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.