Valuable experiences sharing during Manila posting period

In 2009, I spent more than two-third time on working air quality management related tasks in Manila. I participated in reviewing the clean air policies in world mega events, analyzing air quality management structure in different Asian countries and air quality monitoring system in the Philippines and its air quality status. Through participating in the tasks, I was able to learn what challenges of implementing air quality management in Asian countries and what the effective and efficient strategies in improving the air quality in mega events. This knowledge and experience can certainly benefit for my future works.

Besides works, I had a great time in Manila through visiting the provinces and enjoying the Filipino cultures with my friends. I adventured the wonderful places in few small islands (Bohol in Cebu, Borocay in Aklan and Coron in Palawan). It is hard to describe all things in words. One of the ways to express my feelings is to describe the things I like most during the posting period. The movie below summarizes my tasks I participated in and activities in my spare time.

The most unforgettable activity is snorkeling with beautiful corals and colorful tropical fishes. The colorful fishes just swam around me. I were able to touch closely the coral and fishes and appreciated the grand ocean. I got the message from them “Human needs to save the nature and the earth from now on”.

The delicious food I like most is roast chicken. The chicken is very juicy with the secret gravy. I ate the roast chicken at least once a week.

The best daily exercise to keep fit is fetching around 25L volume of water from the basement to my unit. I kept doing it almost 3 weeks due to the water supply problem in the residential building.

I was amazed at the destructive power of a strong typhoon – Kestana. This typhoon brought huge amount of water. The rainfall on that day was higher than the monthly normal in the Port Area. It caused flooding, landfall, energy supply problem, lack of communication, death, infrastructure damages. This impact raises our concerns on climate change.

One memorable activity is every Friday night dinner. I went out with two colleagues almost every Friday to taste various kinds of food and share the challenges and happiness among each other.

Some participants may ask whether I encountered culture shock. Certainly, I did but it took 1-2 weeks to adjust myself to integrate in the society, adopt the local foods and make friend with the colleagues. My motto in overcoming the culture shocks is “Adjust new challenges and Act positive”. When I stayed in Manila during the first month, I tried a lot of new things and adjusted myself to adopt new environment. Keep doing it and you will have a company with colleagues, security guards and sales clerks.

Finally, I would like to thank Fredskorpset sponsored this exchange program and CAI-Asia center facilitated the program to provide an opportunity young professionals to gain and share the experiences. From the participant point of view, the first phase of this program was successful and benefit for me so much because I not only gained the knowledge by participating the projects, but also observed and learned from real life.