Only in the Philippines.................

Things are certainly hotting up around here in all sorts of ways. Firstly, we are apparently not having rainy season after all! Its still summer! The rain we have been having each day is not real rain but from cloud seeding. I'm not sure of the science ,but water or salt or both are sprayed from planes and this creates rain clouds. They do this to try to fill up the resevoirs and keep the temperature down to reduce load on the national grid. There is a debate as to whether this is true science or a fiction of the presidents publicity machinery (the cloud seeding not the rain) ,but anyway, whilst poor old blighty is soggy our dams are drying up.

Aside from reduced water pressure, there is also now afternoon blackouts, because of power shortages, they are low on coal to run the power stations - someone forgot to buy enough? Not to worry coal is being shipped as we speak, over from Australia. This power problem is apparently made worse because of the hydro electric dams being affected by the low water levels. On the streets of Manila no-one seems to be worried - everyone is still washing their cars and watering their gardens as usual - No hose pipe ban here then.

Meanwhile on a small island near Mindanao the government is squaring up to the Muslim rebels which will break 6 years peace in the region. There is a lot of diplomacy trying to stop the president and hopefully it will pay off. Whilst we are far, far away, from where any action will take place the longer term repercussions could have an adverse affect on the country. They are preparing to pull volunteers away from the nearest regions if any fighting breaks out, as this will mean movements of displaced people and general upheaval in the those areas.

The latest example of Philippines policy making was highlighted this week by Oxfam. They are trying to convince senators to actually turn up and vote to break the pharmaceutical monopoly in the country keeping the prices of medicines artificially high. They have tried and failed 3 times to get a quorum to pass the bill. The claim is that senators are "encouraged" not to turn up by those companies who would be adversely affected. Its a bit similar to the efforts to get a ban on powered milk adverts. Less than 20% of babies are breast fed whilst one of the main causes of infant mortality is dirty water being used to mix baby feed. Campigners can't get a bill enforced enforced as the American Mutlinationals who produce the milk sunstitutes are able to influence decision makers to stall implementation-Meanwhile every other advert on TV is for some sort of powered milk which is promoted for new babies right up to adulthood - I'm not joking! Other health obessions that shed loads of money are wasted on, and advertisers made rich, are skin whitening products and mulitvitamins!

Reading the newspaper is always entertaining as much of what is written about seems too incredible to be true - at best bad administration - at worst corrupt and criminal. Having said all that - The Philippines continues to grow on me - it gets in your blood- I think its theFilipinos ability to be happy about almost anything - god knows they've had enough years to practice this skill- as oppose to that truly British trait of moaning about absolutely bloody everything!We are lucky as the hardships that affect so many people here do not affect us, at least directly, to be honest it means we have a fairly good lifestyle as everything is so comparatively cheap. Something than can and does make you feel guilty from time to time.............

Anyway look on the bight side, the prisoners are still dancing inside the prisons - You must see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6917318.stm


and we have been taking advantage of the dry weather and been to the beach and Angelica swam for the first time without arm bands!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZcrXQLDn4

We went down to MayaMaya on the Coast near Nasugbu for the weekend - it was great the kids played with their friends Mathew and David who are a year older than Angelica and Gianna and respectively. I had a stinking cold/cough so just lazed around and recuperated ate nice food and spent time with good friends.

Went to Cebu last week for workshop - didn't get to see much of Cebu but did find a tapas bar which sold a nice bottle of Rose, and a good hotel for stopovers. As people can fly direct from HK to Cebu this may be an option for those with limited time in the Philippines. Cebu gets u closer to the islands quicker than flying into Manila, its smaller and much easier to deal with. Cebu Pacific is the local equivalent of Ryanair and if u book in advance u can book short hops between islands for around 20 quid.

Anyway must stop touting for visitors and get back to work.................

Pinikpikan at the Penguin, Murphys and Miracles

Recovering from a frantic weekend! Started off with Marc having his eyes lasered at the American Eye Centre http://www.eyecenter.com.ph/humaneye/default.asp on Friday. As far as I'm concerned its a miracle! Very sci fi /futuristic all this laser stuff. They zap each eye with a laser for 30 seconds and your eyes are fixed! Marc went in at 5.30 on Friday and whilst he was a bit uncomfortable on Friday night, ( said it felt like grit in his eye) he woke to near perfect eye sight on Saturday morning. Went back in on Saturday lunchtime for an eye test and was told he now has 20:20 vision. I just can't get used to him without glasses. The best thing was it only cost the equivalent of 800 pounds to have both eyes done, whilst its over 1000 per eye in the UK. They gave us a DVD of the op! Haven't watched it yet and I'm not sure that I want to!

On Saturday night we went off to Malate to see our friend Jerry's band Pinikpikan. I've put a short video of the music on http://www.facebook.com/

We met Jerry at MayaMaya in Nsugbu back in April and have been promising to go along to a gig for ages but kept being out of Manila when he played. On Saturday we finally made it to a funky, hippy/arty hangout called Penguin Cafe where they were playing. Alternative sort of crowd and a really nice vibe. The band were GREAT - Lots of drumming and percussion and very dancy - the crowd were all on chairs by the end of the night! It was good to find an alternative scene, as up until now its been fancy clubs and bars in Makati. They play again in August so we'll be back there then....................

On Sunday I took Gianna to see the new Harry Potter film. I took the photos of the Sunday afternoon traffic on the way over to the Mall- It was the middle of the afternoon and the world and his wife all have the same idea to go to the Mall. I'm sure it could actually be conjugated as a verb - magmalling - a pinoy national pastime!....... Luckily we live inside our gated village where we are cut off from the madness - in our little oasis of calm.

There are 100s of cinemas in Manila (in the malls) and films are all shown in English. have to say I didn't really rate the film, but then I've never read a HP book so probably not the best judge.

Gianna seems to be settling into school better and we are getting used to the routine. Up at 5.30 every day. Shes been given the lofty position of vice president of the Theatre club and gets to choose what productions they will do. No surprise there then- I'll expect to see High School Musical at Xmas with Gianna playing Sarpay! Shes also learning all sorts of useful stuff like basket weaving and rug making! We can always send her out to work if things get tough! Her latest party trick is singing the Philippines national anthem in Tagalog!I'm sure it will stand her in good stead for icebreakers, in training sessions, when she grows up. last weekend I took her and her friend Amy to see the pinoy version of HSM which was really good. The cast were all very young but very talented. By the interval we were swooning over the male lead who won teen idol on TV here!

Last night we went off to a British Chamber of Commerce do at Murphys, an Irish bar, in Makati- free bar and food for 5 quid and the open Golf final on the TV. Unfortunately for me it was an exciting finale and went on forever -we didn't get home till 2am. Marc was happy as Larry - he could watch and talk Golf all night. Currently suffering from sleep deprivation - luckily the nanny was around to take Gianna off to school at 6am as I would not have made it!

Work going really well - had important meeting on Friday with Team about my KM strategy which involves reviewing VSO's meeting and event schedules and aligning it with their M&E cycle, to promote better learning opportunities. It was agreed in principle and we begin the review in August at the staff development week. A week in a hotel in Tagatay overlooking the Volcano and lake outside Manila. Marc and the kids will be able to come down at the weekend. Tomorrow I'm off to Cebu for a couple of days - the Philippines second city - smaller and nicer than Manila. The nanny will stay over and help Marc out and then we'll take off to the beach for the weekend when I get back. As for now I'm off home for an early lunch, get Angelica from nursery and a bit of a lie down - one of the advantages of living 5 minutes away from the office.

Angelica in her uniform outside her school

Agusan de Sur Mindanao

Last week went on field trip to Augusan de Sur one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines, back on the island of Mindanao. Met with the newly elected Governor and different departments within the provincial government. The new Governor is the sister of the previous Governor and daughter of the one before him. Political dynasties seem to be very common here, where terms of office are passed on within families.

Visiting the government was a real eye opener - many of the offices would be classed as uninhabitable in the UK. There were very few if any computers. It was so strange to see rows of desks with no PC , typewriter or phone- just piles of papers. They were very hospitable and looked after us very well, even if that did mean fried fish and rice for breakfast every day. The countryside in Agusan was very beautiful but there is very little there in terms of infrastructure. They have problems with illegal logging and mining and enforcing local regulations seems fraught with problems in a country where bribes are a way of life. We stayed in San franz a town with aspirations to be a city but with only partially paved roads that seems unlikely. Met up with some of my colleagues at the only real restaurant in town which was cheap but cheerful. They have a relatively simple life and have to travel 3 hours for any sort of civilisation. The meal was good although had to dodge the clouds of black beetles that seemed to be everywhere.

Visited 3 livelihood projects making corn coffee, palm fruits and rattan furniture. The rattan furniture was the most interesting as they both harvested the Rattan from the mountain and created the furniture.

I was quite happy to get on the plane to go back to hot noisy Manila. Being in Agusan made me appreciate everything we have in manila. We just would not survive out in the provinces where there's no milk, cheese, wine, olive oil etc etc..........The novelty of the rural way of life would not last very long.

Work is going well in that I have a sense of what I hope to achieve in my 2 years and the beginnings of an implementation plan. On one hand its frustrating, as no-one else seems to be doing anything in my field, but at the same time, rather exciting. All good news for the CV long term. Lots of travel coming up over the next 3 months as I am working strategically across the Philippines and now possibly the whole region. Having to turn some invitations to travel down so I'm not away from Marc and the kids too much.

Marc just had 5 days with his college pal on Boracay so shouldn't feel too left out. They both loved it so we will all have to get back there sometime soon. Spent Saturday morning working on our bamboo master plan to export furniture to the Bahamas and UK. I have created the beginnings of our business plan and now up to Marc to do the research and really find out whether the figures add up. Watch this space!!!!

Out on the town in Manila last weekend.....sort of finding our pace now. Happy hour (or 4) in one of the posh hotels then off down to outdoor cafes with live music and then onto the ex-pat bars to play pool. No dancing this week but some good club nights coming up. Had to turn down another cheese and wine frenzy as clashed with our weekly Tagalog lessons which we started again. If I try long enough surely some of it will sink in!