Our life here

Our House and Life in the Philippines
We are living in a house that is provided by Island Helicopter Services, which is the company Michael is leasing his helicopters to. He is also a Captain with that company. They all call him Captain Kelly, which makes me giggle. The house is for all the pilots and luckily for us there have not been any to come yet. The house is in Pacific Villa 1, a subdivision on Mactan (an island about 10 by 15 km), about a mile to the airport. Pacific Villa has about 75 houses in it. The houses are all HUGE by Filipino standards. We have 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and “helper” quarters. Almost every house has at least one helper. Helpers are usually young girls, 16-26, who are basically a maid or cook. Some live in the house and others go home. We were supposed to get a helper at the beginning of September but we decided that we did not want to have someone “helping” us as we are used to doing our own work. Everyone we meet is shocked that some ‘Canos (what they call Americans) would not have a helper. The women at the barber shop could not believe that Michael cooks or cleans (he does and he does well).
Our community has a pool that we use almost daily, swimming laps. There is also a basketball/tennis court, that we play chase ball at since neither of us are good at basketball. We have also bought badmition rackets that we also are playing. I have been running around the community, since it is pretty small I have run up and down each block and around and around about 3 times to run for 30 minutes.
Most of the people in our neighborhood are Pinoys (Filipinos) but there are some white men married to Filipinas and some Koreans. We were the only American couple. Everyone is nice but timid in getting to know us.
Outside our gated community is main road going through the island. There are a lot of houses and every house has a little convenience store in front of it. Each store is a family owned store where you can get ice cream, soap, soda, beer, canned meat and anything you could need if you forgot to buy it at the supermarket. Pretty clever way to pay for your toilet paper and sundries, if you ask me. Mactan is a small island that supposedly has a lot of ex-pats and wealthier people on it. There are not a lot of shantytowns, like Cebu City, that we have seen on it but we have only gone on the main road. The birth center that I have been working at is only a ten minute walk from our house. Every time I walk there every one says “hello” and asks me where I am going. That is pretty common here, people asking you where you are going. People and children are calling out of their houses and half the time we cannot see who is calling out to us. Everyone gives us a warm smile and greeting.
Currently our only transportation is taxis or tricycles. A tricycle is a motorcycle with a sidecar that can fit between 2 ‘Canos or 10 Pinoys (3 on the bike and 7 in the car). Mike also witnessed a tricycle taxi moving a three piece sectional couch, successfully! Yesterday we were really excited because we found a van that can take us to the mall for only P30 each (about $.70). There are also jeepneys, which originally were jeeps that were extended to have a longer cab in the back (about 10 feet) with 2 benches for passengers. We have seen more that 24 people in one. We have not used them as they are basically buses with routes. We do not know the routes so have not tried them. Each one is tricked out to draw more attention so that people want to ride their jeepney not someone else’s.
They pack people so tight into the transportation there is no movement allowed. Since most Pinoys are small they can fit more than one would imagine. I am about the size of a male here and Michael is huge. Once at the mall a little boy said “mommy, mommy a giant!!!” Little kids love to pull on their mom’s hands and point at him. When Mike sees this he just smiles really big and waves.
Good coffee does not exist here (besides Starbucks but we really try to avoid that unless I am jones-ing for a good cup of coffee with the Starbucks crack to get you to come back). But we did find some instant, Nescafé 3 in 1, that is pretty good; it comes with sweetner and creamer all in one. But I am not going to give up on finding a French press and coffee (anyone need ideas for my birthday).
The weather here is hot and humid now. It is the rainy season but where we are there is not too much rain here in Cebu. There is a thunderstorm about once a day for about 1-2 hours and then is hot and sunny again. The last time we looked on weather.com, it was 88 degrees and felt like 99. It is like Miami in the summer. I am really missing the change of seasons right now. We have taken to carrying around an umbrella to protect us from the sun and heat and Mike carries a sweat rag. A lot of people put a sweat rag behind their collar, “to protect them from the sweat.” I didn’t realize sweat was bad but it is nice not to drip all day. There are three seasons: dry hot (March to June), wet hot (July to September) and nice weather (the rest of the year). We are looking forward to cooler weather. Since we are at the 12th parallel, the sun sets every day around 6-6:30 and rises 5:30 to 6 every day of the year. It is really interesting to us: having it be super hot and the sun setting early. Something we will have to get used to.
The grocery store is an experience in every foreign country and here is no difference. In the produce section you have to have all of your food weighed. I have yet to figure out who does the weighing because every little area has a scale but every time I bring it to a worker standing next to a scale they bring me to someone else’s scale. The meat section just turns my stomach. I make Mike pick out the meat. It has a horrible smell, it does not smell like a butcher but just has this very distinct smell that you can find a grocery store by following your nose. Everyone hordes around the meat trying to get it and pushes you out of their way. The meat sits in a cooling section that is self-service.
We have found a lot of good foods here. There are a lot of American products but we try not to buy them but on an island almost everything is imported. We try to limit ourselves to only one product from far away a week. I am going to have to stock up on cheese and salsa when I come home. They do not have very many leafy greens here and when I find them they are pretty expensive (relatively speaking). Man I miss salads. We have been gorging ourselves on the great mangos and pineapple that are grown here in Cebu and in the North.
Lines do not really exist here. They try to enforce lines by having signs and ropes to designate lines but often people just push to the counter and put their paper work or hand in the air. I make Mike go to the line, first, because he is tall and can be seen and second they love him here. (Once at the airport, I was running ahead of him (we were being overhead paged) after the security line because they wanted to take his sunscreen and he would not have that. The ticket male checker said is that your husband? he is very guapo (handsome) and the other male officers around all nodded in agreement). Often times we get to go to the front because we are white. We try not to take advantage of this too much but sometimes after waiting for an hour in total chaos we take advantage of it. In the bathroom people do not wait in one main line they stand in front of a certain stall and wait. Something to get used it. Most public toilets do not have toilet seats, as people squat on the toilet (they must have super strong knees and quads) or toilet paper. We have seen signs that say “Please do not urinate on the floor. Please don’t squat like a frog but sit like a queen.”
Besides traveling, we have been going to the mall a lot. We have needed to get things for the house and the mall has every thing you could need. It is where we go to the bank/atm, travel agent, internet, food, bowling, movies, grocery store, department store and any other store you can think of. The mall in Cebu City is called SM Megamall. It has 4 floors and about 2000 stores. If you cannot find it there you do not need it. Mike jokes that he has been to the mall more in the Philippines in 6 weeks than he had been in Colorado in 10 years and he is probably right. When we have time to kill or need groceries or want air-con we go there. On Sundays, the mall is so busy because people want to be in air-con all day.
We are living in Mactan a small island across from Cebu City on the large island of Cebu. Cebu is in the Visayas region of the Philippines. There are three main regions of the Philippines, Luzon where Manila is, Visaya, and Mindanao & Sulu, where the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) is and there is some unrest there right now and we are advised not to travel there now. Palawan is also a smaller region to the west of the other islands. The people here mostly speak Visayan, a dialect of Tagalog, or more local dialect of Cebano. Most people who go to school do learn English. English is taught as a language and also all their science classes are taught in English as there are no Tagalog words for many scientific words such as, oxygen or atom, we have been told. I am hoping to learn Visayan for working at the clinic but have yet to find a place to learn it.
Our last trip was to Palawan. It was so amazing. The guide book, our travel bible, says it has everything wonderful of Philippines all on one 70 km island. The first day we went to the subterranean river. It was 8.2 miles long and 65 meters tall at some points. It was only about 40 feet wide. We took a little row boat down the river with a guide who showed us different stalagite and stalagmite, describing most of them to look like religious characters. It was pretty amazing to see. The following day we took a 9 hour bus ride up to El Nido and the Bacuit Archipelago. The bus ride was very interesting. It was very similar to the chicken busses in Central America. They tried to pack as many people in as they could with all their wares and animals. One man had two cocks that he watered on the breaks. We were sitting in seats that were supposed to fit 3 people and Mike’s knees were almost up to his chest and people kept trying to push him over to get more room but there was none. The road was very rough and had huge pot holes. One the way back to the main city, the road was almost washed out as it had rained a lot. When we got back to Cebu we heard that it was closed because of the rain. The bridges on the road sometimes only consisted of two boards on either side over a 20 foot ravine.
El Nido was just amazing. El Nido is a small cove in the archipalego that is surrounded by volcanic rock cliffs. Our hotel was right on the beach. The city is very far from the main city of Palawan and power plants so they only get electricity from 6 pm to 6 am. Some nights certain sections start getting power later like 9 pm. There are a lot of great restaurants and it is a big traveler area. We met a American couple, Emily and Jim, who had been living in Taiwan teaching English for a year and spent a lot of time with them as tours are cheaper with more people. We had a great time with them and celebrated Jim’s birthday.