3 years

There will always be something about Davao that makes it stand out from all the other cities in the Philippines. The quality of life, the honest people, the good work-life balance, the fresh food, the clean environment, the things to see, the places to go to, everything!

Unfortunately for me, in search for greener pastures for my family, or for some other reason, I opted to leave the place. But I promise myself, that when my sacrifice here is over, I shall return to paradise, my beloved Davao.

Since August of 2007, I have lived in Manila. Ortigas to be exact. The place is highly urbanized and I would say one of the better places to live in. Although, for over four months, I had to painfully take two rides everyday from where I lived going to work. I had to say 'painfully' because as soon as I was out of the Ortigas area, everything became, well.. painful hehe ;). During my last days in Manila though, I moved to Eastwood, where our office is located, and temporarily lived with an officemate.

But painful as it was, there were a number of 'interesting' experiences there that I will never forget. Coz u see, in that four-month time frame, I had to live with 7 different strangers. And it was the first time that I have tried that. I will also never forget that gay dude who kept harassing me each time I went for a swim at the top of our building. He would tell me each time that 'hey, I saw you again kanina sa blahblah..' and never fails to invite me for a drink afterwards hahaha! But that's a topic for an entirely different scary story.

When I went to Manila for work, I first lived with my cousin in Makati. Living there made me realize, for a million quality-of-life reasons, how fortunate I was for having spent most of my life in Davao. Because just like in Ortigas, once you stray a little from the place [Makati], everything just becomes painful.

You see, living in Manila was living in constant pain and fear for me. The pain of transportation. The pain of heavy traffic. The pain of pollution. The pain of overpopulation. The pain of inconvenience. The pain of long lines. The pain of having to live in fear. Fear in your surroundings. Fear for your health. Fear towards your fellow Filipinos who seem to want to swindle you if they have the chance, especially the taxi drivers. Fear of being harassed. And fear of being robbed and killed.

I guess it is a good thing that Manila has plenty of nice bars, coffee shops and restos as a place of temporary safe haven before one dives again into the pool of pain and fear.

But i guess I have no reason to fear anymore. Having been transferred here in Japan was a very fortunate thing for me. Although being reassigned here in Nagoya from Yokohama is a little bit of a setback, I cannot complain. Better here than Manila. All I have to do is endure being apart from my family.

I know the time will come when I can finally go home again. I can just imagine. The nice nearby beaches. The honest and friendly people, even the taxi drivers. The fresh food. The fresh fruits. The things to see and places to go to. The nice bars, coffee shops and restos. And the comfort of home and family.

And all these without having to live in pain and fear anymore.