S/V Po Oino Roa: IT'S THE PHILIPPINES

Ocean View Marina
Samal Island, Davao
Mindanao, Philippines

"IT'S THE PHILIPPINES", an oft heard phrase here by expats, visitors and even the locals to describe whatever problem or difficulty that is being experienced. It's one we have both heard and used several times in the past few weeks as we try to get organized to head back to the States for my new knee.

To regress a bit I had seen a Doctor here in Davao regarding constant knee pain. Diagnosed as arthritic and a candidate for a knee replacement. It took a few months but finally a decision was made to contact the Doctor in California who had done my hip replacements. They asked that if I had x-rays to please send them. No problem, the hospital provided them on CD and I was off to the local Fedex to send them stateside for review. Fedex said I would need a "media optical permit #" to send the CD. They provided me with an office phone # in Manila! There is no office here in Davao the third largest city is this country of 100 million people. "It's the Philippines". I went to the local post and managed to send the CD of by international mail and it arrived at the Dr.'s office in seven days.

It is now dealing with making appointments and completing paperwork via the internet and telephone from here. Our internet is spotty at best and the phones do normally work at a cost of about $1 US per minute, we really like those rotaries or please hold and you are not given time to explain why you cannot. Thankfully with my Doctor and the hospital we have had to deal with none of that. So nice to see things run efficiently!!

Next was airline tickets. That was managed in only three hours on the internet from midnight till 3 am when we were able to get a fair connection. Of course it was another two hours later in the day regarding seat assignments. "It's the Philippines".

Yesterday and today were spent dealing with immigration. Since we have been in country for more than six months we are required to get an "exit clearance" to leave the country. If you do not have the form you do not get on the airplane. A van ride from the marina, the ferry to Davao proper then a taxi to immigration yesterday. We filled out the forms along with four photos turned them in and began our wait. Darkness descended, a power outage! Power outages are not unusual here, a government office would have a generator, all the little stores do. Yes they have one but no one in the office can remember when it last worked. "It's the Philippines". We left and returned several times over the next
few hours only to be told to come back later. We returned to the boat and decided to come back today. Another van, ferry and taxi ride and we were back to the immigration office. The lights were on, power restored and one and a half hours later and at a cost of $25 US we had our exit clearances and can now get on the plane.

With luck that is the last of our "It's the Philippines" experiences until we return in May, when even though we arrived by yacht and have a letter from the marina stating we will leave in that manner the airline will want to require us to buy an onward ticket, we will deal with that then.

With luck tonight and the internet behaving I will try to add some photos. Lorenzo of the yacht Flaneur hosted a party in celebration of being on the hard for ONE year.

A kitten Kathy found abandoned here in the yard today, perhaps 4 weeks old. The little one was turned over to our Filipina friend Jessica who now takes care of about twenty cats. We have paid to now get six spayed and this will be next on the list to be done.