We payed a visit to a female faith healer and religious group leader in barangay Cugman, in sitio Malasag.

We found a sick but faithful lady; a sparsley decorated grotto; a stony Station of the Cross; an aggressive colony of red ants; and a good explanation to think before one is eating at strange places hard-boiled eggs.

Photo report: PHILIPPINE FAITH HEALER

Somewhere near the formerly “Trendline” shop, going the way to Barangay Nazareth, there is a “sikad”-terminal. Sikads waiting there for passengers from Cogon market, Osmena Street, Gaisano and other stores going to Nazareth.

A young lady showed up when I was taking picutres and started interviewing the sikad drivers. Sorry, but I don’t know the purpose of the survey.

Or are you already planing to stay here with your dream girl for good and want to know how to deal with her family?

Want to know about moving to the Philippines? Want to know about living in the Philippines? Want to know about Philippines Retirement?

“PHILIPPINE DREAMS” tells it as Perry Gamsby saw it, up close and very personal. From dealing with the frustrations of buying from a department store to the thigh slapping fun of a Filipino Fiesta. From trike drivers to vulcanizing shops, Filipino culture and society is examined through the eyes of an expat who experienced a lot including buying and selling- land, cars, boats and businesses; births, deaths, marriages, separations, accidents, elections and Manila traffic.

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What to say when the familiy press for money
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then
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I had been wondering why everybody around didn’t mind for me this burning ship in the port of Cagayan de Oro City. When I asked about it, everybody smiled and said, I shouldn’t worry, when this vessel is in town it’s always like this. It is just smokebelching.

I took this picture and murmured to myself something like, why not make a tourist attraction if nobody minds it.

Some years ago, we cut a coconut palm tree close to the house and a huge stump kept left. Today, this stump became the focus of a domestic event when the son of my wife discovered Larvae of the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle in it.

They understood, these larvaes are a rich resource in protein and they wanted to get at it. With a bar, a machete, and a jar equipped, three of them started to pull the delicacies from the old stump of that coconut tree.

A few information about the Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros:
The Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle is a pest and attacks coconut palms and other palms in the South Pacific since it was unintentionally introduced to Samoa from Sri Lanka in the year 1909.

The female Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle lays eggs in rotten tree stumps or logs as well as in other organic materials like sawdust. Here develop the eggs in 8-12 days into larvaes. The larvaes feed in another 82-207 days on the dead wood or organic material. After that they will pupate in 8-13 days. The pupatation will happen in a cell of wood or soil.

The three “harvested” very carefully, they didn’t want to damage the delicasies.

Those Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle larvaes are in the stadium of feeding and growing.

This Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle larvae had gone already into retreat in a cell in still hardwood for pupatation, but it didn’t do her anything good.

Also this toad got disturbed in its hiding place and in the end frustrated, jumped to find another place.

Now, the protein, phosphor, and calzium rich insects arrived in the kitchen. Here they will be cleaned with a lot of water.

With garlic, salt, and pepper they are fried to a crispy delicacy.

Enjoy your meal! This has been protein rich day for today. Insects are not really on our menu at home. I was able to hold back and surrendered my share to the others.

To live with Filipinos in one neighborhood is for a foreigner living here as an expat not an easy task.  Especially when some of the neighbors are uneducated and most of the time drunk and their children are liars.

Today I walked with our two German Shepards from our house in Cugman to Mapawa in Sitio Malasag. After passing the Office of the DENR there is a house to the right. They have three or four azkals roaming around their place. Those azkals comming from their house down to the public road and trying to attack our dogs. I walk already all the time on the far side of the road but it will not help. Those azkals comming false and sneaky from the back. High breed dogs don’t bark like azkals do, they turn around and bite. I gave my dogs some leeway to fend for themselves and our male German Shepard grabbed the closest of the azkals who started screeming. Two or three other azkals tried to bite my dog in the legs but the second German Shepard got another one to bite. The daughter of the houseowner watched it from their windows. I didn’t want to touch the azkals, I don’t believe their dogs are vaccinated so I dragged my dogs forward until they let the azkals go.

Here is a little video coverage from 2010 when the dogs of his relatives 200 meters away and the dogs from the DENR office attacked us. There has still not changed a little bit except, the dogs of the DENR are almost quiet now.

I continued my walk. When I was having coffee at a store close to the Balate tree in Malasag a blue limousine passed by and out of the window looked an angry face I don’t even know. I was wondering why he turned at the Balate tree and went back. The meaning, I recognized when I passed by that house with the azkals again. There was sitting the houseowner on his habal-habal motor with a large stick waiting for me. When I passed by he didn’t say anything. When I had passed a few meters, I heard a crashing stone close to me. He had thrown a large stone to me or just on the cemented road I don’t know. After that he followed me with his motorbike and big stick, but just passed by without saying a word. By that time I didn’t know he was stone-drunk.

After I came home I told the story and my wife went down to confront him what the meaning of this stone throwing and stick wielding was all about. When she came back, she said, he was stone druck and couldn’t be talked to. I didn’t recognize it. But in the aftermath I’m wondering they let in Cugman the habal-habal driver drive drunk passengers. Anyway, I don’t use habal-habal because of unsafe, uninsured, illegal operations of transport of persons and now I know even drunk drivers.

According to him, his daughter told him, I let the dogs lose and they even came into their house what is absolutly not true. A man by the DENR office has witnessed the whole thing. Their house is about 20 meters from the road. I would have had hard time to catch my to dogs once they are in selfdefense mood. We are responsible dog owners, we walk our dogs on a leash. I would not let the dogs lose so long as I can see, they can handle the problem. If there would be another large dog, let say, a Rottweiler, I would let my dogs lose because they would have more leeway to fend for themselves if they owner of the other dog is not around.

My point now is, why the daughter is  telling a lie to the father? Or did he misunderstood her because he was drank? Why the people at the DENR office, when I passed by again, tell the houseowner: “There are the dogs who bite your dogs”? Why they didn’t say to the houseowner: “There are the dogs, your azkals attacked on the road?” What did the houseowner mean by throwing that big stone? Was it a declaration of war to me? Was it just the behavior like a primate because of drunkness?

They have all the right to keep dogs on their property, but I think,even in the Philippines, a public road belongs to the public and should kept safe for everyone or I’m wrong here?

Our dogs are big, yes. But the difference to most of the azkals is not only their size. It is training. Our dogs listen and respond to commands. Their azkals, they call them by name, but they don’t respond, so the owner throw stones at them, hahahaha very nice training indeed. We can walk our dogs in a crowd and nothing will happen. Do that with an azkal. Five or more children will touch and pet them, nothing will happen. Our dogs are protectors of the weak, they will even help them when attacked by instinct. The azkals only stay at their places because someone feed them leftovers or worse. Our dogs can sit beside a table full with food and they will not touch it. Do that with an azkal, they will be over the table in no time.

These people live there by the road for years, now they believe the road belongs to them. If they can’t argue anymore, they tell you they are poor. What has to be poor to be with this issue? It’s just irreal. I have plenty friends who are poor but they are decent people

What is the problem with the Filipino mentality? For all the twenty years I lived in the Philippines, nothing much has changed. In principle, Filipinos never make a mistake, Filipinos are never wrong, it’s always others.

Mabuhay – Neighbors. Have fun in the Philippines!

A few images of our dogs and their behaviour in crowded public places:

These people holding our dogs and sitting close to them actually all strangers to them.

Even to other high-breed dogs they are not agressive but curious at each other and their is a communiction between them, only with two large males someone should be careful.

Even to sit at a table in the night cafe, there is no problem with our dogs. They will have their water and otherwise they will wait for something extra we will give them.

Totally strange people hold the leash and can pet the dogs. The don’t accept them as their master but as equals.

These dogs love children and will even protect them from harm. Can be tricky if the parents will raise their hand to slap a child.

One more interessting thing to know about intelligent dogs, they will know by instinct a bad person and show their dislike mostly by growling at them.

This year’s Maudy Thursday and Holy Friday brought back more or less the same people as last year. The same groups of pilgrims, the same vendors and many of the same faithfull walking all the way from crossing of the National Highway in Cugman up to the curch of Malasag to do the Station of the Cross.

This year, the church must have decided, the abuse of the vendors and some curios but not religious people from last year must have been enough and didn’t allow them to put up their business on the big plaza in front of the church and school in Malasag.

My photoreport is already from from last year but I’m only able to publish it in english now. There has been not much recognizable changes.

How I experienced Maudy Thursday and the Night to Holy Friday at the Station of the Cross in Malasag

Happy Easter to all Friends!

On Easter Sunday with a landscape photo taken at the edge of the re-forest area in Malasag and F. S. Catanico in the city of Cagayan de Oro. The area is uninhibited and belongs to the watershed of Cagayan de Oro. There is only one family living in a house for a few kilometers around and they are the forest guards.

The view is from the Malasag mountains to the east into the province of Bukidnon on the island of Mindanao. Barangay F. S. Catanico and Macajalar Bay would be to the left.

When Filipinos have foreign guests, they don’t want to let them ride in the local transportations like Jeepney, motorela or sikad. They believe it is not befitting their social status or maybe they are ashamed to be seen together with a foreigner riding a jeepney. But do they imagine what their guests are missing, if they let them only use taxi cabs? Getting in contact and closer to the locals. I always enjoy it with my limited knowledge of the local dialect called “bisayan”, but I always earn some funny glances when I order the jeepney driver in the dialect to stop and look at my fellow passengers, who has been talking about me loud and just recognize that I must have understood what they said when I disembark.

I myself enjoy again and again a jeepney ride so long as there is nowhere to find outside or inside something like “ONLY IN GOD I TRUST”. Sorry, but I will not have a ride in this jeepney. Certainly it will be one of this kamikaze like drivers who has no driving skills and just believes a dozen or so of the guardian angels and God himself will take care of his driving. But otherwise, I enjoy a five kilometer drive like this one from the Cogon market to barangay Cugman.

However, when I took a jeepney to town another day, and the jeepney was almost empty in the back, just me, but the passengers insisted to sit with the driver in the front seat, I had to smile to myself. They had some fun like kids.

YOU WANT TO KNOW?

What life can really be like in the
Philippines
How to know when your Filipina is punishing you and why
What to say when the familiy press for money
What it is really like to live and die here
then
"PHILIPPINE DREAMS" is the resource you need.
Forewarned is Forearmed!
Click Here!

I found this place in Barangay Macabalan while looking for an internet cafe. On first sight it looked so nice to me. No dirty street, no smokebelching cars, only a nice path for pedestrians beside a nice greens.

When I took a closer look, the greens became a shallow overgrown canal with dirty waste waters.

Would this place not look nice and beautiful when the water would have been clean and freely flowing, some benches to relax.

Dreaming. Have fun in Philippines. Maybe dreams come true one day.