Not Even 2 Weeks in Cebu, Philippines Well as some of you know and some of you don’t, I have moved to Cebu City on Cebu Island in the group of islands known as the Visays, which is a regional group of islands inside the country of islands internationally known as the Philippines. I came here on June 2nd, the day after my 2nd brother’s birthday and 18 days before my father’s birthday. As when I moved to Japan, my move was also my first visit, and both moves were arranged for by my employer. This employer, previously in Japan, and currently in the unfortunate global trend of deciding that domestic labor is too expensive, and having previously involuntarily lost a majority of its staff members, has currently decided to relocate here. Since I have always fancied myself as a bit of a traveler, but not actually been traveling much lately, and since this move could provide some valuable experience and possible opportunities, I choose to move also. I say that the global trend is unfortunate because I don’t approve of the outsourcing of IT services. This is the same activity that will make finding a job in the USA difficult when the time comes. However I would rather put myself into a position of possibly using this trend than being abused by it. The first answer I give to the first question I am always asked is “hot, noisy, and dirty”. And the Jeopardy answer is, “what is it like in Cebu?” My second answer is “hot as hell”. If I walk outside I begin to sweat instantly. They also have an annoying tendency to not wear shorts here. I tried to be less conspicuous by not wearing them either, but I’m already conspicuous enough, so I may just try to lead by example and help bring about a clothing revolution, when its hot, wear shorts! The noise is mostly because I am in the middle of the city. I am currently staying in a temporary apartment on the 15th floor of the 16-story Keppel business building where our office is being fitted out. There is a constant din of traffic bellow because the building is situated at one of the busiest intersection in town. What is very nice about this intersection is that it actually has a stoplight. There are a surprisingly few number of stop lights or signs here. Only the main roads are marked very well, and therefore, in a manner similar to Bangkok and probably many other parts of Asia, traffic tends to flow in a free-form ad-hoc manner. To constantly announce their presence in this chaos, the drivers continuously give a honk whenever they feel they may not be noticed by other drivers, and sometimes for seemingly no reason at all. I do not want to drive here, and maybe I will not. Taxi’s are incredibly cheep, costing less than riding the trains in Japan. The dirt is both literal and figurative. Living in the “penthouse” of an office building may give you visions of glamour, but this apartment was infested with cockroaches when I arrived. Only one toilet out of 4 worked. It took over a week for the building manager to have these things fixed. The level of professionalism and customer service is much lower than in Japan. I don’t get the smile and eager help that Japan offers. I could not believe it when a clerk in a shop, who as she was handling my purchase, began talking to someone else with her back turned to me and then slid my purchase across the counter to me without looking at me, as if she was absentmindedly feeding her pet. The pace of life is also just slower. People don’t seem to rush at all. Waiting in line to buy anything was a test of my patience at first but I am adjusting. The contrast between the Philippines and Japan is quite stark. I suffered, and to a lesser degree may still be suffering, culture shock. These complaints, however, seem trivial and petty compared to the grime and poverty visible. From the window in my apartment, I look almost directly down with a bird’s eye view on a shantytown of tightly packed huts constructed with wood, brick, and rusted corrugated metal. From the street level I don’t see misery, but I also haven’t ventured into these places any closer than the view from my air-conditioned taxi. I do see shockingly poor people living in dirty ugly conditions. I would be miserable living like that, but I don’t know what people can become accustomed to. I sometimes think that people can be fairly happy if they have friends and family and don’t buy into the MTV presentation of what our lives should be like. Even so, when I ride in a taxi, often poor beggar children will come up to the window at a stop light and try to sell me fruit, or some trinket, or just beg for money. I ignore them though, so that they will not be encouraged to approach every foreigner they see, but I may try to find a reputable charity organization to contribute to, not out of an honest kindness of my heart, but simply to ease my conscience. However this poverty is even more confusing as it exists side by side with abundance. There are plenty of expensive new SUV’s on the streets. I visited one apartment on a hill overlooking the city, with first-rate facilities and a luxurious appearance, which would cost $2,000 a month in the USA. However here it was only $600 a month. There are plenty of seemingly middle class people in the malls. I go every day to the Ayala mall near my office and inside it is much like any other mall in America or Japan. They have a Gap store, KFC, Pizza hut, McDonalds, half a dozen coffee shops, beauty boutiques, jewelry stores, and electronic stores with huge flat screen plasma TV’s from Japan. This is very familiar territory, but just a little different. The McDonalds serves fried chicken legs with rice. A large Big Mac combo is less than $2. McDonalds and KFC both sell spaghetti. Everywhere in this middle class world things are similar, but expectations are lower. The down button for the Elevator on the 2nd floor didn’t work for days. One of the escalators was not operating for days. The mall directory is in shambles. Store shelves will often be in shambles. So why am I here? Well I hope to see what business opportunities are available. And if we can generate business here by outsourcing software development, then we will be helping the local economy. And even though I am not actually in favor of outsourcing, this is a positive side affect for this country. There are also some excellent opportunists for enjoying nature. They have some really great beaches and diving here. I want to become certified in SCUBA. Hopefully my next letters will be about the beauty and great people I have found here. I do believe they both exist. I have only been here 2 weeks after all, and barely ventured beyond the central city. Do I have any pictures? Yes I have taken some, but mostly just for memory. I don’t have anything interesting enough to share yet. I do hope to put some effort into that in the near future. What about my girlfriend in Japan? We are staying together and I miss her a lot. The first thing I need to do is learn more about this country before I can make any other big decisions. In about a month she is going to come visit me for a few weeks and we are talking about also making a trip to Vietnam for a few days. Why is this letter so long? Good question.