Introduction

Hello. My name is Raf (Ralph in English) . My wife Aida, and I, moved to the Philippines in 2006 from Canada. I was actually born in Belgium, although my wife is from the Philippines. Due to my poor health at that moment, I could not see myself going back to work. Even though, there was short-term disability insurance for me, the stress that caused these insurances took more toll on my sickness. So, we decided to take a chance moving where my wife is from. We live in Metro Manila and must say, we've been through a lot of culture shocks.

It's only after 2.5 years of being here now, my good health came back, and actually my wife's health got also better since she quit her job as a nurse's aide in a nursing home where she complained lots of times of shoulder and knee pain due to constant lifting of the residents. The pain went away by itself since we came here.

We are both middle aged and are now early retired here, as life is also overall cheaper where we are now than in Canada, so it's manageable.

Anyways, it's a short introduction and see you around!