By Foo Fang Ling
Second week in a row – blackout on the day that I have to post my blog. Luckily the blackout only lasted for an hour or two at most. Though the same cannot be said for last Saturday. The power was out till 5pm in the evening! I had enough battery on my laptop and unlimited data on my mobile phone to allow me to get work done and post my blog despite the power outage. But it made me realize that sometimes we do have to disconnect from all our technological devices and truly live in the present moment. I spent more time playing with kids that came over to my host mom’s place and had a real good laugh watching my roommate chase chickens out of our house.
On a side note, I finally conquered my fear of heights. We had a short three days two nights trip to Mambukal Resort, Negros and during the trip I gathered up enough courage to follow everyone else for zip lining. I was initially very excited but my heart literally sank when we reached the starting point. We were so high up that even our truck had trouble getting up the hill! I wanted to back out at the last minute but a little voice in my head told me to suck it up and just do it. It will probably be quite some time before I get another chance like this again. Upon inspection, I realized that the ropes were pretty strong so the worst case scenario would be getting stuck in the middle of the way and getting someone from the other end to pull me in. Besides that, I was not going to do it alone as I had another supergirl and superman in the form of Shikha and Mr. Beau, to share this experience with me. With my heart beating fast in my chest, the person-in-charge pushed us forward on the count of three and in no time, we were out in the air enjoying a bird’s eye view of the breathtaking scenery!
Fresh off our short but very relaxing getaway, Clarence, Peng Ye and I went straight to the farm. It was business as usual for us. This was our final meeting with Rose before submitting everything that we have worked on to her on the following Monday. She has kindly invited us for lunch and I am looking forward to it as her cooking is delicious. As a matter of fact, everyone who’s cooking I have tasted is good! We will be having our farewell party tomorrow and each home is to prepare a dish to bring to the party. The farewell party marks the beginning of the end of our course. Let us savour our last few days together though I am sure we are not ready to say goodbye just yet and we all wished we had more time here.
The most challenging part of the week was making the video. We were running on a tight schedule as we just had a day to make the video because we were going on school visits the next day and wanted to have the video ready to help promote the farm. Uploading the video on YouTube also proved to be challenging as the Internet signal is weak in the area we are based at. We had to go into town to upload the video. Breaking it down, we uploaded 50% of our video whilst having lunch at Samsons, 10% on Jok Jok’s jeepney on the way to Guimaras State College and the final 40% at the college. After that, the video was being processed on the motorcycle ride back to our homestay. The video was finally published on YouTube at Rosing’s house and I really felt a strong sense of relief and achievement. Patience is truly a virtue.
Everything worked out well during our visits to the schools and colleges and we got positive responses from each of them. We are in the midst of our final preparations for our meeting with Rose on Monday. Our group has settled on a report, internship and study tour letter, promotional video, post card and PowerPoint presentation. Our group video for the course is also in the works. Lots to do but it will definitely be worth it in the end!
Picture with the head of Guimaras State College Baterna Campus
Business Immersion: Philippines 