An
Aussie View Of The Philippines
Getting
Hitched In The Philippines ~ by Graig Beasy
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| G'day!
My name is Craig Beasy and if you guessed I am Australian, you guessed
right. I am 43 yrs young, very happily married to a beautiful lassie from
the ‘Land of Smiles’ and we have two pre-schoolers. My wife’s name is Brenda
and she comes from Cebu, an Island only 200 miles long and 40 miles across
at its widest point. Cebu-City incidentally is the freight hub for the
entire Archipelago. Our gorgeous daughters are Adele Kristina 3 yrs, Isha-Belle
16mths, and yes I am definitely in the minority gender-wise in our household.
So why marry
a woman of Southeast Asian origin? Is it their quiet deferential innocence,
their exotic oriental mystique or their coy shy smiles? Most of the blokes
who read this may empathise; you know the drill, broken hearts and all
that. After, “twice bitten by the age of 30 and shy to the point of being
almost aaaah!” |
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Well, 11 years
ago I purchased a mag called ‘The Australiasian Post’ for an entirely different
reason and later found myself mesmerised by a particular mystique of Asia.
Three years of corresponding and one phone call later, on June 2nd 1998
I flew over and lived with my in-laws for six weeks, whilst preparing for
marriage. This I have never regretted, and a more delightful culture shock
I have not experienced!
My wife Brenda
lived, in a barrio called Candaguit (pronounced cun-dug-it) until she came
out to Australia. Bren’s family home is a single storey rough-brick iron
roofed dwelling. It has a narrow kitchen, a square shaped lounge-room and
2 small bedrooms. The house is only 26ftL X 22ftW on a piece of land measuring
approx 35ft sq. and until only 12 months ago had no running water, no refrigeration
and no toilet as we know them. Candaguit is approx 45 k’s from Cebu-City;
a two-hour bus ride, no kidding, the roads and traffic congestion initially
is really that bad. Once out of the city into the rural areas, out in the
sticks or the bush as we Aussies call it, the trip becomes fairly pleasant,
I had never seen so many shades of green in my life. You had better hang
on for dear life though as speed limits are all too often ignored with
buses and jeepneys literally crammed full like cattle trucks.
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After my arrival
and during my entire visit Bren was my interpreter, for her english was
particularly good. Her parents/siblings could understand me o’k, but were
only able to reply in short broken sentences. That incidentally made my
stay all the more fun, since I was able to get away with embarrassing myself
due to cultural differences, whereas I wouldn’t have done so back home.
Filipinos are most gracious, friendly and hospitable to foreigners, Australians
are held in ‘very high regard’ as I soon found out on a daily basis.
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Highway
opposite Bren's home
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If
you plan to marry a Filipino beauty, you would do well to stay with her
family rather than in other accommodation, it is the best way to get to
know the family but ask first as you may put someone out of his or her
bed. They will cheerfully offer you one but please be good enough to politely
refuse and sleep on your own bedding, in other words be prepared. The result
is word will quickly spread that you are a gracious, honoured guest.
Due to favourable
advantages in currency exchange rates, you can afford to spend fairly freely,
as it astonished me how much I got for only a few dollars … more than I
initially considered. Be prepared to financially help your fiancé’s
family where food is concerned; I deliberately made a point of not only
buying food for myself but for the whole family. I also ate only as they
did, when they did, and went without between meals. With an abundance of
inexpensive tropical fruit for the asking, who needs rubbish food? A nice
bonus of this personal choice was that when the big day came to exchange
wedding vows, I was nicely slim thank you very much and feeling better
about myself as a whole. Boy, what a nice change it was being 2 stone lighter! |
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Next Month:
“Stranded with no way home!”
To contact
Graig Click Here
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