My name is Paul Petrea. I am a 45 year old American, originally hailing from Savannah, Georgia, USA. You are about to join me on a little trip back in time, one that I have rarely shared in person with anyone, and certainly never on paper or online. 

I have lived in the Philippines, primarily in Cebu, for more than nine years.

Until the late 80's, I knew nothing about the Philippines, other than that it was a group of islands somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, maybe. During that same time, I began working with some Filipinos, each of whom were eager to teach me about their country. Over the next few years, I became more and more interested in this new, unknown land to me.

Between 1989 and the very early 90's, I began reading tons of books (before the Internet really took off) which I had checked out of my local library. I checked out sixty-three books in fact, the first time I that I went to the library researching this subject. The librarian surely must have thought I was crazy checking out that many books at one time on a single topic.

As time passed, my curiosity continued to grow, eventually leading up to my first trip over to the "Land of Smiles". My first trip over here was in the very early 90's, January 1991 or 1992, I don' t recall which anymore.

Now that I look back, I realize how green I was, and how much I had yet to learn about the country I would grow to love even more than my homeland.