I got an email from somebody regarding a wife’s privilege when they married a US military man. And what would the wife get if the husband cheated on her and what would be taken away from the husband over cheating on the wife, like a rank and privileges? I am asking you kind- hearted military men some advice for Laura’s sister. She needs help on what to do since she’s living here in the Philippines and the guy lives in the States. Just read the email below and you know what I mean. Thank you guys for the help as always: GOD BLESS!!!

Military Wives

Dear Feyma,

How are you? I came across your blog. I’ve been reading when I have a chance. I am corresponding with a US military guy. Since knowing what happened to my sister I am now contemplating of continuing my relationship with my boyfriend. But I am writing to you regarding the dilemma of my sister. My sister married her husband less than 5 years ago now. They had a child. They decided that my sister and the kid will just stay here in the Philippines and let the kid study here until he finishes up his military service. So my sister’s husband stays in the States. They’ve been doing good until just recently. My sister emailed her hubby and he won’t answer her email and he changed his cell phone number in the States. My sister was suspecting that he had an affair with a girl from a different state. He keeps on traveling there before when they still had contact. He reasons out its for the job. But now my sister thinks its really for the other woman.

He is still financially supporting his child with my sister. It really devastates my sister. I could see she’s depressed and keeps crying. My parents told my sister to try to contact the head of the military and maybe they will do something about it. I don’t really ask my sister but I think her husband has a higher rank in the military. My sister now just wants the continued support for the kid’s education until the kid graduates. The kid starts to go to school soon. Private schooling in the Philippines is really expensive. Well, I don’t have to tell you that your kids go to private school so you know the cost.

My sister really is not sure if the husband will support the kid. She thinks the husband has child with the mistress. So I guess she really wants to know if she could get the husband kicked out from the military. Does having an affair make a good grounds to be kicked out from the military? Really too many questions my sister needs some answers right now. We as family just don’t know what to tell her. But we are here to support her. My parents really had a hard time too seeing my sister go through hard times right now. Thank you for reading my email… Laura

Hi Laura,

Thank you so much for writing. To be honest I don’t really know what to tell you. My darling Bob is not a military man. So I don’t really know the rules of the military personnel. But I am sharing your email to our regular readers and the regular people that comment here. Some of them were retired military guys and some were still in the military. I’m sure they will give their thoughts on these matter. I hope that your sister’s husband will be talking to your sister soon for the sake of the kid. If they had problem they should resolve before the kid gets older. I hope your sister will not really go into deep depression. She had to think positively. I know it’s not easy to do. I hope for the best for your sister Laura. We all pray for her and the child.

Take care and God bless! Feyma

The housing prices that I’m going to tell you were mostly based on our experience in living here. When we first moved here we lived in GenSan for 2 years. We rented a really nice ranch house there. It was owned by a friend’s friend, the guy was from Europe and the lady was from GenSan. They decided to move back to Europe after living in the Philippines for awhile. So we’re the first renter after they left. The rent was cheap it was Php 11,500 per month. We were happy with the owner and the owner was happy that we rented it. We really liked the house a lot even though lacking of room for Bob’s office. Bob was renting an office in town and the rent was cheap at that time too.

Real Estate in Davao

After 2 years we decided to move to Davao City. Here in Davao we rented like a duplex house. We were paying the same as what we are paying in our house in GenSan. But after just 6 months we decided to move to a bigger house. Bob and a friend were driving one day and found a big house in Marfori area. We paid bigger than what we are paying for a duplex but its okay. We are loving the house with big yard and big rooms for us and the kids. The kitchen was huge. We paid Php 20k per month. We signed a lease for 3 years. We dealt with the daughter of the owner since the owner lives overseas. It was great but when almost our lease was up the son starts demanding something. We just don’t want to deal with him, so we decided to move to an exclusive subdivision. We paid Php 45k. Only downside to that house the owner had some problems with the bank. But we did finishe our lease there.

We then moved to another big house. We rent it for Php 35k and we lease it for 5 years. Really we would have stayed there if not that the place was surrounded with commercial buildings already. Too noisy 24/7. Not a good place to stay if  you had students in the family.

Since I have been posting houses for rent on our LIP-Real Estate section. I have been seeing houses that’s for rent here in Davao City that’s good for newly wed with a tight budget to a couple who lives with a lavish lifestyle. I had friend that she had a rental place like a boarding house that one room can be occupied by 4 people you had a choice if you want with or without air conditioner. She also had one room good for just a couple. Some houses here they rent out one of their room in the house, you might see (FOR RENT: Bed spacer). Prices for that could be Php 1,500-2,000.

A few weeks ago I saw a house that sits in an exclusive subdivision with swimming pool and it used to be rented out for Php 95k per month. It was really a huge house with view of the city and with 6 bedrooms and bathrooms. Now it’s for sale. Houses here for sale prices ranges from 1.5 Million to 30 Million pesos. Some people that email me, sometimes they say to me that the houses here were so expensive. So true. Some were really expensive, especially in the city. But if you find a good deal when people are in need of money they let go of their house cheaply.

Now, lots of condominiums are on the rise. I think you guys saw Davao’s been building condo’s all over the place. A lot of them were rented out. My agent has lots for rent. The cheaper ones were rented right away. Prices on condos vary from the owners. Some rented high because they had all the extras they put in like internet, cable, water and electricity were already included. Most owner’s want one year lease. They give priorities to the people that would rent one whole year or more. Condo rental range from Php 23k-45k with 2 bedrooms (some expensive ones might have 3 bedrooms). Most were fully furnished already. The studio type unit condos were cheaper a little prices ranges from Php 15k- 20k.

Duplex houses were also popular here. Prices ranges from Php 20k and up (not furnished). I know one duplex fully furnished with cable and internet with swimming pool and with maid that clean the house everyday, price for that Php 70k per month.

I think you guys can figure out where your price range be. One thing to think about in the city rental will be higher.

Happy Hunting!!!

Happy New Year to all of you. I’m sure everyone is thinking now of the new year ahead of us. Are you one of those folks that will set a goal for the year? I guess, this year I will try again to set a goal for the whole year. I did set goals when I used to lived in the States. It’s easier to set my goal there, it’s not a laid back kind of life there. I really had to do what needs done there. Unlike here now that I am a bit relaxed and procrastinate some of the work that needs get done. Hey, sometimes I had some other people do it for me though. In short, kind of living the lazy life. Ha ha ha.  But the coming year I will try to do it myself. Not rely on others to do it for me. Crossing my fingers on that.

My Thanksgiving Feast I prepared

You’ve probably noticed if you are my friend on Facebook that I had been posting some pictures of  foods that we cooked here at the house. One of my goals for the coming year will be trying to cook food for others. I am talking food that’s usually eaten by the foreigners. I am not a good cook for Filipino dishes. I know some, but not a whole lot though. But I know how to cook more of the American dishes or foreign dishes than with the local dishes here.

Just like during Thanksgiving me and my niece cooked our food from scratch. From the pies, the crusts, stuffing  the sausages, yams, mashed potatoes, pumpkin and banana breads and others. We also made different kinds of cookies. Really in every holidays that we are celebrating now, me and my niece were the ones cooking our foods. We made a few cakes. Not totally liking the store cakes now. Some were dry, plus we can play around with the recipe.

I’m excited to start my journey this year. It will be an exciting one. I am going to show you guys the links later after everything’s done. To those of you who are our customers from WowPhilippines you are also welcome to see the links and order from there.

I’m cooking! Pork Chops in the picture.

So watch out for my site about the food that we cook here in the house. Maybe you want some of it. I will tell you though every person that tried the food that we gave during holidays or we invited them for a small get together here at the house, they all say they like it. During Thanksgiving not just this year but from the previous years, people that were invited really raved how good the food was. So I guess all in all everyone were pleased of the food that was served here at the house. I’m not going to argue on that though, for one, Bob was my number one critique. He will tell me honestly if the food was good or not good. Second critique would be the kids. They really let me know if the food that was served were good or not. They’ve been so brutally honest about it. If they like the food they let me know. If they don’t like it, they also let me know. I will tell you though foods during Thanksgiving were really a big hit in the house. Really my kids think that me and my niece can cook any dishes that would be thrown to us. My niece she’s good also in cooking Pinoy dishes.

During the feeding at the orphanage we were cooking some of the dishes for the kids there. It was fun. The kids and the nuns and the people that helped out there like the food that we brought there.

Have fun eating.

As everyone knows that some part of Mindanao was totally damaged by typhoon Pablo in the beginning week of December. We went to the area a week after the typhoon hit. It was my first time seeing a typhoon hit area. I’ve been hearing from the news and seeing on TV how bad the places were. But really looking the place personally its more difficult.

It’s hard to explain to all of you. My heart was torn into pieces when seeing the kids or the elderly carrying buckets to get some water, they have to walk quite a ways to get some too. We brought some water when we went there. Of course we favor the kids and the elderly, we gave them first of the stuff we have. No matter how chaotic the people there were to get the stuff, we really looked for the older people and the kids first. Everyone of us knows already whose on top of our list to be given.

Some people were so polite and just waited their turn. Others were just so aggressive that they will just snatch the stuff from the elderly. We had to get it from them and give it to the person we are intending to give. Later they know that we don’t put up with their aggressiveness. We have to take charge at some point. If they don’t listen really we just left them there and go to some other areas. While driving we saw one elderly and gave her stuff, all of a sudden there are 5 to 10 people coming running towards the truck. Wow, they must have a very good vision to see what’s going on from a good distance away, AMAZING. It’s really something though. People now were begging money or something on the roadside. They have to do what they need to do to survive.

Pablo wreaked havoc on Mindanao

Just seeing the devastation, I could never imagine the faces of the kids in fear. I’m sure with the wind blowing so loudly and strong it scares the kids to death. Most houses there lost their roofs. Some houses even flew from one place to the other. Metals from the roof all over the place. Some good looking houses before the roofs were bent and others the gutters were gone.

We went to the main area in Monkayo. They had a nice gym there (shown in the photo above), just by looking at it, it’s not that old. But Pablo really damaged that gym. The roof was totally damaged. Just by looking at the angle we were at when we parked our truck to take some pictures I was thinking that all the roofs were all gone. I’m hoping that the town will rebuild soon with the help of the government of course. Some stores there were still muddy in front. Just by looking all the devastated area that we passed by, I was thinking it will take years and years for the place to rebuild. I just hope that the local officials will really pursue the high up government officials to help them.

I’m hoping that the farmers will get enough help from the government to rebuild soon. All the farms there were totally damaged. The crops were all damaged by the flood and the winds. I’ve seen most of the plants lying on the ground. Driving from Tagum down to ComVal area was so depressing now. It used to be so green and vibrant.

The most depressing part of the trip was hearing and seeing what the needs of the people and we don’t have the stuff in our truck anymore to give them. Let me tell you it was a heartache. They need the stuff  badly but you can’t give it to all to them. I felt sorry for those people. Please still  continue praying for the people there!

 ***On the other note: I personally give THANKS to the friends of Bob and some of them my friends too on Facebook on making our trip to COMVAL possible. You guys’ help means a lot to us and most especially to those people there. You guys really had a big heart. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you again!!!***

Last week I went to the grocery market to shop for the goods that we are going to take to the typhoon victims of Typhoon Pablo. Me and my niece wanted to buy lots of water in a bottles of different sizes and also lots of crackers. In the store if you just get a few cans of the crackers or a few bottled water you can get it from the shelf. Well, since we wanted to get cases of crackers and bottled water we had to go to the customer service area and order from there.

Well, I didn’t realize how many people were there ordering. Most of them were for their sari-sari store (little store). There were orders of a few hundreds in every items. with so many people so it took us a long time to just get what we wanted. But it’s okay, we were there waiting patiently for our turn. It took probably like 20 minutes before we could talk to the sales person there. So when he entertained us, he saw what we wrote on the paper of how many pieces of bottled water and how many cans of crackers would we want. He then called up the sales person of the said product that we want. Those sales person were there immediately when called up. So we talked to them. Both don’t have the product in hand the quantity that we want. They told us that they could get the next morning since we ordered the products late in the day. So I told them it will be okay, but I want the product early the next morning. So they told me to be at the store first thing when they open and pay it and they could give it to me right away. I also asked the manager of the customer service if the product could be delivered at our house. They said no charge since its way over the amount of  Php10,000 that I will be spending there.

Pablo spared nobody in his path!

I even told them that you guys should give me good discount since we are bringing that to the typhoon victims. The manager of the customer service just said we just are allowed to give 1% discount. I just laughed to that. 1% big deal,  I told her. Nothing she can do about it , I guess. Just our stores here just not a relief friendly kind of thing. Oh well, at least they will have the products that I wanted to get. To be honest we stayed at that customer service for over an hour. Just going through the sales person and them calling the warehouse. Really at the end me and my niece were exhausted. But, it’s okay we will do it for the victims of Pablo.

Really while waiting there I’ve also met some people that were also buying for the typhoon victims. Most of them were connected to an organizations here. I was happy seeing them buying for the typhoon victims. Happy to see one organization buying plenty sacks of rice and boxes of sardines and odong (like pasta to mix in with the sardines). Others were buying already packed ready to eat food, just like sardines type food and mix that with rice. Then some were buying something to make spaghetti, she said she will pack them and distribute there same day. Really I was so happy seeing people care with other people.

We also bought lots clothing at the ukay-ukay place. I asked the owner to give me a good discount which he did. Me and my niece were really digging in for good clothes for the people there. We bought for men, women and kids. Really we dug in mostly shorts and shirts. At least they can really use it.

When this article is posted we have already  given out the stuff. I would like to thank a few people that helped us out on this. You know who you are. You responded to Bob’s post on his Facebook wall. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU SO MUCH. It really meant so much to those people too. I really appreciate you guys help. God Bless you always.

Mabuhay!