Check out this house. Nice huh? That'll cost you the princely sum of 1,000,000 Filipino pesos, which is about $US20,000.
So why wouldn't you want to move here? The houses are cheap, the people are wonderful and the weather balmy.
One of the best things about life in developing countries is th cost of living. Everything is so cheap! The bad things include education, security and healthcare. They're all terrible!
Take healthcare for example. My 62 year old mother* recently volunteered in the Philippines. My mum's a diabetic and managed to get her toe infected, which is a very serious thing for a diabetic. She may yet lose her toe. Being the dutiful son that I am, I decided to get her to the hospital. This is where the problems start. I had to send a friend Jen Jen (who was wonderfully helpful throughout) to get a tricycle to get my mother to the hospital. Getting into one of those things is hard at the best of times, let alone when you have an infected toe. The staff at the hospital were awesome and did everything possible to help my mum. No complaints there. The hospital didn't have a well supplied pharmacy, so Jen Jen and I had to dash out to get the required medicine. We had to go to four different pharmacies to get it all - one of which was in a neighboring town! Even getting her back home was an issue. We had to hire some peddle-powered tricycles to get her home, though - truth be told - I think she quite enjoyed that experience!
It is interesting to note that a Filipino nurse working in the States earns ten times as much as a doctor in the Philippines.
Security is also an issue in developing countries. 2010 is an election year in the Philippines. The current president recently tried to change the constitution to allow her to rule for more than two terms. There is also a small chance that she will declare martial law to maintain power. Regardless of what the president does, there will be violence in 2010. The double whammy of presidential and mayoral elections guarantees it. Candidates will be shot, there will be violence protests, and banks will be robbed to raise bribe money.
And education is also - alas - pretty terrible. Only the very lucky students on Tablas island (where Meaningful Volunteer is based) will get to go to university. Most will finish elementary school, but some of those will emerge illiterate. At a guess, I'd say about 50% will finish high school. There are a dearth of reasons why education is so poor on Tablas. Poor governance, bad roads preventing access to schools, under resourced classrooms, disillusioned teachers... the list goes on.
So, if the low cost of living good enough to offset the educational, healthcare and security issues? Come on over and check it out first hand and make up your own mind!
* If she can, why can't you?
