The 4th of July, Community Service, and a Big Day Out

One of my favorite things about summertime is seeing fireworks.  Usually, I can get my fix by visiting Kauffman Stadium on a Friday night for a post-game show.  However, the 4th of July obviously provides the most opportune time for me to view one or more fireworks shows.

However, this being my first 4th of July abroad, I was in for a different experience.  As you might expect, they don't celebrate the American Independence day in the Philippines like we do back home.  They do have the 4th of July dedicated to the "Philippine-American Friendship Day" due to the close ties between the countries.  However, there was no endless supply of burgers, beer, brats, or baseball to enjoy on the 4th.  There especially weren't any fireworks since they are outlawed in Davao.  We even had to report to work on the 4th! As if it was just some typical day.  It was the complete opposite of everything I had ever experienced ... but it wasn't that bad.

Luckily, the project field manager, Todd, invited us to his house for dinner where his maid had prepared some "American" dishes for us.  She had made some delicious burgers, hot dogs, and brats for us.  As well, we had some chips and other sides.  I am not quite sure how "American" guacamole dip is, but we had some of that and it reminded me of summertime in the States.  We even had some Coors Light to enjoy (brewed and canned in the Philippines).  So for the hour or so that we enjoyed dinner, we escaped back to the States and felt as if were were celebrating with everyone else.

Even though we didn't get the 4th off, we had this past Saturday off to attend an office celebration with our consortium partner, Leighton, on the resort island of Samal in the middle of the Davao Gulf.  Before we headed there, we decided to help out with a river clean up project in the middle of Davao.

We met at a local elementary school and walked the river picking up trash that had washed down stream.  We spent a couple hours collecting the trash and were even joined by a group of 100 or so college students from the University of Mindanao.  I have been a part of several clean up projects, but this one was definitely the most difficult.

A picture of the college students.

When people think of river clean up projects, they might imagine a nice river with the occasional non-degradable item on the shore deposited by a careless individual who couldn't find a trash can.  It was much different on the river that we were working on.  Firstly, the water was obviously polluted.  The water standards here are not up to the level of the EPA's in the US and this leads to some dangerous effluent being released into the streams.  As well, there was more than just the occasional piece of trash.  The banks of the river was plastered with trash, and I think this has to do with the developing infrastructure of the waste management in Davao.  Ironically, the trash that we came across the most were campaign flyers that were posted for the recent city and regional elections.  Any and all available walls and structures are covered wither these posters that are made to withstand the weather and not degrade.  After the elections were over, most were not collected and have since become trash that pollutes the rivers and other areas.

However, we gave the project our honest effort and filled about 20 or so rice sacks with trash that littered the stream.  I hope that we were able to make some impact on the river as well as the people who lived around the river.

It was truly humbling to walk through the villages of these people who lived right off of the river.  The only access to their homes from the road was a dirt path that had to get sloppy during the rain.  The homes were of simple construction, but were more than enough to the people living in them.  The homes lacked many of the amenities that I have grown accustomed to, most notably: air conditioning.  However, there was no complaining from anyone and they greeted us happily as we passed through doing our work.  I was even able to play a little basketball with some young boys.  With the popularity of basketball here and their belief that every American plays basketball well, I think I disappointed them with my skill.  Basketball was never my sport.

One of the many basketball courts sprinkled

throughout the river villages.

After we finished the community service, we made our way to Samal for some rest and relaxation.  We cleaned up and had a lunch of traditional Filipino cuisine.  If you look at the picture below, you will notice that they serve the shrimp with everything still attached.  The head, tail, legs, shell, and all.  It surprised me the first time I had it, but I have since gotten used to the additional crunch.

Philippine shrimp, chicken, and meat balls with rice.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with random activities.  The resort, BlueJaz, is also a waterpark so there was plenty of swimming.  They have some water slides that were pretty long.  However, I noticed at once that they did not enforce the strict rules that I had been taught for slides during my time as a lifeguard.  I remember whistling at kids for some of the stuff that I was doing as I went down the slides.

Walking the pier towards BlueJaz.

I was even able to play a little soccer for the first time since being over here.  They had a field of sand and a couple of goals.  I have played some soccer on sand before, and had always found it best to play barefoot.  After removing my shoes and playing a couple of games, I realized that the sand wasn't as finely graded as I expected.  Luckily my mom made me pack bandaids and anti-bacterial ointment so that I was able to tend to the minor cuts on the bottom of my feet.  I barely even noticed the pain during the games, but it was a different story after the adrenaline wore off.

On the whole, BVL's Big Day Out was very relaxing.  I was able to meet several expats from Leighton and talk to them a bit.  One was even from Ireland and recognized my heritage as soon as I introduced myself!  

Me with Kiran (right) and Sachin (left).  Both

of them are B&V field engineers based

out of our offices in Pune, India.

This was the first Saturday that I have had off since being in the Philippines.  It was nice to get out and do some fun stuff on Saturday so that Sunday could be dedicated to being lazy.  Writing this post has been my only significant accomplishment of the day, and I am not too worried about it!

Until next time!