Maraming Salamat

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Hello? Anyone out there?  I suppose after 3 months without a post it’s unlikely that anyone is still interested, so I’m mainly just writing this one for myself.  I got so caught up in finishing up my work in the Philippines, job hunting, and preparing to move back to Seattle that I just didn’t find much time to write.  But lest I have another blog end mysteriously (My china blog went silent abruptly after all of google blogspot was blocked by the powers that be), I wanted to at least give closure to this one with a final post. 

My last few months were great.  Nothing that I felt was sufficiently epic to write a blog post about, but definitely some good times.  I spent a weekend back in Puerto Galera with a few friends, the scene of the Malasimbo music festival.  I took advantage of the fantastic diving the island has to offer, which, if you recall, I wasn’t able to get out of bed for the weekend of the music festival.   We also had a great Sunday morning watching game 7 of the Heat-Celtics semi final at a beachside bar.

I ran a 10k in a fundraising event, the Run for Light, put on by the foundation that organized the Hike for Light series.  This was the longest organized run I’ve ever participated in, and I felt my time was respectable, but I did manage to lose to a guy running barefoot, and two guys strapped together, one of which was blind (in my defense, they were training for a marathon).  My last weekend I did another organized run, a 5k called Outbreak Manila.  This is just like a normal 5k except it’s an obstacle course with zombies chasing you.  You start with 3 health flags, and in order to win you have to not only finish first, but have at least 1 health flag remaining.  The entire event was very well done - elaborate costumes and facepaint, athletic zombies with handfuls of red flags, and little girls sitting in the middle of the road watching runners go by.  They also had a “Thriller” zombie, ambulances coming through intermittently, and a character you can rescue to get an additional health flag. 

 

My Princeton in Asia fellowship in the Philippines ended on August 2^nd, 2012, almost exactly one year after my arrival.  As my departure approached, I was offered a research position in the Philippines with a US based NGO, but decided to turn it down.  I gave it some serious thought, but ultimately decided I wasn’t prepared to make the 2-year commitment to live in Manila that was required for the project.  I returned to Seattle with very few promising employment leads, and found myself having flashbacks of my long, bleak, job-hunting session of 2009.

However, I somehow managed to land on my feet this time.  After 5 interviews (2 in Spanish), a strong recommendation from the CEO of Hybrid Social Solutions, and a fair amount of Linkedin snooping and informational phone calls, I accepted a job offer from an organization called Global Partnerships.  Global Partnerships is a nonprofit social investor based in Seattle, and Managua, Nicaragua, whose mission is to expand opportunity for people living in poverty. They invest in microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America that provide a holistic package of services for clients beyond microcredit. My boss and I are creating a new investment portfolio that supports green technology lending programs for solar-powered lights, improved cookstoves, etc.  I recently spent 3 weeks in Nicaragua investigating potential partners and visiting solar home installations of local MFI clients.  This job feels like a great fit so far, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity.

 

So what are my final thoughts on the Philippines?  How was my experience?  Overall, very positive.  It was an interesting year to say the least, full of ups and downs and many lessons learned.  I made what I hope to be a number of lasting friendships, learned a lot about what I’m looking for in life, and definitely found some adventure.  And in the end, the work experience and connections I gained doing Princeton in Asia opened doors for me.  A lot of what took place this year I never could have anticipated.  It was uncomfortable and awesome, difficult and hilarious.  I don’t know why this popped into my head today, but I all of a sudden remembered one evening standing on the street corner in Manila when an ambulance drove by, lights flashing, blaring “I shot the sheriff” by Bob Marley.  I never got a picture of this, but I occasionally witnessed traffic stopped for a man tossing coconuts out of a tree in the middle of downtown Makati to two associates waiting underneath with a t-shirt to catch them.  And in perhaps the least predictable turn of events, my buddy Kenny, the I-banking Princeton Grad who used to speak so often about “crushing it” in the Philippines, found God in Manila and completely changed his life, proving once again that you never can tell what’s going to happen next in the Philippines.

Of Dirt Bikes and Mangos in Aurora

I spent the past week doing fieldwork in the province of Aurora in Northern Luzon. The purpose of the trip was to jumpstart sales in the area, which have stalled lately because of turnover at Hybrid and some technical difficulties of our partner organization.  Our company does not sell directly to end users, as the majority of our clients need financing to purchase a solar light.  Therefore, we sell to local co-ops and microfinance organizations, which then sell to their clients.

On Monday I hopped on a bus with my colleague Ronel, Hybrid’s solar technician.  Our first stop was Baler, about an 8 hour bus ride from Manila.  Baler is on the eastern coast of Luzon, and is known for its surfing.  Livelihood of local residents consists primarily of agriculture and fishing.  We arrived late in the afternoon and checked into Bays Inn resort.  This resort is located directly on the beach, has its own surf rental and lesson shop, and a fabulous restaurant.  The cost of a room with cable tv and aircon is $25.  Ronel and I made preparations for meetings and presentations the next day, and then spent the evening surfing, eating, drinking and playing chess.

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the office of our partner, ASKI, at 8am.  ASKI is a Microfinance organization, a nonprofit, that loans cash primarily for business startup capital at a rate of 3% per month.  Their day began with a prayer, then a presentation and discussion about purpose.  Afterwards, we spent a short time discussing plans for the day with Pamela, the project officer who would accompany us on our product demos.  Our plan was to get in front of ASKI members, show them our product, the ST2, and then let Pamela discuss financing with them.  In addition to generating interest in the product, this was also a chance to train ASKI’s loan officers on how to demo our lantern.

Our first presentation was to a group of fishermen and their families (and when I say “our presentation” I mean “Ronel’s presentation,” since its all done in Tagalog.  I actually add very little value, and am more of a prop than anything else.)  These men fish at night, and use kerosene powered petromax lanterns and car batteries to attract fish and light their boats.  There are drawbacks to both of these options – they are relatively expensive, petromax lanterns can be quite dangerous, and they don’t work well in the elements.  However, they are quite bright, significantly brighter than our solar lantern.  But Ronel made a good pitch, pointing out that our product can be used at home as well as on the boat, can charge a mobile phone, and is much safer and cheaper on a daily basis than either of these other light sources.  We got mild interest, but learned a lot about how our product stacks up against the competition when it comes to fishing.  

That afternoon, we visited an inland village and met with another group of ASKI members, this time all women.  This village had electricity, but nearly every family still used kerosene lanterns and candles during “brownouts,” scheduled times of the day when the power shuts down.  We already had a pretty good idea what Kerosene costs per liter, and how much the average family spends per week.  While the loan for our lantern (about $4/week) ends up being a bit more expensive, this only lasts for 6 months.  Afterwards they save the full amount of what they would have been spending on fuel, not to mention the added benefits of health and safety from not burning kerosene indoors.  The women at this location appeared very interested, and I believe ASKI will receive a number of loan applications this week.  

That night we ate dinner with one of ASKI’s directors, bought him many beers, and discussed plans for rolling out solar lanterns in other ASKI locations.  This was my value add I suppose.  I may not speak Tagalog, but I can schmooze with the best of ‘em.

Wednesday morning we left our cushy beach resort in Baler for the truly remote town of Casiguran.  We boarded an open air, hard seat bus at 5am, and headed out over a dirt road up the coast.  The view was beautiful, but it was a painful 4 hours.  In Casiguran we reported immediately to the ASKI office, and met Jonnifer, our new program officer/guide, and winner of the most ambiguous name award 2012 (turned out to be a man).  Once we had dropped our bags off, they presented me with my chariot for the next 2 days – a Kawasaki 150cc dirt bike.  SCORE.  

We spent the next two days riding dirt bikes through the jungle to 4 remote villages.  In two of these locations ASKI had already sold a handful of our lanterns, so our objective was to provide technical assistance and collect user feedback.  Two of them were new sites and Ronel gave his product demo, now a polished routine.

A couple of personal notes from our time in Casiguran:

1.     This area is absolutely gorgeous, and there is virtually no tourism.  As I cruised my dirt bike in and out of tiny towns amidst rolling jungle-covered hills stretching out into the distance, I realized I was actually living one of my dreams.   Our ride wound through vast rice paddies, coconut farms, and makeshift basketball courts.  We passed gas stations stocking coca cola bottles filled with red liquid, Sari Sari stores, farmers headed into town, overloaded buses, and loud smoky tractors.  We crossed flooded streams, sharing the road with water buffalo, stray dogs, and scooters with entire families onboard.  The area might be remote, but the road was brimming with life at every turn.  Passing through each little village people shouted “Hey Joe!” and “What’s up Man!” as I whizzed by. 

2.     At each village I began to notice a pattern – an astounding number of children and young, pregnant women.  And when I say young, I mean young.  If we presented to a group of 30 women, at least 2 were visibly pregnant, and many more were breast feeding or holding children.  I guess I know the statistics about birth rates in rural areas, but I was still surprised to see it in person.  No birth control and no electricity is a potent combination.

3.     I realize this goes without saying, but not having electricity SUCKS.  We got a small preview of this at our guesthouse.  It was a great little spot, right on the beach again, with aircon and tv.  Here’s the catch – in Casiguran the electricity shuts off between 6-10pm.  Why on earth they chose that time to shut down the grid, the time when people need it the most, I have no idea.  Our guesthouse had a generator for these hours, but it constantly shut down, and probably worked for a sum total of 1 hour over two nights.  In addition, the electricity never turned on at 10 pm.  It turned on at 2am both nights, and ran until about 2:45am, then shut off.  So while we were technically “on-grid,” the grid left something to be desired.  So post 6pm there is literally nothing to do, and it is hot as balls.  I did find out that my iPod has games on it, including an awesome adaptation of the game Brickles, called Vortex, where you scroll a paddle around in a circle bouncing the ball to break bricks surrounding the center, which has its own gravitational field...but I digress.  Each night we attempted to go to bed at around 8:30 in the sauna that our room had become.  I drifted in and out of sleep despite being drenched in sweat, but I don’t think Ronel slept much.  We set the air conditioner and fan to turn on full blast right when the electricity came on, cooling the room off for 45 glorious minutes.  It’s no surprise that at all of our product demos someone asked if we have a solar product that can power an electric fan.

4.     We ate like kings the entire trip.  At each presentation we provided snacks, but often the village was having a fiesta or would prepare a lunch of fresh fish, cassava, spring rolls and sticky rice.  For dinner we bought an absurd amount of fresh Marlin and mangos at the local market, and had our guest house grill up the Marlin.  For breakfast, coffee and more mangos (Philippine mangos are the sweetest most delicious mangos I’ve ever had, and are sold in Casiguran for $1/Kilo).  I also augmented each meal with all the ice cream and snacky cakes I could get from Sari Sari stores, as I was taking the week off from a low carb diet.

5.     I hate not being able to speak the language.  Most people in these remote areas speak very little English, and I am disappointed in myself for not learning more Tagalog.  In order to ask people questions about their daily life and energy needs I needed Ronel to translate, which made it difficult to connect with people.

On Friday morning we took a van from Casiguran back to Baler.  With the back seat folded to make room for assorted cargo, there were only 2 rows and the passenger seat available for travelers.  Nonetheless, we managed to cram 11 people, 2 kids, and a puppy into the van for the 5 hour drive back to Baler.  From there we treated ourselves to the executive bus back to Manila - luxurious seats, aircon, a dvd player, even a snack bag.  But, best of all, no stops along the side of the road to pickup and drop off passengers.  This turns an 8 hour trip into a 5 hour trip.  Pics below to put the difference in perspective.

Coron

For the week of Easter, I managed to get a full week off from work, and traveled to Coron with my Pops.  Johnny B had arrived in the Phils two days before our trip, and managed to make it to Jim (My boss’s) 50^th Birthday Party in GK Enchanted Farm (Previous blog on this village around November).  The flight to Coron is about an hour, and we arrived early in the afternoon. The trip to most Island paradise spots in the Philippines consists of plane, then van, then boat, and this one was no different.  We arrived at our resort (occupying an Island by itself) and proceeded to eat, drink, scuba dive, mountain bike, and sun bathe for 7 days straight.  

While the beaches are beautiful and the water is pristine, the real highlight of Coron is the Wreck diving.  In September, 1944, American planes caught up with a fleeing Japanese fleet in Coron bay, and sank 26 ships in one day.  The best part of this is that the fleet was located in relatively shallow water, and are all still there! You can actually swim through the engine room, cargo holds, and brigg.  They are amazingly well intact, and very, in the words of one of my favorite children’s books, “dark and full of secrets.” 

Our first day we got started early, taking a boat to Coron Island to dive Barracuda lake.  This is the only lake dive I’ve ever done, and it was a pretty unique experience.  This particular lake is a mix of fresh water and saltwater, and is a drastically different temperature at the surface than at the bottom.  As you drop down, it gets very blurry at the portion where the two water sources mix.  Then the water heats up almost immediately, like being in a hot spring.  The terrain looked somewhat akin to the surface of the moon, and visibility was great.  On the way up the temperature cools again, and feels even more so after 40 minutes in the hot spring. After this we did a reef dive, and ate lunch on a nearby beach.

At this point, the boat we had arranged that morning met us at the beach to take us island hopping.  The two main highlights of this excursion were more inland lakes.  Twin Lagoon can only be reached at high tide by swimming underwater a short distance (or taking stairs over a rocky ledge).  Pops and I chose the former, and swam along the edge of the lake to the opposite side.  Next we went to what our guides referred to as the most famous lake in Asia, Kayangan lake.  Reaching this lake required about a 20 minute hike up a steep hillside and then down to the lake.  We reached the photo op at the peak of this rise just before sunset, and got to witness a breathtaking view of the islands in Coron bay.  The lake itself is absolutely beautiful, surrounded on all sides by tall mounds of volcanic rock overgrown with trees and bushes.  Since it was the end of the day, we had the lake all to ourselves.  I swam out into the middle and lay on my back looking up at the sky and surrounding hills.  It was the magic hour, when the sun is still out, but has lost its heat, and most areas are in the shade.  The whole place had an incredible echo, and it was possible to communicate with the shore in practically a normal tone of voice.  I tried to picture what I would be doing at that point if I were in the US, and decided there was a pretty good chance I’d be playing video games, and irritated with some 12 year old kid I had never met.  I laughed out loud at the thought, and twirled in circles for quite a while, giggling like an idiot.

The following day we did a mountain biking adventure tour on the mainland that had been recommended by a peace corps buddy of mine.   Our guide was TJ, a young British/Filipino guy, who had quit his marketing job in the UK to move to Coron a few years earlier.  He had met a Filipina wife, and started TJ Adventure tours to earn a living.   Along the road we passed a couple of kids riding their bikes, and as I marveled at the speed and confidence which the young lads navigated the rough terrain, the smallest one lost his balance and went over the front handlebars, landing squarely on his face.  A bit stunned, he kept his composure, stood up, and assessed his bike.  This kid couldn’t have been more than 6-7 years old, but he took the fall like a man.  No tears, no whining, even said thank you when Pops gave him a piece of candy.  His chain had jammed and the handlebars were twisted the wrong direction, but TJ was quickly able to get him back on the road.

The tour turned out to have a few more hills and off-roading than advertised, and we reached a point where Johnny was no longer into it.  Not to worry, TJ knew the mayor of a village along the way.  We dropped Johnny off with the mayor, and continued to the “secret waterfall.”  This included a 30 minute hike through the jungle at the end, but was totally worth it.  It was an extremely hot day, and the cool, shady waterfall was the perfect lunch spot.  On the way back, we stopped in the village  (maybe two houses?) where we had left our bikes for a short rest.  TJ asked if I wanted a Coconut, and quickly ordered two.  A very thin, young gentlemen began scaling the nearby palm tree barefoot (footholds had been chopped in the side of the tree), and cut down a batch of coconuts with a machete. 

We met Johnny back in the earlier village, and found him to be very buddy buddy with the mayor, cruising around to visit the school and public meeting halls on the back of his scooter.  To relax after the long day we went to a nearby hotspring, but not before visiting a local cashew factory and buying two giant bags of garlic cashews.

The next morning, we took a 2 hour boat ride to our next destination.  Coral  Bay Beach Resort, located just a short boat ride from all of the Japanese wrecks, is in a quiet cove with a spectacular house reef.  We arrived just in time to organize dives for the next day, and eat dinner.  We had prepaid (and by we, I mean dad) all of our meals, which turned out to be buffet style.  All you seasoned travellers, I know what you’re thinking - rookie mistake.  However, to our great surprise, the food was fantastic.  Fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, french bread, juice, real coffee, real milk, cake for dessert, crepes and bacon for breakfast, incredible.  Add this to our evening routine of cashew snacking and San Miguel beer, and we were very happy campers.

I did 6 wreck dives over 2 days - submarine hunters, freighters, and cargo ships, ranging from 50-120 feet long.  One of the ships had a giant crane off the back of it, and another had a very intact anti-aircraft gun.  Officially, you aren’t supposed to penetrate any of the wrecks, as that requires a technical diving certification.  However, our Filipino dive guide wasn’t overly concerned with the rules so long as higher authorities (like Steve the divemaster) were all the way back at the resort.  “Don’t tell Steve” became the running joke when arriving back on the boat after swimming through small holes and hatches into the hull of each wreck.  Fortunately, we were accompanied by an Irish-Dutch couple that were very experienced divers.  They took some amazing photographs, which they later emailed to us, the only dive shots I currently have.

Pops enjoyed the wrecks as well, although preferred to observe from the outside, in view of the surface.  He also skipped the second day, and was content to just island hop and bask in the sunshine.  I joined him on our third day, during which we visited a nearby water cave, kayaked, and snorkeled.

We got in one final snorkel on Saturday morning, and reluctantly headed back to Manila.  

Malasimbo Music Festival

The following schedule of events shall be retold from vaguely recollected images.

Friday March 2^nd

11:00am                    Board bus in Manila

1:00pm                      Arrival in Batangas

1:30pm                      Board boat for Puerto Galera after astounding number of ticketing inefficiencies.

2:30pm                      Arrival in Puerto Galera

2:45pm                      Check in at hotel

3:00pm                      Asked the hotel where I could find some good chicken.  Directed to a restaurant where they serve grilled chickens for roughly $6.  Proceed to consume an entire chicken.  No messing around with body parts down here, just chop that thing up and gimme it all. Perfect wrap up to the week on my four hour body diet.

4:00pm                      Meet friends at Big Apple bar on beach. Drinking commences.

5:30pm                      Hop on Jeepney to Malasimbo festival. Really Drunk german with gangrenous wound on foot joins us.

6:30pm                      Arrival at Malasimbo music festival – Venue is a giant tiered grass amphitheater on top of a mountain.  Seriously.

6:35pm                      Drunk German Guy with Gangrenous Wound on foot realizes that festival is not free.  Follows us in without paying.

6:45pm                      Purchase 10 drink tickets for $12.

7:00pm-9:00pm     Band called De Oro plays a set.  Band is built around grammy nominated American Cellist from Juliard, playing everything from bluegrass to rock to hip hop.  Excessive Drinking.

11:00pm                    Buy drink for drunk German guy with gangrenous wound on foot. Realize I am out of drink tickets and begin borrowing from friends. 

12:00am                    Crowd moves to second Stage for hip hop show.  Introspective socially conscious selection of songs from African American with afro and fluorescent tie dye shirt and shorts.  Barefoot. 

1:30am                       Bar runs out of beers and switches to very strong rum and cokes, which cost 2 drink tickets.  Total ripoff.

2:30am                       Drunken conversation with aforementioned hip hop artist, in which I ask him who he likes to listen to and if I can get a CD.  He turns out to be an 18 year old jazz guitarist and likes MF Doom.

4:00am                       Jeep ride back to Big Apple bar.  Sit at same table on the beach.  Bar has turned into a hotspot for hookers and johns.  Order and consume many dishes involving cheese.

5:00am                       Pass out.

Saturday March 3^rd

8:00am                       Wake up to sound of puking in bathroom

10:00am                    My alarm goes off.  Decision not to go scuba diving made instantaneously.  Alarm turned off.

10:30am                    Asshole frat guys at my hotel screaming and jumping in the pool directly outside my room.  Excessive noise.  So tired that it hardly matters.

1:00pm                      Roll out of bed and order 2 full breakfasts at my hotel. 

2:00pm                      Meet friends at Apple Bar on beach.  Same bar, same table.  Drinks refused.

2:30pm                      Swim out to floating bar with water slide.  Try to one-up little Filipino kids playing tag and doing tricks off the slide.

3:00pm                      Jeep to white beach.

4:00pm                      Fruit shakes, swimming and football on the beach.  Drinks refused.

5:30pm                      Chicken curry served by transvestite.

6:00pm                      Sun goes down.  Bracelets and devil horns purchased from kids on the beach.

6:15pm                      Pitcher of rum and coke ordered.

7:00pm                      Trike to festival

8:30-10:00pm         Joe Bataan, Jazz/reggae artist from new york takes the stage.  Awesome set, Excessive drinking.

10:00pm-1:00am   Run into Spanish friends by the bar and hang out up there for most of the night.  Many great musical artists missed.

12:30am                    Bar runs out of beers, again.  Forced to switch to Rum and cokes.  Having run out of my own, I am once again borrowing drink tickets.

2:00am                       Jeep back to town ahead of the group

3:00am                       End up in the wrong town – hail motorcycle taxi

3:30am                       Arrival in correct town.

5:00am                       Pass out

Sunday March 4^th

10:00am                    Alarm goes off again, but no way I’m going scuba diving. Alarm turned off.

12:00pm                    Breakfast at Big Apple bar on beach, same bar, same table.

2:00pm                      Catch last boat back to the mainland.

3:00pm                      Board bus for Manila

3:15pm                      Food vendors board bus to sell. Purchase and consume 3 hardboiled eggs and a bottle of water. 

5:30pm                      Arrival in Manila

7:00pm                      Pass out