It was a sad day when we had to leave Siquijor. Covid-19 was sweeping the planet, and we knew that it was just a matter of time before the Philippine government clamped down on all travel within the country.

With Covid coming, we had to ramp down the business. We laid off the entire staff, put everything into storage, and hired caretakers to watch the properties and our belongings. Plus we had twenty dogs that needed to be looked after (Unfortunately, we now only have three left, as the others have probably been eaten due to the lack of work and food on the island).

We stopped by Cebu, thinking that we were only going to be gone for a few months. We decided to keep the house that we were renting in Santo Nino Village, mainly because we had far too many personal belongings to deal with before our flight to the United States. Had we known that we wouldn’t be back for far longer than we anticipated, we might have done things differently, considering we are still paying $1000USD/month for a house rental that we are not even living in.

So here we are. Eighteen months later, we are in the US as we watch our retirement get pummeled into the ground. All of the work that we had done on our property is probably a wash, and most likely we will need to start from scratch once we get back to the Philippines, if we ever get back to the Philippines.

It’s pretty emotional when I think about everything that has happened. Draconian government mandates that are not based on science has pretty much wiped out my retirement plans. Many days I sit in my back yard in disbelief trying to piece together a comeback strategy, given the drain on funds over this last year and a half.

But we will be back. We get knocked down, but we get up again. I guess surrendering is not an option.