BUMBAY VS. TURKO

I moved to Davao City, Philippines, over a year ago. People generally understand Filipino and English even if the dialect spoken is Bisaya. Communicating is one less of a problem. I, however, encountered some problems because there are terms used here which mean differently in Filipino, my native language.  

The supply of Indian incense which I brought with me from Manila ran out, so I asked friends, neighbors and neighbors' househelp. My question was: "May alam ba kayong tindahan ng Bumbay dito? (Do you know of any Indian store here?) "Bumbay" is a generic term used in Metro Manila and I guess other parts of Luzon to refer to people from India or those who look like Indians.  I got  the quizzical look from most, but one told me she thought she saw one near the St. Paul Church in Matina.

With that as my only and vague clue, I went to Juna Subdivision where the church is located. At the entrance of the subdivision is the tricycle terminal. I asked the drivers on the queue, but again I got that "What are you talking about?" look. Exasperated, but not about to give up, I hired one tricycle to take me to the St. Paul Church.  Luckily, there was a barangay (village) official standing in near the church. I described what an Indian looked like and he pointed to a closed store. According to him, the store had to close down. The tricycle driver listened to my conversation with the barangay official and afterwards told me that there was a store run by a family whose features are like what I described on the other side of the church and in front of the Philippine Women's College. He referred to them as "turko" (Turk). It was my turn to have that look.

It was a variety store. The owner was there and he was indeed a "Bumbay". It dawned on me that "Turko" was the local term for "Bumbay". A long-shot guess is that locals generations or centuries ago had trade with Turks, a topic that I started to research on.