Interview with Nympha

Nympha is one of the tour leaders of Smokey Tours. She is 45 years old and was born in Palawan. Her family still lives there, except for her mother and father; her mother past away in 2009 and her father in 2005. She grew up on a farm with rice fields because her father was a farmer. When she was young she also helped on the farm. It was hard work but she liked it because she was helping her father.

She now lives in Tondo in Metro Manila, where she lives with her 3 kids and husband. The kids are all going to school, 1 is going to st. Martin and 2 of them are going to university. She moved to Metro Manila to go to college and become a teacher.

At the moment she isn’t a teacher anymore because the job was too stressful for her. Besides of being a tour leader she does have another job: selling stuff on the street (like balot and biscuits), for more income to provide her children the financial support they need. Most of time she does this 3 times a week but this depends of the amount of tours she has to give per week.

Being a tour leader

She told me she was the first tour leader of Smokey Tours and is now a tour leader for 5 years already. Then I asked her what the reason was for her to become a tour leader and how she got this opportunity. Her answer: “I’ve become a tour leader for smokey tours because of my husband. When Juliette had the idea of giving tours through the slums and on the smokey mountain, she first approached my husband who is a Boracay police officer who can speak English. She asked my husband if it was possible to give tours in the slums because of the safety. It was possible and then my husband asked her if she already had tour leaders and when she said no, my husband immediately thought of me and after an jobinterview I was hired for the job. When I was hired I also recommended a lot of people to Juliette, just like Jessie who is a tour leader nowadays for Smokey Tours”. Nympha likes being a tour leader because she meets people from other countries, can show them around in her country and teach them something about it.

The tours she is given at the moment are: the Market Tour, the Slum Tour and the Cockfighting Tour. She likes giving the Cockfighting Tour the most because she grew up with cockfights in her hometown. The slum tour is also a tour she likes very much because she thinks this is the most interesting tour and by giving the tour she helps the kids who are going to st. Martin in an indirect way. The reason for this is that all of the proceeds of the slum tour are going to st. Martin. Then I wanted to know if she ever disliked to give a tour, she told me that she only dislikes giving a tour when the guests who joined the tour are not listening or embarrass her by for example taking pictures in the slums what’s prohibited and won’t stop. I was also wondering what relatives and friends think of Nympha being a tour leader. She told me people really admire her that she’s a tour leader and that she is even known by a lot of people in the slums because she gives tours there.

Nympha wants to be a tour leader because she likes it very much. When she finished working and is going to retire she wants to go back to the place she was born; Palawan. It’s more beautiful there and her family lives there!

Other facts:

·         She was a teacher at st. Martin

·         Is going to work in the gallery where WAP is located

·         She only sells stuff in the evening between 6-10 pm because then she is selling more