The Aqua case
Arriving at Saint Mary's University
By the Turtles, Monday February 4 -2019We arrived at Saint Mary’s University around 2 a.m. After a few hours of sleep, we received a warm welcome from the local students. After having some tong twisters as part of a teambuilding, a campus tour was next on the planning. Remarkable that a lot of buildings are named after a Belgian that left his mark at the University. In the evening, the students provided some entertainment with a variety of cultural performances.
Inspiring lectures
By the Flamingos, Tuesday February 5 - 2019Tuesday 5 February, we received an explanation about the cases we will work around. Also we had an introduction about the cooperatives and its history, but not only that, a short information was given to explain the work and poverty situation of the Philippines. There we’re 4 cases and ours is the ‘Aqua’ case. In this case we will do research about how we can create solutions about the water quality, water temperature, dissolved oxygen. After the briefing we had to sit together and brainstorm about relevant questions we want to ask to the local farmers, because tomorrow we will do a field trip. On this field trip we will have the chance to evaluate certain possibilities and circumstances of the area. During the brainstorm session we categorized the questions to get a structured overview, this way we could eliminate the irrelevant questions to get the right amount of feedback, this prevents us from wasting precious time as we are limited to 2 weeks of research. Also we did a few exercises with the other students about ‘questions’ in this session we learned the difference of open and specific questions and the essence of it.
Field visit
By the Turtles, Wednesday February 6-2019Today we went on field visit to the fishing ponds. It was a long drive (about 4 hours), but it was worth it. First, we visited a campus of ISU (Isabela State University) where we were warmly received and met the president of the university. We also had a nice meal there together with the president of the university. Then we went to 4 different fishing ponds. Where we could see how the local fisherman work. We also drank coconut water from fresh coconuts. Afterwards we ate in a restaurant where you are supposed to eat your food with your hands. This was a very weird, but fun experience. After this we went home because everybody was tired of waking up early and sitting in the bus for this long.