Life in the Philippines
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5Today, June 4th marks the first full year since my wife Tess and I moved from Guam to the Philippines, now the third country I lived in outside the USA for more than one year. There are so many unusual sights here I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world that I thought the regular visitors of this website might like to see them too.
One of the most inconvenient things about life in the Philippines is frequent power outages. I don’t know about Manila or other large cities, but where I live in the province of Northern Samar, power outages are frequent. They can occur anytime, and when they do, we also have no WIFI to connect to the Internet. I keep my laptop charged so I can still do some work on articles even without an Internet connection.
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- The main shopping street in downtown Allen.
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- Human powered tricycle taxi in downtown Allen.
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- Beautiful scenery like this is abundant. This one is Mt. Bulusan across the San Bernadino Strait, a view from Caba Beach, Cabacungan, the city of Allen in Northern Samar.
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- Imaga beach in Northern Samar.
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- Our first vehicle was a 125 CC Honda TX. Since I had the accident and broke a bone in my elbow in September, 2023, we added a sidecar to it so that I would never fall again. At first it was very difficult for me to steer. I nearly ran into a ditch! But I got used to steering it and now I have no problem. My arms got stronger. We now call it a tricycle or a “trike.” It can take up to 3 passengers or more if they are children, and we can haul stuff with it.
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- This rooster is right outside our house next door. They are rised for cock fighting. You see one of its legs is tied to a rope which limits how far he can walk.
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- Another view of the trike. Our gasoline costs monthly are now only 1/5 of what it was in Guam.
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- This is an example of how Filipinos use a sidecar to haul things. Our neigbor Jason is using it to carry tables to another location.
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- This is a popular public mode of tranportation called a Habal-habal. This one is maxed out with pasengers. We rode on them many times.
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- Trikes are also used for public transportation, but as a rule the trike driver won’t take you as far as a habal-habal driver will. a 20-minute ride to town on a habal-habel is a little less than one US dollar.
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- This is another type of tricycle with the front wheel in the center. I hear it’s much easier to steer than one with a sidecar like ours.
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- This is a public transportation vehicle called a Jeepney. This one is privately used. I never rode on one because they’re not used here. I saw them in Manila.
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- A man powered trike-taxi! It’s a regular bicycle with a sidecar attached. I think it must take a lot of effort to drive.
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- These soft drink bottles are filled with gasoline! I hear other southeast Asian countries also have them. They are used to gas up motorcycles. I don’t normally buy gasoline here. I’d rather fill up the motobike’s tank from a regular gas station in town, a 20 minute drive from home. I need to go to town at least once a week.
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- Drying newly harvested rice on the road. This one in on a sheet. Sometimes a sheet is not used. There are many stray dogs and they deficate on the roads.
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- English signs are common! I would never see a sign in English like this in Japan or Russia. All eduated people in the Philippines can speak and read English pretty well, much better than most Japanese living in Japan. Even little kids know some English. I heard one little girl say, “What’s that?” But the language they learn at home from their parents is either Tagalog or some other dialect.
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- Tess giving a Bible study to the children.
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- Another children’s Bible study.
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- Teen Bible study. I am sharing my testimony how I started to share the Gospel a few weeks after I got saved in 1971 to my fellow Airmen while stationed at McClellan AFB in Sacramento California.
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- Public WIFI. Just bring your laptop or phone within range of this, log into the WIFi network of the PISO WIFI, put a 5 peso (about 9 cents US) coin in the slot and you get one hour of Internet connectivity.
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- Our Barangay hall. Villages in the Philippines are called barangays. The person who is elected to watch over the barangay is called the barangay captain.
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- Drying clothes on fence.
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- Me on a horse. Besides the two houses I see in the area, there are goats, water buffalo, chickens, ducks, and lots of stay dogs and cats.
See more photos of my area in the Philippines on Scenes of the Philippines
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