After a quick nip back to the UK to SMASH a job interview and eat some of Mums lasagne, I was back in Manila sorting out this Lubang water project.
I have had a frustrating time in the last few weeks convincing the funders that I need to make some changes to the original proposal for the Looc water project. The funders had forced the previous EWB volunteer to rush the proposal so I have had the pleasure of righting the mistakes he made. At points, the funders raised some daft objections to my sensible and necessary changes. In the office, the only question we wanted an answer to was “How did these people get into a position of authority?”! It did rather feel like I was banging my head against a poorly located concrete water filter.
These long discussions were taking place with the shadow of the visit from the mythical Trevor from Melbourne. All the prior arguments were with people who weren’t the final decision maker, so it was important to convince him that we were doing it right.
The expedition began in the “Royal Kitchen” Chinese seafood restaurant in Manila on Thursday night. Shen (my boss), Rodel (SIBATs electrical engineer) and I were invited along for dinner to meet Trevor and discuss the project with the local funding partners.
Seated at a massive circular table we had a delicious meal of calamari, Lapu Lapu fish with mango, king prawns and even a bit of lobster. Trevor and I ended up sat diametrically opposite from each other, meaning that we had to shout across a 4m table with our mouths full of fish. This wasn’t conducive to an easy conversation, but we made good progress. It transpired that Trevor is a water engineer by trade, giving me hope that he would at least understand my proposals. At the same time it also worried me that he might point out that I was doing things wrong!
Shen and I had agreed to meet at 3.30am the next morning to catch the boat with Trevor and the gang early the next day. So after dinner, I made the clever decision and went out drinking to belatedly celebrate Paddys Day, and got home at 1am. Oops!
Friday wrenched me out of bed and we landed in Lubang a long time after schedule – nothing to do with me! Trevor needed to visit another project on the island in Pulili, so we all bundled into various vans. Shen and I ended up taking a police van – complete with four armed police as our escort! Not that they were necessary, I think they just had a spare van and not much else to do!
On paper the project is complete, but in reality, it still needs an extra storage tank and pump if it is to truly meet the objectives. Trevor wasn’t best pleased about this, but I didn’t have any personal pride at stake and said that I would get on sorting those items out. As a celebrity, I wasn’t allowed to leave until I had posed for separate photos with the men and the women of Pulili. I’m kind of a big deal (in rural Philippines).
We took the boat over to the other side of the island (Looc) and the waves were quite rough. In my sleep deprived state I was able to chow down on some chill time ride the waves like a rag doll while others around me fell off their seats!
We arrived quite late and were only able to visit one of the three sites in Looc before dinner. Trevor seemed to agree with me about the problems we were facing, and was reasonable about how we could go about solving them. He did point out some things that I hadn’t noticed, and in fact I learnt a bit about site inspection from him.
After dinner we settled into Odies house. Odie grew up in Looc but is now a successful businessman who owns a pillow factory in Manila. He had built a big Italian house in Looc surrounded by houses more typical of a poor rural community. It reminded me somewhat of this clip:
http://www.yourdailymedia.com/post/family-guy-thomas-edison/
That paints him in a bad light – Odie is a great guy and his factory employs a lot of people from Looc, and he is invested in this water project too. Over beers on his porch, I told him I was an Industrial / Manufacturing engineer and he offered me a job in his factory! If it wasn’t for my recent success in the UK, I might well have taken him up on it!
In the morning we got up early to go have a look at the other two sites, and again Trevor agreed with me on the problems and the solutions. This was such a welcome relief from weeks of increasingly bitter emails, and now we can move forward. He attached a couple of conditions – that we find out the exact height of the new filter location and perform a pumping test on the well. These won’t be an issue and I am returning to Looc tomorrow to do these, so we can start digging in two weeks!
No photos as it was just a quickie.
I’ve used an app to help me write in short sentences like Hemmingway – what do you think? Feedback appreciated.
robininthephilippines 
What was the app?