It’s More Fun in the Philippines

Note: this is a post from Thursday that I am just now getting around to posting.

I can’t believe we are finished with all of our work here. It is starting to get really sad thinking about saying good bye to the amazing people I have met throughout my time here. I am currently sitting in our office at DOST with Malwina and Dmitry and we have been told by the STARBOOKS team to wait for the “thing that they are going to make us do.” We didn’t bring our laptops today and we have no idea what the day will bring. We were just told to come prepared…mentally and physically. Just going with the flow…is what this experience is all about! Speaking of…we are going a little crazy and trying on the hard hats in the room for earthquake safety. So instead we have decided to take a stroll around the DOST campus. I will save this draft and pick up again later…

I’m back and have a lot to share about the experience! While we were waiting for something to start, we strolled around the DOST campus and even went out to the canteen in the back for some coffee (we surprised the staff there since they usually bring food and drinks to us…everyone was scrambling around saying “the visitors are here”!).

We were eventually led into a room on the bottom floor of the building where the large team awaited us, all dressed in traditional Filipino clothes. The room was decorated for a fiesta and there was a long table in the middle of the room covered with banana tree leaves and coconuts. We were NOT expecting something like this at all! It was such a nice and touching surprise. We sat down and listed to some speeches and watched a video that they made with pictures of us and even some funny clips of DOST employees trying to pronounce our names (mine of course was easy…but that was just the first round, then they had to pronounce Dmitry Kleymenov’s name for the second round and finally Malwina Bajsarowicz for the final round). We were laughing so hard! We gave some final remarks to the group (all of us teary eyed) and then were ready for the feast. But not before we were directed to dance to YMCA while copying the dance moves from dance dance revolution on the screen! The feast was called a “boodle fight” which is a traditional Filipino style of eating where everyone stands around the long table and eats the food with their hands. The food consisted of lechon (pig…with the head proudly displayed at one end of the table), fish, shrimp, vegetables, rice, and more. Plus some fresh coconut water to accompany the meal. It was so much fun and so delicious. We had so many laughs with the team standing around the table, and loved sharing that experience with them! Definitely something I will always remember. This is something that would be so fun to do with a group of friends and family at home sometime. And it makes for easy cleanup since there are no plates or silverware, and you can just pick up all of the leftover food by just lifting up the giant leaves underneath the food. After the feast, Director Richard asked us to do some dancing with the coconuts to make a video (because…why not?) and of course karaoke at the end of the celebration before everyone needed to go back to work. It was such fun time and a really nice way to have a celebration and goodbye with the team before we leave. It was much harder than I thought it would be to say goodbye to Director Richard and the STARBOOKS team. We experienced so much with them over the course of the month and they have been so welcoming and really opened us up to their culture in such an amazing way. After our hard goodbyes, Malwina, Dmitry and I spent some relaxing time at the pool enjoying a beer and conversation and then went out with the whole group at night as a final group celebration.

I want to mention something about the phrase “it’s more fun in the Philippines”. This is something that I heard a couple of times before the trip…mainly from one of our IBM mentors form the Philippines who helped prepare us for the CSC assignment. I didn’t really understand the phrase and I figured it was just one of those slogans that are used for certain tourist destinations or something like that. But now I get it. It really IS more fun in the Philippines. The Filipino people seem to have an ingrained quality of light-heartedness and find a way to have fun and laugh all of the time. I have encountered so many situations on this trip where I thought people would be annoyed or stressed or bitter about something…but instead, make light of the situation and somehow have the ability to “laugh it off.” I think this has a lot to do with the resiliency of the Filipinos as well – this partly stems from almost constantly having to rebuild after natural disasters. From what I have seen, this resiliency is certainly true. This is a quality that I would love to take with me and practice more of at home. Let the little things go and focus on the positive. If something goes wrong, fix it and move on with a smile on your face. Of course I have already talked about the fun that is embedded in any social event (read: impromptu singing / dancing / performances) which I would also love to see more of back home! I have gained such an immense appreciation for the culture here, but more importantly the people.