Taking Life A Day At A Time

[Mr Lee]

I am going to bump this topic back up to see if any of you wish to share some of your life's story. 

[parksb2]

So reading this I ask myself can you handle time without purpose? At 42 we're in Canada and if I didn't have something meaningful to do day in day out I'd go stir crazy. As a foreigner in Cebu most expats I met were 1. Retired and had already adopted a different lifestyle; not something I want at this time. 2. Involved in shady businesses ie. loan sharking, gambling, pyramid schemes, export businesses that looked like fronts for drugs. 3. Running a legit business that was a cash drain and gave their relatives free food and lodging.4. Employed in a low paying job outside of their skill set. Employed foreigners I met were few, granted my stay was short ~ 5months. But the most legit offer I had would have had was teaching English to arrogant Korean kids, for ~ 12,000 php/mth a job I wouldn't have taken at 10 fold that salary, or a call center at 15,000 or so php. Neither really appealing..There's only so much time I can surf the internet, swim, walk a mall, yak about importing/exporting goods, sweat getting burned on capital investments etc... So I guess I find this thread interesting but put the question out there..(semi-hijack of the thread) What is there to do in the Phils that can offer not similar pay but "feel" to North American employment? Shipyard work in Balambam? ;)

[ekimswish]

Employed foreigners I met were few, granted my stay was short ~ 5months. But the most legit offer I had would have had was teaching English to arrogant Korean kids, for ~ 12,000 php/mth a job I wouldn't have taken at 10 fold that salary, or a call center at 15,000 or so php. Neither really appealing..There's only so much time I can surf the internet, swim, walk a mall, yak about importing/exporting goods, sweat getting burned on capital investments etc... So I guess I find this thread interesting but put the question out there..(semi-hijack of the thread) What is there to do in the Phils that can offer not similar pay but "feel" to North American employment? Shipyard work in Balambam? ;)

At 28 years old, I'm in a similar spot: I gotta work! I've taught English in Taiwan and Korea the last 6 years and made decent money. The problem now is I have a toddler and an infant, and we're starved of any support system. Single mothers in the US probably have more freedom from their kids than we do! Not saying I'd trade places, but we have no one to babysit, so parenting has been a 24/7 job for us for nearly 3 years now with our only break coming during visits to the Philippines. The irony of that is, although we have plenty of babysitters in the Philippines, I'm kind of babysitting them with lodging and meals, and they add to our space. So I want to move to the Philippines where my kids and wife can enjoy a normal life with friends and family and a language they understand. It'll be me, the wife, our two young daughters, and her two older kids living together. The nanny told people she's going to live with us, but we're saying no. But the only way any of this can happen is if we can make money in the Philippines. As you've found already, employees aren't worth much. You have to be a business owner. We've got a pig farm started, and things are looking good. Sure there're a lot of bumps here and there, but I'm confident they won't stop us - not that they couldn't. If the pig farm fails, we'll have to try another business. But the bottom line is, you gotta do your own thing, and in the Philippines, agriculture ain't a bad idea. If everything else fails, maybe we'll teach in Taiwan again, or try our hand back in Canada. But right now our hearts are set on the Philippines, and our minds are set on business. As far as leisure goes, ain't no problem as long as you like basketball, pool, water sports, or cockfighting. Edited August 11, 2010 by ekimswish