I’ve had a hiatus - been home for five months, for goodness sake!! However, some other volunteer projects keep me occupied: I was still compiling a regular e-newsletter for the Men’s Advisory Network; plus helping out with a summer outdoor cinema in the grounds of the casino near my home that raises funds for several children’s charities ($720,000 last season).
So, off on another volunteer advisor assignment, back to the Philippines, to the same island (Bohol) where I advised the Adventure Park in October, 2009; but this assignment was to formulate a Marketing Plan for a local region’s virgin coconut oil (VCO) producers; plus a generic ‘Marketing Manual’ for any business. After I arrived: they sprang another one on me: an investigation into the possibilities and impact of ‘rural tourism’ on the island.
Day one - Up before dawn for an early flight - nothing unusual there as I usually arise at 04.30 for my 8 kilometre (5 miles) walk every morning.First leg was 3,900 kms (2,432 miles) over 5 hours north to Singapore at nearly 900 kph (550 mph), with an outside temperature of -57C (-70F). The Singapore Airlines aircraft was an A330-300 with 280 seats, but we only had 87 passengers - wonderful!! I could not help but notice that the ‘budget airlines’ out of Perth seemed to be at capacity and the staff were virtually shouting over the PA system in an endeavour to get everyone aboard - in contrast, we departed 10 minutes early. I’ll refrain to referring to the others as ‘riff-raff’ but often the standards of dress and actions of some tourists to destinations like Bali make one ashamed to be an Aussie…
In Singapore, travellers were jammed into a tiny driverless electric train to proceed to another terminal, followed by a long walk - the gate you need is always at the very end of the terminal.
Next flight was 715kms (477 miles) from Singapore to Manila in a 323-seater Boeing 777-200 that was practically full. For some unknown reason I was allotted a seat in the penultimate row of the 63.7 meter long aircraft, strange really because I’d checked-in in Perth, about nine hours before the flight. As I was overnight in Manila, I took a taxi to the hotel; most of the time was spent in gridlock, in rain. It was also slightly unnerving as I don’t know the streets of Manila, it was dark and the driver kept ducking down side streets, it was actually comforting to be surrounded by other vehicles most of the time.
Arrived in Tagbilaren (still in the same time-zone as Perth) from Manila next morning after a local, packed flight and wandered around looking for a representative of my client who was supposed to meet me. I gave up after about half an hour and hired a taxi to take me to the hotel.
The client’s office was not ready for me either, so I commenced the next morning. First duty was a trip to meet the Governor who was holding his weekly live-on-air TV and radio address, with other media present. I waited for a while among the others who were anxious to get the Governor’s attention. We had a good chat and then I was asked to go back for a ‘photo opportunity’.
The office is closed at weekends (I’m just not used to the concept of ‘weekends’). I started on a Friday, forget Saturday/Sunday, and then there was the Ubi Festival (more later) from the next Tuesday for three days that the office was organising. There was sixty-seven staff in the Provincial Agriculture office (plus another 40 or so in the ‘field’). The office was predominantly open-plan with mostly female staff and the level of chatter was sometimes of deafening proportions. Some female had charge of a PA system that broadcast announcements at periodic intervals during the day. One Friday afternoon around 4pm I just packed up and left early because of the incessant din of chatter; and worked from the hotel.
Early every Monday morning the office went quiet - all the staff wandered out to the car park where they had a flag-raising ceremony and sang anthems.The Philippines is a staunchly Catholic country and every morning the office staff stands and faces the same direction for a series of protracted prayers. I found it slightly disconcerting when getting in a vehicle and the driver would cross themselves before setting off.Early February, the office suddenly went eerily quiet again - they’d vacated en-masse to attend a monthly mass. Interestingly, the name of the WiFi connection at the office was ‘godSPEED’ - a direct connection, maybe?On Friday, 11th February I was informed that there was a staff meeting at noon, then the office was having a Valentine’s Day party and I was invited - I absconded back to the hotel and worked from my room!
My domicile for the next two months was the Panda Tea Garden Suites. My daughter’s reaction to the name was ‘is that legal?’ - get it: making tea from pandas? It was not too bad but basic and I could see that I probably couldn’t resist getting involved in bringing the place up a few notches. On the first night I was offered 'fruit salad' after dinner - it came in a bowl with assorted tasty tropical fruits, PLUS: finely sliced carrots and slices of cucumber - served on a bed of lettuce leaves.
For breakfast next morning, I ordered scrambled eggs and toast remembering to say ‘toasted bread’, not just ‘toast’; foregoing the inevitable rice that comes with everything. I received an omelette type concoction sandwiched between two slices of barely toasted, tasteless white ‘plastic’ bread (no butter) and coffee was ‘Nescafe 3-in-one’ in a sachet - too bad if you wanted black or ‘no sugar’! Next day I asked for some jam with my ‘coffee and toasted bread’ - but they did not have any.
Another morning I asked for ‘toasted bread’ and butter (knowing they had no jam) then asked if they had brown bread or multi-grain. They had a bakery on site and they scrounged around and did have some great brown bread with taste, texture and character. However, the extra information must have confused them because the bread arrived un-toasted … I just ate it! The butter was in a small foil container that they’d placed in the microwave (that’d have to be a no-no?) because it was hard - but, when I opened the butter: it was in liquid form! From then on I ordered ‘toasted brown bread’ every morning, which they usually had.
I was invited to the Ubi Festival. No, I’d never heard of ‘ubi’ either - it’s an ugly taro-like tuber/root vegetable that is sometimes purple. They had a procession through town that consisted of assorted vehicles, some ‘enhanced’ with a banner proclaiming their district over the grill, and an occasional purple balloon attached to a vehicle. There was even a ‘king and queen’: a pretty gal and guy with little crowns, sitting on plastic chairs in the back of an old pick-up.
The official event, attended by hundreds of people, was scheduled to start at 9am, but commenced just before 10am, the dignitaries were seated on the large stage - they turned up at 10.15. Of course, there were prayers and the singing of the national and local anthems. I noticed several brass band members arrive with instruments and drums after the anthems - they sidled behind the large curtain on the stage, and a few minutes later, they left: I presumed that they had arrived too late! The speaker system was turned up to ‘boom’ and I understood some of the bits of many speeches that were in English. I was later informed that some speeches were actually in three languages: English, a local lingo (of which there are about 80 nationwide) to cater for the farmers present and a national tongue (derived from Tagalog).
A bit of background for you - BOHOL is an island province (the 10th largest island in the Philippines), some 700 kilometres south of the capital, Manila, with sixty-one smaller offshore islands. The total population is 1,230,110 persons with 92,297 living in Tagbilaren (the capital); around half the population is aged less than 22 years.
Bohol has a total land area of 4,117 square kilometres of which around 356,400 hectares are considered to be ‘arable land’. About 54% of the population are employed in the agriculture sector. Around 42,800 hectares are planted with coconuts.It is estimated by the Philippines Coconut Authority that Bohol Island has around 9,806,290 coconut trees, with a monthly harvest of some 28,601,679 coconuts = 343,220,150 per year; yielding an average of 35 coconuts per tree per year. It was estimated that around 80% of the nuts (274,576,120) were used to produce copra.There are 158,644 farmers engaged in coconut farming, but farm sizes are small, ranging from .25 to 2 hectares.
The coconut tree is known as the ‘tree of life’ because every part of the tree has been used for multiple uses over hundreds of years - from the trunk and the fronds, to every component of the coconut itself - and; more recently, even as biodiesel fuel.
As I was to learn as I researched and dealt with virgin coconut oil - the uses go on and on. It’s taken as a tonic (with some outrageous claims such as a cure for AIDS); made into soaps, shampoos, conditioners, massage oils, etc. Even the by-products left over after extracting the oil are multiple; such as: drinking the nut’s liquid, making charcoal from the shells and chicken and pig food from the left-over pulp….
OK - school is still in: The list of products produced from the coconut tree is lengthy, but, I’ll bet that you did not know that they make flour from the coconut shell? The shells of fully matured nuts are cleaned, then subjected to grinding in mills and then though sieves.
And the uses of coconut shell flour, you may well ask?
One Sunday, I was invited to the office manager’s (Larry) home in a remote barangay (province). I was told that I would be collected at 8am - a driver ultimately arrived at noon! It was an interesting trip along the coast, then into the hinterland of the island - negotiating increasingly basic roads that deteriorated considerably as we progressed toward our destination, where I met his extended family. His mother was 90 years old and rather sprightly - although it became slightly awkward when I was talking to Larry and his mother was behind him, standing in a corner of the room where she proceeded to strip naked to the waist and change her blouse! Larry later took me further into the ‘bush’ to his experimental hobby farm where he was breeding pigs, goats, poultry and ducks in an organic, almost self-sustaining, fashion and using what would have been ‘waste’: left-over vegetation from markets, rice hulls, coconut meal, wood shavings, etc… A truly commendable exercise, even the pig pens did not smell and all the animals looked healthy!!! The guy looking after the ‘farm’ on a daily basis shinnied up a coconut palm and we had a refreshing coconut drink each - he then cut them in half, so we could devour the fresh, soft inner flesh - yummy!!!
The area I was in was almost totally bereft of any race or creed apart from Filipinos - so I was usually the only (and blatantly obvious) non-oriental, in fact, I don’t recall any western faces. Sometimes, I thought I was in an old Hollywood musical as staff at the office or the hotel had a tendency to spontaneously break into song; and then others around them would join in…! It was a very relaxing attitude to adopt and one would not really mind - when they could actually sing on key!!!
I accompanied the local ABV In-Country Manager to a previous client - Danao Adventure Park - that I’d advised late in 2009. It was rather heart-warming to be greeted, unannounced, by name: ‘Sir Bevan’ using the common address to revered people! They told me that they were still using forms and procedures that I’d designed for them…good to know as we often wonder what happens after we leave! Then I met the new manager, who knew my name immediately and was most enthusiastic, saying that he was using my overall plan for the Park as inspiration for much of his actions. Good to know that you’ve had an impact on the life and business success of someone that you've never actually met!!!
We stayed overnight, but this time, I was sharing a room with another guy and while I’m used to being solo, that was no problem. BUT: the walls were paper thin and the gal sleeping next door was into Olympic gold medal class snoring - 10/10 each in the primary categories of: ‘consistency’, ‘variety’ and ‘maximum decibels’….all bloody night. The only time she stopped was when she coughed!!!
On the Friday at noon before Valentine’s Day (Monday), the office closed for yet another flippin’ staff meeting and then they had a Valentine’s party! I retired to my hotel room and continued working.
The hotel where I was staying had a bakery and they had produced some heart-shaped biscuit thingies on a stick, dipped in chocolate then wrapped in cellophane - for Valentine’s Day. I bought thirty of them, to be handed out to the gals in the office - not too sure about the declaration of ‘love’ messages iced across them!!!
I was asked to give a ‘presentation’ of my thoughts and ideas for the project to the client and the virgin coconut oil (VCO) producers’ association - so I condensed the 84-page report into seventeen PowerPoint slides. The event began with the usual prayers and singing anthems - which was ‘interesting’ for a while as there was another event happening in an adjoining room and we had ‘duelling anthems’ for a while. The presentation seemed to go over OK; they listened attentively through the ‘show’, and asked some pertinent questions. Later they ran through the slides again, this time translated into their local language.
I also showed them some Excel formats I’d concocted where they could enter basic information and the program would automatically calculate their costs and potential profit/loss situation. I’d also done another format to track stock on consignment in stores. It was just as well that I don’t look on all this unique work in a proprietary manner as, towards the end of the session, hands delved into pockets and handbags and out came memory sticks to download my material left, right and centre - including the actual PowerPoint presentation!!!! Later, I showed the PowerPoint summary presentation to the various heads of departments in the Agriculture office and was thanked for putting the diverse problems and solutions so clearly and succinctly.
The producers’ meeting had been scheduled to start at 8.30am (that was more like 9.30am) and finish at 3pm (closer to 4pm). The ‘morning snack’ was a glass of ‘orange’ drink, obviously created from a powder that had never glimpsed an orange in its life, and a dry bread roll. Lunch was good though (chicken and corn soup, the inevitable rice, noodles, roast chicken, crisp fresh carrots and beans, plus fresh fruit). The afternoon snack was more ‘orange’ drink and assorted, boiled root vegetables drizzled with an indifferent gravy … the locals seemed to enjoy it - I couldn't eat more than a small taste!
Of course, the Philippine is where this tale emanates - In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang. His mission was to conduct guerrilla warfare during World War II. Unfortunately, he was never officially told the war had ended; so for 29 years - eating coconuts and bananas - he deftly evading searching parties he believed were enemy scouts, Onoda hid in the jungle until he finally emerged on March 19, 1972 and was pardoned by President Marcos for all those he had killed.
Incidentally, the Filipinos still commemorate the overthrow of Marcos every year as a celebration of ‘people power’.
The zipper on a pair of my trousers jumped its track and was useless. I asked the hotel staff if they knew a tailor; I handed them over and they came back two days later: “That’ll be 35 pesos, please” about .80 cents!!!
The only time that a meeting could be arranged with the chief agriculturist (my primary ‘client’) was during dinner time. So, with two local office staff, we met her (and two of her female staff) for dinner around 6pm at a most impressive resort overlooking the sea and local port. It was slightly difficult: having a meeting while eating, with about 50% conducted in a foreign language and a cabaret singer belting out songs in the background. The meeting was fruitful but interrupted as women answered their mobile phones and responded to text messages. Is it just me (or am I out of touch), but that does that also strike you as being rude and inconsiderate? The chief agriculturist had to leave about 8pm with her team to attend yet another meeting.
I presented my thoughts and assessments at other meetings for the Agriculture Office staff, the VCO producers’ association and the Philippines Coconut Authority - while the meetings usually devolved into discussions in their local language, I could usually get the gist of the conversation. Funnily enough, no one made any comment when I would add my views into a stream of discussion in their vocabulary. Interestingly, when I looked at the notes of the meetings - they were all in English…
I was supposed to check out some of the virgin coconut oil (VCO) producers’ facilities, but the department claimed not to have enough funds to pay for the fuel (I even offered to pay). Anyway, most of them had ceased production due to a shortage of coconuts and the current high price of copra - the price of each nut had risen from around 5 to 8 pesos each to more than 12 pesos, making it uneconomical to produce VCO.
With just two weeks to go, I did visit a main producer (owned by a homeopathic clinic) and, while the operation was small and basic, I was impressed by the dedication and standard of hygiene and cleanliness.
With over a week to go, I’d finalised an 85-page VCO Marketing Action Plan, a 24-page Generic Marketing Plan and a 45-page review of the possibilities and potential impact of Rural Tourism on the island. I’d produced brief summaries of each document, plus PowerPoint summarised presentations to tempt interested parties.
On the penultimate Friday I was kindly invited to partake in a full day excursion viewing some other endeavours on the island. We visited an operation making ‘kalamay’ - a local, sweet-treat concoction of sticky rice, sugar and coconut milk which is heated until it’s a thick and treacle-like glutinous mass; then ladled into two halves of empty coconut shells and then the two halves are reunited and sealed. We visited a chocolate producer (made with local cocoa beans) where we were offered a very rich and tasty chocolate drink accompanied by sticky rice. Then on to another virgin coconut oil producer who used a slightly different production method, but was still under the grip of a doubling in the price of coconuts, but finding it impossible to correspondingly raise their selling price. Last stop was to a new factory, not yet in operation, to make banana chips.
One thing that western ‘civilisation’ has inflicted on places like Asia and India is rampant bureaucracy. On this assignment (to a local government department), I was allocated a small allowance to assist with accommodation and meals. The office originally completed all the paperwork for the full entitlement, but that was totally rejected because there was an element of pre-payment. It took several weeks to re-process the paperwork (for only the overdue portion), which was submitted three days before my scheduled departure. Then they had to arrange for the hire of a vehicle to take us to the main government offices to collect the cash. We queued up at one counter (well, a window off the street), to lodge the claim, then we were referred to another window to receive the cash…to be told that, as the amount was over a limit, a cheque would have to be issued, and that would not be ready until the next day - then a specific visit to a bank just to cash the cheque, where they wanted two forms of my ID!!!
As I had finished and lodged all my reports and presentations, I had a week of doing almost ‘nothing’. So: I became involved in setting up Excel worksheets to calculate the costs involved in producing the aforementioned kalamay. Then the person concerned with assisting the group making banana chips saw that result and that lead to me also producing a production flow-chart and a detailed costing format for the various stages of producing banana chips. “VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE.”
With a few days of the assignment to go, I was told that there would be a ‘farewell’ which, in my naivety, I assumed would be dinner at a restaurant with a few management staff. OOPPSS! I started to get an inkling of an impending portent when a van turned up at the office, then a covered truck with bench seats. I was told that we would be leaving when the office closed at 5pm. Well, the truck loaded with giggling, mostly female, staff left about 5.45pm. Then we left in the van shortly after, called in to buy fuel, turned around and went back to the office because someone had forgotten something. Set off again but the manager called and we went back to the office again, to get the ‘disco lights’ - little alarm bells were starting to sound in my inner ear!!!
I was told that we were going to ‘the beach’. Drove for ages, then finally down a narrow rutted, bumpy track to an isolated shack (the ‘beach’ was there somewhere nearby but it was dark by then). They set up gear, including the ‘disco lights’ which flashed 1970s style spots of coloured lights and on came the ‘music’ - that’s a loose description! In my mind there was ‘music’ in the 1960s and there’s been virtually nothing worth listening to this century! This stuff consisted of basically rhythmic, thumping percussion, sometimes accompanied by spoken words. I recognised a few mangled versions of tunes from the ‘olden days’. But the kids loved it and were having a great time, so it was sort of infectious - anyway: it did an old man a bit of good watching cute and sexy young gals doing their ‘thing’ and vamping it up!!!
Of course, they all wanted me to ‘dance’ - any endeavours by a stroke victim (me) to attempt to dance tends to look like an unfortunate spastic person’s activities. So I bounded around like a kangaroo (told them that that was how Australians dance), did the’ twist’ and other demented-looking jiggling!
I said that I was at least three times older than most of them….and wondered what had transformed the quiet little catholic Filipino gals from the office scenario.
Food was served on a trestle table, with a whole suckling pig and some traditional dishes, and, of course: rice. I was served fermented coconut juice (tasted a bit like honey and not unpleasant) that was continuously topped up. After prayers, food and speeches, it was back to the thumping and dancing. Then some more speeches and gifts and back to the ‘music’ - got home just before midnight!!!
I really could not help myself - and did a brief report for the owner on the hotel where I was staying. Then I delved into the plethora of data on my laptop, changed the name on the title page, and produced a Hotel Manual for them. They could not stop thanking me and, on my last day in Tagbilaren, very kindly offered to arrange for me to tour the local tourist sites. Now, I usually just work on these assignments but I’d finished all my reports so asked the office if it was OK to go.
So we visited:
- A monument to a deal done with the Spanish (their blood mixed in wine and drunk) in 1565 - they stayed until 1917 when the Americans ‘bought’ the Philippines
An ancient church from 1727
- The amazingly tiny (10-15cms) tarsier ‘monkeys’ with huge eyes - one of the world’s most endangered primates.
- Then lunch on a floating restaurant which navigated Loboc River while we ate.
- Next was a mahogany forest - originally planted to consolidate the soil.
- On to a butterfly farm with an interesting tour.
- Then the ‘chocolate hills - 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, hence the name.
A much appreciated and relaxing sojourn. These days, I find it boring to just be a tourist but six hours was most enjoyable.
I saw something new on one of the flights home - on the presentation that shows the flight details (distance traveled, times, etc) there was a display showing a drawing of the aircraft from above, with a large arrow and a distance to Mecca!!!
So - I’ll be home for about three weeks - then scheduled to travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, for a few days and then to Siem Reap, Cambodia. This one is to carry out a feasibility study for a guy in Vietnam who trains orphans and street kids in his restaurants so they have a skill and can then get a job - he has a 100% success rate. He wants to know if he can achieve the same result with the hundreds of disadvantaged youth in Cambodia … so we are going to, hopefully, do some due diligence and find out….
Photographs on ..... https://picasaweb.google.com/BevanLibya/Tagbilaren?authkey=Gv1sRgCLDE7tXRq9OAQg#