Living in The Philippines

August 14, 2014 by feyma

The new update on my old post here!

A little over 2 years ago I posted a story (The unexpected company) of these 2 young girls named Arnie & Irish who were at our gate asking for our recyclable plastic bottles. My kids not only gave them the plastic bottles, they also fed those kids. We even brought those kids to the dentist. So lucky that we have a very generous dentist named Dr. Lourdes.

Anyway, a month or two ago my kids and my niece told me that the mom of Arnie & Irish had another baby. I just said “really”? To be honest what can I say. Arnie the oldest girl was kind of embarrassed seeing my kids and that they had another baby. But Irish was the talker and blabbed about they had a brand new baby. When my kids asked them where’s their mom? Irish said that their mom was working again to be a laundry lady not long after giving birth. She has to help the husband make some money. The husband’s job, he gathers plastic bottles and cardboard boxes for recycle and sells them.

Arnie & Irish

A week or so ago. I was outside with my kids. We were cleaning our front yard cutting the grass in front. The oldest brother of Arnie came to us. He knows that we don’t know him. He really introduced himself that he was the older brother of Arnie & Irish. He told us that he is getting the fish in the canal in our area. So we asked him are you guys eating those fish? He said “NO”, he is selling those to like owners of a coi pond.

Really seeing him really makes us miss those 2 girls. Arnie really is embarrassed to swing by at our house now after their father got mad at their mom. He was so jealous that his wife comes home just a little after dark to finish up her laundry job here at the house. He was accusing his wife of having somebody. It was getting ridiculous that I told the mom of those kids to tell the husband that “She will not be working here if he had job to support them”. Honestly I don’t even need her here at the house. I already had a laundry lady, but I just want to give her a job instead of handing her the money.

I don’t think the oldest kid is in school now. They used to be in school before. But I think their kids now had to help their parents make money and take care of the younger siblings. Some people here let their kids even the 9 year old kid take care of the younger siblings at that age. The parents sometimes will ask the neighbor to keep an eye on their kids while they go to work. Lucky for our laundry lady, she had her parents and siblings near her house that her mom takes care of her kids while she’s working for us or her other jobs.

I’m still hoping for the best for Arnie & Irish family. Hopefully at the end they will just move to the province since the mom’s family had a small farm land there anyway. I think the wife wants to move but the husband likes to live in the city. In my opinion it will be good for them to be there and they will grow their own food. Crossing my finger.

August 7, 2014 by feyma

A personal note!

I’m writing and sharing about our personal life story of Bob and myself. It’s almost time for our 24th year wedding anniversary. I was just pondering what to write this week, and it hits me while getting something in Bob’s wallet. He wants me to check on something for him and I had to get his id (driver’s license). Something fell out of his wallet, it was behind his driver’s license. When I picked it up, I remembered that Bob had his reminder of our first meeting.

“It’s his boarding pass from his flight from Manila to Cebu” to meet me for the first time.

Bob’s Boarding Pass from Manila to Cebu – July 26, 1990

Wow, as I was staring at the boarding pass, its just so worn out. It showed the time that it stayed in Bob’s wallet. It was there for 24 years already. No matter how many times Bob changed wallets over the course of our marriage that boarding pass remained in his wallet. Looking at it as if it’s just nothing but for Bob it’s really important to him. For me; It really showed how he loved and valued me. For the kids; They think it’s a sweet gesture of their dad to their mom. It will be in that wallet forever, I’m pretty sure of that.

I gave Bob a Tagalog-English dictionary upon meeting him for the first time. I was thinking at that time that he should learn the Tagalog instead of Bisaya since Tagalog is taught in school and spoken in the main island. He still has that dictionary and he lets the kids use it for school. They had to promise that they will take care of it. Really, Bob rarely opened that dictionary since my parents never spoken to him in Tagalog. At that time it’s hard to find a Bisaya- English dictionary or Bisaya-Tagalog-English dictionary unlike now that they’re all over bookstore and the internet. So thankful now that he did learn our local dialect. So proud of him for that.

I was graduating in college when I met him. Bob gave me a Sony Walkman when we first met. One of our regular phone conversation I was talking to him about my project with my classmates, it’s sound systems with bunch of LED’s and with walkman. It was really hectic schedule for me being graduating and with my on job training and the touring of the radio stations. My teachers were just happy that I made it through being the only girl in class out of 200 students.

I took 2 weeks off from school when Bob came. I talked to all my teachers that I would be in GenSan for the entire time. I took exams later when I get back from Gensan. My classmates didn’t know that I am marrying Bob. They just thought I went home to be with my parents. But my teachers they knew though. Luckily they didn’t make a big fuss about it. LOL.

To you my Wonderful Husband : Honey, Wow 24th year of marriage. I’m so grateful for your love for me and our kids. So happy for the time we’ve shared. Thank you too for being so kind to my parents before they passed, you really showed you loved them. Thank you for the wonderful years. We’ve been through a lot but we managed to be strong and talked it through. I love you so much. I thank God for you!!!

July 31, 2014 by feyma

Traffic in Davao City!

Lately it’s so traffic here in Davao City. If you go to the downtown area coming from Matina it will take a while to get there especially if you’re going through the Bankerohan area. Right now the city has been working on the Bankerohan bridge for over a month now. I’ve heard it will go on for a long time. Geez, going through in that area in the morning and in the afternoon (rush hour times) it’s definitely not a fun drive, an excruciating headache I know that for sure.

A few weeks ago me and my niece went through there at Bankerohan on our way to downtown. Usually we go through the other side, at the SM Ecoland at Quimpo Boulevard area. Problem is we had to swing by at some other place in Bankerohan. So we decided that we will just ride the jeepney to Bankerohan, it’s not that far from NCCC Mall anyway. So off we went. My goodness we’re not yet halfway to Banke just around the UM Matina college we noticed that the jeepneys barely moved. I think we were stuck in the traffic for over 30 minutes not even moving. I told my niece it might be better for us to just walk than just sitting in the jeepney. So off we went and started walking. Other passengers on the other jeepneys started walking too. So many people walking and its kind of fun watching other people walking and talking to us. It really reminds me of my time living in Manila in the late 80′s. Traffic there was horrible its bumper to bumper. But, I got used to it later.

Bankerohan Bridge Repair

Like 30-45 minutes later we head back towards NCCC again. My niece she did remember the plate number and the driver of our jeepney. He was still there in the traffic. No more passengers on his jeepney though, they already went walking crossing the bridge. Lot’s of those drivers they were complaining that they earned less money now. It’s hard hearing from them that they’re having a hard time. People tend to walk now instead of riding. It used to be people rides jeepney even if its just a short distance away. Now with the traffic, much better to walk than ride.

Bankerohan is already bad enough for the traffic jam, sometimes at the other side at Quimpo its bad traffic too. One time they were also working on the bridge there. Plus if there’s something going on that Agro grounds near the bridge the traffic is also unbelievable. The only way to go to the town without traffic jam would be at the Maa road to San Rafael out in Marfori. Or From Maa to Diversion road, lots of exit there to go to town.

Just a month ago it was on the news here that Davao might have a light rail transportation soon. Hopefully it will go through. Only thing it means more traffic that the Davaoeno will endure. It’s going to be longer time than what we are going through right now. Really I am feeling sorry for the students and the people that work. Luckily our house is not far from our kids school. Our niece who goes to college and had to go through the bridge, she goes to school a little early now. Sometimes she had to walk across the bridge.

Thank goodness we have 2 malls and S & R near our house. So that I don’t have to go to the other side of town constantly. Well, to you guys just have patience right now. I know it’s not easy but nothing we can do about it.

Cheers!

July 24, 2014 by feyma

Who to ask when moving here?

When moving here try to ask people that know a lot about the PI. I’ve been hearing lots of foreigners asking Filipinos abroad of what would they think of the Philippines now? To think a lot of those Pinoys that live abroad never been back here for ages. Then of course their opinions of the Philippines would be the time when they left.

Just like when I was there that’s over 20 years ago. Many Pinays that I knew there had different opinions of the Philippines. Some that wanted to retire here had the positive attitudes. Others really hated even visiting here. Some even made bad comments even though they’ve never been back since going there. It used to irritate me when they made not so true comments about Mindanao. And the one that’s bad mouthing she’s never been to Mindanao in the first place. To be honest the people that bad mouthing about the Philippines are really the Filipinos. Even the Filipino people that live here, they still talk against the other place other than the place they’re residing. As if it’s the competition of every place.

At Starbucks with Michael and Malcolm

Like me I’m originally from Sarangani Province. To be honest I love my place, only thing it’s not really the place for our family right now. Maybe later in time. When we first arrived here, we settled in GenSan. We liked it there. During the time we just arrived here too many bombings happening in GenSan. Really it didn’t last long for that, now the place is booming. I highly recommend for expat to stay there too. So many malls were built there for the past 5 years. The place really improved a lot.

To be honest I highly recommend living here in Mindanao. There’s just certain area here that I will not recommend. I’m pretty sure you can find that immediately on the internet where that place be. Bob went to those areas a while back. I will not recommend for any of you to go there if you don’t know anybody there or you had no good connections there (I mean people from higher places). It just happens that Bob was invited by somepeople there and was accompanied by a friend that had good connections. I’m pretty sure same thing if any of you will visit to any place here in the Philippines that you’re not familiar with. You will ask person that you know about the place.

If you had the desire to move here for good or part time try to ask the people (either Filipinos that used to lived a long time abroad and retires here and even an expats that lives here already for awhile). Also try to research the place that you want to retire here. With the power of the internet you can now find anything. If people tries to say negative things about the place try to ask around. Lots of write ups now regarding living here.

Today Bob and I met a couple (Malcolm & Jenny) that we’ve known on the internet for a long time. Jen is from Davao and Malcolm is from the UK. They’re really very nice people. They knew Bob through our website. They’re one of the couples that will constantly communicate with Bob. They also love Mindanao.

I hope that sometimes the not so nice opinions of my fellow kababayan will not deter you from retiring to any place here in the Philippines. I’m not saying it’s perfect here, it’s so far from it. Just as I always said here Please carry with you LOTS of “patience” everyday.

“The challenges ” its adds to more fun in living here in the Philippines!!!

July 17, 2014 by feyma

Hair coloring for pups, is it happening here?

Just a month or two ago I was telling you guys about our dog Fluffy that we put to sleep. So then Bob and I had promised the kids that we will be getting a new pup for them after our other dog Chi Chi gets used to being without Fluffy around. So a few weeks after Fluffy was gone I was looking on the internet for a puppy that’s for sale in Davao City area. Really I found a few that caught our attention. So I began texting one of the owners that we like the puppy that she had advertise. We already agreed on the puppy we want and the price and set the place and the time to met the next day. Reason I brought Jean because she’s the one that really is into dogs.

We agreed to met somewhere and we went there 15 minutes ahead of the time schedule. We waited for the owner for over an hour though. With some excuse of course. I was proud of myself because I was being patient. :-). Finally the lady showed up. Geez, it was really a disappointment. She brought a puppy that’s not what she advertise on the net and it looks sickly. It really made me mad because I could see Jean’s disappointment. But still I held off from saying something, but oh boy inside of me was boiling already. I told the lady politely that I am not buying the puppy that she’s showing us because that’s not the one she’s advertising and it’s not even the breed that we want and what she said on line. I told her to take care of the puppy that she’s showing us and good luck to her business.

Our new puppy, Pepper, is getting friendly with our older puppy, Che Che

Our new puppy, Pepper, is getting friendly with our older puppy, Chi Chi

Jean is looking happy!

After seeing Jean’s sad face, I had to do something. My niece Glenda reminded me of the place that that sells puppies.. So we went there right away, the place is just near JS Gaisano (Gaisano South now). We already bought a puppy there before and we were happy with the pup that we got there. So we searched for a bit in the area when we got there. Luckily we found one vendor who had 3 puppies (2 light brown- one of the brown pup was a bulldog, and one black) in the cage. I could see Jean’s eyes were sparkling. LOL. She was playing with the pups. I could tell she wanted them all. Ha ha ha. Well, we settled for the black pup. He looks appealing because his hair so shiny and so dark black on top.

As soon as we got home he looks kinda sickly. As usual if we got some pets here in the house we bring them to the vet right away. Since the puppy looks a little sick and had runny nose. My niece and Aaron brought him to the vet that afternoon. He has a little bit of fever. Maybe because it was too hot when we took him home. We felt sorry for him. So the doctor gave him some meds and vitamins. The vet also gave him medicine for de-worming. Doc said to not bathe him for a few days. Take note I said his hair color was black.

So far, Pepper is a good dog!

The next day we noticed that his color was changing a little, brown color was showing a bit on top. When Bob picked him up, he immediately said “I had a feeling those people colored the hair of this puppy”. I told him no way they’ll do that. That’s insane, it might make the animal feeling sick. Hmm to think our puppy was sick. Day after day his color really kept changing, showing more brown and a little bit of white on his legs. Really me and the kids were convinced by Bob now that those vendors really colored the hair of the puppy. I know it’s weird to think but how could the hair change in span of just a few days? Well we are not animal expert here we are just animal lovers.

So if you ever buy any pets here ask the vendors if the color of the pets is natural. We had so many pets before but first time for us that the hair changes.

The name of our pup is Pepper. Getting so spoiled. He’s friends with all of our cats and Chi Chi now. LOL