Public Bathrooms in the Philippines

First thing – a bathroom in the Philippines is usually called a CR, or Comfort Room. If you ask for the restroom or bathroom, a lot of people might not know what you are talking about. For our British visitors, the WC or Washing Closet (right?) will be unheard of! Just ask for the CR and you will be in business!

A lot of people have commented, both here on this blog and other places that I’ve seen and heard about the state of public bathrooms in the Philippines. Some I agree with, some I don’t. In general, I feel that public facilities have improved a lot in the past 10 to 15 years. If you go to any place that is even slightly upscale, they will all have toilet paper now, and some even have soap for you to wash your hands! Mid and low scale places will not offer even toilet paper, so watch out for this. For safety sake, if you can find a way to carry some tissue or toilet paper with you when you go out in public, you may find yourself quite happy.

Another trend that I’ve seen lately is that a lot of public bathrooms here are beginning to have vending machines where you can buy toilet paper. At least this is a way to get it when you need it! Better than no paper at all. Another thing to look out for is for a small pail with a long handle near to some water source. This is actually used in lieu of toilet paper, you can use the water to fill the pail and use that to wash yourself strategically. This is the way that most people in the Philippines clean themselves after using the toilet. It is something that is very foreign to western tastes (hmm… maybe “taste” is not a word that I should use here!), but if you can force yourself to try, you will learn how to do this. It’s a good thing to know when no other method is available.

Another sore spot is soap. About half of the bathrooms that you find have no soap at all. Some have liquid soap. I like liquid soap, but the problem is that they usually put a small amount of liquid soap in the dispenser, then fill it up with water, thus watering down the soap to where it is the consistency of just water. I find that this does not work too well.

As I said earlier, public bathrooms are improving, and I expect that they will continue to do so. In the meantime, you will be good to do a combination of bringing your own supplies, and also adapting to the local custom if possible.

Davao City 911 Center

Update March 2009: Yesterday, a friend who lives in the Philippines had some health problems.  He texted me and asked if there is 911 in the Philippines.  I told him that it is only available in Davao, but now that I thought about it, there are a couple of other cities that have it too.  Here in Davao, though, we have a full compliment of paramedics and everything necessary for emergency response.  This is an important consideration when you are deciding where you might live in the Philippines.  Are emergency services available, and can they offer quick service when needed?  Because of this inquiry, I decided to feature this post again so that people could see what kind of services are available in Davao City.

Two weeks ago, I made a visit to the Davao City 911 Center with a group that I belong to called “Friends of Mindanao.”  The group visit to the 911 Center was arranged by my friend, Rick Bowden.  Rick is a neighbor or Mario Monsanto, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Davao City 911 Center.  Mario reports directly to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

I can’t describe how impressed I was with the 911 Center, it is so modern, well staffed, and the personell are very efficient.  The training that they 911 people recieve is very thorough and up to date, and their professionalism was very clear to see.

At this time, Davao is one of only a handful of Cities in the Philippines that have 911 Emergency Services.  Currently other such centers are operated by Makati City (part of Metro Manila) and by Cebu City.  Iligan City is currently working with Davao to learn the ins and outs of setting up such a system there.

Have a look at the video of our visit to Davao City 911:

The 911 Center in Davao is in charge of dispatching all of the emergency services in Davao, everything from Police to Medical Services.  The people at 911 own and operate 10 Ambulances and they have paramedics to handle services while en-route to the hospital facility.  One thing that was quite impressive is that all services offered by 911 are free for the public.  911 can also be accessed through any land line telephone, and also through each of the cellular networks in Davao City.

I would like to thank Mario Monsanto for offering such a great tour of the facility, and also to Rick Bowden for arranging the visit!

Philippine Pensions

Most jobs here in the Philippines don’t include any kind of pension.  Sure, some of the higher paying  jobs, government jobs, military and such offer pensions for those who make a career out of such employment.  But, a lot of Filipinos work in temporary jobs, informal work, or just pick up whatever odd jobs they can get.  If you are a tricycle driver, you should not expect any pension for that.  Same thing for a seamstress, jeepney driver, waiter working in a restaurant and such.  These are the kinds of jobs that employee the average Filipino.

So, no pension on the horizon.  What will the person do?  Another thing that is important is that a lot of people can’t find work if they are over 35 or 40 years old.  People in that age group and older are virtually unemployable here.  When companies advertise help wanted ads, they actually specify what the age limit is for employees that they will hire.  Sometimes these employers won’t even hire somebody in their late 20’s.

With these conditions so prevalent in the Philippines, how can a person plan for their old age?  Most people don’t earn enough income in their younger years to enable them to save much money toward their retirement years.  So, it’s a dilemma.  What do you to to enjoy life in your later years?  How do you protect yourself when inevitable health problems crop up?  There must be a way, right?

Well, in Philippine society, even with all of these limitations, there is a way that many people ensure their retirement.  How?  They have a lot of kids.  How does this help?  These kids generally have a responsibility to pitch in to take care of their parents when the parents are older.  How do they take care of the parents?  They pitch in to provide money for the parents.  They help take care of the house and daily chores that need to be done in the household.  They take care of the physical needs of the parents.  Everything that an older person might need in their golden years is looked after by younger generations of the family – children, nieces, nephews, even grandchildren.

One thing that you hear from a lot of foreigners is that they are shocked that Philippine families are so big.  It surprises them that couples have so many children.  Why wold they do that?  Well, the more children there are, the better the parents will be cared for in their old age.  I mean, if you only have one or two kids, caring for the parents could be difficult.  But, if you spread that cost over 6 or 7 kids, it can be quite affordable.  The Philippines is not like the USA where the older generation is sent off to a nursing home or a retirement community.  Here, the older generation is more revered, and they are taken care of.  They are not simply sent off and relegated to once per month visits (or less).

Many foreigners take their criticism of large families even further, and they take it into the realm of religion.  It is very common to hear foreigners criticize the birth control policies of the Church.  For me, I don’t buy that.  The fact is that people know how to use birth control, and they know what it is.  I don’t personally believe that.  I firmly believe that most Filipinos have large families as their own form of a pension or Social Security for their old age.  This is a cultural thing, the way that people here handle planning for their golden years.  Yes, the way that we do it in the west is different, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better.  The way that they do it here works better for the way the economy works here.

Honestly, with the economic meltdown in the west, I would not be surprised to see a similar system come into place around the world.  No, I don’t think we’ll see Americans or Europeans having 6 or 8 kids, but I do think that at least in this generation we will see people in their 30’s to 50’s kicking in money so that their parents can make it through their retirement years.  We are already hearing about old folks having to find jobs, working as store clerks and such, because they lost all of their retirement funds.  Having the kids help is virtually inevitable, I think.

A Davao downside?

Anybody who reads even just a few articles on this website knows how much I love Davao.  It is really a place that is near to my heart, and I figure that I will live somewhere in the Davao area for the rest of my life.  Of course, anything is possible, but I just expect that this is the place where I want to live my remaining time.

Lately, though, I have been thinking of one possible downside that I see to Davao.  So, what is this potential downside?  Davao is expensive.  I have known that it is more expensive here in Davao compared to GenSan, since I lived there for two years before moving here.  Housing here is much more than it was in GenSan.  For example, we were paying P11,000 for a really beautiful house in GenSan.  The house had marble floors and walls throughout the place.  Beautiful manicured yard with fruit trees.  The place was maybe 5 years old or so.  It was one of the nicest houses in the whole City.  When we came to Davao and shopped for housing, the places we found were 3 to 4 times the price.  The place that we liked the best when we were planning to move here was P35,000 per month, but at that time we simply could not afford to pay that kind of rent.  We were able to negotiate it down to P25,000, but other factors prevented us to rent the place.  But, the thing I am getting at here is that Davao is very expensive compared to GenSan.

I figured that Davao was more expensive because it is a bigger City with more amenities than GenSan has.  It costs more to live in a more Metropolitan place.  But, lately, some things have been making me think twice.  Prices in Davao have really increased in the 7 years that we have lived here.

A while back, I wrote an article on another site of mine about some apartments that I recently saw near to my house.  I would estimate that these apartments are renting for P15,000 to P20,000, and I am nearly 100% confident that my estimate is accurate.  Other people started commenting about what the place would rent for where they live.  Dave Starr, who lives in Bulacan, not too far from the Manila area said that he figured the same place would rent for closer to P10k in his area.  It just kind of confirms that Davao is an expensive place to live.  Now, being in Mindanao, you would think that prices here would be lower than up in Luzon, but apparently that is not the case.

Another thing that got me thinking about this happened tonight.  Over last weekend, when we were in GenSan, we bought some Pork BBQ for lunch one day.  We have a favorite place in GenSan where they have very delicious BBQ.  When we lived in GenSan, the BBQ at this place was P1.50 per stick.  Last weekend, the price was up to P5 per stick.  Wow, in 7 years the price is up by 3 1/3 times.  That is a pretty amazing increase.  Now, there is a place in Davao where we also buy BBQ from time to time, and they charge P5.20 per stick, and the amount of meat is only about 1/4 of what you get at the place in GenSan.  So, even though each stick is about the same price, the price for the quantity of meat that you get is way higher here.

At this point, I don’t think that these higher prices would make me want to leave Davao, but who knows?  Anything is possible.  Based on what I hear from foreign expats, one of the strongest reasons why they want to move to the Philippines is due to lower prices here.  What do you think?  Would prices in Davao push them to another part of the Philippines?

Maybe I am off base with my thinking here.  I have not done any kind of detailed study, these are just things that are anecdotal based on what I hear and see in the areas of the Philippines where I go.  What do you think?

Honestly, do you really want to live here?

I have a lot of websites, more than 200 different sites, and most of them are related in one way or another to the Philippines. Because of this, as you can image, I get a ton of e-mail from people who profess to me that they want to move here. Funny thing is, even after years of saying this, very few people make the move. And, of those who do make the move, more than half move back after only a short time here.

Why is it that few people make the move? I remember when I was in their position, still living in the USA, yet having a deep desire to move here to live permanently. The thought of moving here seemed to consume my mind 24/7. I was actually quite obsessed with it. However, when the day finally came that I sold my house, suddenly at first I was scared to death with the idea that I was actually going to take the leap and move half way around the world! I wanted it so badly for so long, but when the day actually came that I could do it, it finally sunk in on me just how huge of a step this was! It took a few days before the fear started to subside, but right up until we stepped on the plane, we pondered whether we were doing the right thing. I feel that this is a factor for many who want to move here, but never take the step. Another huge factor is financial. A lot of people simply don’t have the financial ability to make such a move.

Now, how about all the people who move here from abroad and end up going home after a relatively short time? I would estimate (although I know of no official figures) that more than half of those who move here end up leaving within just a few years. Why would this be the case? Well, I would say that the number one reason would be that they can’t adjust to the way things are here, compared to where they came from. Society is different here than in the States. Everything works differently here. If you are here on Vacation, you don’t get the feel for that, because people give you more leeway. If you are just here for a short time your Filipino acquaintances can put up with you for a few weeks until you leave. They make adjustments and give you leeway with your different ways. However, when you come here to live for good, it is YOU who must change. In the beginning, people realize that you are a foreigner and they give you the benefit of the doubt. However, after a while, they expect you to conform to societal norms here, and that is not always easy. A lot of Americans who have vacationed here always tell me that Philippine society and culture is “just the same as ours.” Well, I am here to tell you that it is not the same, my friend, it is not even close! If it were the same, incidents like what Feyma wrote about at the Bureau of Immigration wouldn’t happen. A friend of mine, Dave Starr had a similar incident recently. What about the things that AmericanLola wrote about Losing Face? These things are just the tip of the iceberg too, so please realize that you will have plenty of adjustments to make when you live here.

Another reason why people end up going back to where they came from is often a lack of income. One very common thing that I hear from people who e-mail me is this: “Hey, I am planning to move to the Philippines, what kind of job can I get when I arrive?” Well, first of all, depending on what type of legal status you intend to set up for your stay here, most likely you won’t even have the legal right to work here. If you just get off the plane and have a tourist visa, you cannot legally get a job here! If you want to work here you need a work permit. If you are a tourist, the odds of getting a work permit are somewhat small. You are supposed to be vacationing here, not working! If you get a resident visa (like a 13 series visa or a retirement visa) the work permit is automatically included with the visa.

OK, so now you have your work permit, right? What kind of job can you get now? Well, are you willing to work for local wages? Maybe P200 per day or so (that’s about $5), and that is PER DAY not per hour. If you are like me, you aren’t willing to work for that type of wage. But, don’t fret, you can still make a good living here. You need to start your own business (also read here, here, here) of some kind.

In addition, if you decide to live here, I recommend that you follow one thing that Feyma and I did when we moved here. Before moving, we made a commitment to each other that no matter what, we had to stay for 5 years. If we hated it here, or if we loved it, no matter, we had to stay, and could not consider leaving until we had been living here for 5 years. The thing is, if you leave when the going gets tough, you are not giving yourself adequate time to adjust to life here. You must take time, learn from hard knocks and force yourself to adjust to life here. If you leave after 6 months or so, you are selling yourself short, and you are really wasting your time and the money that you spent to set up life here. Hang in there, and force yourself to give adequate time for the adjustment.

So, what do you think, are you really ready to make such a commitment? If you are willing to go through some hard times in adjusting, and if you have enough money to ride out the storm, I think that moving here is a great thing. Feyma and I have talked about this in recent years and we agree that at this point in our lives we would not even consider moving back to the States, or anywhere else. We rode out the hard times, and we worked out the financial side of things too.

We’ll be staying. How about you? Will you be joining us?

Distribution of local products

One thing that is really prevalent in the Philippines is that each town or region has it’s own specialty products that it is famous for. Some examples? Well, General Santos City is famous for Tuna. Davao is famous for Durian. Iligan City is famous for a certain brand of peanuts (if I remember correctly they are called “Cheding’s”). There is a sweet treat called Piyaya that comes from Iloilo. Bohol has a product called “Peanut Kisses” which resemble Hershey Kisses, but are made from peanuts. Cebu? They have mangoes. The list is as long as the number of Cities in the Philippines.

When we first moved here to the Philippines, if you wanted to get these products, you pretty much had to travel to the City that was famous for them. Over the 7+ years that we have lived here, though, there has started to be a distribution network for these specialty products. That wasn’t the case just a few years ago, though.

Do you know what Pasalubong is? Pasalubong is a gift that you bring to somebody when you travel to their place. For instance, if you live in Davao and are going to see a friend in Cagayan de Oro, it would be customary to bring an item to them that is really a “Davao Product.” For instance, the most Davao thing you could bring would be Durian, but you might also bring Pomelo, which is considered another Davao Product. If you are worried about the fragrance of the Durian bothering you on the long road trip, you might decide to bring some Durian candy, or Durian tarts to your friend in CdO. I can remember going on a number of flights from General Santos to Manila years ago when people would have whole tunas (weighing several hundred pounds) all wrapped up in newspaper (you would see newspapers in the shape of a fish on the luggage carousel!). The fact was, back in those days, people in CdO might not be able to get a fresh Durian or a pack of Durian candy in their local stores. That is why something like this would be a prized gift for the recipient.

Nowadays, we can go to SM or even a convenience store and buy Cheding’s Peanuts from Iligan. We, from time to time purchase Peanut Kisses from Bohol. GenSan tuna is on the menu from time to time in our house too. We no longer have to wait for a friend to bring us Pasalubong to get these regional treats.

Pasalubong is still a deeply ingrained part of the Filipino culture, though. I doubt that improved distribution of specialty items will ever erase the need to think of Pasalubong when you are setting out for a journey!

Could you be deported?

I wrote a column on Saturday about getting a mortgage in the Philippines.  In the comments on the column, there was a lot of talk about the debate over which is better, buying or renting property.  One thing that was pointed out several times in the discussion is that as foreigners, we cannot own property in the Philippines.

Yes, there are ways to buy a house.  The easiest is if you are married to a Filipina, you buy the house in her name.  Foreigners can also buy Condominiums, but only a maximum of 40% of the entire Condo unit can be foreign owned.  All in all, it is a good idea to keep in mind that as a foreigner, you simply cannot own real estate property in the Philippines.  For years now, there has been discussion about changing the Constitution of the country to allow for foreign ownership of property, but for now it does not appear that such a change will be coming through any time soon.

As Dave Starr pointed out in the conversation, if you do buy, under the conditions I described previously, if there is a marital problem or something along those lines, you stand to lose your property.

I have another consideration, though.  What if you were deported?  Don’t blow this off, deportation of foreigners is something that happens every day.  Did you know that you can be deported for simply getting angry and raising your voice at a Filipino?  It’s true!  Let’s say that you are in a restaurant and the service is poor.  You loose your cool and get angry at the waitress.  She can go to the Bureau of Immigration and file a complaint against you, and most likely, you will be deported!   There is some kind of rule or law that says that you are not allowed to be disrespectful to a Filipino.

For me, this goes a little too far.  I mean, everybody gets mad from time to time, and I feel that it should not be a deportable offense, however, this is the law, and you and I are not the ones who decide on it.

Here in Davao, there are often cases where foreigners are up for review for deportation.  I know of one case where a British man in Davao was jailed for physical abuse of his girlfriend and he was nearly deported for that.  Last year, a Korean was seen on the golf course yelling at his Filipino caddy, and he was deported for that.  These cases seem to pop up in the news every few months or so.

What would you do if you owned a house, and ended up being deported?

For me, I feel that I have lived here long enough that I have learned to control my anger when it is present.  I can also say that I have lost my cool in past years plenty of times, and was just lucky that I was not deported, or in some kind of trouble over such incidents.  Now, I rarely get mad in public, though.  However, you just never know what might happen!

Living in the Philippines: Cellphones

I get a lot of questions from people asking about cellular phones here, and most of the questions make it pretty clear that most foreigners don’t understand how cellular phones work here in the Philippines. Because of this, I thought I’d write a column about cellphone use in the Philippines, billing and such.

Back in the States, where I come from, and I believe in most of the developed world, you go sign up for a cellphone plan, and you get, or buy a phone to go with the plan. They will have a number of plans to choose from, and for a certain price per month you will get a certain number of minutes of use for the month. If you go over the number of alloted minutes on the plan, your bill will have some extra charges for the extra minutes that you use. Some other plans offer great incentives like free minutes on the weekends, unlimited Internet usage via the phone or other perks. Basically, you sign up for the plan that fits your usage best, and they send you a bill every month for the plan charges, and any extras.

Now, that is probably the kind of system you are used to when it comes to cellphone use. The first thing that you should do when you start looking at cellphone use in the Philippines is to forget everything that you already know. As with so many other things in life, that just doesn’t apply here in the Philippines!

So, how does it work here? Well, basically, there are two different ways that cellphone usage works:

1. Postpaid. Actually, if you get a postpaid plan, it is somewhat similar to what you are used to in your home country. Problem is, probably only about 10% of the population uses a Postpaid plan. The fact is that most people in the Philippines do not have a credit reputation that can be verified, so the Cellular Communications Companies will not allow them to sign up for a Postpaid Plan.

2. Prepaid. It is my estimation that about 90% of the people here in the Philippines are using a Postpaid method to fund their cellular use. What is this “prepaid?” Well, there are a few different ways it can work, but basically, they pay money in advance to purchase “credits” that are “loaded” onto their phones. Let’s say you purchase P100 worth of credit, once you have used up P100, you cannot use your phone any longer until you purchase more credit. If you are in the middle of the call, it will be disconnected. As I said, there are different ways of doing the postpaid loading. The most common way in the past was to go to the store and buy a “prepaid phone card” and type the code number into your phone, along with a Pin number, and the credits were then applied to the phone. These days, although cards are still available, it is more common that this is done electronically. The way that happens is that you go to a store or “e-load dealer” and pay them, then they use a cellphone to send a code to your phone that loads the value for you automatically.

Like I said, it seems, from the e-mails I receive that a lot of people don’t understand this whole system. They expect that getting a cellphone here is just like it is in the USA or whatever country they came from.

If you decide you want to try to get a Postpaid account, and you are a foreigner, it is actually pretty difficult. You see, as a foreigner, they consider you a “flight risk,” or that you might run up a bill and then go home to your country of origin, and thus they won’t be able to come after you to get payment. I have had a Postpaid account in the past (although I am prepaid now), and as I recall, the things that you need to do this are:

• A legal residence visa. If you are not a permanent resident, you will not get a Postpaid account.
• Proof of billing from places like an Electric Utility, Water Company, regular Phone Company and such, so that you can show that you have indeed been paying your bills.
• Passport.
• A wife or spouse who can kind of “co-sign” with you, and she must be a local resident.

So, getting that Postpaid account is not easy. What do you need to get a Prepaid phone going?

• You need to go to the store and buy a Prepaid Sim card, about P200 or so. When you buy this Sim, you will get maybe P100 or so in free credit to use the network.
• Put the Sim card in your phone, and start using it!
• That’s it!

So, as you can see, getting going with a Prepaid system is very easy, and you can be on the network in only a manner of minutes, no more.

Now, what about a phone? In the States, you sign up for the plan and get your phone at that time. If you are in the middle of your contract and want a new phone, generally speaking you are out of luck. Here, it is nothing like that! Whether you are prepaid or postpaid, you can get a new phone every week, if the desire strikes you! All you do is go to the store and buy a new phone anytime you want one, take your Sim card from your old phone, put it in the new one, and you are finished! That, in my opinion, is much better than the system back in the States!

So, I hope that this little article has cleared up the confusion a little bit about how cellphones work here in the Philippines. Have a question? Just use the comments to ask away, and I’ll be happy to answer if I can.

Financial Flip-Flop

Financially, the last couple of years of living in the Philippines has been a very interesting time.  As an American, I primarily follow the exchange between the Dollar and the Peso.  However, my expat friends from many other countries have gone on a roller coaster ride over the past two years or so. Over the last couple of years, the financial situation has been pretty bad for Americans with the Dollar taking a beating, but things have turned around.  Over the last few weeks, I have interacted with a number of expats, and the conversations we have had have kind of made me think the whole financial situation over a little more deeply.  Over the past couple of years, our friends from other parts of the world have been riding high with their currencies, but recently, many of them have been turning around, and have fallen drastically.  All in all, it seems that in recent months there has been a financial flip-flop.

A few weeks ago, I got a note from a fellow in Australia.  He was very, very interested in moving to the Philippines right away.  He had lots and lots of questions to ask me, and I gladly answered all of them.  Soon, the talk turned to the possibility that he would purchase a piece of land here, he was primarily interested in living on Samal Island, since he really enjoyed a peaceful area with plenty of quiet, beautiful scenery and a lifestyle filled with nature.  He inquired through Feyma about the possibility of helping him find a place to live on Samal.  After a number of communications, my new friend wrote to me and said that he had decided that the timing was not right for such a move.  He lamented the current sinking of the Australian Dollar against the Peso.  I went and did some looking into this, and here is what I found.  Two years ago, the Australian Dollar was at a rate of about P38:AUD1.  Roughly, the AUD stayed in a range of 38 to 40  until January 2008 when it dipped to just about 35.  A few months ago, the AUD had climbed all the way up to 44, but recenly took a real crash.  Currently, the AUD is trading at about P32.  It dropped from 44 to 32 in a matter of only around 4 months or so!  Not good for the Aussies!

A few days ago, I went out for coffee with John Grant, and we discussed this matter.  John was feeling down because the British Pound has also been taking quite a beating lately.  Two years ago, the GBP was about P104, and had even hit P110 before that!  However, from the P104 level, it took a slide down to about P79 in the first quarter of this year, before climbing it’s way back to around P90 in July/August of this year.  From that point, though, the Pound has fallen like a rock (a pound of rocks?) and is now trading at around P73, it’s lowest exchange in the last 2 years that I investigated.  Our British expat friends are hurting right now.

What about the Euro, the relatively new currency that our friends in much of Europe are using these days?  Well, over the last few years the Euro has kind of been the “King of the Currencies” with it strengthening against almost every World Currency during this time.  Two years ago, the Euro was worth 63 Pesos.  It climbed from there, all the way up to 73 Pesos!  But, 73 was the top of the exchange rate for the Euro. since that time, it has dropped against the Peso and today it is trading in the range of P61.  That is quite a slide for our European friends.

What about our Canadian friends?  I remember it was not long ago when the Canadian Dollar (CAD) was on parity, even a little higher than the USD.  Times have changed a bit since then, though.  Two years ago, the CAD was trading at P44, and over the past two years it climbed as high as P47.  Lately, though, the CAD has been taking quite a hit and has been pretty volatile.  Over the past week or two, the CAD has traded as low as P38.  In the past week or so, it has gotten back up to about P41, though.

What about the United States Dollar?  Well, as an American, I am happy to report that most American Expats that I know are very happy these days.  Two years ago, the USD was trading at around P52, and it dropped like a rock from there.  By January of this year (2008) the dollar was at P40, and the word the we were hearing and reading in the papers was that the dollar would be down to about P30 by 2010.  Frankly, I was pretty worried about that, because at the P40 level, life was getting a little rough, given that the USD was at P56 just about 3 years ago.  If the Dollar has slid down to P30, I would have had to figure out how to make more money, changed my lifestyle considerably, or left the Philippines.  None of these were things I really wanted to do.  Today, though, we are nearly back where we were 2 years ago, with the Dollar trading right around the p50 level again, in fact yesterday it broke P50:$1 for the first time during this cycle.  Speculation is that the Peso will continue to slide against the Dollar for the forseeable future.

Having the Dollar trading at these levels again is a great feeling for Feyma and I, and for our American expat friends too.  I must say, though, that I feel for my expat friends from other contries.  I know how they feel, because, as Americans, we lost almost 1/3 of the value of our money against the Peso not too long ago, and I know that life became more difficult.  I am lucky, because I make a pretty good income, so I know that if life was uncomfortable for me when the Dollar was so far down, some of my friends are really in bad shape with their currency down, because some of them also have very limited incomes in their home currency.  I hope that their currencies stabilize and even gain some value soon.

In today’s trying times, we just don’t know what the financial markets will do in the coming months and years.  Anything could happen, in my opinion.  It’s a good time to put a nestegg aside, to cover your needs during trying times that we may see.  It’s not a time to spend money wildly, that is for sure.

Good luck to everybody, I hope that your finances serve your needs.

Welcome to the new LiP Site!

Yes, as I promised on Friday of last week, I am delivering today on the change that I was talking about!  Change to the LiP (Live in the Philippines) site, that is!  I didn’t really let anybody know that I was planning a redesign until just a few days ago, so it was kind of a surprise to everybody, I think.  However, this has indeed been in the plans for some time now.  As I said on Friday, it’s been a year (more than a year, actually) since I have updated the looks of the site, so I think the time has come.

The site is not yet 100% complete, but the remaining touches are not too major, so you should be able to enjoy the site, and have a good idea of the final look.  Actually, you won’t see many differences in the look as I make a few more changes over the next few days, as they are mostly functionality type things.

Be sure to visit the Home Page by clicking “Home” in the menu bar at the top of the site to see the biggest changes!  Give the Image Gallery time to load so that you can see a rotation of our latest featured stories anytim you visit the site.  It should load pretty quickly anyway.

In addition to the new looks of the site, we also have a new author!  Rusty Ferguson has joined us, and I think he will be a great addition to the site.  Rusty is an American expat living on the Island of Cebu, up north in Bogo City, which is up at the norther tip of Cebu Island.  I met Rusty just a few weeks ago when I found his site, and I think that he will make a real nice new contributor for LiP!  Welcome aboard, Rusty!  I hope that you will enjoy your stay at LiP and stay with us for a long time so that we can all learn about your experiences in Cebu!

Again, welcome everybody to the new LiP site!  Be patient while I work out any kinks that pop up along the way, and enjoy!