Is that all Filipino’s use the same currency as you put it stupidity, does that broad brush include all our spouses? Your right I have not lived there, however my wife has a daughter and grand daughter and aged father living there so I am somewhat abreast albeit from a distance of the trials and tribulations of life over there. I suppose the obvious is for the op to ask the school about medical cover and insurance for the trip as he won’t find the true answer on here,just opinion with forum foundation,
I worked for a company in Brunei and all the technicians were given fake degree certificates. This has gone on all the time. Companies will do anything to fulfill contracts.
Me an ma big mooth haha, Yes I'm tarring all Filipinos with that same broad brush and that includes my partner there the mother of my son, she has a college degree, but that is just a Mickey Mouse certificate, she is a nice sensible woman and a great Mum to our Son but her education leaves a lot to be desired, she does have a placid nature and quite the opposite from the Fire Breathing Dragon I was married to for 36yrs. Your lovely Wife will likely have the same attributes and I'm sure you made the right choice with her. I suppose I may have put it in a nicer way and said; most if not all Filipinos suffer from Arrested Development, the education system there is just Shyte even in the private sector and that continues right up through to University, it is said the average IQ there PH is around 86 but I'm sure this figure is not factual and likely to be less than that? I sometimes wonder if the standard High Carb low Protein diet there has some bearing on this and that perhaps their brains are undernourished? When I read your post it was glaringly obvious to me that you had never spent any long duration of time there and you have since confirmed that.
.......................... The Alpha male is wounded in his bolt hole in Scotland, in his view all builders in the Philippines are thick, all lawyers are thick and corrupt, all teachers are thick and stupid, and all backtracked to most Filipinos are stupid, me wonders why he didnt stay put and put the whole country to right. Talking about tarring and maligning a whole countries population, maybe it should be alleged all Scots are cheating, lying, fraudulent buffoons aka their former first minister and her husband. Just saying like!
Spoken from a man that lives in total ignorance of the reality of living in PH. Any Foreigner that has lived there for a longer term, would at least part agree with much of what I have said here, even my own views had been somewhat coloured from white settlers that had arrived there long before me, I have known guys with 20 to 30 years of experience of the life there and we all share this same general consensus of opinion. Never will you hear me saying it is a bad country with bad people, I would much rather live there than here in Scotland, my only warning to anyone going to live there for the long term would be to keep your expectations low and not to expect premium healthcare if the need arises, much better to return to the home country if possible.
I would tend to agree, the waivers I have to sign are because there is no insurance, the fees I pay are not enough to have the school also paying part of those fees to insurance, my son's fees were 47,000 peso last year with a government grant of 18,000 peso that brought the cost down to 29,000 and that's good, but that is a tiny amount of money about £700 last year (47,000) my eldest daughter works in an English private school at a salary of about £55,000 a year plus some pension where the students parents are paying in the region of £15,000 to £20,000 per term. She takes her students on adventures but they are insured. Is their education poor in the Philippines, I'm not so sure, I've looked at my son and daughter's coursework and some of it is actually ahead of where I was in 1973 specifically in the technical subjects, the quality of marking on the other hand is another matter I'm not sure they are assessed as hard as we were back 50 years ago but I also wonder if UK kids are assessed as hard either these days. They are tackling the same subjects to the same degree as most kids over the last umpteeen decades, their private schools have class sizes that match european state schools or rather UK schools, it can be above 30 kids in a class and maybe 40 kids in a class clearly you make more money in big classes, UK private schools have smaller class sizes but honestly I don't see the value from those UK private schools, I've met lots and they aren't any better educated than me. On the dangers of medical advice there I also tend to agree.
Thank You, I did enjoy reading your post, it is clear to me you have experience of living in the Philippines and I respect your views, especially as you are a Scotsman, although they do differ from mine on the subject of the education standards there and perhaps you are in a better position than myself to give this opinion? Before moving over to PH to live I had read this book with the title; A mans guide to living and finding Love in the Philippines, this was written by a guy named Larry Elterman, he was from US but smarter than your average US Bear, I was to have a chance meeting with Larry in person at a later date, his opinion of the Education standard there in PH suggested this to be of poor quality? further discussions with many other Ex-pats on this same subject leads me to think Larry may well be correct? for sure the standard of the mainstream Government Schools is low, with too much religious instruction, singing, dancing and clapping hands. Larry was an interesting Guy quite the Authority on Suzuki Multicabs he did a few You Tube Videos on his DIY projects, he died fairly young a few years ago, here is a link to one of his Videos; Cutting Straight Lines with a Jigsaw – What Works, What Doesn’t – Spoiler: Guides (Fences) Don't. - Bing video
Here is my own experience with the medical services there in PH. 6yrs ago when I was living in Mactan I developed severe pain in my knees and calf muscles and this would wake me in the middle of the night and I had to get up and walk around for 20mins to relieve this, I attended the fairly new and considered top hospital in Cebu for tests Chuong Haui or similar spelling, this went on for a couple of days and I had every expensive test possible including an MRI also I had consulted with 3 different specialists this cost me around P30K in total only to be told I was a Fat B@stard wearing the wrong shoes, which were Merrel Sandals. The Docs there were just a bunch of Quacks, this turned out to be a simple problem easily fixed, they had me on a few different pain killers but none were all that effective. A friend of mine on hearing this story asked what I was using to which I said Tramadol, he then told me; DO NOT use them as prescribed and instead of taking one in the morning take two after breakfast, this gives you a bit of a hit and you may feel light headed for a short period, next day I had the two after one hour I was able to walk as normal (I had been limping before this) and almost forgot about the pain, also this was the first night I had a good night sleep for a month, next day I did two in the morning followed by one every 4hrs after, that second day I walked a couple of miles, next day I did not feel the need for the Tramadol and that cured me of my problem for a long time in spite of the fact I continued to wear this same type of sandal, it had been suggested for me to wear Trainers these I do not like, in my view they are only for invalids in wheelchairs who are perhaps not in control of their faculties or people playing sport? Around 2 years after this, the problem started again but this time was a much bigger problem with one knee not being able to take any weight on it, fortunately I was back in UK, my GP sent me to a Physiotherapist and there a proper Diagnoses was given, I had Bungalow Knees a condition brought on by not using stairs for many years, simple cure, 3 times a day walk up and down a flight of stairs, in my case there was only two steps into my Bungalow, so 3 times a day I stepped up and down these 10 times, after around 5 days the problem was resolved. 3 different Filipino specialists had looked to my problem and not one could come up with this simple cure, in my view they are just a bunch of Charlatans. So there you have it, not such a good idea to find a house to retire in that does not have stairs, this I did at aged 50yrs and aged 64 the problems started, I guess being a Fat B@stard does not help?
Google: "School camps are a great opportunity for children to learn independence skills like how to look after themselves and do things on their own. Most children rise to the challenge and learn to rely on themselves when they spend time away from family and their home." What can I say... disaster from a development point of view: very filipino with my wife probably one of the worst for making sure her tent was pitched near to our son so she could ensure he didn't get his bed and clothes too dirty etc. etc! Impossible to keep the parents away from the children as the venue was so small and there were only 2 crs and showers for about 150 people! Pissed down Saturday night and Sunday morning
You and the boy maybe could do Mt Apo?I just found his pic of “base camp-1” 20’ish years ago when I did it.
As wild camping is largely illegal in England,Wales and Ireland,we have decided to explore the Scottish wilderness along the Western coast this year. Really looking forward to it.
So you're going on holiday flying from the warm cosy visayas to the bleak coasts and landscapes of my homeland. Enjoy! Argyll Keillmore Loch Awe Loch Awe Kylesku
Scotland is so beautiful. I love the top photo, Jim Loch Awe is aptly named too. I drove a truck to Inverness once and the accent was so soft compared to Glaswegian. I thought about moving up there once but there wasn't a lot of Class 1 artic work and the pay was low compared to the Midlands of England. Driving up to Inverness was memorable.
Yes, it's the healthcare over there that scares the pants off me. Even the cost and availabilty of drugs is something to bear in mind.
That Keilmore shot is my second most viewed on Flickr and second most favourited shot on Flickr, I took that 18 years ago this month and all of these have been up there that long. The Keilmore shot got voted into the Delete Me Uncensored group, into their folio, you had to get 10 votes to keep before you got 10 votes to delete and I made it in sadly the DMU group died over bitter arguments many many years ago and the group admins removed the whole thing eventually. Yes the drive up to Inverness is memorable, I was up recently only as far as Perth and then off to the east to see my sister but the Perth to Dundee road is a nice drive but not as spectacular as continuing north from Perth.
