Update #1 - May 26, 2010

Seed Finance

I left the Calgary Airport on a clear and cool, -2° C morning, and stepped out of the plane into the 38°C heat of a Manila afternoon some 40 hours. After arriving at the office, I was briefed on Seed Finance (SF), the organization that I am interning with, and given a full schedule of my itinerary for the following three weeks. To my surprise, they had already organized a busy three weeks of activities for me, including meetings with some of Seed Finance’s loan providers, business partners, and clients. I will be in 6 different cities in 6 different provinces on 5 different islands by the end of the month, which is great because it allows me to meet a lot of people in the sector and see some different areas of the country. As a wholesale financial institution, SF provides loans worth a total of $9 million and training services to 70 retail microfinance institutions who then provide financial products to over 1.2 million people throughout the Philippines.

Living in the Philippines

At least for the first month, I will be staying at a hostel in a residential (read: non-touristy) area of Metro Manila. The place is only a few steps down the chain from first-year residences at Queen’s, but is working well for me so far. The most important thing is that it has an air conditioner, as I would probably not be able to sleep without one (night time temperatures only dip down to 25°C). I’ve only seen two cockroaches in the building and a handful of other bugs since checking in, which is actually not too bad. Eating regular meals here has been an ongoing adjustment for me, and I try to eat a mix of Filipino food and “normal” fast food from good ol’ McDonalds and Pizza Hut. It’s customary to eat rice at least two times a day here (and often for breakfast), as it’s the replacement for bread products that we would normally have back home. People here eat a lot of fish, which has also been a pretty big change for me having grown up on a cattle ranch. Last week I had one stretch of 6 meals in a row with only fish as my meat product, and I don’t think I would have had more than 6 meals in my entire life that had fish in them up until that point. Most people speak a basic level of English hear, but their native tongue is Tagalog. I’m trying to pick up a few key phrases while I’m here, but it’s proving to be quite difficult.

Jeepneys and “Balut”

The two most memorable completely new experiences that I’ve had so far have been riding jeepneys and eating the local delicacy in Southeast Asia, balut. Jeepneys are the main form of public transportation for local Filipinos, and are essentially an off-road looking, low-cost version of a van crossed with a jeep. So far I’ve been the only North American that I’ve seen ride one, and judging by the looks I get from fellow passengers, I very well could be the first white person ever do so. During rush hours, it’s common to squeeze 14 or 16 people into the vehicle that should normally hold about 8 comfortably. No seatbelts, no padded seats, and I pretty much go on a hope and a prayer that it’s travelling in the right direction. However, I’ve found that people here are always willing to point you in the right direction when you’re completely lost and in a different part of the city than you’ve ever seen before (which has happened to me on numerous occasions). I’ve attached a couple pictures of the beast for you all to see what a jeepney is like.

Last week, I travelled to Ormoc City to meet with some partner financial institutions. After our meetings one night, we went out to find some local “street food”, and in particular “balut”. Apparently it’s quite common entertainment for Filipinos to try and get Europeans and North Americans to try to eat balut, but few manage to convince them to do so. I did not have the luxury of being told exactly what it was prior to opening up the egg, and it took me a while to find out. After drinking the juice (which I had to put a ton of salt on to be able to choke down), I then decided to eat the yolk because it looked like the next safest thing in comparison to the dark mass at the bottom of the shell. Upon closer inspection, I then realized that there were feathers said dark mass. It was at that point that I was informed that balut is actually a fertilized duck egg that is 17 days old. They can hatch as young as 25 days, so you can imagine how developed they were at that point (feathers, beak and feet all intact). Thankfully I didn’t eat that part of the egg, but I was the only one in the group who took a pass on it.

-Danny