Through my eyes

It's a new year, it's a new dawn, it's a new life and I'm feeling fine.

It has been an interesting last couple of weeks travelling in the Philippines and as the sun rises over Taguig, Manila, I have to reflect on the last five weeks of my life. Is life in SA as horrendous as we make it out to be Or are we deluded in thinking that the grass is greener on the other side

Survival here in the Philippines is tough. People earn the equivalent of R1500 per month and the cost of living is not much cheaper than in SA. Yes, they live in large family units, they help each other wherever they can and they are hard working, but there is no spare cash for luxuries and most people make do with just the bare necessities. Survival here has a different meaning here.

Each year when I return from my annual travel adventure, I'm reminded at how blessed we are in our green little haven on the North Coast. The stench of human waste and the grime of constant carbon monoxide pollution from over 100 million humans, is overwhelmingly toxic and psychologically exhausting.

The constant noise, whether from construction, traffic or from a Videoke / Karaoke event, blaring at full blast from someone's back yard, you really need to be born here to cope with so much sensory overload.

Yet the smiles on their children's faces, only those children that have not had the misfortune to own a smartphone, and the sound of their melodic dialect is enough to dispel any misconception of hardships, as the Filipinos make do with what they have. And nothing cures depression and social hangovers as well as a session on a Karaoke machine.

Philippinos have a lot going for them. They have the coolest president on the planet. He is constantly being beeped out during his live televised broadcasts, one of his favourite words he is often 'beeped' for is 'motherfuckers'. President Duterte regularly threatens his people with murder and annihilation, should they break the law. He shows no mercy for any motherfucker who stands in his way to rid his nation of crime and corruption. He is particularly harsh towards the drug dealers, with over 7000 dealers reported to have 'died' since his clean up operation began.

Its fair to say there is very little evidence of crime here in the Philippines. No one locks their doors and people are not interested in taking your stuff. Not once in the last five weeks did we lock our money or passports in the safe and we lived in some far away remote places, wherever we went people assured us that we have nothing to worry about and we just blindly trusted that notion and we did not lose a thing. On the contrary they are very giving, which surprised us somewhat.

And while I start my long trek home, I have to remind myself how grateful I am to be living in this clean and pristine environment, so what if we are constantly living in fear or that our president has not the fortitude to clean out corruption. We can rejoice in the fact that our water and our air is clean, and although many of our people are poor, the level of poverty is not quite as bad as it is here, and the squalor is not nearly as widespread.

Coming home to SA always has an element of pride and rush of relief as the passport control authority stamps my passport. The familiarity of it all is very comforting and knowing that I will be able to see my friends and family again is an added treat.

Counting our blessings and being grateful for the little things in life are very rewarding actions, I highly recommend. Here's to a fabulous 2019 for all of us on this planet.