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Relocating to the Philippines offered a disabled American individual a significantly improved quality of life, better accessibility, and a stronger sense of community compared to his struggles in the United States.
Mark, an American with a rare neurological disease and neurodivergent conditions, found life in the United States increasingly difficult due to financial struggles, high living costs, and inadequate support for his disability. Despite working for many years and earning Social Security credits, his disability income was insufficient to cover basic living expenses like rent and healthcare, especially with rising costs and limited access to specialized medical care.
Seeking a more viable future, Mark researched various expat destinations and ultimately chose the Philippines for its affordability, English proficiency, and climate. He found that his $1,400 monthly disability income stretched much further there, allowing him to afford comfortable housing with essential amenities like hot water and daily housekeeping. This financial relief and improved living conditions significantly boosted his overall well-being and reduced stress.
Upon arriving in the Philippines, Mark experienced initial setbacks, including being scammed in Manila. However, he eventually settled in Dumaguete, where he found a welcoming local community and a more manageable pace of life compared to the bustling city. He highlights the warmth and friendliness of the Filipino people, their willingness to help, and the improved social connections he has made, which have been crucial for his mental health and sense of belonging. The climate also positively impacts his physical condition, easing muscle-related issues exacerbated by cold weather in the U.S.
A disabled American moved to the Philippines seeking a more affordable and accessible way of life due to the high cost of living and inadequate support for his disability in the U.S. His $1,400 monthly disability income was insufficient for basic needs back home, prompting a search for better options abroad.
Yes, the Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living compared to the U.S., making it a more viable option for individuals on disability income. This allows for better housing, amenities, and overall financial relief, improving the quality of life.
Benefits include a lower cost of living, an English-speaking environment, and a warm climate that can ease physical challenges. Expats often find a welcoming community and improved social connections, which are crucial for mental well-being.
Initial challenges included being scammed in Manila and adjusting to a new culture. However, by settling in Dumaguete, he found a more manageable pace of life and a supportive local community that helped overcome these hurdles.
The Filipino people are known for their warmth and hospitality, often willing to help others. This creates a strong sense of community and belonging for expats, significantly enhancing their social connections and overall well-being.
The Philippines offers a significantly lower cost of living compared to the U.S., allowing Mark's $1,400 monthly disability income to cover comfortable housing, utilities, and housekeeping. This financial relief was a primary reason for his move, enabling a better quality of life.
Yes, the Philippines can be a good option for disabled expats due to its affordability and warm climate, which can be beneficial for certain health conditions. Mark found that his disability income stretched much further, and the welcoming local community improved his social connections and overall well-being.
Yes, it is possible to find caretakers in the Philippines. The video suggests that expats can hire dedicated, honest, respectful, and joyful individuals to assist with daily needs, allowing them to better enjoy their life abroad.
Living in the Philippines offers benefits such as a lower cost of living, an English-speaking environment, and a warm climate. Additionally, expats often find a welcoming and hospitable local community that enhances their quality of life and sense of belonging.
0:01 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 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.
0:20 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. And in today's video, we're sitting down with my new friend Mark, who arrived to the Philippines several months back.
0:38 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?
1:03 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.
1:10 My name is Mark. 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, mostly peace of mind and for my health.
1:24 I am disabled. I have a very rare neurological disease, and also I'm neurodivergent. I'm on the autistic spectrum and I have ADHD. Being in the United States, just trying to survive on disability, even though I had worked for enough years to get my full social security credits, my disability didn't actually hit me until I was 47.
1:57 I tried working with my disability in the United States, but as you soon learn, 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.
2:29 So working just was not an option anymore in the States. So I was 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, it's becoming extremely difficult. The 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.
3:00 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 room apartment. That's just, you know, average across the US. So if you're in a small town Midwest or maybe down south in your rural areas, you might be able to find a single room apartment for anywhere from $400 to $600.
3:36 But from what I've been researching back home just here recently, those averages have already gone through the roof. 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 government subsidized housing.
3:58 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 of my other needs. Basically, just doing your everyday household chores, cleaning your house, going getting groceries, everything. It just became extremely difficult with my condition. Cold weather exasperates it greatly.
4:28 So living in the Midwest with extreme cold winters just was not right for me. I had a friend who lived in Washington, just outside of Tacoma. He said, you know, come stay out here. The winters are mild, summers are mild, it's great. It's like, okay.
4:48 So I 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 an average place, was running us $2,400 a month, just outside of Tacoma. That's not, you know, getting into Seattle proper.
5:18 Your rent probably goes up higher to three to three and a half per month. So I was still struggling with rent. 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.
5:39 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 the grocery prices in America were just starting to go through the roof too. And then on top of that, even though I am disabled, get Medicare, Medicaid, I was still having to pay my Medicare Part B, which was $78, something like that, $17 some dollars a month.
6:12 But because I'm living in a larger city, I could only get in to see my primary care doctor every three months. I was lucky sometimes it was up, I couldn't get in to see her for another six months. So just that one primary care visit, just for my premium cost alone was costing me anywhere from $600 up to, if it's a six-month time period, almost up to $1,200, just for a primary care, just in premiums alone.
6:45 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 take to get in to see your specialist. So just for what I was paying in premiums alone, I was paying thousands of dollars.
7:06 And then once you do get in 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.
7:31 In which case, they would take some, most places would take 100% of your, 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.
7:56 So then I started researching. You know, I had heard 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, Colombia, Panama, all around Southeast Asia, from Vietnam, Thailand, here in the Philippines.
8:29 I probably did research for probably a good two years, looking at 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 new language once you get up into your 50s or older is extremely difficult.
8:52 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 fairly nice place. All my basic needs are taken care of. I got, which is important for me because of my condition, I needed hot water. So the place at least had a hot water shower.
9:19 I get housekeeping per day anytime I want. The place I'm at also has a 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.
9:41 Rent prices anywhere you go is much lower than the United States. Yeah, so can you speak a bit on your budget here in the Philippines?
9:51 I'm getting at $1,400 a month. Like I said, I worked 40 years. 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.
10:12 Not exactly that easy for children and kids these days to do things like that, because 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.
10:29 I actually have degrees in meteorology and climatology. I have a degree in 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 job, you know, basic hopping from company to company.
11:07 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 to them like, well, God, this guy only works a couple years here, a couple years there.
11:27 So it started getting really harder and harder to get jobs. So then 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 a year, to another place for six months to a year.
11:51 But even that started getting harder and harder to do because...
11:55 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 by 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 online training like it is nowadays. Again, that really hurt my budget, and that's why I got into the situation I was in.
12:35 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 with 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. That gives you at least a little bit more breathing room to work with.
13:05 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. I'm looking into maybe doing some online tutoring through English or math, which would be my obvious two best subjects. Like, even though I live comfortably, I am still having to watch my budget.
13:33 Like I said, it's a lot better living comfortably, living on your own terms here than it is, you know, you're stuck in government housing in the United States. Well, dangerous neighborhoods, exactly. Dangerous neighborhoods, including dangerous neighbors. In some instances, you've got people with mental illnesses that aren't being properly taken care of and checked. That can cause, 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.
14:06 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.
14:33 Even though they say, 'Well, why don't you get like an in-home care?' Well, I tried for many years to get in-home care. When I finally did qualify for in-home care, I was only able to get a caretaker to come in for seven hours a week. Which meant, on their timeline, they could come for four hours one day, try to help take care of some stuff, and maybe three hours another. So you could get seven hours a week. What do you do the rest of the time?
15:04 Sat in front of the TV and rotted away, basically, was what I was doing. Especially in Tacoma, um, I'm mostly wheelchair-bound, um, thanks to, you know, climate change. Whether you believe in it or not, it's real. Before I had gotten to Washington, it almost never got above 85 degrees in the summertime. Obviously, shortly after getting to Washington, it was very common for it to hit well over 100 degrees for many days at a time in Washington state.
15:41 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 and get an air conditioner? Uh, they're extremely rare commodities and sought after like gold in Washington. Um, our apartment complex offered to rent us an air conditioner for an additional $200 a month.
16:14 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, 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.
16:42 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 income is not shooting up 20, 30% a year, and you're dealing with expenses you didn't anticipate. You didn't anticipate that heat would become a problem on the west coast of Washington. Coastal Washington is known for mild weather.
17:07 Did you have any friends that had gone abroad up to this point, or were you kind of any connections, or you, yeah, 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.
17:36 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've got Puerto Rico, but of course, um, it was just recently hit by hurricanes and its infrastructure was completely wiped out. Colombia, very, very good cost of living there, but the people there don't speak English. Even though I had taken four years of Spanish in high school and had used some Spanish throughout my life, I wasn't fluent in it in any way.
18:16 Uh, Vietnam, Thailand, both very cheap, very good cost of living, nice facilities. 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 daily basis.
18:53 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 got crime, you know, you get scams, you got all that stuff happening.' It's like, frankly, that happens everywhere, even in the United States.
19:13 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, I had no luck 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 LDR for six months prior to me coming here. Instead of prolonging it any further, I just said, you know, I buckled down and said, 'I'm just going to go, just jump in. I had nothing to lose at this point.'
19:55 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, first-time 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.
20:32 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 least, got into a place, got settled, was able to relax and collect my thoughts after the trauma of what had happened, because I was, I was really almost at the point saying, 'Well, this was a mistake. I'm about ready to just head back home.'
21:15 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, determined, you know, a lot of expats come here to the Dagupan area. So I decided to come down here to Dagupan. Yeah, the cost of living here is great. The, uh, do you like Dagupan better than Manila? Oh, much better than Manila. Manila, I said, I grew up in a small town. I don't like cities. Cities are too grating 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 stern look. Maybe one out of a thousand might say hi back or not at you.
22:02 Where even in Manila, even though the Philippines in general is a much friendlier country overall, even in Manila, it was kind of a just an ignore-you-in-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, 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.
22:48 So I was like, you know, I'm going to let's go to Dagupan. Came here to Dagupan. The people here are just fabulous. 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 of the time. You know, they go out of their way to speak English to you. It's not like, uh, you have to coax it 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, Bang which is what they use mostly here in Dagupan, opposed to, uh, Tagalog, which is the official language of the Philippines.
23:31 So I've been, you know, I work on my conversational vision and I'll speak to them back in Bang, 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.
23:53 Because of my condition, I need hot water in the shower. It helps relax my muscles. The weather here, 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.
24:20 While I do have an air conditioner in my unit, a lot of times I have that air conditioner set fairly high. I think I had the air conditioner in my room set to around 80 to 82 degrees because I like it warm. Heat doesn't bother me. Now, if you're a person that likes it chilly, 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.
25:04 So yeah, if you're going to, like I said, that's one thing I looked into when I was looking at other places to relocate. The overall weather and which is another thing why I picked Dumaguete, 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.
25:27 Brownouts here, like I said, the electricity is at a premium. So one thing I, you know, where I was staying, I had to make sure I had a backup generator. Because, 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.
25:58 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, lack of in-home care, and again, just the drastic weather patterns there.
26:31 Do you feel like your opportunities to connect with other people are better here? Yes, very much so. I've been here four months, I've met, of course, because of my situation, some vloggers. I've obviously reached 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.
27:02 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, you know, 8 hours a day.
27:26 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.
27:53 I still was waiting to get my 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 quarter 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 of my condition so long, actually blew out my right shoulder and had to have surgery on my right shoulder.
28:31 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 the bus is going to take you there, you know, because you're stopping every few blocks at his bus stop. And it just wasn't safe, obviously.
29:01 I mean, 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. Here in Dumaguete, 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 acclimate to this weather, it's gotten easier for me to get in and out of a trike. So taking trikes anywhere was no problem.
29:38 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 Dumaguete 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 don't just look at a foreigner and go, 'Oh, foreigner, let's charge him, yeah, 300 pesos.'
30:14 Was like, nope. So once I got used to that, and of course, it's interesting to see, you get a connection, you know, you got five, six people all piled onto a trike. 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.
30:44 You also still have the Jeepney here, and plus they've got the Ceres 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 Ceres 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 Dumaguete.
31:09 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 be able to go without my crutches. At least, I still had some balance issues and tripping and falling because of my spasms.
31:41 That people help you back up if somebody sees you and you fall. Well, I've 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. And it could have been a lot worse because of where I fell. I was able to actually get my hands out in front of me. I did end up twisting my ankle, scraped up my jammed my wrists. So that was kind of a setback.
32:09 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 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.
32:28 You know, 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 of the vlogging community and a lot, a lot more others.
32:51 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 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.
33:13 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 renting. But in a big city, that's 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 Year's. And, you know, basically just took me in as part of their family, which is amazing.
33:40 Would that have happened back home? Oh God, no. Nothing like 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 family dinner.' The opportunities for social connection are much better here in the Philippines. Like, 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.
34:11 As opposed to many other countries where Americans are not so welcome. So that was a good, big plus in my book. That, you know, at least Americans are still not just welcome here, but openly welcome, you know, with open arms.
34:32 You know, people here, while it's still mostly a conservative country, are very open-minded, non-judgmental. Non-judgmental, I would say. It's a religious, mostly Christian type of conservatism with more, what I would say, a liberal attitude and lifestyle.
35:01 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 barangays, I mean, especially if you get into like the smaller provinces, everybody is like, what's best for the community, not just individuals.
35:20 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.
35:46 And we'll go ahead and give Mark the final word here. So yeah, the inclusion factor here in the Philippines and your opportunity for a better social network is much better than the United States, which I think is probably...
36:00 I think that's more important than anything else because if you don't have a social network of people that are willing to check on you, see that you're okay on a daily basis, and just to converse with on a regular basis, that's probably, in my opinion, worse on your health than anything else.
36:28 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.
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