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!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment