Just a couple of days ago, I installed this change in the way the comments work here on the LiP blog. The comments are not threaded, so that you can respond directly to another person's comment. It makes the discussion more "immediate" in that your reply to a certain comment can appear directly below the comment that you are replying to, instead of way down at the bottom of the comment list. This has taken on a life of it's own, though! Let's face it, this blog gets a LOT of comments! I really like that a lot, because it gives a sense of community here, we are like our own little (or big) family in the way we relate to each other. It kind … [Read more...]
How about a free trip to the Philippines?
August 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Did you know that it's possible that every time you travel to the Philippines it can effectively be free? That's right, your hotel, your airfare, meals and everything could effectively be for free! How? Let me tell you. Of course, you will have to pay for all of the items listed above, but there is also a way that you can save enough money to offset the costs of coming here, and make your trip virtually free. I'll base this post on the experiences of my friend, Leon, who is from Australia. Leon recently visited Davao and in the process he saved more than $25,000 and had a great time in the process! I have known Leon since the early … [Read more...]
Living in the Philippines – A Tale of two cultures – Support networks
August 27, 2007 By 41 Comments
A discussion about the pros and cons of having the extended family I am very interested in the above subject, I want to know how other foreigners have adjusted to being around lots and lots of people in one place, and I am not talking about SM or Robinsons, its not quite as simple as that, before I write about my current post, I would like to say that I will be writing about my observations, I shall make no comment of what I like or dislike, but to merely tell you how I see things and the cultural differences between my life in my home country and that in the Philippines, Bob has alluded to this subject many times. My object here is to gain … [Read more...]
Don’t burn your bridges
August 26, 2007 By Leave a Comment
It's an old saying... Don't burn your bridges. It's good advice, though. When I first thought about moving to the Philippines, I had met a guy online who lived here already, and we became friends. His name is Mike. I exchanged e-mail with Mike regularly and got to know him well. As time passed, I let Mike in on my plan or desire to move to the Philippines. I asked him what he thought about the idea, or if he could share his experience and let me know what to expect. Back in those days there were no blogs like this, and without Mike and a few others, I would have been on my own. So, what did Mike tell me? His first words of advice were … [Read more...]
Changes have started, and more coming!
August 25, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Over the past months, this blog has really grown a great deal! Due to it's success in attracting a fairly large number of readers, I have decided to make some changes to improve the blog. The first (and probably smallest) of the changes is something that I just finished doing. I have made some changes to the way that the comments work on the blog now. Instead of just having a whole bunch of comments one after another, the comments are now "threaded." What does this mean? It means that you can post replies to specific comments! I will make a couple of comments below to sort of highlight how this works. But, for instance, if AmericanLola … [Read more...]
Cebuano Grammar #3
August 25, 2007 By 23 Comments
Now we come to the third ‘focus’ in Cebuano grammar. I was taught to call this the “direction, place, beneficiary (victim)" focus. We can call it ‘direction’ focus for short. So, if we go back to that bread we were buying at the store, we will now answer the question, “Where did (will) you buy the bread?” For this we use: gi+root+an for action begun, and root+an for action not begun. Asa (where) ang (first class marker) imong (your: second class possessive pronoun) palitan (place to buy) sa (second class marker) pan (bread)? SM ang akong gipalitan sa pan. (You could also use ‘og pan’ which is the third class marker.) In … [Read more...]
Combating Child Poverty PART TWO
August 25, 2007 By 13 Comments
In my report last week I told you about the charity operating in Davao for children in the slum areas of Davao. This week I will tell you about another project by the SAME charity this time operating in PANACAN. This time its for boys 14-17 who have been in prison, or drug addicts or even those who were marked for "disappearance". Look at the picture and look into those boys eyes and tell me if you see that! When I visited I was so impressed that these boys about fourteen of them who live in a dormitory style building in a tight group, they now go to school, they cook for themselves and help in many chores including growing produce and tending … [Read more...]
General Banking Questions
August 24, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The other day I made a post entitled "Are you stupid? Sometimes I am!" It kind of sparked off a debate that lead in a direction that I was not quite ready for! You see, I didn't really intend that post to be about banking, I had just used banking as an example of what I was talking about. But, that's good that a discussion got going, even if it was a topic that I did not intend, because it showed me that I needed to make a post answering some questions asked about banking! I have touched on this before, but it's been a while, and maybe I can attack it from some different angles this time. In the discussion on that post, I mentioned that … [Read more...]
Tourism Woes: Follow Up
August 24, 2007 By Leave a Comment
On Monday of this week, I made a post entitled "Tourism Woes" in which I described how my Mother came to visit the Philippines and spent the night sitting on the sidewalk in front of Terminal 2 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, waiting for the terminal to open so that she could catch her flight to Davao. On that same day, Monday, I sent an e-mail to Shahlimar H. Tamano, Director of Special Concerns for the Dept. of Tourism here in the Philippines. I informed Mr. Tamano about the situation, and just asked if he could look into it and possibly offer any comments to me about why this happened, and what could be done in the future to address … [Read more...]
Living in the Philippines – Foreigners How Socially Integrated are you ?
August 23, 2007 By 105 Comments
A Discussion about Respect, Good Manners, and Living as a Foreigner in the Philippines I was thinking about some of the experiences I have had in the times I have stayed in the Philippines, and wondered, why do so many Filipino citizens remark about foreigners being either unaproachable, isolated, bad mannered, rude, suplada/suplado, inflexible and disrespectful to nationals of the Philippines. Before anyone contributes an experence or a view, I just wanted to make clear, that not all foreigners are like this, in fact some foreigners are extremely polite, respectful and well mannered, nor do they display airs of self importance. But it has … [Read more...]
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