A Day in the life of Marianne and Charles Harman and their 3 children

Updated August 23rd, 2012

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This mini-blog is in reverse order with the most current info at the bottom, so scroll on down there right now.

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Marianne and Charles taken by Mike K at San Remigio Beach Resort

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The following photos are of our current residence, the Bogo house, located in Dakit, Bogo, Cebu Philippines. Reasons for living in the Bogo, Medellin or San Remigio area are: very stable power grid, We get a one day all day long power outage once a month from 2004 to 2006, but in 2011 it has been on for months without any interruption. We do get an occasional short term outage not lasting more then 15 to 30 minutes or less. The second is, Bogo has a very low crime rate, almost non existent. Third reason is, we are centrally located so no tsunamis effect us due to large islands all around us and the fact that most storms track up over Luzon northern Philippines. Forth, there are very little earthquakes here. This is a great Place to retire, right here in Bogo, all the convenience of a large city with the atmosphere of a small town. People are friendly here always a smile to greet you.

Update: Marianne has registered for Southwestern University in Cebu City so we are now living in an apartment on Mactan Island while she attends college for Pharmacist.

Update August 3rd. 2012:

The Bogo house was sole on August 3rd, 2012 to an American. We are now looking for  a small home in the Cebu City area or possibly in Baguio.

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Front of the Barangay Dakit Bogo House taken in 2004. Pebble exterior with plenty of marble. Upper and lower 50′ terraces. solid concrete, about 2000 square feet or 150 square meters or so.

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This is the front yard looking down from the upper terrace on a laundry day.

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Looking down from the upper terrace to the parking area and the rest of the Alpine Subdivision. You can see all the way down to the main road and our neighbor across the main highway the now defunct Spiderman Bus’s owned by an American, I am told.

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Living Room, That door goes to my previous office now her brother, wife and 2 kids room. Marianne likes pink, bet you never guessed that…

Click on any image to see a full sized version. For more photos go here.

UPDATED 03/21/2012

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Our Story, a Day by Day Diary of our life in the Philippines - Welcome to “The Continuing Saga of Charles and Marianne Harman”. I’m a photographer and I started at the young age of 8. As a photographer you will see lots of photos on this website, since a photo is worth a thousand words as the say, I must have lots of words on these pages. Our life together begins with the death of my second wife January 10th of 2004. She was from Vietnam originally and was one of the original boat people of 1975. She was a strong take control type of personality which caused a lot of problems in our long 25 year marriage. Those was not even one good year since we were married that I can recall, as we had  many arguments that occurred almost daily. We almost separated a couple of times but her pride kept here from doing it, I think she had problems telling her family her marriage was not working.  We just flat did not get along. We even had some big fights before I married her, should have seen the writing on the wall but for some reason I kept trying to make things work. No matter what I said or did it was always wrong and she was always right no matter what. I tried to love here and care for her but she absolutely refused to be satisfied with me no matter what I did. In the early evening of January 1oth 2004 she had a brain hemorrhage and died very suddenly. The brain hemorrhage was brought on by here insisting that she knew more than the doctors did and could control her own blood pressure with her mind. I knew that would not work but had no idea what was about to happen to her. When she died here blood pressure was very high something like 225/100. My kids have all grown now, even though they still lived in my house at the time, they were gone most of the time, so there was no one around for me to talk to. I do not do well living alone, I need that human personal kind of contact, so I began looking for friendship almost immediately, wasn’t really looking for romance just someone to talk to, you know, keep me busy. After quite a few chatting sessions and making friends all over the world I began to single out Marianne in March of 2004, only 3 months after my X-wife’s death. Now remember I was left all day all alone for days on end, so she was to be a friend, someone to talk to, she was to be my companion. I really liked her personality although I was a little worried about her age, at the time she was only 19. By April I had given up chatting with all the other so called “friends” I had, including one named Angela from Cagayan de Oro, who I had also considered seriously for a possible, well more than a friend I will say. I really wanted to settle down to only one girl. Needless to say Marianne became more than just a friend, over time a romance developed and I wanted to meet her in person.

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2004 – Marianne and Charles in Mactan at White Sands Resort, very overprices at $100 per night.. They do have white sand on the beach but I wonder is it is maybe trucked in from Bantayan Island, a coral island near Cebu. This is Marianne when I first met her in 2004, she has changed very little over the 6 years of marriage (now 7) Isn’t she cute.

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Photo of Marianne taken in 2005 at our Bogo one bedroom apartment, living room, one bedroom, and kitchen, which rented for $32 per month. This while we waited for our Bogo house to be built.

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Marianne’s Tiny little Hand holding mine

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Bantayan Island – Our Honeymoon in 2005 for one week less than $200 for all including 3 meals a day.

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April 2004:

This is the month I took my first trip to Cebu City to meet my friend and future wife Marianne. I arrived at Mactan International Airport, gathered my bags after going through customs and immigrations, and went out side, the baggage claim area where a relative of hers came to me and told me to follow him over to where Marianne was which was one street over and up a hill with lots of steps. I must say I was taken back a bit when I saw her for the first time, how tiny she was, only 4′ 11″ tall and weighed only 76 pounds. She looked a lot smaller than I had imagined she would be from our online chat sessions. She was as cute as a doll. We got a taxi and headed back up to Bogo where she had an apartment rented for $32.00 a month.  At the time I was confused, as I had thought she was from Cebu City. I found out later her sister and brother-in-law had moved them there to start a business and we really did not talk that much about where she was except Cebu. I was only staying ten days this trip as I had business to take care of back in Texas. Marianne is originally from the nearby island of Negros and from the city of La Carlotta, but spent all her childhood and schooling right here in Cebu City. Our relationship is excellent hardly an argument in 7 years of marriage and 3 kids. I have a wonderful caring and loving wife whom I love very much and who truly loves me in return. I believe my wife is in the 1 % of rare women who truly love their American husbands and are not just in it for the money or to get to USA. You can usually tell the way a person acts if it’s the real thing or not. The way she demands a kiss even if I’m hard at work on my computer, or just the way she talks to me. and gives me a hug every so often. She has such a great personality, hardly ever a harsh word coming from her, I have never met anyone so kind and loving as she is.

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May of 2004

This month we began designing the Dakit, Bogo house using Microsoft Paint on my computer. The building started even before we were married. I designed a rectangle with 4 rooms one on each corner with a central area for the living room and behind it two bathrooms.  The room on the left rear became the kitchen and is a large kitchen. The Bedroom on the right side became the Master bedroom and is “L” shaped making it a little larger than the others 12′ 9″ x 12′ 9″  The L shape  is about 8 x 8 and it leads to the Master Bath. This is where my office is now as the spare bedroom is occupied by here brother, wife and 2 kids. OK, once the design was done I submitted it to a local architect to produce the official Blueprints. Next we hired her dad to be foreman for the building of the hose. Her dad was one of several foreman for the building of the SM in Cebu City.  Next we began buying materials to build this house. We also hired 20 local laborers from the population around our property, this way they all got a little out of the building of our house in the way of income.  It took about 5 months to complete our house. It is made of mostly concrete and steel no wood except the door frames and doors.  I lived in this house (see photos below) from June 2004 until November 2006. I traveled back to Texas about once a year for a two week stay to visit my two grown kids still living in my Texas house, and to take care of business. In November of 2006 we left the house for Texas and lived there for 4 years. It was hard living there I could not find a good paying job due to my age and she having no experience ended up working at Wal-Mart. So after the 4 years we sold everything and returned to the Philippines. Living in Mactan in Rental Townhouses one for P7,500 and one for P5,000. There are plenty of photos of them in the Photos section.

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September 25, 2005:

Marianne and I were married at the Mayor’s office in Bogo Philippines. Actually the Mayor was tied up and could not make it so the Assistant Mayor shown in the Photos did the ceremony.  This is the fastest way to a marriage. If you choose to have a Catholic Church wedding you need to attend classes about marriage which take time, we opted out of this and settled for the quick marriage here.

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Wedding in Bogo Philippines at the Mayor’s Office

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Marianne and Charles at the Mayor’s office just before the marriage

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November 2006:

Marianne, Matthew and I headed for Grand Prairie Texas where we got started in real estate investing and bought two homes. One of the homes was our home and the other was a rental house. While there we had Maria Felicity Harman my first daughter. She was born in Arlington Texas. We lived in our four bedroom house until February of 2010.

Marianne in my office in Texas, all this stuff was shipped to the Philippines in a balikbayan box, see another post about them.

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Marianne and Matthew at American Airlines Museum in Arlington Texas.

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February 2010:

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Marianne myself and our two kids head back to Bogo, Cebu to stay, fed up with the way things are going in American and the bleak outlook for the future of America.  And we were tired of working every day and could not afford to go anywhere. The American dream is dead I think it ended in the 1950s. We arrived in Medellin Philippines in northern Cebu and stayed at my brother-in-law’s house for a while before moving to Mactan Island.

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Marianne and Matthew in Ayala The Terraces Cebu City February of 2010

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March 2010:

We move to Mactan in a townhouse Renting for P 7,500. We came to Mactan to seek out fast internet and being close to everything. We have also been thinking of buying a house here on the island of Mactan some day. As it turns out the internet is faster in Bogo why I do not know possibly less people on the network. Update: we switched to PLDT which has both a 3 MBPS and a 10 MBPS connection making it the fastest anywhere in the Philippines.

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This was our first residence once arriving here in the Philippines.

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September 2010:

We moved from the the Townhouse in east side of Mactan to the south side in a larger townhouse that is from our extended family. However Marianne does not like it that well and the roof leaks badly when it rains, both bedrooms get wet and it even drips in front of our bedroom door. The owner needs to repair it or we may have to move out. Well needless to say he had wife problems and neglected the property so we left and moved to Bogo.

Here are a few photos of the neighborhood. Lots of rentals here if you are interested.
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La Aldea Buena Subdivision where we lived before moving back to Bogo. It’s the one on the left with the wood sticking out. This place needs work and the owner promised to get it all done. Rent here was only $110 per month. It’s still available if you want a cheap but nice place to live.

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More Photos of La Aldea Buena Subdivision Here This is a beautiful Subdivision, I had a chance to meet the builder one day as they parked in front of our house. She said the units are in disrepair and needed work due to poor concrete used to build them. If you use sea sand there is too much salt in the sand causing the steel rebar to rust which swells and causes the walls to crack and break causing leaks and it sure looks bad.

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October 2010: Breaking News

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We have moved back to Bogo to the big house in Bogo, Cebu very near the city of Bogo Philippines. When we got here everything was in disrepair no lights working the pebble exterior has mold on it and the rooms are dirty and needed cleaning. We began almost immediately to make some minor repairs and replaced some light bulbs.

Today is October 17th and we go pick up our new Suzuki Celerio a small economical 1000cc 3 cylinder Japanese car built in India.

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Suzuki Celerio 1

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Suzuki Celerio 2

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Suzuki Celerio 3

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October 2010:

We purchased a new 2010 Suzuki Celerio P599,000 about $12,000 US dollars. This little car only has a 1000cc 3 cylinder engine yet runs great and I can even overtake other slower moving vehicles on the road. It climbed the mountain pass effortlessly with a full load of people. The engine is a newly redesigned aluminum block engine with more power than the older 660cc steel engines in most Suzuki multivans and multicabs. It also has 12 valves two each intake and two each exhaust. It is very economical on gas, we drive from Mactan to Bogo more than 100 kilometers on 1/4 tank. Less than P500. My Ford Escape did it for 1,500 was a gas guzzler with it’s V6. I sold it in 2009 I think forget… But you know I miss that Ford liked the luxury and riding in style…

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First trip in our new 2010 Suzuki Celerio It handled the mountain pass effortlessly even with 3 people and 2 kids on board.

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November 2010:

Looks like Marianne and I will be moving back to our Bogo, home next month. It needs a lot of cleaning and painting before we can move in. And we need to find a place for her parents and brother to live who are living in our house now.

Here are a few photos of the Bogo house I call the big house as it is much larger than the rentals we lived in with bedrooms of 13×13 feet. This house is located about 3 kilometers south of Bogo Philippines in the Alpine Subdivision. It was built before Marianne and I were married so is entirely hers, I have no title to it whatsoever. If we were ever to separate this house would go to her. However I don’t think that will happen, we have been married for 6 years and have 3 kids. Could you imagine starting out with 3 kids tagging along…. Anyway we are still happily married, getting along just fine.

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December 2010:

Well we have now moved back into our house in Bogo Cebu Philippines. The kids just love it here since there is so much more room here for them to play and we have the parking area inside the gate which makes a nice place for them to play outside. I moved my office into the section connected to our master bedroom. The room is square with a “L” shaped wing on one end with a CR next to it. That area is large enough for my desk, computers and printer along with all my books and music equipment and guitars. I have installed high speed internet, well high enough for the Philippines at 3 MBPS, I had 18 MBPS in Texas…

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Here’s my Office now located in the hall way from the master bedroom to the master bath, it works for now. the area is 8 x 8 and is part of the master bedroom just over 13 x 13 feet, This house is 30 x 50 feet plus 50 x 8 for the terraces times 2 upper and lower, so over 2,300 sq ft

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It is now December 30, 2010 at 11:00 PM I am sitting here in front of my computer system and thinking about life and how things are today. Well life is good to us here we are happy and well and have three wonderful kids. We are getting ready to celebrate the new year in a couple of days a brand new year of 2011, wow hard to believe I am almost to 2012. Will the would end? personally I don’t think so, are we heading into an Ice age I definitely think we are, but time will tell. By the way I use some software called Input Director it allows me to use one keyboard and one mouse for both computers putting the power of the two together. I consider myself a power user multitasking on both almost simultaneously (see photo above).

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January 2011:

Well here we are one more year, finally made it to 2011, next year is supposed to be the end of the world but personally I doubt it. We are now living back in our Bogo house, and loving every moment of it. However I do still have it up for sale and will sell it and move back to Mactan this time with a generator.

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January 31, 2011

Well here we are moving into a new year of 2011.  The future looks great for the rest of the year I am finally getting WordPress website jobs coming in one of which is from an attorney in the US who wants three websites built.  They IT Information Technology company Michael Board and I are putting together is coming along slowly. We had some issues with the servers where this is hosted causing us to have to rebuild everything from scratch again but it will get there and will be backed up. I recently did a full backup of Retiring Philippines.org including the database files so if hackers get it we are covered up to last Friday. This is the second full backup I did.

Since we have returned to the Bogo house My wife is running into problems with her Mom and Dad. The first is that they seem to think they own the house. I have news for them… Recently I took about an hour setting up the big stereo, speakers, microphone, so Marianne can sing, as soon as I get it finished I returned to my office to work. When her dad came in he saw it and ripped all of it out throwing it on the floor, because it was not how HE wanted it. I just about ordered him out of the house that time; I refrained from doing so. Now both of them are yelling at here as if she is still a kid trying to order her around and trying to tell her what she can and can’t do. This is not going over very well with her. One suggestion was to rent them an apartment in town but her mom said she would not stay there because she wanted to remain in this house. (you see they truly believe this is their house not ours). When I left in 2006 for the US. As soon as we left our house here her dad went into the master bedroom and stripped everything out took all the electronics I had and piled them into a huge pile in one of the spare bedrooms braking some of the stereo speakers I had which still work today, although taped together, then they moved in to our bedroom. My stuff books and all were dumped in there as so much junk. I told Marianne if we leave again I will padlock the door and put up a do not enter sign. But I bet her dad would saw off the locks in no time. Yesterday he started complaining to the maid who is paid by us needs to get up at some early hour and cook for them he is calling her lazy and causing trouble. This maid was hired to take care of the kids needs bathing washing their cloths changing diapers not cooking. So again he is trying to run things here and trying to order her to cook for him (not going to happen…) Then Marianne’s cousin who has been hired to help with the three kids is being yelled at and scolded by her dad because she is not doing more cooking and sleeps in late. She sleeps in late because these kids like to stay up late at night here often after midnight . As far as I can see the only solution to the problem is to sell the house and move out. I wish it weren’t this way because I like her parents. UPDATE: I talked to her mom and told her the house is for sale and if it is sold they needed to move back to their house in Negros, she agreed. So if it is sold there will be no one in the house to cause any problems.

I have settled in here in Bogo for the long run unless we end up making this move to Baguio or somewhere else.  We have begun making repairs to the house now 6 years neglected, all the lights are burned out the exterior lighting are rusted out and falling apart, Yesterday after the plumber made some repairs on the pipes in the CRs and Kitchen, then I installed a new kitchen sink faucet. Sure is nice to have water once again in the kitchen. Can’t believe her dad used all the money for food and beer, didn’t bother fixing anything. The interior of the house is in excellent shape holding up well even with a recent 5.9 earthquake. One item I need to fix the old water pipe coming into the hose rusted out so they (her dad) put in a cheap nylon pipe to replace the steel pipe. However it is so cheap it keeps breaking and has many rubber and tape patches on it now. It needs a good quality PVC pipe run and this stuff is pretty cheap here so it is not a big expense.

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February 5th 2011

Marianne is talking about leaving again and I have the house up for sale still, but at a reduced price of $65,000 or P2.8 Million. I think she is getting fed up with all that goes on here with her parents and relatives always begging for money or making loans and expecting us to pay them, she and wants to move out away from everyone, as far as she can go.

Our little Suzuki Celerio has been in the shop twice now one to repair a big scratch on the side of the car and the second time for the motorcycle that ran into the rear bumper. I enjoy driving this little car it is fun to drive has a tiny 3 cylinder 1000cc water cooled engine in front and is front wheel drive. It is a 3 speed automatic with air conditioning, and has a sporty shifter you can easily go from drive 2 to 3 in a hurry push it up you are in 3rd pull it back once and you are in 2nd. You need this for passing and hills in the mountain pass going to Cebu City. I have had all good experiences with this little car and can easily go to second gear and overtake trucks and even buses. I takes the mountain pass and hills at great enough speed, no need to downshift to get up the hills except the steeper ones then I just go to second and still can get 60K out of itnd. Shifting to second gives you the power to climb and pass most multicabs which only have a 660cc engines and are very popular here.

More News:

My daughter Felicity has learned how to use a mouse and can select YouTube videos by scrolling down and clicking on them, she will be 4 this April.  My 3 month old shown below, likes to press the keys on my keyboard and looks at the screen is if she knew what she was doing., I better watch out or She will take over my computer. she is very alert now and active and stays up most of the day and sleeps all night. I hope she ends up like my oldest daughter from my X-wife she now 30 was had all high grades, 95 and up all through high school and graduated 5th in her class. I have no problem with that. One of  her cousins graduated #1 in all here class.

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February 6th 2011

This is our one day a month that they shut down the generators and leave us without power for 11 hours. It goes off at 6:00 AM and back on around 6:00 PM. This is done to do maintenance on the power units and to cut back on usage as demand is high here. I woke up around 10:00 AM and noticed the room was dead quite, no air conditioner running and no lights. Marianne’s classmates 8 of them came up for a visit 4 on motorcycle and the rest by bus. They were all sitting around the living room talking when I got up. So we decided ot  take them out to Marianne’s 5 hectares of land as they wanted coconut juice to drink and knew we had plenty here. We spent about 3 hours out at the land near Medellin and had a Hawaiian style luau, that is eating on huge banana tree leaves and drinking coconut juice right out of the coconuts (see photos below).

At the Luau on Marianne’s Land, look how big those leaves are, they are banana leaves.

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At the Luau

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Luau 3

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Man cutting coconuts for us, these are full of coconut milk very good for you.

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This is how you drink the juice of a coconut.

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Our Coconut Trees

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There’s someone in that tree getting coconuts for us. Can you find him?

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Friendly people in bamboo houses, pretty much isolated way out here.

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Freindly people on Bamboo houses

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The entire village comes out to greet us.

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End of the line for the car we walk from here.

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Tiny Bamboo House, can you imagine this being all you own in the entire world.

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The whole vilage comes out to see us

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Access Road to Marianne’s land and small village, notice the electrical utility pole is only a stick.

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A Filipino Family in Medellin but way out next to our land. These people work our land when Corn is planted also Bananas and Coconuts.

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Marianne’s land runs beside these houses all the way down, the land is quite large 5 hectares.

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Lots of smiling people and kids here, It’s overwhelming how friendly they area.

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There are a lot of hand carved items here this man is making something and was very friendly explaining in Cebuano language what he was making, it was not clear to me what is was.

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Tuesday February 8th 2011

My daughter Felicity is standing on the bed singing along with a Music Video Barbie style, She will be 4 in April. That’s here in the middle and left below. She knows how to hit the back button, and can even shut down and start the computer correctly by her self.

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Wednesday February 9th 2011

My year here is up on the 11th so we are heading into Cebu City Tomorrow morning via bus, leave the driving to someone else this time. We need to get cash from an ATM there. The ATM’s here in Bogo only allow P5,000 per transaction but the ATM’s in Cebu allow P10,000 per transaction. I am charged $1.00 per transaction so it’s cheaper in Cebu. My bank only allows me to withdraw up to P40,000 in a 24 hour period, so we spend the night there and go back to the ATM after the 24 hours are up. We area planning on staying the night in a Hotel so I can get over to Immigrations early in the morning to begin my 13A processing and get an extension as my one year Balikbayan visa is running out on February 11th. Talk about right down to the wire… Yesterday while taking some photos the camera suddenly went to a green color not sure if something inside it has gone bad or not. Will see if a camera repair shop can fix it if not I guess I will have to buy a new one. Can you imagine a photographer without his camera?

Monday February  14th 2011

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James arrives from Davao to Bogo for a visit at our home. He arrived by way of car from Cebu City. I thought the driver was military at first but soon learned he was 0nly the driver. We took a video of the house which I will add here later, we need to edit it first.  After touring the house we took him via our car to San Remigio Beach Resort about 20 minutes from our house and hung around there most of the afternoon. We went back on the 15th and James rented a van so we could tour the area. We visited Bogo and the Market area and Gaisano in Bogo. While in Bogo I ran into Joe Bogo of Wanderingblindly.com has a blog and lots of photos of the area. We also drove out to Virgin Beach Resort where we met Ron Perry and I got some more photos of the rooms and beach resort soon to be added to that page. We ended the evening in Cafe Gloria a beautiful huge cafe at San Remigio see photos below.

NOTE: Joe Bogo was arrested Feb 28th 2011 for video taping topless girls, three of them  turned out to be under age. He may not have known that at the time of the taping but you can never really be sure about that, now he’s in jail.  I wold definitely recommend that you stay away from any activity like that. It’s too easy for one of the girls to talk then you are finished and it gives the rest of us Honest Law Abiding Americans a bad name as I am sure this will.

Update: Joe is still in jail in Cebu City as of March 21st. 2012, that’s a long time to be confined. I heard they may let him go soon though due to lack of evidence, guess the police messed up a little on the evidence.

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{ Northern Cebu Photos, Virgin Beach Resort owned by Ron Perry and his wife }

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Virgin Beach Resort

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Virgin Beach Resort 2

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Working on the computer at San Remigio Beach Resort on a wireless connection.

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More working on the computer

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One of San Remigio Conference Halls

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One of San Remigio Conference Halls 2, That’s the attorney friend from Michigan

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San Remigio Beach Resort Conference rooms 3

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This was taken in Cafe Gloria at San Remigio Beach Resort

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Cafe Gloria at San Remigio Beach Resort

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Marianne and Charles in San Remigio

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Marianne, Charles, Felicity in San Remigio

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Cafe Gloria San Remigio Beach Resort Cebu Left Wing

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Cafe Gloria San Remigio Beach Resort Cebu Right Wing

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Cafe Gloria San Remigio Beach Resort Cebu planning meeting

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San Remigio Beach Resort Cebu more of the Cafe Gloria

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San Remigio Cottages

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Rooms at San Remigio Beach Resort Cebu

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Rented  Air Conditioned Van heading to Virgin Beach Resort. That hat makes me look old…

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Christine and Marianne in the Rented Van

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Monday February 21st 2011

6 Day Trip to Manila to Shoot
2 Videos
February 14th – 27th.

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My work here in the Philippines is both Website Development and Video Shooting and Editing. We were asked by a client of mine from Michigan, I will call James who we had met earlier in the week., to come to Manila to shoot some video and take a few photographs. We have to protect his identity as he is involved in Medical Missions in Davao and is under protection of the Philippine Air Force.  Marianne and I and  James grabbed a flight on Philippine Airlines to Manila arriving on the 22nd of February 2011. Our assignment was to shoot an hour long video with a Buddhist Monk a Lama the only one in all of Asia, who converted to Catholicism and a missionary priest. However this story really begins on the 14th of February when we met up with James at  our house and later at the  San Remigio Beach Resort near Bogo.  (See Feb 14th above) After a trip to Indonesia and Davao James returned to Cebu and we were to meet him in Cebu City. We took the air conditioned bus from Bogo down to Cebu City to meet James at his hotel the “San Remigio Pension Suites in Cebu City, a very nice hotel.by the way. Once there we switched to a dorm style room as all other rooms were taken and his room was already booked for someone else that day. If you want to stay here you need to call them ahead of time as they only have 11 rooms. 032 231-0382, 442-4070 or 236-1908. new hotel classy looking great rooms, see below clean and neat and at the right price. I don’t have a photo of a superior Room but it costs P950 a Deluxe Room goes for 1,150, a Family Room for 1,450 and Dormitory Room goes for 3,250.

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{ Bogo & Northern Cebu Photos }

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First Stop in the rented van was the Cool Zone – Michael Board and Charles Harman at the Cool Zone Family Owned business

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{ Cebu City Photos }

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Dormitory Room P3200 Cebu City Philippines

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Dormitory Room 2

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San Remigio Pension Suites, Cebu City Coffee Shop on the roof with a great view. Larry Haydon and his wife stopped by for a visit.

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Roof Top Terrace with a view, San Remigio Pension Suites Cebu City Philippines

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View from San Remigio Pension Suites Cebu 1

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View from San Remigio Pension Suites Cebu 2

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View from San Remigio Pension Suites Cebu 3

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{ Manila Photos }

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embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direkt[HD] The District of Malate & Ermita in Manila

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James, Virgil the Buddhist Lama Monk and Charles at a Indian Restaurant in Ermita Manila Philippines.

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Virgil Antonio, Tabetten Lama Monk and friend, Prayer Beads on the table.

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Charles and Marianne at work Getting the Photos

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Manila Cathedral (Basilica Minore de la Nuestra Señora de la Immaculada Concepcion)

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Manila 2

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Manila 5, that’s gold up there

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Manila 3

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Ristorante Delle Mitre on the street

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Marianne and Charles at Ristorante Delle Mitre

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Ristorante Delle Mitre

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Ristorante Delle Mitre 2

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Ristorante Delle Mitre

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embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube DirektnolinkI
SM Mall Cebu City

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Ninoy Aquino International Airport 1 on our trip back to Bogo

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Ninoy Aquino International Airport 2, Our gate is 1 all the way down there.

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Saturday March 10th 2011

This morning Marianne woke me up to tell me she was heading into Cebu City to use the ATM machine in the SM. She asked me if I wanted to go and I said sure. So I got up hurriedly and dresses and the three of us Marianne myself and Felicity my 3 year old who likes to travel.

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This is where we catch the bus across from the street that leads to our house.

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We walked down the road from our Bogo house to the main highway about a 10 minute walk. We only waited about five minutes when an air conditioned bus happened by and stopped to pick us up. The photo below is of another air con bus what parked beside us at our half way stopover in Carmen Philippines.

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New Ceres Air Conditioned Bus

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After about a 15 minute stopover the bus returns to it original path on to Cebu City. We always get off at the last stop next to the SM. The SM Cebu City is only a short walk from the bus stop. We headed directly to the ATM and I stood by not wanting to be close to here while she gets cash as to alert any wrong doers that she has lots of money and worth trying to grab her purse or rob.  I always stay away while she does her banking at the ATM machines. Even shopping in small stores in town I like to remain at a distance so she gets the Filipino price not the Blue Eyed Price. A salesman can sell a knife to a native Filipino for P300 but if it’s an American or Foreigner it’s automatically P1,500 for the same item. Street peddlers are good at trying to get you to buy stuff and the price to me is always high. I always walk away and say no thanks then the price magnetically drops down to a lower and lower amount. Sometimes I buy if it gets low enough that I think it’s a bargain and I want that item.  Anyway back to my day, we after the ATM we stopped by Greenwich for pizza for lunch. After that we went outside and grabbed a cab from the SM to take us the short distance to the Bus Terminal.  As we got out of the cab there was another Air Conditioned bus just about ready to depart for Bogo. How lucky we have been getting these nice roomy air conditioned buses.

Here are a few more photos of the new bus.

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New Ceres Bus interior individual with air and light controls and seats recline.

Notice the leg room on these chairs.

You may ask why take the bus when we have our own car. The main reason is cost fuel is expensive here, and is more than the bus ticket.  A Bus ticket for two of us is only P170 one way. The fuel for our small car is P600 or so. A taxi from the SM to the Bus Depot is only P40 so we save and leave the driving to someone else. Also in the Philippines there is a system where the larger more expensive cars and bus’s and Jeepneys have more status on the road than small vehicles. But somehow motorcycles seem to have a higher status than anything else except bus;s and trucks. I once had a motorcycle pull right smack in front of me from across the road  out of the left side, I had to hit the break to keep from hitting him and he gives me a mean look as if it were my fault. And another reason for not driving is: once we were almost run off the road by a jeepney who pulled out of his lane which was backed up into our lane and floored it heading straight for us, since we were lower on the status system then he was it was up to us to get out of his way. I had to go partially up onto the sidewalk to avoid being hit by this jeepney. I told Marianne I would buy my own jeepney so I have equal status, then they will treat us much better. But the bus ride is fairly safe as long as they don’t try to go too fast over the mountain pass and go over a cliff. which does happen occasionally. Recently a driver was new, only driving a bus 10 days took a curve too fast and realized he was heading off the road into a cliff which would have killed everyone, He swerved to avoid this and ended up turning the bus over on it’s side hurting some but no deaths. The newer bus’s are taller and narrow so tend to be top heavy so the driers slow way down on the curves now.

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Saturday March 12th 2011

We had no internet connectivity because the bill was forgotten and not paid so I took advantage of the situation and got lots of sleep Thursday and Friday nights.  We have a backup internet system a USB device called a Globe Tattoo from Globe Telecom. It works well in Manila and Cebu City but not too well here. Then the cell tower near us was having problems and down most of the time. So I ended up not having a lot of bars of antenna strength and pages were taking 5 minutes to load so I just called it quits and went to bed. Today Saturday it has been raining most of the day since early morning. In the late afternoon it finally quit.  Marianne made ma some home made hamburgers. actually it’s ground pork cooked like a hamburger and tasted pretty good. A friend of mine who has gone to culinary school tole me he liked ground pork better than the ground beef here which does not taste as good as it is in the US. I wonder why??? Anyway these were pretty good.

Boy do I miss those huge burgers from the US.

You can get this cheeseburger at TGI Fridays at the Terraces Ayala Mall in Cebu City That’s Bacon and Cheese with about a 1/2 pound of beef.

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Sunday March 13th 2011

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Today we are heading over to Warren’s beach resort for Pizza. They have a large selection of great pizza. I will get some photos and add them here.

After driving all the way there we found out they do not have pizza now. The British cook no longer works there and he is the one who did the 9 different pizzas. I told a friend of mine who went to Culinary school to look into it but he may not do it as he wants to go to Bantayn Island instead.

We did not eat at Warrens instead we drove back into town (bogo) and ate at Yani’s restaurant on the second floor of a new hotel in Bogo. This restaurant was on a one story building that stood on the same ground and was torn down and the 5 story hotel put up in its place. I sure hope it doesn’t tip over lots of weight on that small plot of land. The restaurant is on the second floor and in a overhanging bay window that extends past the foundation bu a good 3 feet. To me the building is top heavy and the columns are too thin. only about 18 inches square columns. The food was excellent though. see photos of our adventure.

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Barangay Dakit, Bogo Our gate leading out of our house. 8:00 PM

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The cook at warrens beach resort is no longer there so no pizzas,  they used to have 9 different types of pizza. If you are a cook and can do pizza you can probably get free room and board here for your cooking skills.

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Warrens outside bar it used to be outside across the parking lot, but a typhoon wiped it off the face of the earth, they rebuilt it here and moved the pool table where it once stood.

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Well since Warrens had no pizza we left and went into Bogo to Yani’s Restaurant. This used to be a one story building now torn down and replaced with a 4 or 5 story hotel. Yani’s Restaurant is on the second floor. Great food by the way. We ordered two orders of a culinary delight called Calamares or fried squid. It looked like fried union rings and even tasted similar I must say the best fried squid I ever ate, very tender, melts in your mouth. We also ordered Sweet and Sour Pork for me ummm good, and for Marianne Sotanghon-Bam-i I think I got that correct. It’s a thin kind of tasty noodles. If you are in Bogo instead of eating at JolliBee or Gaisano Restaurant, give Yani a try you will not be disappointed.  It’s located just a couple of blocks down, on the left just past the town square on your way out of town going South.

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Yani’s Restaurant March 13th 2011 Bogo

Her brother sipping on the Sprite surprised me didn’t want beer drank about half a glass and quit, Good or him.

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Yani towards the bay window overhang in front, visible from the street.

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Closer view of the Yani Bay Window Christine still single and our youngest maid and Marianne’s cousin

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Falicity eating Sotanghon-bam-i

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Felicity insists on feeding herself at Yani.

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Marianne’s brother’s oldest child about 2 years old

Well enough for one day. Good night it’s late.

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Wednesday March 16th 2011

On March 15th I had been working my night job as webmaster for 7 real estate investing websites in Texas, a job I do at night from midnight until about 5:00 AM. I get a list from a millionaire in Texas daily of things to do for the night or his day, these include sending emails, finding speakers for meetings, scheduling meetings and all the other logistics involved in this type of business. I also build websites for US clients which needs to be done in the US daytime night here. Anyway, last night the power suddenly went out  at around 4:00 AM and stayed out for something like 5 hours. The night was cool and I was able to just go to bed and worry about the rest of my tasks the next day. It is 1:16 PM, Marianne is getting ready to grab a bus to Cebu City to make a cash run to the bank. I still have work to do left over from last night so I will remain here this trip. Marianne will bring some burgers home from McDonald’s on the return trip home. I wonder what happened to kill power in our entire region for so long.

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Friday April 1st 2011

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Recently we purchased a new Honda Dash 110 with cast wheels, with the idea it will save us money on gas in the long run. Thursday we took a ride downtown at 8:00 am and ate breakfast at JolliBee. After that we went back home and then back out for a longer ride to Medellin Public Market where here sister has a stall for selling meat. At the market I took a few photos of the new Honda see below.

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Honda Dash Cast Type 110cc

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Monday July 4th 2011

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Marianne has begun her College education to become a Pharmacist and is studying at Southwestern University in Cebu City. She started June 13th., 2011.  Our plans are to open our own pharmacy or she will work somewhere as a staff Pharmacist. Below are some photos from the college.

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1. Marianne at SWU Campus Cebu City You can see the Crown Regency Hotel in the background.

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2. Marianner SWU

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3. Marianne at SWU Cebu City with her new friend

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4. Marianne and another new friend

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5. Marianne and a classmate at SWU March against Drugs Cebu City

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6. More of the SWU March and Marianne’s classmates

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7. SWU March against drugs a class project

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8. Marianne and a classmate a Marine half American Half Filipino

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9. Marianne and SWU classmates at the march in Cebu City

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10. Marianne with her classmates at SWU March against drugs

11. Marianne and classmates at the SWU March against drugs

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13. Marianne with two of her SWU classmates

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14. Marianne and SWU Classmate

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15. SWU Ralley against drugs classmate, Cebu City

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16. SWU Classmates

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17. SWU Classmates with faculty

Thursday September 29h 2011

Toda is Rihanne’s first birthday she is not 1 year old. Tomorrow we are expected to drive up to Bogo for a party there.

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August 3rd, 2012

We sold the house to an American living in Bogo for 1.8 Million after trying to sell it for more than 3 years.

August 23rd 2012

We are currently still living in the little Tumulak Village Apartment while we look for a new home. Our thoughts are to find a house that is under 3 Million Pesos and maybe pay half down and payments for the remaining balance. If anyone wants to come visit us the address is below call me on my Philippines Cell phone: 0-923-908-9375

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2 Bedroom Apartment Living Room and Kitchen P 6,500 per month.

Michael & Marianne Harman
2565 No 2 Tumulak Village
Sangi New Road, Pajo,
Lapu-Lapu City Mactan
6015, Philippines

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You can Join this site and receive updates, just use the link is on the right sidebar under “Meta”. Also please leave a comment so I know you were here, and answer the questions: What did you think of the information presented on this site? and Is there anything else I should include? If you would like to include some of your own information I will post it for you, send it along with any photos to Charles_Harman@rocketmail.com – Thanks Charles

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Charles Harman 571-970-9195

Charles_Harman@rocketmail.com

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