This unfamiliarity with Filipino culture lead to a lot of misunderstandings for Omar.  Not being able to understand the local language at all made life even more difficult, because since people thought he was a local, they would not speak to him in English.  When he would try to explain that he could not understand, they thought that he was just joking, and some people would get mad at him.  Because of this, Feyma always did a lot to help Omar in these situations.  If Omar was out in public and had a language problem, he would always call Feyma on his cellphone and she would help him through the trouble.

One day, I was planning to take a trip out of town for one night.  I asked Omar if he wanted to come along with me to see some other areas in Mindanao.  He readily took me up on my offer, and was excited to get out of the City and see the countryside a bit.  When we were ready to head out of town, Omar asked me if I would mind stopping at an ATM machine so that he could get some cash for the trip.  Of course, I was happy to make the stop for him.

I stopped at a bank with an ATM machine that would work with his US ATM card.  After a few minutes Omar came back and got in the car.  I could tell that he was troubled by something, or had something on his mind.  He wasn’t very talkative, and seemed to be focused somewhere else.  I just let him have time to work out whatever was bothering him.

When we arrived at our destination for the evening, and we were having dinner, Omar opened up to me.  “I want to talk to you about something.”  I replied “No problem, what’s up?”  “Well,” Omar said, “remember when we stopped at the bank?  I checked my balance on the ATM machine, and it said that I have more than $25,000 in my account!  Now, I was pretty sure that I had only $500 or so.  What do you think I should do?”

Inside, I was kind of chuckling, but I didn’t let on to Omar about that.  I explained to Omar, “you see, the ATM machines here don’t work in US Dollars, they are in Pesos.”  “What do you mean?” Omar asked.  “Well, Omar, when you do a balance inquiry, the amount is automatically converted from US Dollars, which you have in your account back home, into Philippine Pesos.”  “So,” I continued, “If you have $500 in your bank account, and the exchange rate is P50 for every dollar, the balance shown will be P25,000.”

“Oh,” Omar said, “I thought that the bank made a mistake, or maybe my Dad put in money for my schooling or living expenses!”  We had a mutual laugh, and enjoyed our dinner.

So, keep in mind, if you use ATM machines here in the Philippines, no matter where your bank account is, or what currency the account supports, the amounts shown by the ATM machine are in Philippine Pesos!

The dinner was a small, rather intimate affair, attended by Feyma and I, Matt, Blogie, Ted Padova, Rodney and Chattee.  Blogie is a well known blogger in Davao, Ted is one of the world’s leading authors on Adobe PDF and other Adobe Creative Suite Products, Rodney owns a local software outsourcing company, and Chattee is also a local blogger, and a photographer too.  So, it was a small number of people, and it gave me an opportunity to talk with Matt about various WordPress issues, software problems, and just generally learn more about blogging, and share my experiences too.

With Matt being such a well known person on the Internet, I was not quite sure what to expect.  Maybe he would be a little big-headed, having captured such a huge following at the young age of 24.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I met Matt.  He is very down to earth, just a “regular guy” if you know what I mean.

Of course, having Ted Padova at the dinner was nice also.  Ted has written dozens of books about Adobe software, and is quite well known in his circle.  If you search for him on Amazon you will find that they are carrying dozens of Ted’s books.  Ted has been a good friend for more than a year now, and I always enjoy spending time with him.

I was talking with Feyma tonight, and we were kind of joking, but almost amazed at how many well known people we have met since living in the Philippines.  What is the chance of meeting somebody like Matt and having dinner with him if I were living in the States?  It would be very remote, yet living here we have met many people like Matt.  I guess it is one of the benefits of living as a “big fish in a small pond.”

Great to meet you, Matt, if you happen to read this.  I enjoyed our time together.

It is virtually certain that the plane crashed into the Gulf of Davao, most likely near to Samal Island, but nothing can be certain yet.  They feel that they have narrowed down the crash area because of the places where debris from the plane (including body parts of the people who were aboard the plane) have been found.  However, there is no concrete evidence of where the plane is yet.  A few fishermen claim to have seen the plane hit the water, some of them say that the plane was struck by lightning before crashing, but that is not confirmed.  Nine Philippine Military people were aboard the doomed plane, all of which are presumed dead.

Yesterday, a US Navy Ship arrived in the Davao Gulf, the USNS John McDonnell.  The ship is here to assist the Philippine government in finding the crashed plane.  The US ship is equipped with more modern sonar capability than is available here in the Philippines.

Another problem that is hindering the effort to find the crash is that the Davao International Airport has no radar.  Because of this, they had no fix on where the plane was when it disappeared.

I don’t think that the Philippine Government is claiming this officially, but I heard one military person on the TV News saying that the United States has some blame in this accident, because they gave the C130 to the Philippine military, and the plane must have had some defect to cause the crash.  The problem with that, though, is that the US gave the plane to the Philippine government in the 1980’s!  Now, I think it would be more likely that the US had no blame in this incident, rather maybe a maintenance problem, pilot error, or most likely weather.  I found it frankly insulting to have somebody blame the US for having given the plane.

I certainly hope that the crash is found, and that the bodies of those who were killed can be recovered.

So, what is LiP all about? Well, it is about Living in the Philippines!  It is about what it is like for a foreigner to live here permanently.  Living here is not the same, or even close to the same, as coming here for a vacation.  It takes some serious adjustments in your personality, your outlook on life and generally the person that you are if you want to succeed at living here.  Most people who move here “permanently” end up leaving in a year or two.  They can’t handle life here, because it is nothing like what they expected.  That’s what this site is all about, and that is why I am here.  I want to make it easier for you to make the adjustment to living here, by reading about what I went through in moving here.  I want to blaze the trail for you, so that you can maneuver a little easier.

When I moved to the Philippines, on May 2, 2000, there really wasn’t any information on the Internet that I am aware of about this topic.  I came here “in the blind,” so to speak.  There have been a lot of days when I said to myself - “I don’t understand this place at all, what in the world am I doing here?”  However, even when I’ve had those thoughts, I never really regretted making the move.  I try to look at it as having earned a little more education than most people, or a type of education that most people don’t necessarily recieve.  It’s an education that has not always been easy, but it has been valuable.  Talk about the old “School of Hard Knocks”!

Sometimes, when I look at some of the articles I have written, I wonder to myself - “what does this have to do with living in the Philippines?”  Well, when I think that question over in my mind, I usually come to the conclusion that almost anything I write about my day to day experiences is indeed about living in the Philippines, because these are experiences that I would not have had if not for the fact that I live here.  For example, last week, I wrote about “washed up” performers doing concert tours in the Philippines.  On first thought it doesn’t seem that has much to do with actually living in the Philippines.  However, it points to something that you should expect to see if you live here.  That’s how I look at it, anyway.  I mean, there are only so many articles that you can write about the procedure of moving here, or the adjustment that you have to make to live here successfully.  But, I feel that any peek into my life here is just one more thing that readers can look at and get a picture of what kind of lifestyle they can expect here.

I hope that all of you have enjoyed the majority of my 500 articles on this site!  None of us can agree with every single thing that a person has to say, and I don’t expect that.  What I can say, though, is that everything I have written on this site is honest, and an accurate description of my life in the Philippines.  Sometimes, I play devil’s advocate on the site, which generates some fireworks on the site, but that’s all part of life, and keeps us thinking.  But, I’ve never been dishonest in any of my writings on the site, of that I can assure you.

Well, let’s all raise our glasses and toast the first 500 articles that I’ve written here.  I hope, and expect that it’s just a small installment in what we’ll see on this site in the longrun.

The first Labor Day in the Philippines was celebrated on May 1, around 100 years ago.  I have found sources that say that the first Philippine Labor Day was on May 1, 1903, and I have also found sources saying that the first Philippine Labor Day was on May 1, 1913.  I can’t really say which is correct, but I tend to lean toward 1903 being the correct one.

Labor Day in the Philippines is called “Araw ng Manggagawa” - Manggagawa being the Tagalog word meing “Worker” - so literally it is translated “Day of the Worker.”

Of course, Labor Day is a legal holiday, and Filipinos do not have to work on that day.  Traditionally, during that time the President tends to review the minimum wages and determines if a raise in the Minimum Wage of the country is in order.  Most jobs in the Philippines pay the minimum wage, and thus, most worker’s wages are set by the government, since they set the minimum wage.  Sometimes, I wonder if people here realize that in the USA, and most first world countries, only a very small minority of jobs pay minimum wage, most jobs pay well above the minimum wage.

In my research about Labor Day in the Philippines, I read that the original workers who protested for better working conditions, which started Labor Day in the Philippines, were asking for these items:

• Eight Hour Work Day
• Abolition of Child Labor
• Just Labor Standards for Women
• Liability for Capatilists

To be honest, I don’t really understand what is meant by “Liability for Capatilists.”  Perhaps they mean that if a businessman does something that injures or damages the workers in some way, he will be held legally liable.  Other than that, I can’t figure out what it may mean.

Funny thing is that here we are, around 100 years after the first Philippine Labor Day, and most of those original goals are, in my opinion, still not realized by Philippine Workers:

Eight hour work day: Today, I think that most Filipinos work more than 8 hours in a single workday.  I think that 10 or 12 hours is more common.

Abolition of Child Labor: Especially in the “underground economy” of the Philippines, many children work, it is not uncommon at all.

Just Labor Standards for Women: In this area, I believe that the goal has been accomplished.  It seems to me that women are treated fairly in the workplace here (in comparison to their male counterparts).  I mean, after all, unlike most countries (especially the USA), the Philippines has had two Female Presidents now.

What do you think, is the workforce in the Philippines treated fairly?

Of course, most of these people play in Manila, but more and more they are venturing south.  With the latest troubles in Mindanao, I can’t be certain that they will continue this trend, but in the past couple of years this has been the case.

One thing that I have a hard time understanding is how people can afford tickets for these events.  Tickets for such events here in Davao often go for as much as P3,000 (about $70 or so), and this is at fairly large venues that can hold thousands of people!  Often, even the lowest priced tickets are a minimum of P500 or so, which would seem to be totally out of reach of even middle class families here.  I mean, P500 is about $12 or so, and the average salary here is only around P4,000 to P6,000 per month.  That is as much as 1/8 of a month’s salary!  Wow!

What do you think?  Does it surprise you that these seemingly washed up performers can still rake in a few bucks here in the Philippines?

photo credit: artolog

The man that I am speaking of is a great man indeed.  His name is Datu Toto Paglas.  Toto was a Muslim man who hailed from Maguindanao Province, here on the island of Mindanao.  In terms of his family, and his people, Toto was literally royalty.  He was born of a father who was the head of one powerful Muslim family and a mother who was from a second powerful family in Muslim Mindanao.  He was the product of the two most powerful families in Muslim Mindanao, yet these two families were mortal enemies, until Toto came along.  It was through Toto that the Paglas clan and the Pendatun clan came together.

It all happened in the late 1950’s when the senior Datu Paglas (Toto’s father) met a young lady and fell in love.  Unfortunately, this love was taboo, because she was the daughter of the family’s mortal enemy, the Pendatun clan.  Although their love was forbidden by the elders in each of their families, they wed secretely and had a child.  When this child came, the families decided to put their differences aside and join forces.  With this joining of forces, Datu Toto Paglas, a mere child, became royalty - having come from the two most powerful Muslim families in Mindanao at that time, and finally having joined together.

Over the years, Toto’s story took many turns, and in the long run, he put his immense power to good use.  He brought peace to his village, which is aptly named after his father and him as well, Datu Paglas Town, Maguindanao.  I visited Datu Paglas myself last year, I wanted to witness the place that boasts of such a powerful story of peace.  In the 1990’s when Toto was the mayor of Datu Paglas, he started a banana plantation and put people to work - Christians and Muslims.  This banana plantation, and Toto’s many other accomplishments and projects brought work for poor people in Maguindanao, and it brought peace to an area that had previously been at war.  There was a day when you could be shot for any reason in Datu Paglas, even for no reason at all.  Those days are gone, though, thanks to Toto and his vision of peace.  You can read the full story about Toto’s childhood and adult accomplishments on my Mindanao Blog, if you like.

Toto died on August 8, 2008, and his death shocked me.  I didn’t even know he was sick.  He died at Davao Doctor’s Hospital.  He died of meningitis, and complications of Diabetes.  Toto knew that I wanted to meet him, and I was told that he also wanted to meet me and was aware of the things that I have done to promote Mindanao over the Internet.  I really wish that I would have had the opportunity to meet this great man.  In addition to his work bringing peace to Mindanao, Toto was also a member of the Eisenhauer Foundation, working on bringing peace to every part of the world.

I wish we could have met, Toto!

I know one expat who is a single man, and he tells me often that this is a real problem for him.  As a matter of fact, this person has resorted to actually checking the ID of any potential dating partner to verify the age before he actually dates the person!  He does this because he is afraid of actually dating somebody and then later finding out that the person is much younger than he though.  That could turn into a good way to get into some serious trouble, and I don’t blame this fellow for his caution.

Personally, because I am married, I don’t have this same problem, but still, I often have trouble telling ages of people here.  Part of it is because people here are generally smaller than people in the USA where I come from.  So, when you see somebody who is very small, you cannot automatically assume that the person is a child.

Often times, I will meet a Filipino that is young looking, and in the back of my mind I will be trying to judge what their age is.  In my mind, the person looks like they are only 14 to 16 years old, yet in reality I will often find out that they are much older, sometimes as much as 23 to 25 years old!  That is nearly 10 years difference from what I thought they were!  Because of this, you have to be careful saying things that may give away the age that you are estimating they are, otherwise you might say something embarrassing.

Another thing that I find is that sometimes you will meet somebody who is much older than they appear!  This generally happens if the person is quite poor and has lead a tough life.  If the person is 25 to 30 years old, they often may look 40, even older!  I remember one time when I had an employee that I thought was around 50 years old, and it turned out that she ws 28!  Now, that is a major difference.

Now, there is also a flip-side to this.  I often find that many Filipinos are unable to judge the age of foreigners!  I am 46 years old, but people often mis-judge my age.  Almost anytime that I meet new people, they will ask how old I am.  My response is always the same - “How old do you think I am?”  The answer is generally 25 to 28 years old!  Now, I just cannot see how somebody would possibly think that I am 25.  Maybe they are just being kind by saying that, but honestly, I have heard it so many times, I can’t imagine that so many people would give the same answer, and I can only figure that they have as much trouble judging ages as I do with them!

Have you noticed the same that I have?

How about the girl in the photo, can you tell how old she is?

When I watched the show last week, the subject that was being discussed was whether foreign doctors should be allowed to practice medicine in the Philippines.  I was under the impression that foreign doctors could practice medicine here, as you often see foreign medical groups coming to the Philippines to give charity medical assistance here.  Apparently, though, according to this show, this is not the norm.  Such charitable events are only allowed from time to time with special permission.  An individual doctor from abroad cannot legally practice medicine here.

I must say that this has suprised me, because we are constantly hearing about the shortage of medical experts here in the Philippines.  Not enough Nurses, because they are all going overseas to make bigger money.  Doctors are downgrading their degrees to become nurses so that they can also go abroad.  Perhaps after being a nurse they will be able to become a doctor overseas, but even if they can only remain as nurses, that is a better life for them than being a doctor in the Philippines, or so they say.  So, if the country is having a shortage of doctors, why can’t foreigners practice medicine here if they are so qualified?

As I saw this, I got thinking about the medical situation in the Philippines.  In major cities like Davao, Manila or Cebu, there does not seem to be any shortage of medical professionals.  No matter what the specialty, it seems easy to find a good doctor here.  But, what I hear a lot is that if you go out into more rural areas, doctors have become few and far between.  If this is the case, and there are foreign doctors who want to fill the gap, why not?

Here is another thing that came to mind.  Think about it… who makes the laws in the Philippines?  Of course, the laws are made by the elected representatives in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and they are implemented by the President.  Now, I think we can all agree that these people are generally wealthy.  You don’t get elected to those positions if you have no money.  When wealthy people in the Philippines get sick, in most cases, they go abroad for treatment.  They go to the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore or other places.  Some go to London.  Others go to Germany or somewhere else.  So, in other words, these wealthy people want treatment from foreign doctors, yet these are the same people who say that the poor people who cannot afford to travel should not be allowed access to foreign doctors.  Does that sound fair?

Personally, I believe that excellent medical care is available here in the Philippines.  I have had need for medical services in the time that I’ve lived here, and I’ve never had a complaint about the care I have received, nor the level of expertise of the doctors here.  I just feel that if there is a shortage of doctors, and a deeper shortage is predicted in years to come, why not take advantage of any foreign doctors who care to practice here.

In all honesty, I doubt that the number of foreign doctors who would choose to practice here in the event that they could legally do so would be very high anyway.

photo credit: blueseal

It all started last weekend.  I went up into the mountains overlooking Davao City with John Grant.  John and I have been working on videotaping some “on location” seminar videos, which I will be offering for sale shortly.  We have been trying to shoot the video in outdoor locations around Davao, which sort of “show off” the beauty of the City.  I had visited an area in Langub, Davao City in the past, and always found it beautiful.  It is up in the mountains, and even though it is within the City, it is very rural, it seems like you are a million miles away from the City.

Have a look at the video of our visit to Langub!  Beautiful!
(please give the video time to load)

While scouting for a good place to shoot video for the seminar, we came up on an area that was just in the midst of being developed.  There were some small native cotages that had been built right on the edge of a cliff.  Looking out behond the cliff you could see hundreds of coconut trees, mango trees, and just gorgeous valley scenes, basically ranging from Mt. Apo to Buda, on the border of Davao and Bukidnon.  It was one of the most beautifullly scenic areas that I had seen in a long time.

Today, I felt like doing something with the kids, so I told Feyma that we should pack up the kids, some food for a picnic, and head up to Langub for a get away.  Last week, when I went there with John Grant - although it was obvious that the place was owned by, and under development by somebody, there was not a soul in site.  We enjoyed the place to ourselves, and figured that whoever owned it would not mind, especially since it was not fenced in or anything, and we really weren’t bothering anybody.  If somebody showed up, we would just be friendly, and leave if they asked us to do so.  Today, as we approached the area, we could see that there were people there.  I told Feyma that we would just find another spot in the area where we could enjoy our lunch.

We drove slowly past the area, admiring the view and the scenery.  As we passed by slowly, a man started running toward the road, and waving to us.  We stopped, waved back and greeted the man.  He told us that he and his family owned the area, and made small talk with us for a few minutes.  At this point, he asked us if we would like to join him and his family for a while.  Now, when was the last time you experienced something like this in the West?  I mean, somebody that you don’t know chases you down and invites you to join him and his family?  That just doesn’t happen in the West, at least in the USA.

We gladly accepted his invitation, drove into the area and parked our car.  We went and sat in one of the native cottages with the man, Bobby and his wife, Mary.  We talked about all kinds of subjects - everything from their kids to our kids, from building houses to the beautiful land that they had there in Langub.  We really had a nice conversation with these people.  We met two of their kids too, and they were so friendly and respectful too.  When we decided that it was time to go, our new friends invited us to just let them know anytime that we wanted to use their property!   We told them that we would like to get together for lunch sometime soon, maybe a trip to Samal, and they were very thankful for the offer.

It’s nice to have encounters like this.  It makes you feel “part of the place” not just another guy on the street.  I enjoy living in a society where we can take the time to know others, learn about them, and gain new friendships.  That is something that is not common where I come from anymore, although I think it was many years ago.

Nice to meet you, Bobby & Mary.  I hope to see you again soon!