Ferries, Vans & Tricycles

As I end my eighth week in Oriental Mindoro, the Philippines working with GIYF-FFS on their d.light solar light partnership with Kopernik, I’m met with the feeling that it has flown by. A lot has changed in those eight weeks…and a lot has stayed the same.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS
As a Kopernik Fellow, signing on to travel across the world sounds fascinating, working with Kopernik’s partners on the ground and seeing firsthand the impact of their life-changing technologies. But let’s admit, it’s also a little scary. I recall my first night arriving at the project site. The ferry docked at Calapan Pier on Oriental Mindoro on a gloomy night.

I disembarked and followed the crowd to a parking lot to catch a van to Roxas. At any transit point here, you’re flanked with porters and repeatedly asked or told the following:

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”

“COME WITH ME!”

“GIVE ME MONEY!”

(This one is usually from a beggar not a porter…but the porters are hoping for a tip as well.)

Whether you answer or not, they usually make a grab for your bags hoping to persuade you to solicit their services – which can be a little nerve-wrecking, especially when you’re trying to keep track of multiple pieces of luggage.

IN TRANSIT
Once I navigated through the crowd and found a van going in the right direction, I settled in for the three to four hour ride….through the mountains, in the dark, with no cell service (this was something I was still adjusting to). Maybe it was the jetlag, the dark, the conversations going on around me that I didn’t understand, or constantly being stared at, but it was a good opportunity to stress myself out a little. KEEP CALM. Yes, people might be talking about me because I stick out like a sore thumb. It is very dark. I was tired, and perhaps a little delusional. But I reminded myself that everything seems less intimidating in the light of day after some sleep.

Finally we arrived in Roxas and the van door jerked open, and once again my bags and myself were being pulled in different directions. At that point, after judging that this was semi-normal, I followed the man who was quickly rolling my bag away to where I would wait to meet my ride. So I sat. On a bench. In a dark unfamiliar town. Waiting.

THERE WILL BE COCKROACHES
I’m not afraid to say it – I’m terrified of cockroaches. The fear goes back a long time and any type of 'immersion' therapy has only made me more afraid. I’m generally not a jumpy person – give me snakes, mice, lizards, spiders – anything over cockroaches. During my wait, I encountered my first (and definitely not last) massive Southeast Asian cockroach…as it ran across my foot. The only thing that stifled my scream was my exhaustion and the desire to avoid calling more attention to my already (very foreign) self. Then my next mode of transportation arrived…

Ate Baby, a staff member from GIYF-FFS, came with her husband by motorised tricycle to meet me. We drove farther into the dark countryside to the school where I would be working and staying. It was difficult to see anything when we arrived, but I could tell I was on a large open farm space surrounded by a few buildings. I was ushered into the empty cafeteria and offered a traditional Filipino fish stew by Ate Mina – the director of the organisation.

SETTLING IN
After a conversation I can hardly recall now, I was shown to the Healing Hut, where I would be sleeping. As the name suggests, it was a hut. Not that I wasn’t open to it, but again, something that takes some adjusting to. I unpacked just enough and got into my single bed. I only briefly considered how very far away (and much more quiet) this was than my cozy apartment in New York City before I fell asleep. I woke up in the morning to the sound of roosters and opened the windows to check out my view.

My more rational self was right – things did seem much better after 10 hours of sleep and some sunlight.

Like I said – a lot has changed, and a lot has stayed the same. I’m now completely comfortable navigating local public transport, as well as the vans, ferries, and buses to and from Manila. I’ve spent numerous hours riding in tricycles and on the backs of motorbikes with my coworkers, getting to know them better. I’m still terrified of cockroaches – that will probably never change.

FOR FUTURE FELLOWS
I just hope future Kopernik Fellows don’t forget – even though you are alone in your trek to the project site, rest assured that every fellow before you has felt a similar sense of uncertainty on their way. Don’t worry – you will meet interesting people, have really amazing days, and a few bad ones. Sometimes that Skype call will even go though. Things that seemed incredibly difficult at first will become second nature, or at least no big deal. Best of all, you will meet people whose lives really have been changed by Kopernik’s technologies. But I’m fairly confident that wherever you are in the world, from New York to Asia to Africa, there will be cockroaches.