I've worked some pretty good jobs for some really good companies throughout my life sat in front of the TV and rotted away basically was what was I was doing I could see the writing on the wall that my
future was extremely Bleak she robbed me the first night I was here back in the States I was basically almost wheelchair bound the opportunities for social connection are much better here in the Philippines coming to the Philippines is
probably the best thing that I could have done for my health and for my sanity hey YouTube Alex here at in today's video we're sitting down with my new friend Mark who arrived to the Philippines several months back
Mark has been on Mike's Philippine retirement and the Philippine PE I feel a lot of gratitude for Mark taking time out of his day to come and speak with us about what it's like to be an American living
in the Philippines with a disability many Americans who struggle with disabilities who are curious can I live the expat lifestyle can I live overseas and I think that he does a good job of answering that question today so
without further Ado let's get into it if you could go ahead and introduce yourself mark my name is Mark uh I've been in the Philippines now going on four months not sure what else to say about my introduction
other than that's who I am I'm from the United States yeah the reasons why I came from the Philippines uh mostly peace of mind and for my health I am disabled I have a very rare neurological disease and
also I'm a neurode Divergent and I have I'm on the autistic spectrum and I have ADHD being in the United States um just trying to survive on disability even though I had worked for enough years to get my
full um social security credits as my uh disability didn't actually hit me until I was 47 I tried working with my disability in the United States but as you soon learn that when you start getting into your late
40s early 50s finding a job in the United States is extremely difficult despite what they say in the job market you know there's jobs everywhere when you get to a certain age and especially if you have any health
issues you become more of a liability to a company than you are an asset regardless of your skills training anything like that so working just was not an option anymore in the states so I having to just survive
strictly on my disability that being said just trying to survive on disability or even if you have a pension if you're already at full retirement age in the United States is becoming extremely difficult cost of living I think
the average disability right now I believe is around 1,900 probably even lower than that like maybe closer to 1,600 it's just your average monthly disability or social security income so then start looking at your average rents around the
United States when I left the average rent was still probably around 800 for a single um room apartment that's just you know average across the US so if like if you're like in a small town Midwest or like
maybe down south in your rural rural areas you might be able to find a single room apartment for anywhere from $4 to $600 but from what I've been researching back home just here recently those averages have already gone
up down through the roof they're they're getting close to $1,000 now themselves I was living in a small town in Iowa trying to pay rent out of my social care disability I was able to get into a uh
government subsidized housing the only problem with that was I was completely alone I had nobody checking on me nobody making sure that I was okay helping take care of some my other needs basically just doing your everyday household
chores cleaning your house uh going getting groceries uh everything is just it just became extremely difficult with my condition cold weather exasperates it greatly so living in the midwest with extreme ex cold Winters just was not right for
me I had a friend who lived in Washington just outside of uh Tacoma I he said you know come stay out here you know the winters are mild summers are mild it's great it's like okay so went out
there basically what it was it was him me and one other individual living in a two-bedroom apartment splitting the rent so you got three guys in a two-bedroom apartment I converted the living room basically into my bedroom but
the rent even in just a average place was running us $2,400 a month just outside of Tacoma that's not you know getting into Seattle proper your rent probably goes up higher to three to three and a half per
month so I was still struggling with rent I was still my share of the rent was around 800 my buddy was giving me a break on it was covering part of that for me but then we had the
cost of groceries I was making just enough on my disability that I did not qualify for any kind of food assistance so I'm still having to pay out- of pocket cash for groceries and I was well know the
grocery prices in America were just starting to go through the roof too and then on top of that even though I I am disabled get Medicare Medicaid I was still having to pay my Medicare Part B which was
$78 something like that $17 some dollar a month but because I'm living in a larger City I could only get in to see my uh primary care doctor every 3 months I was lucky sometimes it was up I
couldn't get in to see her for another 6 months so just that one primary care visit just for my Premium cost of loone was cost me anywhere from 600 up to if it's a you know six month time
period almost up to $1,200 just for a primary care just in premiums alone so then once you get into your primary care of course when you have rare diseases or any other medical problems you have to go see
a specialist then you have to wait another three six months it's going to how long it's going to take to get in to see your specialist so just for what I was paying in premiums alone I was paying
you know thousands of dollars and then once you do get into to see your specialist your Medicare still does not cover everything the last I checked I is currently at almost $250,000 in medical bills alone so I started
researching as to you know what other options I had I could stay in the states and basically check myself into a total care facility in which case they would take some most places would take 100% of your um
either your disability or your Social Security pension if you're lucky you might find a place that says oh we'll give you $100 at the end of the month to use for personal expenses $100 a month isn't going to
cover anything as far as personal expenses go so then I started researching you know I had heard uh checking into possibly going to other countries found out that because I had worked for many years before my disability hit
me that I was eligible to receive my disability living abroad so that's when I started researching everything from you know just going to maybe just Puerto Rico Costa Rica Columbia Panama all around southeast Asia from Vietnam Thailand here
in the Philippines I probably did research for probably good two years looking all weighing the pros and cons and the reason I chose the Philippines is one almost everybody here speaks English English is their official business language so
that was a plus for me because obviously learning a a new language once you get up into your 50s or older is extremely difficult and then of course the cost of living we got a good exchange rate here
so the money that I do get per month stretches a lot further here here I'm able to afford a a fairly nice place all my basic needs are taken care of I got which important for me because of
my condition I needed hot water so the place at least had a hot water shower I get housekeeping per day anytime I want um the place I'm at also has a uh restaurant on site so I get breakfast
every morning easily I don't have to go looking for it don't have to buy extra groceries and then your just basic cost of living here food prices are much lower than the United States rent prices anywhere you go
is much lower than the United States yeah so can you speak a bit on your uh budget here in the Philippines I'm getting at $1,400 a month um like I said I worked 40 years B I started working
when I was 9 years old delivering papers scooping people's walks mowing lawns raking leaves things that you know back in the 80s normal 70s and ' 80s a normal kid would do um not exactly that easy for children
and kids these days to do things like that CU people are so desperate for work that now adults are taking all those jobs other than that from the time I was able to get a regular full-time or not
full-time but at least a part-time job I've been working I actually have degrees in meteorology and climatology I have a degree in uh management of Information Systems I have a degree in computer science I've worked some pretty good
jobs for some really good companies throughout my life however through the different economic Times that America has gone through over the past 30 years layoffs cutbacks all different kinds of things it was basically starting to go job for
to job you know basic hopping from company to company and of course back then that really reflected negatively on your resume and your job applications like well how come you left this job how come you left that job
how come you weren't here for longer and you have to explain to them it's like the company shut down you know layoffs they ran out of money yeah but it does look they're like well God this guy only
works a couple years here a couple years there like so it started getting really harder and harder to get jobs so then I I started just doing some freelance work which at first seemed kind of interesting because you
know I got to travel around the United States basically living out of a suitcase going from one place for six months to to a year to another place for 6 months to a year I but even that started
getting harder and harder to do because so many people wanted to do it that the competition became so great and then of course in the tech industry if you're not constantly keeping up and going to class all the
time learning new programming languages learning new methods you really fall the Wayside very quickly and when you're working a full-time job and living out of a suitcase in a hotel it wasn't that easy to do just onl online
training like it is nowadays again that really hurt my budget and again that's why I got into the situation I was in and then of course when my disability hit and when I was 47 things just really went
downhill really fast so now I'm here in the Philippines got my $1,400 a month budget which in my eyes here would be almost equivalent to making close to 3,000 to 4,000 in the US gives you little at least
a little bit more breathing room to work with am I living like a king like they say you can here no am I living comfortably yes um even still I am still looking to try and complement my income
look into Poss looking into maybe doing some online tutoring through English or math would be my obvious two best subjects like even though I live comfortably I am still having to watch my budget like I said it's a
lot better living comfortably living on your own terms here than it is you know you're suck in government housing in the United States well dangerous nebor exactly dangerous neighborhoods including dangerous Neighbors in some instances you got people with
mental illnesses that aren't being properly taken care of in check that can exons yeah all kinds of different situations it's just not an ideal situation to be in you don't feel safe it wears down on your mental attitude
basically you either become a complete shut in or you know what else are you going to do and then you know a lot of people will say well you're on disability how come you mean you get all this
stuff just handed to you and it's like well actually no you don't government programs are stretched so thin that waiting lists just to get onto the waiting list for those programs can be years long even though they say
well why don't you get like an in inhome care well I tried for many years to get inh home care when I finally did qualify for inhome care I was only able to get a caretaker to come in
for 7 hours a week which meant on their timeline they could come for 4 hours one day try to help take care of some stuff and maybe 3 hours another so you could get 7 hours a week what'
you do the rest of the time sat in front of the TV and rotted away basically was what was I was doing especially in Tacoma um I mostly wheelchair bound um thanks to you know climate change which whether
you believe in it or not is real before I had gotten to Washington it almost never got above 85° in the summertime obviously shortly after getting to Washington it was very common for it to hit well over 100°
for many days at a time in Washington state and most of your apartment buildings in Washington state do not have air conditioners because they never had a need for them in the past starting to get into almost dangerous
heat conditions there every summer um I was well why didn't you just go out get an air conditioner uh they're extremely rare commodity and sought after like gold in Washington um our apartment complex offered to rent us an
air conditioner for an additional $200 a month which is like you know some people are like well I could just go to the store and buy one for $200 it's like good luck going to a store how many
people in Washington know how to install one well the a lot of these were just portable air conditioners um some were window units but most of them were just portable air conditioners but even then people think oh you
just set up a portable air conditioner it's like well no you actually have to set up an exhaust tube and then the exhaust tube leads to a thing you install in your window and so you're dealing with worsening
weather patterns you're in a position where the bills keep going up you're on a fixed income yes your your income is not shooting up 20 30% a year and you're dealing with expenses you didn't anticipate you you didn't
anticipate that heat would become a problem on the west coast of Washington Coastal Washington is known for mild weather did you have any friends that had gone abroad up to this point or were you kind any connections or
you yeah I you just saved yourself I could see the writing on the wall that my future was extremely Bleak in the United States so I just started like I said I had heard of other expats who are
people who had gone to other countries I know exchange rates work and as you know seeing you know you know it is a lot cheaper to live in these places so I started researching okay so it's cheaper what
is the living situations actually like and that's when I started doing the research of all these different very popular expat locations like I said you got Puerto Rico but of course um it was just recently hit by hurricanes
and its infrastructure was completely wiped out Columbia very very good cost of living there but the people there don't speak English even though I had taken four years Spanish in high school and had used some Spanish throughout my
life I wasn't fluent in it in any way uh Vietnam Thailand both very cheap very good cost of living nice facil been again big language barrier there unless you're like in a city center and you're around people that
are used to using English a lot still a very big language barrier so then I started learning more about the Philippines and found out well English is their official business language basically their second official language Across the Nation
so almost everybody here speaks good enough English to communicate on a a daily basis uh cost of living was extremely low compared to the United States of course everybody's like oh they hear about all these bad you know
kidnappings and bad things happening around the Philippines oh you a crime you know you get scams you got all that stuff happening it's like frankly that happens everywhere even in the United States after finally deciding on the Philippines
I started researching more and more about where in the Philippines should I possibly go I even at the time I was like you know what uh had no lug dating in the United States for obvious reasons so I
was like well maybe I'll get online and see what I can find there and I actually met a girl online you actually met someone online here yes um we actually had an did an ldr for 6 months prior
to me coming here instead of prolonging it any further I just said you know I'm I buckled down and said I'm just going to go just jump in I had nothing to lose at this point in time came
to the Philippines uh we met up in Manila um she was from batan however I fell prey to the number one thing that happens to a lot of you know firsttime Travelers and inexperienced people she she robbed me
the first night I was here you know I had followed just about every rule I could think of you know to watch out for scamming and things like that and no red flags were coming up at all but
sure enough first night she robs me takes off so then I'm in Manila on my own no cash uh go to use my ATM cards my ATM cards aren't working despite me having notified my bank many times ahead
of time that I was going to be traveling to the Philippines luckily I ran into some locals that were willing to help me out um kind of show me around show me where to go so I at at
least got into a place got settled was able to relax and collect my thoughts after the the trauma of what had happened cuz I was I was really almost at the point saying well this was a mistake I'm
about ready to just head back home so I said no I'm here I got to give it the best shot I could so through my research prior um I had you know determin you know a lot of xats
come here to the dag Getti area so I decided to come down here to Dag Getti yeah the the cost of living here is great the uh do you like dag Getti better than Manila oh much better than
manila manila I said I grew up in a small town I I don't like cities cities are too grading on my nerves um people are too impersonal try to say hi to somebody in just in passing and you're
sometimes lucky if you even just get a a stern look maybe one out of a thousand might say hi back or not at you where even in Manila even though the Philippines in general is a much friendlier country
overall even in Manila it was a kind of a just a ignore you and passing type thing not much different from Seattle or Los Angeles oh exactly exactly maybe a little a lot more congested because everything is just
right on top of each other others I mean Manila is the most densely populated city in the world yeah I was like I needed to find someplace you know smaller and I didn't want to go completely provincial because
I still like I said I do have disabilities I have needs that I have to have taken care of so I didn't want to go too small so I was like you know I'm going to let's go to
doag Getti came here to doag Getti the people here are just fabulous they're all friendly you know say hi people they smile nod back say hi in English most time you know they go out of their way to
speak English to you it's not like uh you have to coach set out of them or anything like that and but you know on the same aspect I am a foreigner in a foreign land I'm at least taking
the time myself to try to teach myself um ban which is what they use mostly here in dumag Getti opposed to uh talog which is the official language of the Philippines so I've been you know I work on
my conversational vision and I'll speak to them back in B and it actually surprises quite a few of them they don't expect foreigners to actually take the time to learn their language yeah it's a lot better in that
aspect now as far as um you know places I was looking for you know I need because of my condition I need hot water in the shower helps relaxes my muscles um the weather here you know like I
said the whole time I've been here I think only twice has the temperature dropped down into what would be the 70s in the US to me it's basically like sitting in a sauna all the time my muscles are
relaxed I don't have to worry about the cold weather I don't have to worry about shivering and tensing up while I still do have an air conditioner in my um Unit A lot of times I have that air
conditioner set fairly High um I think I had the air conditioner in my room set to around 80 to 82° cuz I like it warm heat doesn't bother me now if you're a person that likes it chili yeah
you can do that but one thing you have to remember is like if you get your own unit here and you have to pay for your own electricity that electricity is not exactly cheap in the Philippines that is
your one commodity that is at a premium here so yeah if you're going to like I said that's one thing I looked into when I was looking at other places relocate the overall weather and which is another thing
why I pick doag gettis because it's on the western side of the Philippines we're protected from the typhoons yes we do get quite a bit of rain here as obviously this morning we had to make different plans because
of the rain brown outs here like I said the electricity is at a premium so was one thing I you know where I was staying I had to make sure I had backup generator um cuz like I still
live my life online mostly you know watching researching YouTube or just playing video games whatever you know to divide my time I don't get out as much as I would like to but I'm at least able to get
out a lot more here than I was back in the States like I said mostly because of the weather you know it keeps my muscles loose and relaxed I'm not having as much spasm issues and cramping issues as
I did in the states back in the States I was basically almost wheelchair bound because of lack of being able to get good Medical Care uh lack of inhome care um and again just the DraStic weather patterns there
do you feel like your opportunities to connect with other people are better here yes very much so um I said I've been here four months I've met of course because of my situation some vloggers I've obviously reach out
to me I mean you are my third interview that I've done here you know if I was back in the States the only social communication I had at all was online and through basically just gaming you know and
even then it's not like an actual connection friendship type thing it's not like oh hey let's go grab dinner sometime or something like that now while I was staying with my best friend in the United States he is
working constantly he's trying to pay the bills yeah he's trying to pay his bills too so he's working and you know 8 hours a day now this was right at the end of the pandemic when I had moved
out there so when I first got out there he was at least working from home quite a bit but obviously after the pandemic was over they wanted him back in the office so he was at home a lot
less and because of my situation I had to rely on him for rides to my appointments um I still was waiting to get my uh permit bus permit to get on the bus lines but even then the closest
bus stop even though it was right outside our complex we lived in the very far back of the complex so it was still a good quar of a mile to half mile just to get to the first bus
stop I was using an electric wheelchair in the states I had a manual but from using my manual and because my condition so long actually blew out my my right shoulder and had to have surgery on my right
shoulder so using a manual wheelchair was still extremely difficult for me so without having somebody to push me to the bus stop I was still having to I'd have to push myself there get on the bus take however
long it would take you know you never know how long it's the bus is going to take you there you know cuz you're stopping every few blocks at his bus stop and it just wasn't safe obviously I mean
the you're in a big city and the your general bus stops themselves are the Hangouts for a lot of unsavory people as posted here in the Philippines public transportation is a way of life uh here in dumag Getti
you've got mostly trikes well when I first got here getting in and out of a trike was extremely difficult but the longer I'm here the more my muscles actimate to this weather it's gotten easier for me to get
in and out of a trike so taking trikes anywhere was no problem and when I first got here obviously nervous didn't know what to do so I was trying to book grab trikes all the time which a grab
trike on average here at dumag Getti was going to run around 70 pesos a trip then I learned that if you just give a regular trike it's going to cost you normally only about 20 pesos wherever you're going
if you're Savvy about it you know they they don't just look at a foreigner and go oh for new Foreigner let's charge him yeah 300 he was like nope so once I got used to that and of course
it's interesting to see you get a TR connection know you got five six people all piled on to a tri and it's a little intimidating at first but then you get used to it and it does actually open
up a lot more opportunities to you know get to know locals and talk especially if there are people that you see on a daily basis that travel the same routes that you do um you also still have the
Jeep KN here and plus theyve got the the sarus bus line which is a regular full-size bus those are the cheapest that's only 11 pesos to go wherever you want on the full size sarus bus but they only
travel on like a 15 to 20 minute intervals but yeah so I've mostly been relying on the trikes to get around doag Getti um so I am able to get around on foot a lot more better now here
than I was back in the States my first got here like I said I was still using my crutches my forearm braces but as I started getting out more using them and getting my strength back up and strengthening
my legs back up I was starting to able to go without my crutches at least uh still had some balance issues and tripping and falling because of my spasms that people help you back up if somebody sees you
and you fall in well I've only I only had one public fall okay got it nobody was around at the time right so okay so you can't really gauge yeah I can't gauge that nobody was around at the
time um and could have been a lot worse because of where I fall I was able to actually get my my hands out in front of me I did end up twisting my ankle scraped up my jammed my
wrists so that that was kind of a setback and that happened like right around Thanksgiving too and i' had only been in the Philippines about two months at the time so that's about about the same time that psychologically
your homesickness is going to start kicking in so that did kind of put me into a bit of a depression at that time when that happened um you know you started you start double thinking oh was coming here
right should I be here is it safe for me to be here with my condition but again that's when Mike actually reached out to me and then through him you know I've met a lot more the vlogging community
and a lot a lot more others and then actually the owner of the place where I'm staying is like how many people back in the States especially living in a city can say oh I'm best friends with my
the owner of my complex you know they probably don't even know who owns their complex let alone talk to them on a regular basis or be friends with them they may not like them at all yeah probably won't
like them at all I can see like maybe in a small town where it's probably easier to actually know who owns the house or apartment you're you're renting but in a big city that like almost unheard of I'd
only been staying there just a little over two months at that time and they actually invited me to their family Christmas and to new years's and you know basically just took me in as part of their family which
is amazing would that have happened back home oh God know nothing like you that would be unheard of you know I couldn't think of a landlord that would be like oh you know what I'm just going to invite
my renter to come hang out at our our family dinner the opportunities for social con action are much better here in the Philippines like say well part of the reason why I chose the Philippines despite everything that's going
on in the world through politics and whatnot the Filipino people still love Americans as opposed to many other countries where Americans are not so welcome so that that was a good big Plus on my book that you know
at least Americans are still not not just welcome here but openly welcome you know with open arms you know um people here while it's still mostly a conservative country are very open-minded nonjudgmental nonjudgmental I would say it's a
religious most mostly Christian that type of conservatism with more what I would say a liberal attitude and lifestyle Community is important helping your community not only just your family I mean everybody here has strong family units but it's
also strong communities with bang guys I mean especially if you get into like the smaller provinces everybody is like what's best for the community not just individuals well thanks so much for watching guys thank you for joining my
guest Mark and I today we're going to go ahead and wrap up here if you know of any resources that Mark could use to teach online please share those in the comment section it always helps to generate interesting
discussion next give us a thumbs up it helps with the algorithm and finally subscribe to the channel if you want to see more content like this and we'll go ahead and give Mark the final word here so yeah
the the inclusion Factor here in the Philippines and your your opportunity for a better social network is is much better than United States which I think is probably something that somebody who's got disabilities or has health issues or
something like that I think that's more important than anything else cuz if you don't have a social network of people that are willing you know to check on you see that you're okay on a daily basis and you
know just to converse with on just a regular basis that's probably in my opinion worse on your health than anything else is not having that social Network coming to the Philippines is probably the best thing that I could
have done for my health and for my sanity thank you so much Mark
