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.
