Sylvia's Journal

We ended the managers’ meeting with some wonderful comments from participants who told us they got a lot out of it even though we were rather critical of the design. If a doctor tells you that he realizes there is a whole service delivery system that needs to be in place for other caretakers and technical folks outside his consultation with the patient, then you know you have scored.

Filipinos are big into social media, especially facebook, and picture taking. Something it took a long time to get from one side of the room to the other or even to the bathroom because at every step there was someone with a camera and people lined up for a picture. The handing out of certificates required pictures to document handshakes and smiles from multiple angles.

We had earlier said goodbye to our lead trainer who was heading off to Vietnam where M will join her so I got a promotion to lead trainer and was in charge of the speechifying and certificates and thus subjected to the picture taking. But that was only fair since M played that role last week.

M and I celebrated the completion of our assignment and claimed our just rewards in the form of a pedicure, followed by a Korean dinner, followed by one of the exquisite and artful pastries we had been eyeing in the hotel lobby since we arrived. Of course we should have had one but we couldn’t make up our mind which to choose and took two which we only half ate. As with many of these pastries, they look nicer than they taste and they are much too big. I had the second half at the airport, all 2000 calories I believe, and am full for the ride home.

It was a short night; the taxi picked me up a little before 4 AM. I had expected a swift ride to the airport through an empty city but was mistaken. Although the ride was fairly swift, the city was all but empty. Our hotel is located on the edge of what looks like a popular entertainment district with many side walk eateries, hawkers, karaoke bars, 24 hour massage places and ladies of the night. The place was hopping with sidewalk cafes full to overflowing and neon lights blinking to entice passersby inside.

At the airport there were long lines to get in, long lines to get checked in and checked out. I had once again asked for a wheelchair (now I now it is a transport wheelchair, not for daily living use) and was wheeled swiftly past the lines by my handler Erwin. I was upgraded for the two short flights that bookend the long one from Japan to Detroit – for that one I return to a middle seat in the back. You get one you lose one.

The stakeholder workshop, where I was given pretty much free rein, is over and now I am piloting a managers workshop design where the reins are quite taut. I found myself procrastinating, balking at having to read a script. I kept postponing the preparation for the sessions assigned to me until early this morning when time was up. And even though I had prepared my 50 minutes, once I stood in front of the class I forgot my lines and improvised in a way that made sense to me. Even though I did engage with the participants, more than my lines suggested, it didn’t feel right.

Our lead trainer is now quite familiar with the approach and design; not only has she been immersed in using the manuals that we have to work from for some time now, and completed a five day workshop on basic wheelchair training just last week, as a PT she also know the technical and clinical side of things really well. This in stark contrast with M and I who are learning as hard as the participants. I still have to prepare for my last session on monitoring and evaluation (I know something about that). Once again, I am procrastinating, preparation postponed to sunrise.

I am quite tired and full from our 2nd Shabu-Shabu/hotpot meal. The menu consists of 95 items displayed in alternating white and yellow lines, like an excell spreadsheet. I was given a pencil and make our selection, like on a sushi sheet. The wait staff didn’t really speak English and so we were on our own. We were both intrigued and put off by things like black fungus, chix leg mushroom, tao pao, Taiwan pechay, polonchay, sotanghon, mini ngoh hiang, fried fish skin, squid balls, pork intestine, pork vein, pork kidney, pork liver and beef tripe

We felt very brave to order the fish lips, crab roe balls, and bamboo pith. M is one of those rare Americans who likes eel so we had one fished out of a tank sitting on the sidewalk and presented to us for approval, slithering through the fish catchers hand. Five minutes later it appeared elegantly dressed (but still raw) on our table before it was dumped, head and all, into the hot pot. There was local lettuce (a disappointing pile iceberg leaves), leathery bean curd sticks, rice noodles, small sweet local scallops, wontons, dumplings and thinly sliced beef. It was a little much for three people but not filling in the way an Italian overdose would be.

Time flies when you are having fun. We started the stakeholder alignment meeting yesterday and now it is already over. We had expected about 50 people but had many more. Some had not answered M’s emails and so we assumed they weren’t coming. And then they did show up and brought others along.

M provided a fabulous buffer between me and the work inside the conference room and the haggling outside about this and that, per diem, requests for a room, hotel staff orders and surprises. She handled all these with grace and a smile, even if sometimes she wasn’t feeling so smiley inside. I knew nothing of this and just noticed we had a group that seemed larger than 50. Towards the very end they were all still there as no one wanted to leave unless they really had to.

The room was quite full with 8 round tables that left little maneuvering space for the many wheelchair users but everyone was graceful and patient.

By the second morning the catalytic nature (and intent) of the meeting was already clear. Connections had been made and ideas bubbled up everywhere. Someone had already posted on her facebook what was happening. I am not sure everyone understands how facebook works so I encouraged them to ‘like’ each others’ posts to expand the circle exponentially.

The design worked exactly as I had expected and surprised everyone else. Once designed the hard work for me was done and started for the participants but many never realized it was work. The atmosphere was congenial and collaborative – but what else could it be when the focus is on what everyone wants? To me that is not a surprise but to those used to powerpoint presentations by people who talk too much, who dictate or pontificate, the idea that a meeting like this could be fun and fly by in no time, was entirely novel.

Having done such events many time, a few things were quite remarkable about working in the Philippines: the ability of the participants to design and execute a report on group work in the form of a performance (including songs) in a very short time; the willingness to take on tasks and sign on to take a lead role (rather than people volunteering each other) and ignoring breaks entirely and forgetting all about time.

We are now moving into the next activity which is entirely scripted by a WHO team that is piloting the design in different parts of the world. This is hard for me, to stick to a tight sequence and line by line instructions. Part of me doesn’t want to prepare for this and I have postponed getting ready for my sessions until the last minute – not my usual modus operandi.

With a business center that doesn’t quite live up to its name we ventured out on Sunday afternoon to the biggest mall in Asia to find a copy place. A scary undertaking as the mall stretches over acres and acres and it was Sunday. But we lucked out and the copy and printing places were close together right by the main entrance and the crowds just started to thicken when we left.

While M took care of business I lounged around in a pretend French café and sampled, now fully informed, a cronut, leaving half for M who joined me when the copying and printing was done. She is learning slowly that everything – EVERYTHING – is prepared with loads of sugar. If you don’t say anything that’s what you will get – it’s the default.

While she was working I was eyeing the sushi assembly line restaurant across the walkway – it was lunch time after all. Close up the sushi on the moving small colored dishes didn’t look quite as appetizing as from a distance so we ordered a la carte: salmon sashimi, seaweed salad and a tuna temaki. I am in seventh heaven in this place with sushi and sashimi at every corner. The green tea was unsweetened when I emphasized this but (over)sweetened when I got my refill, triggering the default.

I finally, after a week, tried the workout facilities and swimming pool that is part of my view, five floors down. The gym was hot but I managed to bicycle for 15 minutes, followed by what can hardly be called a swim when you have to dodge small Japanese boys with giant tubes around them and two large Lebanese men occupying the middle ground. M set out to exercise but gave up quickly because of the heat and went, presumably, back to work.

We met up later in the day with our research colleagues and sampled the national dish, chicken and pork (always and everywhere pork) adobo. Tasty, sweet and salty. After dinner we checked out the conference room and prepared the name tags and hand-outs. We are ready for the first ever Philippines stakeholder meeting to take the agenda for mobility-challenged individuals forward. It’s ready-to-roll time.