Living in the Philippines During June of 2011

June 4th 2011

I’ve been very busy during the first few days of June.  Working on this website and the many others that I have going.  I can get it all done. I have several other sites about living in the Philippines but I’m spending more time on this one as well as websites that have nothing to do with living in the Philippines.

I’m behind on my next update to the Basic Expat Training Manual.  I’ll have to get on the ball and get that done. I’ve done a lot but needs to be integrated into the book mostly now.  That is a tedious job and I don’t do tedious very well.

It took an extra day to send money to the Philippines this month.  Not because Xoom was slow but because my bank took an extra day to make the posted to my account.

It is time for me to stop putting off calling my insurance company and get that hospital stay done that I’ve been putting off for just a little while, as in three years.  I need to get some test done, nothing really going on out of the ordinary and they do the test on an inpatient bases here.  I hate telephones with a passion.  I don’t know why but I just do.

Since I’ve been living in the Philippines, I have not been going to the doctor the way I should be.

Living In The Philippines June 15, 2011

Hospital Stay in The Philippines

I called the insurance company.  Everything has changed.  Now it has to be setup from the hospital.  I think I’ll have to pay for it and get reimbursed.  I sure hope not.  I will do it in August.

I saw a doctor here in Bogo City a few months ago, she was bothered that I hadn’t had any blood test. I think she called my doctor in Cebu because the next time Jessie went down to get my prescriptions, he ordered some blood test.  That has always worried me. I don’t know why he didn’t do that before. Maybe he thought I couldn’t pay for it.  Though some of the test for lupus are very expensive!

Robbed by A Ghost

Last night, Jessie went downstairs to get my cigarettes and found that someone had stolen seven packs. I know it is likely the same people stealing from us before and Jessie thinks it is the neighborhood kids. I’ve said no more, they are not allowed back here.

Later she said, it is odd they stole only the cigarettes, maybe the ghost took them!  She reasoned that food is something humans would steal and they didn’t take any food. Cigarettes can be sold on the street. I’m willing to entertain the idea that we have ghost in the house, but I’m not ready to buy into the idea that they are stealing from me.

I want to quit so bad. I really do want to quite smoking.  I hate it!  I tried the other day, lasted about only half a day which is good for me.  Maybe I should get locked up for a week or something. No, I wont go do something to get locked up. But I really need and want to stop smoking!

Living In The Philippines June 15, 2011

Brownouts In Northern Cebu

We had a short brownout a day or two ago.  Didn’t last long, no big deal.  It is nice that we are not having them every day or every week.  We’ve had almost none in the last six weeks or longer!  Keep up the good work Cebu.

Living In The Philippines June 22, 2011

It is now June 22nd about 2:30AM and I wish I was sleepy. We just had a brownout but I don’t think it was because of a lack of capacity. I did at first because the power shut off at 1am, almost exactly. That usually means a brownout due to capacity issues.

After a little more than an hour, I heard a chain saw in the distance, it wasn’t long after that electricity was restored. So, it must have been a tree or part of one that fell. Hopefully it wasn’t someone having to much fun and having power poles jump out in front of them on their way home.

The power company here doesn’t seem to do a lot of preventative maintenance like most places do in the USA. I’ve never seen a utility truck cutting back branches before they happen. I doubt power lines and transformers get replaced after a certain number of years like they do in the US. Perhaps that is wasteful to do. So I wont say which is better.

At least it was at night and not so hot.

There is another tropical storm passing by the central part of the Philippines. It is not causing a lot of issues for those of us living in Cebu. However, it is expected to impact North East Luzon which is typhoon ally. This could become a typhoon before it strikes the Philippines but right now, it is expected to make landfall as a tropical storm and then take a direct bead on Taiwan but not until it has become a category one typhoon.

From my casual obersvations, it seems the people living in Taiwan have to deal with typhoons even more than people living in the Philippines.

Expats Living In The Philippines and The Federal Reserve Board Meeting

The Federal Reserve Board is meeting this week in the USA and expats in the Philippines are very interested in what is said at the press conferrence. I don’t think there will be anything shocking but I do think it will cause enough negative market sentiment that the dollar will head down again.  I have no idea for how long the dollar to Philippine peso rate will fall but I think it will.  Currency traders though, they are monitoring every word that comes out, hoping for positive news but I don’t think they are expecting it.

What does a Fed meeting have to do with living in the Philippines? Well an expats standard of living in the Philippines is substantially less when the dollar falls from 50 to 42 peso per 1 USD. I worry but I shouldn’t because there is nothing I can do about it.

Living In The Philippines 06/26/11

Yesterday, pretty little and sweet disposition Filipina showed up at our house again. She’s 18, a newly wed with a one month old baby. Her husband has been beating her. She had a black eye. Jessie took her to the police station. Lot of things came out there. She may loose her baby and probably should. The police tried to contact the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) but no agent could be reached.

They made her husband sign a paper to indicate he would be jailed the next time he hit her. Family is still king in the Philippines. The police do not like to meddle in family matters. I don’t think it will help. It isn’t the first time he has hit her.

I don’t know what is going to happen with the child. Hopefully, they will work with her for now. She has too much on her and I can understand her poor actions but there is no excuse to harm a baby. The girl just wants to be loved. Which seems to guide her whole life.

Her 17 year old sister was lured into working as a “Guest Relations Officer” this month by her cousins. Her father had the DWSD take her into custody. She is one very pretty little girl. Still a little girl though for a few more months. She wants to work for me and I wanted to hire her but was unwilling to do so because of her age.

Both girls have almost no education.

Last night Jessie was amused with her four year old son. They were eating and talking and he suddenly chimed in with “Hush up and eat.” He followed that up this morning by telling her to “Close the door slowly.”

Living in The Philippines June 28th

Well the month is almost gone. It looks like this month, Jessie’s PC is dying or perhaps the monitor but it is acting very strange. In any case it has left her in a foul mood.  Next month will include the addition of a new PC, a trip to Palawan unless something goes very wrong.

Mentioned in A Philippine Paper

Norman Sison of the PhilStar recently wrote a article about cigars in the Philippines and included a section about me.

His article includes :

For American expat Rusty Ferguson, who moved to Cebu in 2008, one of his reasons for retiring in the Philippines is not just the beaches and English being the lingua franca, among others – but also the cigars. “The quality compares and, to some, exceeds those made in Cuba,” the native of the American south attests in his blog (www.cebuexperience.com), which encourages foreigners to retire in the Philippines. “I wish they were not so good and so fun to smoke.” Ferguson’s Facebook photo shows him puffing like a don.

I’ve been struggling this month to quit smoking cigarettes and I have no succeeded at all. I’m failing miserably and it is really sad because, my health is falling apart as a result. I don’t write about it much at all because, I’m ashamed that I got back on cigarettes. I tried to quit smoking cigars about a year ago and all I managed to do was start smoking cigarettes instead.

Expat Living In The PhilippinesOkay, maybe I should just settle for smoking only cigars. I will try that on my next attempt. I’d really like to continue living in the Philippines a lot longer and I’m really not doing well in recent months. If I don’t quit, I won’t be living any place. I have frequent chest infections and having major problems with circulation. Lupus and diabetes brings those to me anyway and smoking, well, it compounds that infinity.  I’m very upset with myself.  Very sad over this issue to be honest.  I’m not giving up though, I hate failure but one cannot fail unless they try.

Another Ghost Story

There have been a few times when I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door very faintly. Our yaya does that, she knocks so softly one can barely here it. These knocks though, they come late at night when no one should be awake and no one is at the door. Last night, I’m quite sure I heard a knock but Jessie didn’t hear it.  She went to check but someone how I knew there would be no one there. This time though, I’m quite certain I did hear it. Okay, since I’ve been living in the Philippines there have just been too many ghostly like things going on. I now believe that something is going on.

So this raps up another month of living in the Philippines.

I’ve started a series of articles, a journal of living in the Philippines for each month. This is the second article in that series. You can read last months entry at  Living In The Philippines May 2011.

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