What six dollars gets you

[william3rd]

A couple years back I put up a photo of what my now wife and I were able to get for the equivalent of six dollars for lunch.

NOW- 12.50 USD will get the same lunch.

Inflation is really brutal here!!!!

[Ray]

I remember when $6 USD would get you 6 large bottles of Singha beer in a Pattaya Beach bar...

HIC!   

[Dave H]

A couple years back I put up a photo of what my now wife and I were able to get for the equivalent of six dollars for lunch.

NOW- 12.50 USD will get the same lunch.

Inflation is really brutal here!!!!

Everyone says that inflation has hit us bad in the Philippines, but many people where we live seem to be doing much better than before. Perhaps a relative has gone overseas or married a kano. There were very few private automobiles here 10 years ago and people were even impressed if you had a motorcycle....now everyone and their brother has at least a motorcycle and/or car or pickup (many are new). Trying to eat at the mall or restaurants can be a nightmare with the crowds.

I will have to take a picture of a $6 meal. It is probably half of what it was 10 years ago...but still a bargain!

There are still many poor, mostly in the rural areas, but a fast emerging middle class. Education is extremely important to Filipinos! Even the poor, uneducated farmer tries to put his daughter through nursing school. Because Filipinos know that education (not sports or welfare like in the US) is the best way out of poverty! The lines for school supplies at stores have been brutal for several weeks, as school begins next week.


Our daughter has 10 subjects in the 1st grade, including 2 language subjects (English and Filipino). Cebuano is the predominate local language. MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health) is counted as one subject.

About the only thing my older boys did in Florida schools was study for the annual FCAT exam. My daughter did more homework in her Philippine kindergarten than her older brothers ever did in any given year of their K-12 US (Florida) schooling.

Dave

[kojak]

There are still many poor, mostly in the rural areas, but a fast emerging middle class. Education is extremely important in the Filipinos! Even the poor, uneducated farmer tries to put his daughter through nursing school. Because Filipinos know that education (not sports or welfare like in the US) is the best way out of poverty! The lines for school supplies at stores have been brutal for several weeks, as school begins next week.


Our daughter has 10 subjects in the 1st grade, including 2 language subjects (English and Filipino). Cebuano is the predominate local language. MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health) is counted as one subject.

About the only thing my older boys did in Florida schools was study for the annual FCAT exam. My daughter did more homework in her Philippine kindergarten than her older brothers ever did in any given year of their K-12 US (Florida) schooling.

Dave

Well spoken H. education is the cornerstone to a better life, a better future...something that's seriously lacking in many Latin American countries only the elite and a few lucky souls can attained a good education.  Especially coming from the lower classes, the system makes it almost impossible.

On another note, a couple of years ago in certain hole in the wall establishments in Panama I could buy four 8once  beers for 1 dollar, amazing. In that type of establishment generally speaking you definitely want to avoid making eye contact (even with the bartender) and don't make any sudden movement if you value your health.  Hell from what I've been told you might even have to dodge bullets to get to these fine establishments nowadays, is it worth it?     

[Woody]

Well spoken H. education is the cornerstone to a better life, a better future...something that's seriously lacking in many Latin American countries only the elite and a few lucky souls can attained a good education.  Especially coming from the lower classes, the system makes it almost impossible.

Which is why I intend on taking an active role in my children's education. I plan on having earned my Masters of Education by the time I have children of school age. I will specialize in linguistics, since that is an area I am weak in. I am fully prepared to teach them mathematics and sciences(I need some work on my geology and biology, but other than that I am pretty well rounded).

I plan on doing what my mother did, teach to the level that they are capable. I was studying chemistry and the history of Mesopotamia when I was in third grade. My mom just found it easier to teach from a single, high school level set of books.

You know what my American history was when I was in elementary school? The biographies of American greats. I read the biographies of Ben Franklin, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and others.

As long as you give children the proper tools, guidance, and drive, they can learn anything.

My children will be, at a minimum, completely bilingual. If I can somehow manage it, trilingual. I know it will stunt their early language development, but by the time they reach their teens, they will have leveled out.