Leisure Days Part 2

While the first half of the trip was more bonding with the whole team, the second was more about seeing the Philippines. I found the country was full of beautiful places to see, whether it be mountains or the beach. We had the opportunity to visit Tagaytay Highlands, overlooking the Taal Lake, and see it from birds eye view by cable car. We also drove up even higher to People's Park in the Sky which is the house (but actually palace) the Philippines president built to house President Reagan for his proposed visit. They stopped building when the trip was canceled. Since then, it is just a rubble ruins that tourists come to take pictures in.

artsy fartsy at people's park 

no filter view from highlands

We also drove up a couple of hours to punta fuegos, a beautiful beach that was incredibly quiet and empty. We played Frisbee in the waters and I tried skim boarding on moving waters for the first time since elementary school. I didn't actually succeed in staying on the board and have a huge ass bruise to prove my failure but it was good to be back in my element. 

punta fuegos from where we were 

from the balcony!

Aside from our touring of the scenery, we took the time to see some historical sites-- primarily Intramuros. We got a history breakdown from our hosts at fort santiago hearing about the various invasions Philippines went through before it became an independent country. But places like fort santiago are reminders of what those times: rizal, who is a national hero designated by the US, primarily because he was a novelist and more importantly a pacifist. With the uprising against the spanish, it was important to instate values of nonviolent protest. It was also incredibly sad to see the tragedies of WWII, primarily the devastation of soldiers and civilians caused by the japanese occupation. I try my best to be neutral when it comes to what they did, but just before they lost they had the american soldiers and filipinos go on a death march that killed thousands. it's similarity to the holocaust was uncanny and sent shivers down my spine. but what i can truly complement the philippines on is the country's ability to push back memories like those as history and not dwell on it. it's something that i feel korea can work on. 

artsy pic in front at casa blanca

fort santiago 

I actually just got back to the US yesterday night so i'll be finishing The Name of the Rose by Umberto Echo, which is a philosophy/ literature book my librarian from high school recommended me a couple of months ago. I'll have a short post about my the final deliverables and what I learned through the process coming up as well!

Until then, 

Leisure Days Part 1

True to Penn's motto we've been playing as hard as we have been able to get around during our leisure days off work. Here are some of the things that we've done: shopping at Greenhills, shopping and eating at High Street, laser tag (4th place!), touring Tagatay (where we also went horseback riding), Karaoke after a nice dinner, and watching the Great Gatsby.

I don't have any pictures from shopping at Greenhills and the bruschetta featured in the last post was what we ate at High Street, but here is a picture of the team at laser tag. It wasn't too different from laser tag in the US. I teamed up with Victor who was boss at it. For future reference I think it's primarily about finding a good location that protects you and gives you a good shot at unsuspecting passer-bys. What I particularly found useful was a wall with a window that covered my stomach, the largest target. The only unfortunate part is if someone comes from behind...

Posing in our suits

We also went to karaoke at a place called Red box after a delicious dinner at a nice restaurant called People's Palace. I don't even have a picture of my favorite (pork belly cooked in banana leaf) nor can I recall everything we had that night, but here's a picture of my plate at one point during dinner. 

Catfish Salad, Pad Thai, and i can't remember...

We also had red curry and green curry, both of which were delicious! With unlimited rice, I just gorged myself with as much food as possible. After dinner, I felt so full, I felt sick. For the first time in my life, when offered dessert I couldn't eat it. To digest the calories, we headed over to karaoke where I lost my voice temporarily for the rest of the nights. 

Mango Jubilee

taking a short break

More to come in a couple of hours!

Food porn from Philippines

So here's the food porn I promised! The food culture is very much how I normally eat-- that is, they eat five or six times a day with meriendas (or snacks) interspersed around meals. My theory is that people eat so often here that their metabolism is forced to constantly work, making them very tiny.

Food on ANA

But taking a step back, I'm actually going to start with airplane food. So the pic stitch is of what our food on ANAirlines looked like. The options were seafood with saffron seasoning or japanese style chick, both of which were excellent. I usually hate airplane food, so the fact that I finished everything is only an indicator of how good it was. But as soon as they took away the trays, they started giving out VANILLA HAAGEN-DAZS? i almost died.

Jpop donuts, caramel flan, banana fries, halo-halo

It only got better. Starting on the first day, we gorged ourselves on multiple types of desserts. The top left corner are jpop donuts, which were a quarter of the size of my hand and filled with cream. One interesting flavor I didn't have the guts to try was meat... (not regretting it) Then on the right is caramel flan, which is also the pudding looking thing in the halo halo (bottom right). Halo is Tagalog for mix, so the dessert is called mix-mix, in English. And yes, that is indeed taro ice cream. It reminded me of the Korean dessert, bingsu, which is also crushed ice with condensed milk, beans, and other random stuff on top. The most hilarious thing is that one of the most popular places to get halo halo is at a chinese fastfood chain called Chowking! Besides what's actually pictured we also had several other desserts including mango crepes and mochi ice cream (they had red velvet flavor!) all of which were equally as amazing.

 But I actually did have real food too. Pork and chicken seem to be the biggest source of protein here. There is a prevalence of pork (well, pork belly actually) in a lot of dishes. The dish on the left is a popular breakfast dish. Eaten with pork dipped in vinegar sause, it comes with rice and fried eggs. Even at the saturday market, they were selling sweet marinated pork (which we got to try!). On our night out we also tried pork bruschetta, which is pork belly with bacon rolled inside of it. When we were give home cooked meals, pork was also a huge part. They gave us pork on skewers which tasted a lot like what I had tried at the market (absolutely fantastic). The noodle stuff next to it in the pictures is a chinese dish that were clear noodles. I'm going to try to find out what it's actually called, but it was savory with scallions mixed inside of it, but no meat.

Pork skewers and noodles 

Liempo at Saturday Market

In terms of restaurant meals, we also tried bruschetta which was pork belly cooked with seasoning and more bacon rolled into it. It got a little sickening at the end with all that grease but generally fantastic, especially with spanish rice and steamed vegetables.

Pork Bruschetta 

But we're poor college kids so most of the time we had street food/ fast food.  One of the first meals we had were at Jolibee, a fastfood restaurant that is more popular than McDonald's. It sells pretty much anything, but we heard the fried chicken was good, so that's what we ate. So we got two pieces of fried chicken with a rice that came in paper wrappings that made it look like a hamburger and some gravy. I got sick right after, so my brain thinks that I got sick from the food (even though I'm pretty sure it was just motion sickness from a long car ride after) and won't let me eat it. We also tried lobster rolls and crab claws that looked super fake but turned out to be delicious! I had it with a mixture of garlic sauce and sweet and sour sauce which turned out to be a great choice because it had a twist to the savory taste the garlic sauce and the actual dish had.

Lobster rolls and crab claws

Other street food also included a lot of mango smoothies/slush which I'm pretty sure I'm going to crave when I leave here.

The next couple of dishes I have pictures of were served at the house of one of the board members. Their mother went out of her way to treat us! She served us primarily Americanized foods because we were going on a distribution the day after, which I was part-saddened but in hindsight very grateful for her wisdom and foresight. But it was some of the best food I have ever had. WOW. We had lasagna, shrimp tempura with mango sauce, marinated pork, king prawns, and steak. I had never seen prawns that big or shrimp that big either. Then the steak omgahhh actually melted in my mouth from being so tender. love love love :) Right when I was pretty sure I couldn't possible fit anymore food into my stomach, Gina, the helper, came out with a ginormous frozen ice cream ish mango cake and apple pie. I literally died. If I could have slit my stomach to enlarge it to fit more food, I would have. I just wanted to keep putting it in my mouth before it slithered away from me.

What my dish looked like that night 

Mango frozen cake

Can't remember what these were..

Other general notes about the food here: the food is generally sweeter than I am accustomed to. Everything seems to have a sweeter twist, even the chicken and curry. Also with the commonality of pork, vinegar is commonly used as sauce, probably to even out the slightly greasy taste of it. The sweet and sour does add a nice twist to everything.

More food porn to follow closer to the end of the trip! 

OML Distribution

I know I promised food porn, but we spent the last two days in the provinces doing distributions, so I'll talk about this first!  It was a lot to take in, especially in regards to how I feel about aid and nonprofits, but a rewarding experience nonetheless. This isn't your typical "how I was changed forever" post, though I can't guarantee complete objectiveness either.

Energizer solar powered flashlights

One of the differences I noticed between the communities we served is the children. The very first community we went to had a group of kids that were not beneficiaries (i.e. not receiving a solar powered energizer light). They were very social and unafraid, despite our inability to speak Tagalog. We played tag ("taya") and they just petted us, especially Monique whom the kids were still fascinated with.

Children from Sta Rita, Olongapo City

They kept asking us for "elow" which translates to light. When they caught on that we didn't have any to give to them, they started asking us for water. It was heart breaking at first because we couldn't give them anything, but they were very persistent, even though I could tell they understood that we weren't allowed. It was unsettling to see such calculation in kids that young, at the same time I understand in an area where foreign aid is a means of survival, it is necessary. The experience only heightened my wariness of monetary or material injection into poor communities. The kids can't do this when they grow older.

This became a measure (albeit, probably very inaccurate) for me on how much aid the village has probably gotten in the past.  In this paradigm I also discovered how much more sustainable the model OML uses needs to be. They have a great model going but need to strengthen on education and/ or infrastructure of how to use the money to better feed their families and most importantly invest in the future. Hopefully, this is an aspect our team can continue to help in.

Taken from distribution pt in Sta. Cruz (no filter) 

This is what I remember mostly from the distribution, but definitely there is more. I'll post in the following week about it as it comes to me. I am serious about the food porn post next time :)

Until then,

P.S. I tried to learn to count in Tagalog with playing cards, but major fail. Here's how you actually count in Tagalog.

Struggle bus learning to learn to count

Numbers in Tagalog--taken off google

PIBV-OML Consulting

We spent the last two do doing an internal assessment of the organization. A youth organization comes with its advantages and disadvantages but it has been exciting talking with all of the core executive team and the volunteers as well. Most of our final presentation will be on management structure  communication tools and volunteer recruitment & development. By far, one of the coolest non profits I have had the pleasure of working with. It really is amazing what they have done in the last couple of years and as much as I doubted the impact then, I realize that having light after sunset can mean the world of difference. Some really cool facts that I wanted to reiterate: replacing solar panel light reduces 100 kg of carbon; it can lead to greater literacy and increase in eduction because kids can study after dark; replacing lights can save people up to 10 pesos a day by not using kerosene. Here is a picture of us hard at work at one of the core member's house:

working hard or hardly working? 

I also glimpsed a little bit into the life of a consultant. I have not worked for 8 hours straight before. I know that sounds totally lame and whiney but what I mean is I haven't worked and actually concentrated for that hard for 8 hours before. I expect when I have to start work, this is what it would be like. It was encouraging that I was able to actually do it, but discouraging that no matter where I work, I might have to long hours where I am absolutely focused on what I do.

Outside of our little work bubble though, there were other exciting events going on. First was the congressional elections. There is something called the liquor ban starting the day before until midnight of the day of the elections. I guess it is to prevent rowdy pre or post election rages. But it is only illegal to buy alcohol not necessarily to drink it. I guess it is part necessary because there are waring families within provinces that can get violent during election times.

Picture of election booth in Alabang, Philippines 

Other interesting things I discovered was church in the Philippines is actually conducted outside. Well, more exactly, there is a roof but only a wall on one side and not closed doors. While I was proud of getting myself to church, it was hard to focus because of the heat and the taglish (which is Tagalog and English, the same way I speak Konglish to most of my friends). When we walked out there was a Taho peddler and our friend bought it for us for 20 pesos. It was tofu with sweet sauce and some type of jelly bubbles. It wasn't my favorite thing in the world, but a popular snack for a lot of Filipinos apparently.

Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ Church (outdoors)

My next post will be on food, so get excited!

My first Taho

Manila, Philippines Arrival

After 30 hours of traveling, I (and my team of 4 other PIBV volunteers) have arrived in Manila! We will be working with a youth organization called One Million Lights. The organization is a branch off a  non-profit based in Palo Alto, California that distributes safe, rechargeable solar lighting to replace dangerous kerosene lamps. We have had the pleasure of hanging out with the core team of seven who are all very dedicated and knowledgeable in what they do.

The school organization that I'm working through in order to consult for them is called Penn International Business Volunteers. They have eight trips this summer including trips to Malawi, Morocco, Peru, Kazakstan. Our team of five people, including myself, will work first with internal to figure out a better management structure and a better system for recruiting/training their volunteers. Externally, we will be conducting impact assessment to see what we can quantify for future grants and publications. 

I'm most excited about actual distributions we will be doing this coming weekend! But in the meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can sleep off the jet lag. 

PIBV Team at Saturday Market

List!

I handed in my final papers today! So as of 11:59 PM May 7^th, 2013, I am DONE with freshmen year. One particular micro blog post I wanted to share I found during finals season. I think it accurately represents most of me prepping for most of my exams:

http://roaringstate.tumblr.com/post/22142675741/finals-a-timeline

The point of this post, though, is to list the books I want to read this summer. There are a few books I have already bought but never got around to reading, some recommended by teachers and my dad, and the final couple off a list of 50 books To Read Before You Die. Here goes: 

THE LIST

1.     Comopolitanism

2.     Their Angry Eyes Were Watching God

3.     Sexual Personae

4.     My Name is Red

5.     Sophie’s World

6.     Give and Take (by Adam Grant)

7.     The Heart Break Work of a Staggering Young Genius (albeit, this is a reread)

8.     Tipping Point

9.     Outliers

10. The Glass Menagerie

11. A Streetcar Named Desire  

12. A Portrait of a Young Man as an Artist

13. Grace and Grit

14. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

15. Why We Need a New Welfare State

16. Failed States (Noam Chomsky)

17. Mr. Vertigo

18. The Importance of Being Honest

19. The Great Gatsby

20. A Short History of Nearly Everything

21. On Human Nature (Chomsky- Foucault)

22. Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working

23. House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall

24. The Great Philosophers: From Socrates to Foucault

25. The Age of the Unthinkable

26. Great Economists Before Keynes

27. Confessions of a Philosopher

28. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy

29. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

30. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

31. Inside the House of Money

32. Impact Investing: Transforming How We Make Money While Making

33.  The Name of the Rose

34. 100 Years of Solitude
35. Fountainhead 

36. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (albeit also reread!)

37. Brave New World

38. Lolita

39. The Notebook

40. Catch-22

41. Grapes of Wrath

42. The Heart of Darkness

43. Breakfast of Champions

44. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

45. I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere

46. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

47. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World

48. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches

49. Inventing Temperatures

50. Too Big to Fail