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My wife, 2 kids and myself had the best time of our life.
We never felt boring, sad or depressed.
We enjoyed all the time together. We did also more together.
But we can understand that for some of them it isn't easy.
My wife still doesn't work.
Let's just hope this 'thing' will quickly be just a bad dream!
Hold on folks!
Like some one ever said...'Yes we can'!

 

Plainspoken,
Please keep in mind the following:
1. Individuals or companies providing "visa services" can maybe make your paperwork a little easier (in the sense that they'll assist you with acquiring forms and filling in those forms), but that's it. Nobody but the applicant can file the visa request and nobody but the embassy decides whether you get a visum or not. Anyone claiming they have a backdoor entry at the embassy and can "get things done for you" is lying.
2. Residency is not the same as "visiting a country for a limited period on a tourist visum". If indeed formal residency is a requirement to get a divorce somewhere, then you better find out about the requirements to get "resident status".

 

I assume, you are both right, @Rye83 and @dr ski.

Defensive living for sure is advisable here, but if you think about it every minute chances are you get paranoid.

Live is worth nothing here. We should not forget that. Living in a third world country doesn't mean laying on the beach and drinking chilled beer all the time.

You have to find your own way to enjoy your life here. Be cautious, be carefully, live under the radar and be aware where you are living. But don't forget to celebrate and enjoy. Otherwise you really get crazy.

 

Coming from Europe I think gasoline is actually *very* cheap here

That aside, the cheap labor is a big plus imho, you just have to get used to it and actually let people work for you. A full time maid for a 3 person household is way above what I could or would want to afford back home, but here it is ridiculously cheap. And that adds a lot in terms of quality of life, even if everything else would cost the same (which at least from a Western European point of view isn't the case).

And for each thing I might miss, there's also something here that I couldn't have in Germany - coral reefs a 20minute ride away, never having to think about bringing a jacket or what shoes to wear, all these little 'priceless' things.

 

you know for all the discussions we have here about cultural differences and most of the time some of the issues we have with the thinking here, i am of the opinion most of us live here because we like it better than where we came from. it is true for me even if you discount the financial advantage most of us have here, which for me i consider to be icing on the cake.

 

Went to Robinson's this morning, long waiting lines to go in and they were asking the old folk their age, if over 60 you would be turned away but if you lied about your age and said 59 years old sir they would let you in. I got in no problem and I'm 66 years old.
There were a lot of foreigners 59 years old. Coincidence or what.

 

One of the reasons you had more frequency of infections when you first arrived would have been your lower immunity to the specific pathogens in the Philippines. Although you will have met SIMILAR types in your home country they would have had some antigenic differences. The longer you stay in a new country the more your body meets new organisms and becomes immune to them (unless they kill you first). In fact, getting low-grade infections is good as it helps develop immunity which may prevent more serious infections in the future - it is a bit like being vaccinated.