We are millionaires

We went to the bank to open a bank account so we can have our salaries deposited directly from the Manila head office to us here in Cebu. There are boxes that we have to check asking us for our income level. Surprising, we have to check the highest bracket that the bank offers, and it daunted on us that we are in fact millionaires here. Chuck told us that we will now look upon as the rich, and there is no way we can get around it. It feels funny for me because I have never been rich, however, Chuck said we would have to get use to it because it is a fact in our lives now. He also said I, as a Chinese, would also be look upon as rich, since the Chinese in the Philippines are mostly rich. Moreover, they have expectations from me that they won’t have for Dan. Dan as a foreigner, can say stupid things and be forgiven quite quickly, but for me, being an ‘Asian’, more is expected from me as far as knowing the culture, though I am still learning about it at this point.

Kioni is doing very well with our helper Maris. She follows Maris around when Maris works, when Maris went upstairs, she wanted to be upstairs, when Maris washes the grapes, she wants to help also. It is obvious that Maris likes children, and I guess Kioni catch on to that pretty quickly.

Because of the heat and lack of air-conditioning in the ground level, we find it hard to utilize the main area of the house, where the kitchen and the living area is. We know we will only be here for a year, but we would like to install an air-conditioning unit so that we can actually live in the house normally, rather than hiding in our rooms all the time. Heat does slow down physical activities as well as brain activities. I found Dan missing on something that are obvious, like left and right, or counting, or asking for the date three times in a 15 minute duration.

We were invited to Chuck and Maggie Guill’s tonight for dinner. I was worried that we won’t be able to find our way home in the dark. But Dan is excellent in directions, we got home with no major problems, we did doubt a couple of times if we were on the right road, but it turned out that we were.

It was lightening quite a bit tonight, dark clouds was all over, maybe it will rain and cool down a bit tomorrow.

Oh, also, there is Bo’s coffee, Chuck introduces us to it. It was half the price as Starbucks, and it is also good. I still would like to grind my own coffee beans and make my own cup of industrial strength espresso with evaporated milk. Forgot to buy evaporated milk today, so I will have to use the Magnolia full cream milk tomorrow for my coffee, it should be OK, since the Magnolia milk is quite thick.