Crammed a lot into 10 weeks....

A lot has happened in the 10 weeks since I arrived in my new home in the Philippines. I have observed the resourcefulness and also experienced some remarkable behaviours from Filipinos, mostly I am pleased to say good, including the warmth and friendliness for which the country is famous and I have come across some helpful officials in some of the local and national government too, although I have yet to attempt to get my local driving licence at the LTO.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I was brought up in the West, and my career was spent in R&D for 8 years and a further 16 years in a variety of technical management roles related to quality performance and manufacturing excellence, and latterly worked with colleagues to implement Lean practices i.e to reduce non-value add activities in all processes. As such I can become very impatient when I perceive that unnecessary blocks are being put in place or bureaucracy is slowing things down. I also have my own views on what is and what isn't good service provision and what should be a part of this when paying a premium. Anyway to the recent experiences:

•                I am very impressed with the way in which the Philippines, as a whole, has taken their environmental responsibilities. Don't get me wrong, there is a long way still to go and individuals have to take on a lot more personal responsibility, especially for littering and other trash disposal; however the other parts of the mantra are being quite well supported, although not in the same way as I am used to from the West

a.    Replace, as a result of the sheer number of plastic bags scattered about the country and especially clogging the waterways and drainage system, many of the regions have already implemented a blanket ban on the free issue of plastic carrier bags by shops with the exception for wet items (food such as meat and fish). Many of the shops have replaced plastic with paper, which is fine for most small purchases and then re-use packaging such as cartons to pack shopping in.

b.    Reduce there is not the same level of consumerism here as back in Europe, many things are sold in smaller packs, which does require more packaging, but you cant win them all…. This leads to people buying what they need, so there is less wastage.

c.     Re-use, see above for the cartons, also there are many small workshops where brake shoes and clutch plates can be re-lined and tyres can be re-vulcanised and there are many other examples too numerous to mention. I am also impressed with the number of uses to which Filipinos can put re-bar, which I guess is an easily obtained material to be used wherever metal bars are required.

d.    Recycle, this one is not a sophisticated as back in Europe where there are huge recycling centres, however glass Coke bottles still have a deposit charged on them, encouraging you to return them. Some locations segregate wastes into plastics, metals, bio-degradable and general waste, this was very noticeable in Boracay and Cebu and some parts of Manila and Laguna

I have however noticed the tendency, especially in the supermarkets to over package vegetables, some items are left for the customer to pick and chose, then have weighed, others, such as apples, oranges, potatoes and carrots are often pre-packaged in a plastic tray with cling-film or ceran wrap; I wish they would stop doing this.
On a separate note, could SM Supermarket in Santa Rosa please keep their milk cold, it is distressing to pour out lumpy milk onto one’s cornflakes of a morning having only bought the milk the day before. Keeping it near room temperature in a country such as this is not a good idea.

•                Getting married outside one's own home country is a bit of a challenge, I needed to obtain a Certificate of No-Impediment from the British Embassy 21 days after arriving, when I tried to make an appointment there was nothing available until just over a week before the wedding, the only problem was I needed to apply for the wedding licence too, and that had to be 10 to 14 days before the wedding. I wrote a plaintive email to the embassy and fortunately they found an earlier slot. The interview process took about an hour, but CNI obtained!!!
After this we had to get the licence and with the assistance of some very helpful officials at the Santa Rosa City Hall, we obtained this in time for the wedding, a huge thanks to everyone involved.

•                The amount of stuff needed for a wedding here is mind boggling, and that is not including the paperwork; candles, communion hosts, bibles, coins, lighters (for the candles) and so on and so forth. Kat and I spent a few hours chasing around to source these, not sure it should have been down to us, but that is another argument for another time.

•                A few friends came over from the UK for the wedding. On their first night here, we went out for a beer or two and something to eat, however two of them decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss and decided to stay out after the rest of us went back to the hotel. The next morning we discovered they had persuaded a tricycle driver to take them from Tagatay City to Alfonso, Cavite a distance of well over 10km at 3am. I was able to see the entry in the security officers’ log book relating to the arrival of 2 very drunk male guests at 3.30am, they were otherwise very friendly and polite. I just wish I had seen the two of them on the tricycle, it would have been priceless. Thanks to the tricycle driver for putting up with them.

•                The next night, we met up with Kat’s sisters for supper; well, this started in a most inauspicious way, the restaurant bar we chose was empty and it looked like the staff had gone home. After we managed to get some attention and the beer bucket left on the table, the food came out and was very good, the beer flowed and we started in on the Karaoke, I am now banned from singing any Tom Jones songs for life!!!
I transpired that we had chosen a particularly difficult place from which to get back to our hotel, and unlike the night before, there were no accommodating tricycle drivers around. We did however flag down a bus, which was going through Alfonso and much to the amusement of the local passengers, we clambered aboard to get back to Hillcreek Gardens. Thanks to the driver for stopping to pick up a bunch of slightly drunk foreigners from the side of the road.

•                The wedding itself was a roller coaster, the weather made an unwelcome appearance in the form of a thundery shower about 40 minutes before the ceremony was due to start, this delayed a whole bunch of photos being taken, mostly of the bride and pushed the whole thing back about an hour. We had already discussed a contingency if the weather did threaten the day, fortunately, this was not required as the rain cleared fairly quickly. Unlike in the UK where guests and members of the wedding party are pretty much left to themselves, our wedding planners organised things like a military operation, which was probably just as well since some of the adult party members kept wandering off to talk to old friends and colleagues, it was however perhaps a little too organised for me at times.

•                Boracay, well, what can I say, great beaches, good food and excellent weather for the most part, nice big tricycles (why can’t they all be this size everywhere else in the Philippines?).  The island reminds me of places in Egypt and to an extent Puerto Galera, all the glitz is on the beach and the few hundred metres back as you enter the main resort hotels, but the other parts of the island haven’t received quite as much TLC and probably don’t get visited by the majority of the tourists.
Whilst we were here I managed to break my spectacles, which were a designer pair with complex progressive focus lenses. I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to replace them like for like and would no doubt need to buy a pair of reading glasses until I could get back to Laguna and have a full eye check. Imagine my surprise, when rather than trying to sell me a new pair of glasses, the lady optician offered to reshape my existing lenses to fit a new, relatively cheap but none the less attractive frame and all for the cost of the frame, no additional fee; bargain!! It transpired that the lenses were of a tough acrylic material and the job took nearly 4 hours rather than the anticipated 30 mins. Thank you Doctora, you saved my sanity as I am still using those frames as I write this.

•                We moved onto Cebu, which was also very nice, the 5* hotel was amazing, we could have spent the entire week on the campus there, only leaving for swimming in the sea. Keen on exploring one of the other major cities in the Philippines, Kat and I headed off to the SM Mall (where else) for a bit of shopping and to watch the new Star Trek movie at the IMAX theatre, great experience.

That’s pretty much it for the moment, I am still baffled by the attitude of drivers and motor cyclists when it comes to lights and as for the tyres on some trucks and jeepnies, totally bereft of tread, great for grip on dry roads, but useless on the wet ones we are starting to have as the rainy season approaches, doesn't make me feel any safer when driving.