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Personal Updates for Friends and Family

28 May 2007 - Angie and I have two days left in Chile.  If you've not read my South America blogs about our recent pains, have a look at this and this, that'll make the rest of this make sense.

We've managed to sell most of the things we bought in Chile to furnish the apartment in the few days that we've been back in the country.  As always, the break with the country won't be as clean as I'd like, but things could be worse.

To this point, we have also managed to stave off pneumonia, which is no small feet considering the high temperatures have hovered around 50 Fahrenheit and we have only one heated room in the apartment.  I have maintained a faint sense of feeling in my fingertips here in the office thanks to the heat provided by our toaster oven-come space heater.

Angie, I'd say, is downright giddy to end our Chile experiment, but I'm sad that so many things went awry for us so that we never really had a chance to enjoy this beautiful country.  However, when we walk the streets and the piggish Chilean men openly gape at my girlfriend, I realize that I won't miss the culture of universal disrespect.

Angie's appointment with the Chiari specialist is 25 June, in Aurora, Colorado.  We spend the intervening weeks mooching off the charity of friends and family and continuing to spend our retirement accounts down to critical levels.  A cheer for experiments gone wrong.  Let's hope San Francisco, whenever it is that we'll finally plod our way there, won't also greet us with a kick in the teeth.

6 April 2007 - It's 5:30 AM and I'm still working on the complete revamp of the website.  My obsessive compulsive disorder has gotten the best of me.  For years, really, I have wanted to improve the site and for months now, since I've gotten new photo software, I've longed to improve all of the pictures previously posted.

I caved about a week ago, vowing that I wouldn't post any of the Patagonia pictures until my to-do list for the site was at or near empty.  Since then I've spent nearly every waking moment working on the improvements.  In that time I've had my book rejected by two agents, so that makes me feel good; it makes me feel like I really should be spending a vast amount of time on a site primarily containing pictures.  Really, who doesn't want to buy my photographs?

Right, I'm done moaning about my OCD regarding this website.  If you're reading this and you don't know that Angie and I are planning to move to San Francisco in June/July, I'm either sorry that I haven't been in better contact with you, or I wonder why you would be reading this far into a boring personal diatribe if you aren't a friend or family member.

We're moving back to the States because we couldn't get Angie's dog here, and she didn't do well without Rocco.  We both love San Francisco, and it doesn't get TOO cold, so we'll take a shot at life in the Bay area.

Before we return home, we plan a trip to the Lakes District in Chile and we've already booked our trip for the Inca Trail, Macchu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and the Amazon.

3 January 2007 - Tomorrow will be exactly one month since my girlfriend, Angie, and I arrived in Santiago.  If you've ever moved to a foreign country, or perhaps just moved, you know that getting your life arranged in a new place is time consuming.  We spent the better part of the first month getting ourselves situated--which is still a work in progress.

We found an apartment and Angie has a job, so we've gotten a couple of major obstacles out of the way.  We have met some wonderful people who have turned me on to a potential job at an on-line newspaper, taken us shopping for furniture and even signed up for cable and Internet in their name since, as poorly documented foreigners, we can't sign contracts here.

Chile hasn't been as foreign to me as perhaps I had hoped, although the version of Spanish spoken here is, most certainly, foreign to my ears.

I hope more travel and more time outside of corporate America will yield more entertaining updates from Chile.

31 January 2006 - Two and one-half years after a different life, I still survive in this life.  Go me.

29 September 2003 - G.O.H.N., Gone

Tomorrow I move back to the St. Louis area.  Goodbye from Manila.

29 July 2003 - Rebels, Government Soldiers, Bombs and Me.

Hello once again.  

I suppose most of you have heard about the latest occurrence of the Starkey Factor that has rocked the Philippines.  Bringing SARS to the Philippines was, apparently, not enough to satisfy the evil Starkey Factor deity, so He ordered up a coup d'état attempt on the poor, unsuspecting people of this fine republic.  He was, however, kind enough to let everyone near the hotel/mall where the rebels where holed up believe that I, the carrier of the Starkey Factor that precipitated the situation, was a member of the press.  So I had that going for me, which was nice.

I didn't intend to become a press member, the situation just evolved.  It started when my girlfriend called me at around 8:30 Sunday morning to say that the rebels had taken up positions in a mall that is only two miles from my apartment.  They were heavily armed and had bombs.  The government troops had surrounded the place.  An honest-to-God coup attempt was happening a twenty minute walk away from my apartment.  My girlfriend actually expected me to stay at home, but there wasn't even the smallest chance that I was missing this event.  Coup attempts may be routine to her--as a Filipina, she has lived through several in her 29 years--but Collinsville, Illinois, doesn't have this stuff.  I was showered and out the door as fast as I could put the receiver down.

After encountering brief, and feeble, resistance from government troops blockading the entrance to the mall--the primary responsible soldier let a vehicle and a pedestrian past him while sending an SMS message on his cell phone, (only in the Philippines! I love this place!)--I walked to an unguarded entrance to the mall and was soon standing with members of the press taking close up pictures of a live bomb.

After inspecting the bomb, I walked across the parking lot, stepped over a wire, and continued walking for another forty paces until I saw another wire.  It was then that I realized I was standing squarely between two bombs and in the heart of rebel territory.  I didn't see any need to panic, as no soldiers were in sight, but I didn't think that hanging out in no-man's-land by myself for much longer was the safest way forward, so I walked directly between the bombs and towards the hotel that had been evacuated earlier that morning.

I was almost to the hotel when three machinegun-toting rebels came walking out of the shadows.  I then saw a need to panic.  With my heart in my throat, I hightailed it back towards a group of press members who were a safe distance from the bombs and the rebels.

I stayed near the press for a few minutes, witnessing a brief tense moment when some government troops moved in to take video footage of the rebels (have I already said, 'only in the Philippines!?) and the rebels came to greet the government camcorders with machine guns.  The standoff didn't last more than three minutes and soon media members were filing past the hotel, almost coming in contact with the rebels, and moving into a position also in the heart of rebel territory.  I followed them.  From that moment on, I was a member of the press corpse.

I spent the remainder of the day in press conferences, hanging out with members of the media, trying not to piss off rebel troops, trying not to piss off government troops and trying not to trip over bombs. 

At one point during the day, I actually heard some members of the press pontificating about why the rebels had chosen the Ayala Center Mall as their headquarters.  I had to laugh.  I can't think of anything that one can't do at a Manila mall.  Movies, groceries, cars, the finer restaurants (I'm not referring to food court cuisine, which does, by-the-way, exist also), the most popular bars, stops for the two city trains and etc.--all exist, besides what you might normally expect, at the mall.  As I figured it, if the situation lasted for several days, I'd join the rebels.  I mean, where else would you rather be in Manila than living in the mall?

The standoff ended at 9:45 when the last two rebel soldiers guarding the hotel entrance received SMS messages on their cell phones and quickly retreated back to the rebel headquarters.  If all of the Philippines were unable to send a text message for an entire day, there wouldn't be anarchy in the streets, there wouldn't be anything.  The average Filipino, I believe, would be grief stricken and unable to think without the aid of their phone key pads.  If such a day did occur, the entire nation would most likely go into a state of shock and mourning. 

The end result of the coup, for those who don't know, is that the rebels 'won' an agreement from the government to investigate their claims of corruption and etc.  What they actually won was their lives.  They had hoped the Filipino people would rise to support their demand that the President step down but they were sadly misinformed about the loyalties of the Filipino people.

I stayed around to watch the last of the rebels taken away, still carrying guns, ammunition and explosives, at almost midnight.  It was then that I figured my duty as a member of the press had come to its fitting conclusion and I could excuse myself to grab a bite to eat, my first taste of food that day.

---------

I should mention, for those that I haven't yet told, that I won't be having many more, if any, third world adventure stories for you.  For family reasons, I will be returning to the Collinsville area the first week of October.  From coup d'état to Collinsville, from European adventures to the Italian Fest, from exotic dishes in South East Asia to the Horseradish Festival--And so it goes.

And to think, just a week ago I thought this update was going to be about my trip to Japan, complete with pictures, and a brief mention about my television commercial lifestyle.  The Starkey Factor deity works in mysterious ways.

8 June 2003 - The Philippines, First Impressions and Such

Hello all.  A mere three months after I arrived in Manila, I finally get around to contacting you.  I'm sorry about the mismash communications that we've had since I arrived but I have been, believe it or not, very busy.  Larry Oaster (Father of my friends' Doug and Laura) said about retirement, 'I don't know how I ever had time for work.'  I concur with Mr. Oaster in spades.  Of course, I'd have to say it about unemployment...

I've been writing, traveling, working on this website or running errands since I left work in February.  The only relaxed time I take each day is to watch The Simpson's and, when I'm lucky, to read.

'How is the writing going?' is the question I get most often.  It's going pretty well, currently.  I've written very much, but I haven't had anything published.  I may have a travel essay in an upcoming book but that isn't yet confirmed.  Otherwise I need to get around to submitting stories that I have written.  The book that I thought I would have started by now is not started.  I have decided to complete a collection of travel essays first.  I hope to complete that within the next two to three months.

A great deal of my past two weeks, sadly, have been consumed with this silly website.  Nothing like teaching yourself how to create a website to waste valuable writing and sleeping time.  Anyway, the primary reason that I started this site was to share photos from my travels.  I will post my writing when I can (when published...).  Otherwise, if you want to read any of my stories, please just send me an email.

Pre-website design, I managed to travel to a few places within the Philippines (see photographs page for a list) but, due to SARS, I haven't yet traveled throughout South East Asia.  The monsoon season has now arrived to team up with SARS to severely restrict my travel options.  The Starkey Factor has followed me to yet another continent.

Also contrary to my plans, I have my own apartment.  Due to my friend's family obligations, I wasn't able to stay with him.  Therefore, I found a studio apartment in a very nice neighborhood in Manila.  The studio is tiny and, even though it came 'furnished,' I have had to mostly furnish it myself.  I have now bought a radio and television in three countries.  Good for me.  The rent is only about $165/month so things could be worse.

The cost of living here is as cheap as was rumored.  A full meal at a normal restaurant is $2 - $3, a two - seven hour bus trip is usually less than $3, a decent hotel (outside of Manila) is around $10/night, a bottle of local beer at the supermarket is around 25 cents (but a can is about 45, odd), a Big Mac is known as a Big Mac, they put a mayo/ketchup concoction on their french fries (or are those Freedom Fries?) and I didn't go into Burger King either.

The products available here are much more similar to the States than was Ireland or Spain.  Many of the American brands are available here and, for the first time outside of the States, I have seen grape jelly for sale.  My favorite aspect of supermarket shopping here is the abundance of American peanut butter at prices cheaper than in the U.S.  My least favorite is the questionable quality of the chicken.  Maybe it's just the smell but I'm always leery that I'm having a salmonella grill out when I'm cooking a store bought chicken breast.  I continue to buy them because they are healthier than beef and less smelly (despite the hint of salmonella) than fish.  The different varieties of fruit here is amazing.  The problem is that they are all so foreign to me that I don't even know how to eat them.  Therefore, I basically eat LOTS of mangos.  I love mangos already.  The lack of quality, inexpensive Spanish wine has so severely altered my dinner habits that I'm still adjusting.  No good cheese either!  I really like the food here but I also miss Spain.  I prefer bread with every meal to rice with every meal (including breakfast!).  Ah, on the subject of odd breakfast habits, one of the most common breakfasts here is steamed rice, a fried egg and a hot dog.  And that's for the adults.

Other than the good-humored nature of the Filipinos, my favorite thing, so far, about living here is the absence of blind anti-Americanism.  The Europeans are born and raised to not like the States.  Their insistence on complete skepticism about anything American was rather trying for the past three years.  The Filipinos most certainly have their gripes with the U.S. but they all seem to be based on rational thought rather than a knee-jerk reaction to oppose anything that comes out of the States.  To my European friends, don't start sending me angry emails.  We've discussed this before.  Accept the facts.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I have to constantly be on my guard not to get cheated out of my money.  By virtue of having white skin, it is assumed that I am wealthy and a legitimate target for most anyone to try to cheat me.  I would estimate that I have a completely honest taxi driver, one who uses the meter and doesn't ask me for additional money, one out of every four taxi rides.  Otherwise, I just insist that they will use the meter and sternly let them know that I won't pay them extra for whatever silly excuse they give me.  Another favorite game of the locals in the provinces is to offer a 'special ride' in the jeepneys (WWII era jeeps that are a mix between a jeep and small school bus).  The cost of the 'special ride' is usually about $3 and the regular price is usually about 20 cents.  But, with the 'special ride,' you don't have to wait....That they try so hard to swindle me with little figurines of the Virgin Mary situated all over their cars and jeepneys (The Philippines is overwhelmingly Catholic) does not, apparently, strike them as ironic.

As for my personal safety, I haven't really ever felt threatened.  I've lied about my nationality on numerous occasions and I've avoided traveling to the deep south (Abu Sayef/MILF territory).  Otherwise, I've not had any problems.  I don't feel any less secure here than I did in Spain.

Wow, that's a lot of more than I thought I was going to say.  If you want to know any more about my travels, send me a mail.  I can send you travel stories that I have written about the places I've been or answer any questions.  I gotta warn ya, the travel article pieces (not the essays) can be a bit dry because I have to furnish a good deal of facts about the destination within the stories.  Of course, you may like that....

Take care

Roger

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