My wife and I decided to accept an invitation from her sister to visit Manila. We are currently on vacation in Asia and have decided to fly to Manila. My wife is a Filipina and I am an American. We had a nice flight to Manila. The flight attendant greeted us with the formal “Mahubay” (Welcome) and she ushered us to our seats.

My wife’s sister’s husband picked us up at the airport. We were glad to see him and thanked him for taking the trouble to pick us up. He said: “Salamat sa pagpunta”, which translates as “thank you for coming”.

After the trip from the airport we arrived at his house. They have a nice house with a small garden. Their son and daughter live with them. We thanked my wife’s sister for her invitation saying “Salamat sa inyo”, to which she replied: “Walang anuman”, which means: you’re welcome.

Once my wife and her sister got together, they had a lot to say to each other. She amused me as they also spend a lot of time exchanging news over the phone. They prefer not to text or use email.

My wife’s relatives appreciated the gifts we bought for them and my sister-in-law came up to me and shyly thanked me and told me that they were grateful and then told me that “silay ay nagpapasalamat” was the words she used.

The next night, her parents were invited to dinner. Her parents live just a few miles away, and I was surprised at the amount of food on the table. We had a great night with everyone chatting. I speak a little taglish but didn’t have to worry as my niece and nephew were more than willing to translate conversations for me.

My niece told me that her mother and grandparents were very excited that we were coming to visit them and that they hoped that we would have a pleasant stay in Manila. They told us that they were organizing a trip to the beach and had invited more family members to join us there. I asked my niece how to say “I’d like to thank you” so I could tell my sister-in-law how much she appreciated all she was doing for us. My niece said that the translation of saying that is: Gusto kong magpasalamat syo.

We love the hospitality they show us wherever we go. My wife’s family is very courteous, friendly and hospitable. My wife addresses her mother and her father as “nanay” and “tatay”. Nanay is the Tagalog word used to mean mother, while to say “father”, my wife uses the word “tatay”. My wife is a wonderful singer and she kept us entertained with her singing. We are having a great time and before leaving I have memorized the following phrase in Tagalog and I plan to tell everyone: “Maraming salamat po sa lahat” which is “Thank you for everything”.

We are leaving tomorrow and I am truly happy that I made this trip. We haven’t left yet but we already miss our family and friends. We hope to visit the Philippines again in the near future and hopefully next time we will be able to stay longer.