members served with our Savings and Credit Information Technology
System. I also told him, I do part time business. I’m an
International Distributor Royale and our company has a branch also in your
place in Nigeria Africa. He replied, oh
that’s great! He added, just be careful there are lots of crook also
in Africa.
We talked about politics and about our new President Rodrigo
Duterte. Based on my observation, he is
a wide reader man. He seems to know a
lot of things. He then further asks me,
what I do aside from my job and part time business? I told him, we help people also to plan for
their future and for their retirement thru Savings and Investments in stock
market. He was fascinated. He asked me a couple of questions, how we do
it? How we manage it? And asked me, if I have my own, I told him
yes. I manage my small portfolio just to know what
is going on the stock market.
As our conversation goes, I assume that this old retired man
sitting next to me is a millionaire guy.
He told me, I do the same stock
market business. I just asked you how it
works in the Philippines. The way he
talks, he still does business now, but enjoying traveling from time to time.
I was glad to met him and shared some ideas. I
learned a lot from him. He gave me lots
of tips in doing business. We parted
ways in Butuan City and I gave him instructions how to take a tricycle to his
hotel.