Sixth week

Day 38: Tuktukan (Monday, July 18th)

We were with the Food Establishment team again today in the barangay Tutukan. This time instead of sitting at one carinderia, we were inside of a mall. They are currently working to map out all of the eateries and are looking for the most popular food store. They covered all of the food establishments in the mall and talk to the owners for their consent and participation. Once they find the most popular eatery, they do all of the weights of the food and measure food intake and waste.

Day 39: Upper Bicutan (Tuesday, July 19th)

Today we were in Upper Bicutan. The LGU team had about 38 pregnant mothers to interview. We waited a long time for them while we were there at the barangay hall. I think 16 mothers came the day before, and only 4 came during the time I was there. Later, we packed 50 incentives and headed out to give out 21 of them for their participation.

Day 40: Hogonoy (Wednesday, July 20th)

We were in Hogonoy today and were having difficulty locating some of the households. After lunch, I got to help out calculating the ages in years, months, and days for some of the interview packets. We continued to help out with the editing. After work, we went to the market with Ditch and Mark from the LGU team to make adobo. It was actually very easy to make. We bought chicken and pork, onion, black pepper, brown sugar, chili, soy sauce, and vinegar. Essentially you let all of the ingredients simmer for 30-40 minutes until it’s all cooked and tender. There are lots of variations and other ingredients you can add such as ginger or coconut milk. I’m exciting to make it when I come back home! 

Day 41: PhilRice (Thursday, July 21st)

Today, we woke up at 4am to head to the Philippine Rice Research Institute in Nueva Ecija to listen to Dr. Acuin’s lecture on the First 1,000 days. It was such an informative session. It started around 9:30 am and we got back around dinner time. Dr. Acuin’s lecture was about how important collaboration with food production and agriculture is. That way, they can all work together to come up with more affordable and convenient foods to reach the general population. After the talk, we went on a tour of the place. Apparently Nueva Ecija does not have a hospital, so people who need medical care have to go to the city over. I think the town is based strictly on agriculture, which was pretty interesting. We got to visit greenhouse facilities and see how hydroponics works. We also went to the rice museum and CLSU that specializes in agricultural education. Throughout the tour, we got to try some rice wine that they made in the facility and tilapia (fish) ice cream. Everyone really liked the tilapia ice cream, but I’m not so sure I did. It was made of 40% tilapia, but they add something to take away the fishy smell–everyone said that it tasted like nuts. While I really appreciate the idea and the creativity of it as it’s a great way to add protein, I don’t think I would want to purchase it. Afterwards, we went to a carabou facility and saw where they milk them, and we also got a whiff of what they smelled like.  Later, we went to a coffee shop where we got to buy carabao milk and other products such as soap and lotion. The carabao tasted just like how they smell, which did not turn out too appetizing for me, so I might pass on that as well. But I did buy some lavender carabao soap for my friend, so hopefully it smells more like lavender than carabao! Anyway, today was a pretty full day and we all learned a lot about the agriculural and food production aspect, which is so important in the role of nutrition in the community. Dr. Acuin also made a point of how a lot of land in the Philippines is not being utilized for agriculture, and instead for residential land and things like golf courses. Although we need places to live and I guess hobbies in life, this also takes away from the opportunity to cultivate land that could help lower the prices of food, making it more accessible to the general public. The land that is being used for agriculture then has a lot more work put into them to achieve a higher yield, which in turn, raises the price of the overall product. In addition the machines that we saw in the rice museum are not always being used by the farmers since they are so expensive and the farmers don’t know if they can make a profit with them, so manual labor is the more realistic option for them. It has been really interesting learning about all of the areas that need improvement here in the Philippines, and hopefully they continue to move in the right direction. A huge thank you Dr. Acuin for taking time out of her day to give us the opportunity to explore PhilRice!

Day 42: Drive back (Friday, July 22nd)

We drove back around 8am today and it was about a 4 hour drive plus time for traffic. We got back around 1pm. We spent most of the day blogging and had dinner at SM Bicutan with some of the team. We also picked up some items at the grocery store to prepare for our hike on Sunday.

Day 43: The Infamous Divisoria (Saturday, July 23rd)

We took a train, the PNR, at 8am for the first time. We grabbed breakfast before, and I made the terrible decision of ordering cheese ice cream. The train ride was a gruesome 45 minutes all the way to Tutuban. Inside, every sweaty body is touching 360 degrees and releasing a mixture of stench, with only a cracked window for ventilation. Towards the end, the girls (sorry David) moved to the cooler and less crowded section since they divide everyone by gender to help avoid sexual harrassment. I was doing fine and actually didn’t mind the whole experience–I’d definitely do it again. It was only 15 pesos to get there, which is probably a lot faster cheaper than going by taxi. However, during the stop right before ours I got pretty nauseous and despite my best efforts, the cheese ice cream made it’s appearance again and I lost my voice afterwards. It was a strange series of events, but an experience I won’t likely forget. 

We’ve heard plenty of stories about the divisoria. We learned that it’s a very crowded place where people have gotten their ears chopped off for wearing earrings, bags slashed and lost cell phones/wallets, and even kidneys taken to be sold in the black market. You would think that’d be enough to deter any person in their right mind from going, but not us. We are here for the experience, and we intend to experience everything to the fullest. I love how adventurous and willing we are to trying so many different things. But don’t worry parents, we aren’t being completely careless. We were accompanied by one of our supervisors/friend, Ma’am Paula, who has been the kindest and most helpful during our time in Taguig. We followed all of the advice given by all of our colleagues and did not take any purses, jewelry, or anything people might want to steal, and just took the amount of cash we were going to spend. The Divisoria is known for being a cheap marketplace with lots of cheap fake branded clothing, bags, accessories, etc. However, I didn’t really end up buying anything but a Sungka board and a hankerchief for the dust we were going to experience during the hike. Sungka is a native board game here, very similar to mancala–which was probably my favorite boardgame growing up. After we were done shopping, we went to Chinatown for lunch and headed back to train home. 

Day 44: The hike (Sunday, July 24th)

We woke up at 3am today to leave at 4am for a hike at 6am in Batangas. Waking up early was definitely worth it, as the views were terrific. Despite all of the pollution, I have been constantly amazed by the amount of beauty everywhere we go in the Philippines. We went with 5 other coworkers who accompanied us to the mountains. It was basically a 6 hour trek across a bunch of mountains. Afterwards, we went to Tagaytay to try the Bulalo beef soup. I love how all the different places offer dishes that are specific to their region. I can’t wait to get good enough Wi-Fi to share all of my pictures from today! Unfortunately, I don’t have any from the Divisoria, as it sounded too risky to take my phone with me. 

Fifth Week

Day 31: Back in the Field (Monday, July 11th)

Our field work for these next couple of weeks will actually be closer to our condo in Bicutan. We were in the office most of the day today and left after lunch to start field work again, but this time it will be in the city. It was the first day, so they were still getting settled in at the Barangay hall. Most of it was meeting the Kapitan and people working in Lower Bicutan. 

Day 32: Taguig City (Tuesday, July 12th)

We had half days today in each barangay. We went back to Lower Bicutan in the morning. Working in the city is definitely a lot different than in the province. The people here seem to be very busy, as a lot of them commute to work. As a result, we have experienced quite a few refusals. We went to Bagumbayan in the afternoon and headed to the households. It was mostly all locating households and asking for consent.

Day 33:  (Wednesday, July 13th)

Today was the same as yesterday, only we were in New Lower Bicutan and Ususan. We conducted more interviews. The process is very lengthy and repetitive. For example every household member is asked how often they eat malungay, pork, etc. It takes a lot of time to go through the list. However, these are important questions for the survey to figure out what people consume the most, how much, and how they prepare it. That way, changes can made in the fortfication in the most common foods and more education can be provided on healthy eating habits, etc. 

Ususan was a very different experience as the area we were covering consisted of very secure condos. We went to about 2-3 condos waiting around to get permission from the owner to conduct the survey. In the time were were there, we did not get to go to any of the households and instead explored the city and got “dirty icecream” which is what they call the icecream that they make and sell on the streets. The choices were cheese or chocolate ice cream. They also usually have Ube too, which is a root that they use and flavor some of their pastries with. It has a very distinct and unique flavor, but Keila claims to not be able to taste it. We also got buko juice (coconut juice), which is always refreshing.

Day 34: (Thursday, July 14th)

We spent a whole day in Lower Bicutan today. The area we covered entailed a lot of walking in the hot sun and through narrow passageways called eskinitas. We also walked up dark stairways and climbed a ladder to get to some households. Part of what I love about working in the field is that we get to explore areas we might otherwise not get to see. Luckily, it didn’t rain until we got back from the field and were back at the barangay hall.

Day 35: (Friday, July 15th)

We were back in Bagumbayan today and conducted more interviews from our usual time of 8-5pm. After work, we went for a walk on the path along Laguna Bay. The views were absolutely gorgeous.

Day 36: Gawa Kalinga and IWU reunion (Saturday, July 16th)

Today we woke up at 5am to head to Gawa Kalinga Enchanted Farm for a tour around the community. This is where some of our other schoolmates are interning for the summer. It was great getting to see our group there and hearing about everyone’s experiences so far, as we are all doing such different things in separate areas of the Philippines. There are actually many GK communities around the Philippines and their goal is to end poverty in the Philippines. I really liked the concept where really poor families from all different backgrounds come to the community and help to build their homes and sustain themselves through agriculture and other means such as making plush dolls. The person in charge, Tito Tony, explained the important concept of needing a place to call home. That way, they have somewhere to go back to and are given the opportunity to create a sense of purpose in their lives.

Day 37: Rod’s Birthday (Sunday, July 17th)

I spent most of the day looking for a gift and helped to decorate for Rod, a coworker/friend’s 25th birthday. His friends had been working on organizing and decorating since 6am this morning. It was so thoughtful as they made the theme his 3 favorite things: London, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter. They all made really good food. However, one interesting combination I discovered that Filipinos like is marshmellows and hotdogs, but I suppose it does look aesthetically pleasing. We sang karaoke and ate all night in the presence of great company.

Fourth week

Day 24: Back in Bicutan (Monday, July 4th)

When we got back from Palawan last night, I had the best shower of my life. I have definitely missed hot showers, a little privacy, and a room that doesn’t come with any strange smells. Our resort in Pulilan had a leaking toilet, trickling cold water for faucets and showers, and the smell of shrimp paste (bagoong) to wake us all up. I’ve never felt so clean coming back from that. I love how we can all joke and laugh about all of the things that went on at the resort in Pulilan. When we heard we were staying at a resort, our expectations were a lot different than reality. It was definitely an experience we’ll all remember. I think staying in the Philippines has made me realize just how much we have to be grateful for. Even though we sometimes don’t have the same luxaries we were used to at home like running hot water and toilets that flush, rooms free of insects and lizards, or air conditioning, we still had beds to sleep on and a roof over our heads. Going to the households and seeing how people live not only makes me more grateful for the life I have been granted, but also reminds me to be more aware and mindful of my own actions.

Day 25: FNRI Seminar Series 1 and 2 (Tuesday, July 5th)

Yesterday and today, we attended the 42nd FNRI Seminar Series. The theme of the seminar series is FIRST: First 1000 days of a child’s life: Interventions through Research, Services, and Technologies. It was held at a hotel near Manila, which was the first time they had it outside of their compound, making it more accessible for more people to attend. It was really nicely organized and reminded me of the nursing conference we attend for school. We learned a lot about the health and nutrition in the Philippines and listened to people talk about their research. All of the posters were lined up out in the hallway and there were stands set up promoting various items related to food and nutrition. In the middle of one of the seminars, a video played and everyone got up and we started doing taichi. We were all moving around in sync and laughing. It was so much fun and a great way to reenergize. We learned a lot from all of the seminar series. Besides all of the facts and data on child malnutrition, stunting, and wasting, one of the main points I got out of all of the seminars we attended is that government need to collaborate and continue to provide equal support throughout the Philippines, which does become difficult with the limited resources. 

Day 26: Day in Manila (Wednesday, July 6th)

Mico accompanied us to our first time in Manila. He took us on a tour through his University UP Manila, Philippine General Hospital of Manila, and Intramuros/Fort Santiago. It was pretty shocking walking through the public hospital for the very first time as we went through the ER. It was so crowded and there was no air conditioning. Needless to say, it was hot. We couldn’t stay long, but it would have been interesting to observe how the hospital actually runs. We learned a lot about the history at intramuros and went through the museum. Later, we went to BGC and went to a boardgame cafe.

Day 27: First Day at the Office (Thursday, July 7th)

Office work starts at 8 am, so by 7:30am, we were on our way to work. It takes us about half an hour to walk to work. The streets are pretty congested in the morning, so taking a taxi is actually slower than going on foot. Luckily for me, I really enjoy walking everywhere, especially in the morning in a big city. I love seeing all of the people and walking by all of the markets and street vendors. By the time we get to the office, though, we are pretty sweaty from all of the heat. I just hope it doesn’t rain most days, especially after learning about some of the diseases that you can get from walking in rain water. Mico told us about leptospirosis, a contact disease you can contract from the rat urine that mixes in with the rain water.

Day 28: Typhoon (Friday, July 8th)

Today, we talked to Dr. Acuin about our office work. We learned that in the time we are not in the field, we will be researching topics we are interested in. Dr. Acuin gave us some great suggestions we can use. David and I decided that we are really interested in the education and promotion of health in the Philippines so our topic may revolve around the awareness of the nutritional guidelines in the Philippines among 13-19 year olds and to look for ways to improve the awareness by maybe comparing it to the US. However, I was wondering how important that topic would be because even if people are aware of the nutritional guidelines, it would also be important to assess how able they are to even incorporate the guidelines into their lives. We’ll have to look more into it.

Our work day was cut short because the national government anounced that the workday will end at 1pm due to a typhoon. Although some of the people had to stay because they had too much work to do, we were able to head home and fortunately only experienced mild rain. Mico told us about how bad typhoons can get here with the strong winds and strong rain that can get really dangerous with everything blowing around, in addition to all of the diseases that you may contract from the flooded areas.

Day 29: Break day (Saturday, July 9th)

I woke up to the splashing and laughter of people swimming in the pool outside this morning. I have never gotten up from bed so fast. I put on my bathing suit and went straight for the pool.

Afterwards, we met up with Mico again and went to dinner with Dr. Acuin. I thought we had experienced almost all of the Filipino dishes, but was surprised with just how much we have yet to try. We had pork and chicken puto, siomai (which is Chinese, but delicious nonetheless), bihon soup, lomi, pabalok, and buko pandan for dessert.

Day 30: Catching up (Sunday, July 10th)

We slept in for the first time since we’ve been here and headed to the SM mall for coffee and internet to blog the entire day. Keila pointed out a really funny difference. Although we barely had running water, were bitten endlessly by mosquitos despite all of the bug spray and long sleeves, experienced ruined and missing clothes from the laundry service, and were provided with some questionable pizza, we did have access drinking water and WiFi–the two things missing at our condo now. We have been going to the SM and carrying the biggest jugs of water we can find back to our condo (6-10 liters worth). I really enjoy our FNRI group though because no matter the situation, we always seem to make do and just laugh it off. They have definitely made the experience in the Philippines feel like home. How do you define home? We met a kid last night at the pool, who described it as somewhere you eat, sleep, and play video games. Home to me is a feeling that I can’t quite describe. I can say I feel quite at home here in the Philippines, and it’s all thanks to the people that I have come across during my time here.  

 

Third Week

It is Sunday, July 10th, and I have finally found the time and internet to blog! The Philippines is still considered a developing country so internet becomes hard to come by. We have also been moving around a lot since we have been here. During these 2 weeks, we have spent 3 days in Pulilan observing and working with the food store and food establishment survey team, we had a 3 day vacation in the beautiful island of Palawan, attended a 2 day seminar series in Quezon City, spent a day in Manila, worked 2 days back at the FNRI office in Taguig, and had 2 days off for the weekend. So now, I am sitting in a coffee shop by our condo to recount all of the things that we have been doing. 

Day 17: Team 6 and Food Store 1 (Monday, June 27th)

Today we were in barangay Dampol. We began our day by going to a few households to conduct interviews, collect anthropometric measurements, and to perform 24 hour food recalls. The first household went by pretty fast since it only had one member. I think I mentioned in a previous post how some Filipino families can get pretty big because they all stay together in one house, which can make the surveying process much lengthier.

After lunch around noon, we had the opportunity to observe how the food store team works. They are a lot different than the LG team (local government team), as they walk from store to store collecting the types of food, quality, and price. They walk long distances and hit about 6 stores for each member of the team, so they collect data from about 30 stores in each barangay. It takes a about half an hour at each place, depending on how big the store is, and then they go back to edit and fill out all of their forms. It is a very long and tedious process. The food stores that they go to are called sari-sari stores, which are basically food stores that sell miscellaneous items that people in the communities may want such as snacks, some fruits and vegetables, candy, laundry detergent, soda, and cigarettes.

Day 18: Team 6 and Food Store 2 (Tuesday, June 28th)

Today we transferred from one part of Dampol to another. I really enjoy moving from one team to another because it gives us the opportunity to experience the different team dynamics, different stages of the process, and also the differences in all of the areas. I love getting to meet everyone and listening to everything that they have to share. Anyway, since it was the very first day in the barangay, the main objective was to work with the local aides to find and obtain consent from all of the households. That is, after we transferred all of the paperwork, equipment, incentives, etc.

In the afternoon, we joined the second Food Store Survey team. Since we got to observe how they worked yesterday, it was more hands on. I got to help Hannah and Ting write down all of the hanging items in all of the Sari Sari stores we visited. I recorded the food item they were selling, brand, availability, price, net weight, and whether or not it is a fortified product. The idea is to find out what kinds of foods are available to the surrounding community and to see how accessible it is based on the placement and affordability of the products. It is a pretty simple and routine task, however, I’ll admit it was a little challenging in the heat with nowhere to sit and trying to read the rows and rows of the products high up above my head. Another difficulty we encountered was being turned down by one of the store owners due to possible privacy reasons. In the case of a refusal, the objective is to find a replacement store. Once we located the replacement store, it was closed so we had to go find the owner. As we got to their house in the pouring rain, we learned that they are too busy and are not available in time for us to collect our data. By that time, I had to go back to team 6 for dinner, and the team had to keep searching. Working in the field can be pretty tiring as there are many obstacles to overcome. But it’s for the country (para sa bayan!) By doing the kind of work they do, local governments are able to implement policies that can target specific stores to provide the communities with affordable items they may need to enhance the overall nutrition status.

Day 19: Food Establishment Survey (Wednesday, June 29th)

Today we got to work with the food establishment store. This team, like the food store team are the first since the surveys started in 1970. The food establishment team emerged because more and more people are starting to eat outside of the home. In order to account for that fact, it is necessary to see what kinds of food and how much is consumed at the most frequented carinderias, or eateries, around the barangay. The team has 13 members and cover one carinderia a day. Half of them stay there all day to observe the customers and measure how much plate waste they have leftover once they leave. The other half are back at the house to edit and they switch in the middle of the day. Basically the team comes to the carinderia before it opens and orders one of everything to get an average weight of all of the different servings. We got to weigh some of the foods and learned how they measure all of the plate waste. This process is also pretty meticulous because to measure all of it, we had to separate out some of the ingredients and weight them separately to account for some of the things that people may not eat on their plates.

This was also our last day in Pulilan, Bulacan before we left for Palawan so we got to go to a nearby restaurant pretty late at night. Unfortunately, not everyone could make it because some work really late into the night and do not have the time. But it was great seeing a lot of the team members together again.

Day 20: Leaving for Palawan (Thursday June 30th)

We left Pulilan, Bulacan early morning to head back to our condo to drop off all of our stuff. I debated whether or not to blog about this since it is separate from our internship experience, however, I decided that it would be good to add for the cultural experience. Plus, we were accompanied by Mico and Mykha, who shared lots of valuable insight into life in the Philippines.

We arrived at a small airport in Puerto Princesa, Palawan at 8pm. It was interesting to see the different tricycles, as most provinces have their own version of tricycles and are also somehow color coded. We were pretty hungry at the time so we went out for dinner and had crocadile for our very first meal in Palawan. It was crocadile sisig. I think sisig translates to “sizzling” so it’s served on a very hot surface with an egg that you mix in. It was actually pretty good with all the spices. After dinner, we called it a night because we were going to have an early next day to start our hike.

Day 21: Palawan Day 1 (Friday, July 1st)

Today, we had breakfast around 6am and headed out for a 2 hour car ride to go on a mangrove paddleboat tour where we learned about how beneficial mangroves are for the ecosystem. The tour guide discussed how he had minimal education, but he was very knowledgeable about his job as he attends sessions to learn about the mangroves and practices English with those who go on the tour. I thought this was pretty cool because the money benefits the people in the community and helps to preserve the area. After our boat ride, we got to go spelunking and climbed all the way up to zipline back down. We then had dinner at a really nice restaurant, Kalui, where everyone in the restaurant had to be barefoot, which was pretty interesting.

Day 22: Palawan Day 2 (Saturday, July 2nd)

Today we went island hopping, snorkling, fish feeding, and swimming. Keila and I also tried Balut for the very first time. Balut is very popular in the Philippines. It is a fertilized duck egg, so the embryo is developing inside and you can start to see the formation of the chick. Before coming to the Philippines, I did not think that I would give it a try. However, it became part of the experience and was just something we had to do. Personally, I don’t think I’d willingly try it again, just because I don’t love the idea of it. But it really just tasted like a hard boiled egg, with different textures from the developing chick.

Day 23: Leaving Palawan (Sunday, July 3rd)

We went on a city tour today and got to learn how to weave. We got to go to Baker’s hill and saw some pretty great views too. The Philippines is a beautiful country. I love driving through the winding roads and seeing the ocean and mountains in the background. When we were driving up the mountain, we passed a lot of houses. It is surprising to me to see how people can live so far away from everything. I imagine getting access to healthcare and education, or even groceries gets pretty difficult. I was surprised when Mico told us about how there are still places where some kids have to wake up as early as 3am to get down the mountain to paddle their way to get to school still. Also, some people in the mountains who need health care may take days to get down, and even then, they may not even be able to afford medication. There is something called PhilHealth here that aims to provide everyone with healthcare, which is one positive step forward. I hope that with the continuing local surveys, more changes can be made to improve the health care of the communities.