ᴛʜɪs sᴀᴍᴇ ᴅᴀʏ THREE YEARS AGO

I was one of the women who wished on falling stars to find the man of her dreams, her knight in shining armor, her prince in disguise.......and I never would have imagined that such wishes will ever be answered.  On this same day some three years ago a man told me "je t'aime" (I love you in french) and promised to always tell me the same thing everyday.  He is a man of his words indeed, since then he never missed a day in telling me how much he loves me with the exception of those days when he's on his flights (four times from Martinique to Cebu) to be in my arms.  It is amazing how loving and being loved back by someone makes us feel so good, happy, grateful and more than anything else BLESSED!

 

I thank God with all my heart for giving me such a blessing.  Any woman can find a husband but not a lot of women are blessed with such a loving, caring, protective, supportive, romantic, kind, understanding, sweet, patient, responsible and respectful husband.  These are just the very few things that I can say about my husband, the list is never ending but to some it all up I can say "I simply have the best, THE ONE I've been praying for and the only and last one in the world to ever make me feel the way I do". 

 

It is but a living miracle to have found you my love.  Thank you for always keeping up with me even if I can be a little too much to handle at times.  Thank you for always making me your top priority.  Thank you for making me feel so beautiful and thank you for not getting tired of saying "I love you, je t'aime or even gi higugma ko ikaw".......you still make me giggle, you still make me blush, you still flatter me after all these years and I hope and pray that you will never cease to do it. 

 

I love you so much and I always will.  Life is never easy as we know but like we always said, we are stronger together.  I could not ask for more, thank you so much for loving me the way you do! 

 

 

 

Lᴀ Mᴀʀᴛɪɴɪǫᴜᴇ

I often get questions from my family and friends how life is like in this part of the world.  A lot of them actually don't really have a clear idea where this place is located.  We see it in movies, yes! But this is not a common destination of a Filipino unless he or she is working in a cruise ship.  So just to give a little clarification on this matter I'd say "use google"...LOL...  No, seriously:  the Caribbean is full of islands which are overseas territories or departments of some European countries or the Great Britain.  However, these islands are actually closer to America than they are to Europe or GB. 

Martinique is a departement outre-mer (overseas department) of France.  It's like a province of France (for better understanding) though it is eight hours away from its metropolis. Everything here is french; the language (but they have their native language called Creole), the currency, the system etc..

I'm gonna share my observations about the way of life here.

Grocery Shopping:

After my arrival, the first thing I and my husband did was grocery shopping.  They don't have huge malls here like we have in Cebu.  What they have is just a simple supermarket and it's okay but what made me smile is that right beside the huge parking lot of the supermarket there's a ranch with lots of cows in it.  Pollution is not an issue at where we are because we're not living in the capital.  I have some observations too at the grocery.  They don't have a lot of employees, they just have "enough" to keep the business going.  It means no one will likely be near you if you need some help about a particular product, you gotta find it yourself or look "hard" for someone to help.  Whereas in Cebu we always have someone a few steps away.  And at the counter, after the cashier did his or her job no one's gonna be packing your goodies, again you have to do it yourself and they don't really use a lot of plastic bags here (which is a very good thing) so each shopper brings his or her own grocery bag.  At the exit, there's no security guard who's gonna check your receipts and I forgot to mention, no one checks you or your bag when you get in either.

The prices of things are so different too of course, so different in an awfully "expensive" way that's why life isn't really all paradise here.  The value of the salary is big but it will only equate to the cost of living unless you're running a rum distillery! (LOL).  Otherwise, you're gonna have to really do your best to save up if you want to have something for the rainy days and that's what we're doing.  Thankfully I'm blessed with a very responsible husband.

Means of Transportation:

There are a few buses in Fort-de-France (the capital city of the island) and some really expensive taxis too.  The primary means of transportation is a private vehicle and people in this island seriously like 'em wheels!  In some households you'll see more than one vehicle and you often see abandoned vehicles practically anywhere.  They change their vehicles a little too often so it has become a real problem as to where they're gonna throw these abandoned ones.  Like in the Philippines some of them are riding the motorbikes without a helmet and speeding up like they're some kinda invulnerable.  My last job in Cebu was in a bank's auto-loan department so I'm kind of familiar with a lot of car makes commonly used in America but not here, they have some makes that I don't know (French cars).  But I do see a lot of Mini Coopers, BMWs, Volkswagens, Fords and Hyundais and Toyotas just to name a few. 

The Houses:

Eighty-five to ninety percent of the houses here are very strong and concretely built.  In the neighbourhood where we live a lot of people have their own swimming pools and whenever we go driving to discover the island, the huge houses always amuse me.  Imagine you go trekking and out of the blue you see a house at the top of the hill in the middle of the forest (not made of candy like in Hansel and Grethel) I mean real houses!  It's a beautiful sight and often it makes me dream that Adlaon (the place in Cebu where I come from) will look like this.  If this will happen everyone will be safe from the strong typhoons.  How I wish! 

The Farms:

This is a place that really looks like home "except" their farmers are actually owners of a huge house and a Land Rover!  Well, it's France after all!  The vegetation, the fruits and the animals are just like the ones from home.  This is a very good thing for me because it makes me feel not so far from home, it helps me a lot with my adjustment period.  It's even funny at times because I know the plants more than my husband, I often say "ah, we have the same in Cebu and we call it..." make us both smile all the time. :)

The Locals:

Coming from a place where people smile easily and are friendly it is a bit strange for me being here sometimes.  People here are of African descent, they have a long and very sad history of slavery which most likely is the reason why they are not the most friendly people.  I can understand but it's not easy sometimes.  A lot of times I see myself initiating a smile and they just plainly ignore it but some of them are kind and very polite too (mostly the old ones).  According to my husband they rarely give compliments but I have received compliments from two strangers in two separate occasions.  It flattered me so much that my face turned as red as a cooked lobster!hahaha...  They are very polite here though, they always say their greetings.  The moment you enter in a shop everyone inside, even the customers like you, will say hello and if someone leaves he or she says goodbye to everybody.  I need to practice this more because I'm not used to saying hello and goodbye to everybody everywhere.  They give their greetings but they rarely give it with a smile so they are polite but not friendly which is okay, with all due respect let them be!

The Food:

They like flavorful foods here.  You can find a lot of herbs and spices in the market.  They're very famous with rums too.  Honestly, I have never appreciated a rum so much until I came here.  They have a lot of flavors for their punch but my favourites are coffee and coconut and my husband made me some really delicious cocktails!  On Sundays they like to eat "un poulet boucane".  It's a chicken cooked in an improvised oven and with lots of herbs and spices stuffed inside.  It's very close to our "lechon manok" but a bit more flavorful.

The Health Care:
Since I got here I've lost track how many times we've seen a doctor.  Perhaps due to the "adjustment period" but there are no big issues thankfully.  We've seen doctors due to a very bad mouth ulcer, a lot of awful insect bites, skin irritations and a few other things....just really small things but irritable enough not to mind.  If you are french and you have a health problem then there's no big deal, call the doctor for an appointment or call the emergency and the doctor will come to see you at home, present your "government health insurance cards", go to the pharmacy and present the same cards again and most of the time the medicines will be given for free.  You're gonna have to pay for the doctor ranging between €17 to €35 and then the government will refund you a huge percentage of the doctor's fee.

However, doctor's appointments are not as easy as in the Philippines especially if you are looking for a specialist.  For example if you want to see an opthalmologist you're gonna have to wait about six months before the doctor can see you and about one to two months for a dentist.  They encourage you to see your family doctor first and he or she will determine if you need a specialist, if you go to see the specialist directly then you're most likely not gonna be given a refund even if you use your health insurance cards. 

In the Philippines if we don't have a private insurance then we're gonna have to shoulder all the doctor's fees plus the medication.  Our government health insurance can only be used when we're confined in a hospital and we have to pray that the hospital bill won't be so much more than the ten thousand pesos covered by our government health insurance.  On a positive note, if we need to see a doctor, even a specialist there's most likely no problem...we have a lot of doctors who are available in many hospital clinics or health clinics.

Yet if you are a foreigner in France and you don't have their health insurance benefits then you're not likely gonna smile unless you have lots of extra euros. You would prefer paying the doctors and medicines in pesos rather than in euros.  This made me long for Cebu many times because we have to pay for my health care as of the moment while we are waiting for the process to be completed on availing their social health insurance benefits.

I have a lot of other observations which I'm gonna share in the next posts.  These are the basic things about living here.  I hope you now have a clearer idea about the place.  C'est un endroit très agréable ici!

I'ᴍ ᴀ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇʀ

Religion is undoubtedly one of the most controversial topics to talk about among many others.  I grew up in a very catholic family but as early as my childhood I was already exposed to different types of "believers" in our household.  I remember seeing my grandparents kneeling in front of the altar praying night after night but my grandfather despised priests and the fact of confession because for him they are just ordinary men in robes.  Then here's the rest of the family who goes to church on birthdays or even ordinary Sundays despite the fact that we had to walk a very long way to reach the nearest church.  It could consume almost the entire day if you walk on regular pace, it is that far but for faith we did it. 

My father had a motorcycle accident in 1992, I was just seven years old back then and that event made us cling on to our faith even more.  I remember praying the rosary every six o'clock in the evening with my younger brother praying for Papa's recovery.  I also remember participating in a "dawn rosary" and literally it's done at dawn.  We had to pass around the statue of the Virgin Mary from one house to another.  I grew up in a countryside where houses are not very close so it means walking a long way together with some neighbors everytime we do it.  I was just a girl and I was with a group of some adults who have really strong faiths.

Then I was sent to a catholic school in the city for high school which made me read the bible every-so-often.  It helped me a lot to stay focused and fearful.  I thought all these years that my faith was very strong.  God knows how many spiritual gatherings I participated with.  It's okay, as a young adult it helped me to be fearful and to try to do good.

In college I still kept my religious practices, going to church with some friends, attending early massess for Christmas and such and I continued to believe that my faith was very intact.  However, as I was growing up I learned little by little that it was weak and I saw and hear the news about controversies involving the church and it made me feel so bad.  I kind of slowed down then.  I didn't stop believing in God but started doubting about some things.  During debates I often stand on points against the church with regard to issues like merci killing or death penalties and the likes.  I realized I was not the believer that I was.

As years passed there were events in my life which had really shaken my faith to the extent that I stopped going to church or praying.  It continued for a year or two but it didn't help me either.  At the end of the day I would still prefer believing in God than not believing in something at all.  I'm not a fanatic, I am more like my grand father now but I really am a believer.  I don't want to argue about religion and let someone have the same belief like mine.  We all have our own choices and whatever makes us happy, contented and comfortable then we should go for it.  I am comfortable knowing that I have a God.  It makes me feel safe and secured!  We shouldn't be judged by our belief anyway.