home away from home....

Some of my friends and relatives asked me how my life away from my native home land, they usually assume that i'm living a wealthy life...

It's sad to say, the way of thinking of most filipinos when somebody married to a foreigner or working abroad especially in well developed countries like canada or the US, thinks that you are living and sleeping in the bed of roses.... i admit, when i was young i thought that too...but then i always wonder, most filipinos worked in these countries, they usually said "life is a lot better abroad" but then 90% of them always comes home and retire in the philippines. Is it just, the saying goes "there's no place like home"?

For 2 years living here, based on my personal experiences, i agree, life is alot different from the philippines. Honestly, you can have everything you wish here, like nice unpolluted environment, cars, nice house, gadgets, i mean all things that make your life more easier specially in doing household chores. What can you ask for more? Everything is here....BUT of course you will have to work hard to have all these....here, it is a need to own a car because the public transportation such as a bus are just in limited area due to the vastness of the land area, but in the philippines, there's always tricycle or a motorcycle that you can hire wherever you wanna go, well, it is a small country, so, having a car there is a luxury. Here, it is a need to make your house weather proof and have a good heating system or else you will die by hypothermia, hmmmm in my own opinion, i guess, that's why most people have a mortgage, because, weather you like or not, it is a must to have a good house to live. But in pinas, it is a tropical country where its always hot and humid whole year round, some people just live in a nipa hut and they are contented with it, the important is the family are together. I didnt say that filipinos has no mortgage too, but i'm talking to a common filipino, poor and the middle calss family, they have loans too but only a small amount of money. Here, it seems you have a lot of bills to pay monthly, aside from the basic needs such as, electric, natural gas for heater, telephone line, property tax and household insurance, and there's internet provider too where i find it a must here, plus some extra bills from cellphone provider, satellite tv, and garbage fee, and not to mention auto insurance too, usually in 1 household owns 2 to 3 cars here, so its really expensive. But what shock me most is the tax that you have to pay here, there's 3 kinds of tax actually that are added in every goods that you purchased and bills you pay.....one thing i find here too, it seems most people owns a credit card, well, online shopping is popular and the easiest way to pay is through credit card, and of course it's an easy way to loan money too. But in the philippines, the common filipino, the only basic needs are having a good roof that is not leaking no matter if the house is done or not, or if its just a nipa hut, people are contented when they are eating 3 times a day, as long as the family are in good health. Bills that need to pay monthly are just electric and water. Just few people owns a computer, so you can see a lot of internet cafe' in the city where they can have an internet access. We pay our yearly tax too, but thats just it. I had a credit card before when i was there but i rarely use it. Telephone line is not really a must, but you can see that most filipinos owns a prepaid cellphone. Oh, one thing too, labor is really expensive here, you can not hire a nanny or hire somebody to clean your house because you have to pay them hourly and its really expensive, that is why most houses here owns a machines to help you doing household chores. Unlike there, the labor is really cheap that even the middle class family can hire a nanny and a maid so easily, and plus filipinos are very close family, in one household, usually has an extended family, where relatives and parents live in one house, so its a realtive's responsibility too in helping you doing some household chores and specially in taking care of your baby.

In my own opinion, why filipinos still going back to the philippines in spite of tthe good life they have here, well, first, since filipinos are very close family ties, they want their family to enjoy what they have too, its not perfect when your family is far. Second, though you have everything here, nobody will help you, still its hard when no one helps you here and third, it seems you will work until you die, as you need to pay a lot of bills, but when you work hard and earned enough money, its the best way to invest and spend your dollar in the philippines since the value of a dollar in exchange to philippine peso is really high, so when you live there, you live like a king, and whats more inportant, is you will be with your family too....No matter what the status of your life as long the family are together, happy and in good health.....life is a lot better......This is just all my opinion, based on what i saw and experienced too.