⌛ My Experience in Dumaguete City

Cyndi; But you don't make comparisons between Philippines and USA. and that's what Rev. Robinson did. It's like apples and orange. The Philippines is third world country and USA is the richest country in the world. Philippines is just a small potato compared to USA. Of course, America has everything, lots of magazines all you can read while waiting for your turn in the doctor's office, traffic lights all over the country, TPs in every restrooms, and blah blah blah. (Sorry, Rev. you have to bring your own roll of TP and sorry no mags to read while waiting for your M.D. and also, you can bring your own mags too.) :D

 

Swany, unfortunately you are missing the point and Cyndi understands it very well. I am simply pointing out some of the things that a person will have to get adjusted to when they come here. Most people are not aware of these things and are quite surprise and can be very agitated when they encounter things that they are not accustom to. Whether you are from New York City or Istanbul, Seoul, or Moscow, Kingston or London, it is always a surprise to you when you encounter something that you are not use to, and you can react to the situation better if you knew about it in advance. I am sure you have encountered things of this nature before (somewhere) and would have been better prepared if someone would have just told you about it.

 

Wow, this is an eye opener. I visited Cebu and Bohol for the first time last year and loved it. However the Rev was right on with his observations, and he gets attacked for it. Why?

 

I do not see any attacks, and I think this is a great post as well, thanks to Rev Robinson for takign the time to write and post it.

As an expat myself I have very similar experiences, things that should be easy are hard and things that could take a minute takes hours.

It is all a matter of what your priorities are, if I could not handle these hickups and issues I would simply find another country to live in. Sure I am often getting annoyed by things like that here, like the security crap at supermarkets treating me like a common thief after dropping 10-20K for the supplies for the month in there.

But then I get back home and I think about all the great things about being here... And in the end... It is my choice

But certainly a great post, and I think a whole website could be written up about the funny quirks here

 

Nobody's attacking him. What's not right is, he was making comparisons with the third world country and the riches country in the world. If you please read again his comments/observations, you'll see what i'm talking about. Thank you.

 

I love it because it's a good thing

Well, it might have sounded like a little like an attack.
Anyway, there are flipsides to all bad things.
For example:
Long wait at clinic: price is really cheap. So if you are a retiree with nothing but time, its a good thing. Besides, you can stroll the premises for your exercise, read a book for a change and strike up conversations with ofther expats in line. I am not being sarcastic here.
Gas station: What are you complaining about the station being not self-service? Its a free full service. You should be grateful. This is a good thing.
Driving: In manila, there are MMDA and police everywhere that keeps you honest when it comes to the most minute of traffic offenses. I, for one, hate it. I don't want to obey the traffic laws when there is obviously no need to. I love driving in the provinces where I take u-turns wherever I feel like it, and if there happens to be a red light, go right through whenever I don't see any traffic. It's a good thing.
Corruption: I mentioned the corruption above. It's not that I like it, but I find it very convenient for me on many occasions. Traffic ticket? No problem. You know what to do. Long line at immigration? No problem. You know what to do. Have to wait 3 hours to see a doctor? No problem. Since you don't know what to do, I will tell you. Next time you see a doctor you like, give him 1,000pesos and tell him that you want his cellfone number so that you can make appoint directly through him. He will say no problem. Then, everytime you see him, give him 200pesos extra personally. It's not a big amount to you, and to him, but he will surely appreciate your effort. And he will probably invite you to join the local Rotary Club. Giving money to doctor is not really a corruption, but what the heck. I put it here because I love the fact that I can contact him anytime on his own cellfone for any emergency or non-emergency and it's a good thing.
I challenge anyone to give me a bad thing about Philippines. I will give him back what I love about it.

 

I take it you are not a poor pinoy

 

no po folks here

I dont think anyone here in this forum is "poor". Poor people dont complain about gas stations or having to drive in bad conditions.

 

Poor pinoy's don't have 1,000 peso to hand over to see a doctor then 200 peso either. as I wrote previous post

 

??

so whats ur point? i am not understanding you...