Construction Customs

I will start this post with a confession: this isn't my only blog.  As part of my experience in the Philippines, Black & Veatch asked me to be one of their 10 intern bloggers for the summer.  The other interns are scattered about, with only one other blogger abroad.  I encourage you to read about the amazing things that all of my peers are doing all over the States and in the different divisions of Black & Veatch.

Since I am one man writing two blogs, much of the content will overlap.  This post especially overlaps with my most recent B&V blog post.

If you didn't know, I am a fairly superstitious individual.  I trace it back to my days of playing the fickle game of baseball and following various superstitions to improve performance (because hard work and practice alone weren't enough).  Since then, I have followed many of the age old superstitions: Friday the 13th, black cats, broken mirrors, walking under ladders, umbrellas inside, so on and so forth.  Though I realize the nonsense in superstitions, I like to follow them more for the peace of mind knowing that I am not violating a supernatural rule.

After talking with the two field civil engineers about their cultures, I have learned that superstitions and the belief in the supernatural are active in Southeast Asia.  Kiran, from India, talked about ghosts in India and Yang, from China, echoed his apprehensions of phantoms.  It also appears that some of our subcontractors share similar beliefs in evil spirits with my friends.

Our subcontractor from Taiwan achieved a substantial milestone when they erected the first piece of structural steel on the job site.  We have finally gone "vertical" in our construction and things are going to get interesting.  When I went for a walk on the job site to see this masterpiece that only engineers and construction workers can be in awe of, I noticed the ornamental lantern at the top.  It could have served so many purposes, and at the time I doubted any of them were practical for construction.

I went back to the office and Yang explained that the ornamental lantern was a way of fending off the evil spirits and bad thoughts.  Even though these spirits and thoughts are conspiring to doom our project, this lantern will bring about good fortune for the project.

Again, I realize that the lantern serves no purpose besides aesthetics.  However, the peace of mind that comes to the construction crew knowing that they are protected from those bad spirits and thoughts can play a major role in a craft worker's work ethic.

What if, though?  What if there were apparitions floating above our job site and the lantern was the only thing keeping them at bay? 

Mystifying, but reassuring.  Every time I walk past the structural steel and see the lantern, I am reminded of this superstition and the different beliefs and customs that are unique to each culture.  Maybe I will have to invest in an ornamental lantern to hang near my school projects next semester and add it to my running list of superstitious acts.

A Quick Update

After three and a half weeks in the Philippines, a routine has been established.

My typical day consists of waking up and grabbing a quick breakfast before boarding our van for the job site.  We spend nine hours on the job site before we board the van again to head back home.  During the nights, I will usually try to get a quick work out in or grab dinner with Justin or the other B&V personnel at our apartment.  Then it's eight hours of sleep before it is all repeated again.  

It is a nice routine, but doesn't allow for too much exciting, blog-able material.

To prove to you all that I am actually doing work and not just enjoying an extended vacation, I will share with you my current task that my supervisor assigned to me.

The Therma South project is currently in what is deemed the "civil" stage.  This consists of clearing and backfilling the land, as well as constructing the foundations to support the power plant structures and equipment.  This is perfect, because it is everything that I have studied in school thus far!

However, the specific point of the project can be tricky, and here is why: as the construction crews finish up the civil works of the project in the next couple of months, the equipment that will rest on the finished foundations won't arrive for half a year at the earliest.  However, there is a critical interface between the equipment and its foundation known as an "embedment".  Embedments are part of the foundations that most times must be cast in the concrete when it is poured.  As well, these embedments are usually supplied by the vendor of the equipment.  The tricky part: the vendor has a delivery scheduled for their equipment, but they must also be cognizant of the delivery of the embedments when the foundations are being constructed (six months beforehand).  As the field engineering intern, it is my job to organize relevant information about the embedments in a usable fashion.

My supervisor has set me on a mission to create packets of drawings for each area of the power plant.  These drawings include the B&V building drawings as well as the vendor drawings for all of the pieces of equipment in that particular area.  Some areas have 30+ pieces of equipment.  On top of compiling all of these drawings, I also have to go through them and highlight the embedments required for the equipment.  Once I have tracked all of the embedments, I have to make a list of them and their corresponding equipment as well as determine when they are set to leave port from the origin country (we have equipment coming from places as close as Indonesia and China and as far as Austria and Atlanta).  Each packet is essentially a comprehensive embedment package for each area, and I am the one who gets to organize them.

I had never looked at construction drawings more than a handful of times before this summer.  This task definitely would have been daunting earlier in the summer, but now I am more familiar drawings and how they function after spending my first three weeks perusing them.  It is still a large amount of information that I will have to sift through, but it is manageable.  As well, this project allows me to see every aspect of the power plant in detail and get an intricate understanding of each of its buildings.

To all of you non-engineers out there, I am sorry about this blog post.  It is full of technical activities.

To all of you engineers out there, I am sorry about this blog post.  It has way more words (and less pictures) than I promised I would do.

In closing, I want to leave you with a relevant song for my trip.  It is 2,000 Miles by D-WHY.  The theme of this song is about being away from home, but also enjoying the experience and growing from it tremendously.  D-WHY talks about what it feels like to be "2,000 miles from home" (more like 8,344 miles for me).

Enjoy!

Gone Golfin'

Another work week, another one-day weekend.  They are keeping us busy on the job site and the pace of the project doesn't leave much leisure time on the weekends.  However, we all try to make the most out of the day that we get away from work.

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to go golfing with a couple other people from the office.  I have always been intrigued by golf and hadn't actually taken it seriously until two years ago.  I took several weeks of lessons during the summer and played a round of 18 with some friends shortly after my lessons were over.  However, I could never work up the courage to go golfing again after that.

But here I was: in the Philippines and talked into playing a round of 9 with the field project manager, my direct supervisor, and some other regular golfers.  I just hoped to get through the day with a little pride intact.  I didn't keep track of my score, so I can't give an objective rating on my performance.  However, I don't think that I did too terrible and I didn't lose any golf balls.  So all in all, it was a good outing and a great experience.  I enjoyed it so much that I look forward to golfing some more while I am here.

The best part of the golfing experience was the entourage that came with playing the course  We didn't have a cart, but I had my own caddy.  Each of us also had an umbrella girl that held an umbrella over us to protect us from the terrible Philippine sun.  There was also a beer boy who was quick to give us "more power" if we ever had a bad shot.  If you're keeping count, there were five golfers and a crew of 11 taking care of us.  All I had to do was walk and swing my clubs, and I wasn't very good at the latter.

My favorite part of the round was the caddy and umbrella girl challenges.  On a short par 3, we all bet P100 ($2.50) into a pot to give to the caddy that could get closest to the pin.  These caddies were all very good and were hitting the green.  However, my caddy, Edgar, was the closest and won the pot.  On the same hole, the umbrella girls got the opportunity to putt for their winnings.  Unfortuneately, my umbrella girl couldn't finish Edgars incredible shot.  We all had fun and it only added to the experience of golfing in the Philippines.

I am sure my mother is going to love to hear this, but their is a typhoon (hurricane) off the coast of the Philippines and is expected to make landfall in the next couple of days.  I can't wait to see what Emong has in store for us and how different it'll be than the rest of the rain we have been receiving so far this wet season.

Balut

Last night, I tried a Philippine delicacy, balut.  It is very similar to your typical hard boiled egg ... except that its a duck egg ... AND it was allowed to be fertilized and grow for 15 or so days.  Essentially, it is a hard boiled embryonic duck egg and they absolutely love everything about them in the Philippines.

Feeling brave, I decided to try one last night with some encouragement from my coworkers.

The steps for eating balut are as follows:

     1.  Crack the top of the egg slightly.
     2.  Remove enough of the eggs shell to reveal a clear liquid in the egg.  Drink said liquid.
     3.  After draining the egg of most of its liquid, remove the rest of the shell.  The embryonic duckling with have vague similarities with its hatched brethren.  Circular shapes appear to be the body and head, while you might even see feathers if you look close enough (I tried not to).
     4.  After a good portion of the shell is removed, eat the egg whole.
     5.  Celebrate!

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience.  The taste was almost exactly like the hard boiled eggs that I am used to back home.  The texture left a bit to be desired, but I am not a foodie so I won't criticize.

This is one of those experiences that fell perfectly in line with a major philosophy for my trip: try everything I can at least once.

Here are some sequential pictures of the process:

Crack the top enough to get to the juices.

Drink the juices.

Remove the rest of the shell.

Don't look at it too much before you eat it.

Dig in!

Chew ...

Finish and celebrate! You just ate balut.

The remains.

Island Hopping!

Just another typical Sunday. Philippine style.  Boarding a boat at 8:30 in the morning and exploring four different spots at two separate islands.  This was easily my favorite day in the Philippines so far.

The boat ride lasted for only 40 minutes and then we were among tropical beaches and ocean.  My whole life, paradise has been at least 1000 miles away; the luxury of ocean beaches isn't available in Kansas.  It is a different story in Davao.  For P600 ($12.50), we were taken away to the land of coral reefs and coconut milk.  Our first stop was at a large reef off the island of Talikud. 

Selfie with the reef in the background.

The reef was incredible.  The water was so clear and warm: perfect for snorkeling.  We swam around and saw plenty of starfish, sea urchins, and small fish.  We were also lucky enough to see a turquoise sea anemone with several clown fish living inside of it.  I had never wanted a waterproof camera so bad before in my life!

Our next stop was a beach where we tied up the boat and had some lunch.  We were spending the day with some locals and they prepared an amazing lunch.  It was Filipino cuisine and it was delicious.  There were vegetables, fresh fish and sushi, marinated grilled pork, mussels, and plenty of rice.  I heaped up a good "American" sized portion to fuel the rest of my day.  Afterwards, we went and got some fresh coconut milk (called "buko juice" in the Philippines) at a small shop on the island.

We explored the rest of the small island after that.  It was absolutely beautiful!

I took over 200 pictures on the island, but these were the best.  We spent a good amount of time at the island and I have the sunburn to prove it!  After the beach, we went snorkeling at another location that was next to a cliff on the island.  I snorkeled a little more, but I spent a lot of time socializing with with my coworkers.  It is fun spending time with them on our single day off each week, and they are so incredibly interesting and have so much to share.

Justin, on the left, is the other intern that I am staying with

and Yosua is the cost engineer on the project from Indonesia.

Our final stop was supposed to be at a large ocean clam farm, but, sadly, it wasn't open.  Instead, we headed to another reef to snorkel some more.  It was very similar to the other two reefs, except on the island of Samal, which is a large tourist destination in Davao.  We passed by a resort with individual housing units and a private beach and reef for the residents.

I know where I am staying when I return to the Philippines!

All good things must come to an end.  As the boat captain blew his horn to signal "time to leave", we all left the water to board the boat and return to port.  I had no idea that this Sunday would be so much fun.  I was sad it came to an end, but the Philippine sky left us with one last piece of beauty as we returned to the port.

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore" - Christopher Columbus

Davao City in CCN Travel

A little over a week ago, CCN Travel posted an article titled "Philippines travel: 11 coolest towns in the Philippines" and coming in at number 6 was Davao City!  I just stumbled on the article today.  It doesn't go too in-depth, but I thought I would share it with you all so you can have a better glimpse of where I am staying this summer.

In the brief couple of paragraphs, the article gives basic panorama of the attractions of Davao.  The article mentions Mt. Apo and Toril, which is the district that we are working on the power plant in.  The articles claims Davao to be the "durian capital of the Philippines".  I had never heard of durian before this trip, but the locals speak very highly of it and there are little shops and stores all over town that sell durian exclusively.  It is supposed to be a delicious, but I have yet to try it because of its interesting odor.  I just need to build my courage.

After reading the article, I definitely want to visit the Davao City's Philippine Eagle Center to see these magestic creatures before I leave.

Tomorrow we are going "island hopping".  A group of 20 of us are going to head out to the island of Samal that sits in Davao bay and spend our day off on the beaches and resorts.  I am sure that I will have plenty of pictures to post from our excursion!

Until next time!

Better Weather

Since the Philippines lies on the equator, it doesn't have seasons like I am used to back home.  It is between 80 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.  However, in mid June, the rainy season starts and lasts until October.  Wednesday night, after we got back home from the job site, it began to sprinkle.  Within minutes it was a torrential downpour.  It rained.  Rained.  Rained some more.  There was flooding all throughout the city and roads were closed because they were impassable.  Luckily Justin and I had no reason to leave the apartment or we may have ended up stranded!  It turned out that this storm wasn't a common intensity, but our coworkers compared it to the monsoons that can hit the island.  We might need to invest in some rain boots or life jackets if we are to survive this summer.

The next morning I was able to take the picture below.  The rain yield some beautiful scenery and greenery in the area around our apartment.

That is the Davao City city hall.  I didn't even realize it until I went for a walk, but it is only half a block from the apartment.  We are situated in what I would consider the governmental district of Davao.  There are many governmental buildings and some government housing in the area.  There is also a large church called San Pedro Cathedral around the corner.  It is a very nice area that offers a lot to see in our free time.

Not much else has occurred this week.  We are getting settled in and have some projects to keep us busy.

I will leave you all with a driving fact that one of my coworkers shared with me about the Philippines:

In the Philippines, if you kill someone while driving, the penalty is that you have to pay for that person's funeral.

You don't just look twice, but three or four times before you cross the street here!

Arrival!

This is my first blog post composed outside of the US!  And I would have posted it earlier, but our wifi wasn't functional in our apartment.  However, it is up and running today!  Justin and I were going through some noticeable internet withdrawal, but now we are getting caught up and testing the bandwidth of our router.

So much has happened since the last post.  I have completed my series of flights to finally arrive in Davao.  We were in the air for a total of 22 hours!  It was nice to be on the ground and finally immerse ourselves in the Philippines.

My last post was dedicated to some fast facts about the Philippines.  The theme of this post is going to be facts that I learned fast in the Philippines:

1. It is possible to get 10 lanes of traffic onto 6 lanes of road.  All traffic signage and infrastructure must simply be suggestions in the Philippines, because driving is very chaotic.  As long as you drive on the right side of the road and don't hit anyone, you can do whatever you want.  Having said that, there seems to be a method to the madness.  I have yet to see any accidents.  Not even a minor one.  I almost feel safer on the roads here than I sometimes do in the States.  ALMOST.

2. YOU MUST SHOWER BEFORE SWIMMING.  Justin and I spent our first day in Davao unpacking and moving into our apartment.  When we finished, we decided to go take a dip in the pool.  Once we set down our towels and shirts, we tried to enter the pool.  But a security officer stopped us immediately!  She pointed to the outdoor shower and told us to wash up.  Everyone else looked at us like we had committed a mortal sin.  It wasn't too much to do, though.  I think we are going to get a lot of use out of this pool this summer ... showering beforehand, of course.

The view from our room of the apartment complex.

3. Everything is very inexpensive here.  Cab fares usually range from P40-120 ($1-3) to anywhere we need to go.  When we went shopping, we were grabbing at all of the cheap things.  We found family-size bags of chips for less than P40 ($1).  Bread, bananas, ramen, etc. was all much cheaper here than back home.  The catch = only the local Filipino brands are inexpensive; the American brands are marked up.  So we will be exploring the wide world of Filipino groceries and the interesting flavors that come with them (Ramen comes with soy sauce and vinegar packets).  Our personal favorite find are the Fudgee Barrs.  They are a lot like twinkies, but with uniques flavors.  This one is milk and coffee.  We are currently trying out macapuno flavor.  I might try to see how many packages I can smuggle back in the the US.

4. Philippine people are so helpful.  They love to help you with anything!  This goes beyond the young man at the airport looking for a quick tip.  In the office, I am asked every morning if I would like some coffee and they help me make it.  If they are eating something, they will offer to share, and they will be offended if you don't accept!  They are always looking to help or share.  I will have to learn to return the favor during my time here this summer.

Welp, this post is getting a little too lengthy.  I will cut it short, and promise to keep a running list of things I learn this summer.  Each week will bring new things for me to learn.  I will leave you will some pictures that I have been taking:

Our plane from Japan to Manila.

Business Class.  **Not where we sat.

"I <3 Davao" sign in the SM City Mall.

Our offices.

The view from the welcome lunch on our first day.