HansS

Of course we have a lot of friends in Philippines; Myra has a lot of relatives in Negros and Panay.  The more time we spend in Philippines, the more friends we have. It is perfect when you travel around and visit friends during the trip. They take good care of us and we experience a lot more than normal tourists.

Sometimes it is nice to meet foreigners also, we share experiences in Philippines. Ten minutes away lives Jan and Nene van Klaveren. He is a Dutch but has spent most of his professional life in Australia.

Right now he runs a crab factory for an American company, they buy crabs, boil them, and 100 girls are picking the crab meat. Later they send everything to a canning industry in Panay for export to USA.  He like farming and grow a lot of papaya, nice tomatoes, cucumber etc. He also raise pigs, sheep's and chickens.  When we need a pig for grilling we just go to Jan, pick a suitable pig and bring it back home.   Always top quality!  His vegetables are much nicer than market quality. I think Escalante needs more guys like Jan, business minded and industrial. During his Australian years he introduced more than 30 new species of fruit trees to Australia.

Swedes and dutch are the same in many ways and Jan and I are very good friends now.

Also ten minutes away lived Julian, a retired American officer, with his wife in a nice, big, newly built house. For different reasons he get bored of living in Philippines and decided to go back to USA. They sold the house to Tim and Sweet Geddes, a Canadian couple with two kids. They live in Alberta and will stay the same season as us in Escalante. It took less then five minutes to realize they will also be a perfect contribution to the small community. Do I have to tell you all of us are married to Filipinas?