Not long after I arrived in Davao City, late 2017, I was put in touch with people involved in a sports-related peace project in Mindanao: the Mindanao Peace Games (MPG). Under the MPG banner, fourteen universities and colleges from all six regions of Mindanao work together to promote peace, youth leadership and women empowerment. A…
Category: Expat in Davao
Dutch in Davao
Not too long ago I belonged to the majority of people in this world who had never heard of Davao City, the third largest city in the Philippines. End of 2017 I emigrated there to join my partner Sophie who found employment there with an international NGO. Blogging as an expat in Davao, I wrote about the people I met and my extraordinary experiences going around the Philippines until I returned to the Netherlands in August of 2019. I captured these stories from the inside out, but with an outsider’s perspective.
Impressions of North Vietnam – Part 2
Welcome to part two of my impressions of northern Vietnam (for part one click here). For twelve days Sophie and I toured Vietnam’s land of mountains, rice terraces and ethnic minority life. These are my personal day-to-day insights from the second leg of our trip. Day #7 – Detour day We leave Phu Yen to…
Impressions of North Vietnam – Part 1
As I’m writing this blog, Sophie and I have just come back from a twelve-day Hanoi – Hanoi round trip. Specifically, we toured northern Vietnam with guide Asu from travel agency ‘Ethnic Travel’. We stayed in homestays with local families and explored mountains, rice terraces, bamboo forests, waterfalls, city life and beaches. In this blog…
Allos, Carlos, Carl
Carlos Bulosan’s “America Is In The Heart” is the first American Asian classic I’ve ever read. This semi-autobiography details Bulosan’s impoverished childhood in rural Luzon in northern Philippines at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1930, like so many others – then and since – he leaves the land of his ancestors for the…
Don’t Sweat It
In 2017 I didn’t do a lot of sports. Most of the three months I spent traveling in the United States were spent on my ass behind a steering wheel. Safe to say, I rarely broke a sweat. When I got back, I occasionally went for a run but that was about it. Ever since…
Cebu "Craft Beer" City
My second visit to the Queen City of the South, better known as Cebu City, was longer and more memorable than the first. I had craft beers in a converted shipping container, lectured at a university and visited the digital newsroom of a national newspaper. In the process, I learned that Cebu City is not…
Poems of Appreciation: Wind
Living as a Dutch expat in the Philippines, I’ve found renewed appreciation for all things larger than life. In this Poem of Appreciation I pay tribute to: wind Wind What’s not to love about a gentle breeze, that takes the edge of sunshine’s sting. The airiness is like a sneeze, leaving your body tingling. Strong…
Swinging By Singapore
Sophie and I just spent three weeks surrounded by the free and easy familiar. Suitcase in hand, we went across our little nation visiting friends and family. We had a great time. On the way back to Davao, I had a seven hour layover in Singapore, so I decided to metro into town and walk…