Life in the PI, Part One

Living in the Philippines is amazing! However, it's very different than living in the United States and I thought I'd share a few of those differences in the next couple of posts.

Here is a view from our second-floor apartment window, just above my computer desk. (You can see the top of my computer monitor in the lower left corner of the picture.) I'll spend more time covering life outside our apartment in the next post, but I'm going to stay inside the apartment for the remainder of this one.

Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pay their own mission expenses. We pay $750/month for our apartment and $150/month for our mission car. Right now we have a Hyundai Creta, but the mission also owns a Hyundai Staria van, a Hyundai Santa Fe, and a Nissan Navara pickup. Add to this our remaining living expenses, such as food, medical insurance, travel costs, and miscellaneous expenses, and we spend around $2700/month. We have a nice apartment, as you can see in earlier blog posts. Now, on to the differences!

The first big difference experienced while living in the Philippines is that foreigners, like us, cannot drink the water without getting ill. This affects so many things. We use bottled water in our apartment and at the mission office, and you can drink water in high-end, tourist-centric restaurants, but that's about it. We brush our teeth with bottled water, we cook with bottled water, and although we wash our dishes in tap water, we rinse them in Clorox-treated rinse water. (See kitchen sink photo below.) Since you don't know if the water is safe, you shy away from ordering salad unless you're at an expensive restaurant (what did they rinse the lettuce in?), you don't pour your soda pop into a glass full of ice (where did the ice come from?), and you tend to avoid street food altogether (where did they get the ice and water used in that mango smoothie that looks so good?), unless it is well cooked.

Another big difference is that you pour shelf-stable milk on your cereal and drink it with your cookies. That's not a big deal for some people, but I love fresh milk and it's tough to go without it. We found fresh milk in Cebu during the short time we lived there, but here in Dumaguete it's tough to find and isn't really that fresh. On the plus side, you can buy a Magnum bar for about $1.25, which is much cheaper than in Europe or the USA! (Doug Earl, take note!)

Milk aside, the food here is pretty good, but you'll discover more animal parts in your entree than you're used to. The beef is generally not good, but the chicken is fresh and cheap and delicious! (McDonald's fried chicken, with rice and gravy, is amazing!) The pork is also good; just watch out for fat and skin. Fish is plentiful and generally very good. Fruit and vegetables are a mixed bag, except for the mangoes, which are terrific. When I say a mixed bag, I only mean that many of the fruits and vegetables are way different than what we're used to, and we don't quite know how to prepare them yet. There are lots of bakeries, although the numerous, inexpensive bakeries you see everywhere seem to use the same dough for every item. You'll see lots of different shapes and colors filling the display cases, but they all taste the same. Nicer bakeries have great options, though.

The next big difference is that it's hot. Really hot and really humid. I don't remember it being hot when I served here as a 19-year-old missionary, but it's hot now. Luckily, the heat and humidity don't bother me very much, but it's hard on Sister Cutler. She needs her air conditioning. Typically, each room in a nice apartment or hotel has a wall-mounted unit. The churches have air-conditioned chapels, cultural halls, and sometimes one or two classrooms. Our mission office has great air conditioning, as does our car. The malls are air-conditioned, but they aren't quite cool enough, and the same goes for most nice restaurants. Everyplace else is hot.

The water is not hot. However, each shower is our apartment (and in nicer hotels) has an on-demand water heater. Each toilet in our apartment, our office, the church, most hotels, etc., has a hand-held bidet, which I've really come to appreciate! It seems so much cleaner than using toilet paper only, like we're used to in the States. Also, most restaurants have a cool feature: besides having restrooms, there is usually an open area (generally near the restrooms) with a sink, soap, and either paper towels or a hand-dryer. It's perfect for washing your hands before and after eating.

The final difference I'll mention is the laundry experience. There are paid laundry services everywhere. They charge by the kilo (about $4.00 for ten to twelve pounds of clothing/towels/sheets) and that's for washing, drying, and folding. Ironing shirts is extra. We have a washing machine in our apartment, but it's very small and only accommodates four or five shirts, or a couple of pairs of pants, or two bath towels. (I placed a can of soup on the clothes washer for a size reference in the photo.) We hang the clothes on an indoor rack to dry.

I'm sure there are dozens of other differences in day-to-day indoor life, but that's enough for tonight. Next time I'll talk about driving in the Philippines (the Philippine Islands, or the PI, a common expression I used in the title of this post), public transportation, shopping, and other outdoor differences.

Until then, know that we pray for you each and every day, that we appreciate your support, and that we know God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. Here is a short saying our mission president taught us:

• Faith is the Power
• Love is the Motive
• The Spirit is the Key
• Obedience is the Price
• Christ is the Reason

I think these are good words to live by. Til next time!

Extra pictures:

Kitchen counter and sink with Clorox-treated rinse water next to the dish drainer.

Toilet with hand-held bidet.

Clothes rack for drying.