It’s been a while since I had a chance to post. I left off to head for Tagbilaran. Did a few days of fiesta there, which included an all-night-concrete-basketball-court-disco, where I managed to hurt my hip by stomping/over-dancing. The DJ couldn’t choose between Bon Jovi trance remixes, slow Filipino love songs, and Andre3000 & Big Boi.
Then there was the DTI Product Showcase, a trade-fair for local craft producer groups. The honored guests at the grand opening were ushered into a freezing cold movie theatre (over-aircon is a huge problem here, and not just cuz it raises the temperature outside of the aircon areas and uses ridiculous amounts of energy) where we listened to person after person give speeches that had nothing to do with helping to support local producer groups.
Then it was time for the ribbon cutting. Without naming any names, the large flower arrangement fell over onto the ribbon cutters. To the cocktail reception we went. It was held in the still under-construction National Book Store. The regional director had a fit, during the party. She corralled everyone from our provincial office, not far from the beverage table and let it rip: “How dare you have a cocktail party in this ugly place. If you told me I could have done something, blah blah blah.” Nevermind that it resembled a SoHo loft, and none of the craftsmen had ever been to a cocktail party. (They weren’t invited to this one either.) I only feel ok relaying this story here because Nimfa, the head of our office carries on about the regional director on her site too. And this is about as gossipy as I ever plan on getting.
Directly following the cocktail party, Blair and I hit the road and boarded the 10:30pm boat for Cebu. His brother met us at the Cebu pier, and whisked us away to the airport, where we caught a flight (obviously) bound for Manila. From there, a taxi to a bus-terminal. The bus featured way too much aircon. The 61km bus ride featured way too much urban sprawl. It didn’t used to be like that, so they say. At 8:30am, or half an hour late, we arrived in Los Banos (whiere I spent my first week in the Philippines) for a conference on Project Management.
During training, we had learned about the Asset-Based approach to community development. In other words, how to help communities help themselves, instead of just complaining about problems and asking for money. But until this conference, our Filipino counterparts were never versed in this kind of approach. Lots of inspiration and new ideas all around. Hope we can put it to good use.
After the conference adjourned for the day, a nice swim in the natural-spring pool, and then a quick hop to town for a beer turned into a night of videoke and billiards that lasted ‘til 1am. (Can you believe that a Filipino lady told me videoke was invented here in the Philippines?) Peace Corps volunteers (and their American-influenced counterparts) have an amazing ability to mix work and play and do not worry about trivial things such as sleep. So this pattern repeated itself for three straight days. Do a lot of work in the conference (Peace Corps conferences are very participatory, not allowing for much shut-eye) and then staying out way past a normal Filipino bedtime. There was also a bootleg screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 one night, perhaps the day Filipino truck-driver Angelo De La Cruz was released by his captors, much to the distress of GWB and what’s left of his coalition of the fill-in-the-appropriate-ignorant-themed-adjective. (Not looking so hot since Honduras and Nicaragua bowed out.) Felt subversive watching the first blockbuster documentary on a U.S. Government owned DVD player/projector!
It’s time for me to get away from the computer. I will try to find time on Monday to tell you how I made it through Manila alive, and attempt to explain the nightmare that is disingenuous customer service here in the Philippines. Help is on the way!
Posted by dbs at July 30, 2004 06:24 PM