Call Center Philippines: Don’t Fear the Tarsier

I can remember this trip I took to Bohol, Philippines a few years ago and how much fun we had with many of my workmates from my job as an inbound call center agent.  I had been working with these people for only a few months but everyone was really nice and we all had a little extra money.  So we decided to make a little group tip to the next island over from Cebu and see the world’s smallest monkey.

I was so interested that I even did a little research which says the Tarsier is actually not a monkey at all.  Well to many Filipinos, they would agree and say that it is actually a monster.  When we got to the area to view the tarsier I met one of those who think that the tarsier is dangerous and it was something to see.  There was this funny incident because a kid was shouting screaming at the top of his lungs and saying “no monster.”  My initial reaction was “what the heck is that kid afraid of”   I mean, its a tarsier, as far as I know they have never killed anyone or eaten any little kids.  But I guess I probably didn’t know any better when I was young either.  And not everyone has the opportunity to look up tarsier on Wikipedia to see what these little guys are all about.

So I can’t blame her.   I guess she was just kid same as me before and she has fear over things that she is not familiar with.  Children see things differently in one child’s eyes the tarsier may be gentle but to that little girl this was the worst monster.  I hope her parents walked her through it and showed her that the tarsier is not to be feared.  But it was going to take a while.  Now that I am back at my BPO office I think about that girl and wish I could send her a nice article about the tarsier.