Pros and Cons.

Saturday morning, I experienced one of my least favorite things about life in Philippines; an electrical "brown-out". The power company had cut off all electrical power in Sibulan Saturday around 8:30. I'm not sure if Dumaguete went under a similar brown-out.

My sister-in-law told us that the outage would last until 5:00 PM. Fortunately for me, the power was restored much earlier than expected, 1:00 PM.

On the whole, I guess I do surprisingly well for an American without electricity; I'm no electricity addict. I can get along very well, thank you very much, without the electric lights, the T.V., radio and yes, even the Internet, but I can't withstand the sweltering heat without, at least, an electric fan.

Having grown up in Georgia during the late 1950's and early 1960's, I can channel my inner child in order to survive without air conditioning (at least for the few weeks I normally spend in Philippines).

My original plan for this blog post was to write on the brown-out and the heat, but the idea has evolved .I can take an early retirement sometime between late 2014 and early 2015. It won't be to my advantage to wait much longer than that. My wife would like for us to move here when I retire, but I'm not as sure about that as she. There are certainly things about life in Philippines which I love and appreciate, but like everything else, there are negatives.

On the positive side of moving here on a permanent basis is the fear I have of my son growing up in the U.S.  and developing into a typical American. In Philippines, there is a profound moral sense within the society, based on Catholic teachings, which is absent in the land of the free and the home of the brave. In spite of the fact that we may be active in our parish and that he attends a splendid Catholic school, the pull of moral relativism and downright depravity in American is too strong.

All the negative sides of living here are material. Could I really ever be comfortable living in a country where the plumbing is a century behind what I'm accustomed to? I've finally adapted to bathing without hot water, but without going into too much detail, I'm not a fan of the standard toilet in this country. The toilets may be better than what my grandparent may have had in the Southern United States during the Great Depression, but that's not saying much, is it?

The deal breaker for me - one way or the other - will be the quality of the education my son would receive here. Before we return to the States, we'll be dropping by St. Paul's ( a private Catholic school ) in Dumaguete. I should have most of my questions, in that regard, answered then and there.

Should we decide, ultimately, to move to Philippines when I retire, the move will not be immediate; the house and autos will need to be sold - hopefully, not at a loss. My wife would be more than happy to live in the house we built for her mama and papa. I'm not in total agreement with that; the house is fine......the improvements I'd want are easy enough. However, for my own tastes and sense of comfort, the house would be too small for the number of people who would be living here should we move in.

In the end, it will require a good deal of thought and a good deal of prayer before I know what our best choice might be.