The Story So Far (2) - The first days

So we left you, in the last post, as we retired to our hotel for our first night in the Philippines.

We had been informed that ,contrary to what we expected, the apartment that was proposed for us was not in good condition. When we left, we expected to be in our own place 2 days later, but now we were booked for a week in the hotel, with apartment (called condominiums here) visits in the next few days.

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Hotel room with a view

We settled in to the hotel which is a serviced apartment hotel with two rooms, a tiny kitchen alcove and the very bare necessities of kitchenware. Our room was on the 22nd floor and the hotel was in walking distance to Soph's Office.

As the days went by we got used to the ever present cheerful "Morning Maam/Sir!"s of the hotel personnel or even just "Maam/Sir!"

We slept well despite the jet lag, and on the Monday morning rose early and I accompanied Soph to her office on the 32nd floor of one of the tallest highrises in Makati just around the corner from our hotel.

The task of the day was setting up the office space for the team which would arrive for work a few days later.

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What had to be done was set up the computer profiles for each computer, distribute office essentials - pens paper and such - each place would receive copies of previous editions of the publications (sent by Soph) to which they were going to contribute. A small IHL and Red Cross reference library was also compiled.

With litle surprise the computer environment was not extremely functional and necessitated many operations and dialogues with the IT contact in Geneva. Of course the contacts could only occur in the afternoons because of the time difference. Pete's role was limited to moral support and distributing equipment and publications to each desk, the rest was managed by Soph with assistance from the Centre staff.

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In the next few days we visited some apartments and eventually approved one of them. For many days we thought it was a done thing, but differences between the owner and ICRC concerning the contract were not able to be resolved despite more than a week of  back and forth negotiation.

At one point we were so sure that we would be moving in, that we subscribed for a year to the gym club of the nearby Mandarin Hotel. This included access to the hotel swimming pool and discounts in the hotel restaurants and spa. Cycling in Manila is a perilous activity and the gym was to compensate for the exercise we were accustomed to in Geneva where we essentially moved around by bicycle.

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When Soph's team arrived on the Friday of the first week, a delightful welcome ceremony followed by drinks and snacks had been organized by the Shared Service Centre - With welcome banner and ribbon cutting and speeches! An example of Filipino hospitality and team spirit.

 The next week we were invited by some of Soph's team to a what was termed a "secret" Chinese restaurant. It was a place with no outer markings or indication that a restaurant inside, a place that you had to know about to find. They insisted on offering us the meal - again, Filipino hospitality.
The place was very simply furnished, but the food was excellent. Many of us washed it down with Qing Dao Chinese beer.




Stay tuned...