Living in the city for more than ten years sounds fun! Being a provincial girl, going to the city for college university was something I thought was liberating. It felt good to be away from home, I thought so that time. I can do whatever I wanted and I can go to places I never had been to with friends without asking my parents' permission. It was freedom for me!
I met my husband in the university, we had been in a relationship for seven years before settling in. My parents had to travel to Cebu for our civil wedding. We moved to our condo house until I got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy!
Living in the city with a newborn baby was not the wisest decision we had made. Due to the pandemic, my parents were not able to see their fourth grandchild, the son of their only daughter. They badly wanted to go but due to the restrictions and them being seniors already, we decided to just let them stay in Bohol.
So, after two months of overwhelming life as a new parent, my husband and I prayed to move back to Bohol. Our papers were completed after almost a month and so by October last year, we traveled back home to Bohol, leaving our home in Cebu for a while.
Time went by so fast, Matti was still three months when we arrived in Bohol. We actually celebrated his third month in the quarantine facility. Now, he is already nine months old! We have been living in Bohol for six months now and although life here is very different, we are truly embracing and loving it!
Here are the perks we enjoy while in the province:
Easy Access To Fresh Food
While we can still find fresh food in the city, it was rare that we could get one as we have to go check out different markets and be very early in going so that we could get a hand of the freshest kinds of seafood and vegetables. What we get in the supermarkets inside malls in Cebu was not the freshest of all.
While here in Bohol, these fresh kinds of seafood and vegetables would knock on your door, every day! I am not exaggerating because it is every day that walking vendors would go from house to house and we even have our own "suki" or someone from whom we always buy from and he would already keep our share and just deliver it to us!
Aside from seafood, we also have our backyard garden which we can just pick vegetables from such as ladyfingers or okra as how we call it here, we got a lot of moringa trees too, pechay, tomatoes, local lemons, eggplant and a lot more! We even have papaya, star apple, and guyabano trees!
No Air Pollution
One of the main issues I had with keeping my baby in the city was that we couldn't get out for fresh air. During the pandemic, staying at home was the mandate of the government. There were several threats when going out and we won't know if the person we are engaging with has been infected so for the first two months, we were just inside the house, Matti had never seen the outside world except for his checkups and that meant no fresh air for him.
I went through a phase of depression that that time, I felt bad for not giving my baby the best. Every single day when I expose him to the sunlight quickly at our condo's exit area as its the easiest and most convenient place for a sunbath at that time, I felt sad. I want him to inhale fresh air every morning, I badly wanted him to see the trees and their green leaves while enjoying the sun!
Unfortunately, city life couldn't give him that. Just staying inside our air-conditioned room felt like we were just inhaling the same air over and over again and it was unhealthy.
Here in the province, Matti is able to take fresh air from morning until the evening. We live next to the rice field and it is overlooking so we get to see trees and mountains, breathe in the fresh breeze, and even enjoy a beautiful landscape view.
Nature and Travel
In Bohol, we get to experience nature by just going out of our door. But, it doesn't mean that we don't go to different places. In fact, from the time that we had arrived in Bohol until today, we've been to different resorts and tourist spots!
We have been traveling more and we love it! We get to have family bonding and also soak ourselves with nature! In our family, we have five kids and so we would make it a point that they can get out of the house and spend time playing and also experience nature.
One time, we went to a nearby mountain named Cabantian Hills, we had a dry picnic and the kids loved running in the grasses! We adults also enjoy the view!
Then we also go out of town. The latest one was just a week ago as we celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday, we went to Clarin on a farm named Bung Aw Eco Farm.
Beach
Going to the beach is as easy as one two three here in the province. We don't have to travel far because our town itself has white sand beaches, even the black sand beaches too are available! My niece and nephews love the beach and so we have been spending some time for the kids to enjoy the seawater too!
Matti himself has already developed a love for the beach! The very first time he had been to the beach was when he was around three months old. He had his first seawater bath last April and while he cried a river when he had his first, he is now loving the beach!
So far, we have been to Coco White Beach, Flower Beach, Warren Beach, Parklane Bohol, and some other unnamed public beaches! All of these are white sand beaches within Guindulman and Anda.
In the coming months, we will soon be going out more as it is already summer here in the Philippines and when we talk about summer, we mean beach!
Conclusion
For me, living in the province is the best decision I had ever made for my baby's sake. We get to experience a better life and enjoy nature too together with our family. Indeed, becoming a parent means sacrificing things for our baby.
Although this pandemic had brought so much pain and suffering, we also believe that this brought blessings in disguise for us as we get to work from home especially my husband, and have more time with the family.
We might be coming back to the city but not for now.
xoxo,
mommy jean of momentswithmatti
Love harder than any pain you've ever felt.
