Earthquakes and such

Well, yesterday sure was exciting! I’ve witnessed my first (mild) earthquake! It wasn’t half as bad as I thought it might be, based on what you see on TV (it was a magnitude 5.2 on the Richter scale, http://tsunami.geo.ed.ac.uk/local-bin/quakes/mapscript/demo_run.pl shows some more info, including location). I did feel it, but I wasn’t hurt and I haven’t seen any damage. I was a little worried at first, but after the shaking stopped, it was more excitement than fear. So, besides the natural disasters (I also witnessed the periphery of a Taifun a few weeks ago), things are going well! Thankfully, all of these events have remained inconsequential, at least to me and the area I’m in. I’m now almost four months into my pro-bono engagement to improve the living conditions in one of the least developed areas of the Philippines, and my work continues to gain focus and momentum.

Specifically, after lengthy networking and lots of late-night proposal-writing (I guess that’s the same everywhere in the world), I have managed to secure commitment from the DED (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst) for a three-year full-time appointment of a development worker in the Lanuza Bay area to focus on coastal resource management! This is fantastic news, as the coastal area provides livelihoods to a large portion of the population, so if this resource is managed well, the people here will be served best in the long run.

Also, the team I lead for the € 330.000,– proposal to the European Commission for the regeneration of natural resources really did a fantastic job: we submitted the document almost a week before the deadline. The business case was a real challenge, but we got all of our numbers straight, and now we’re just keeping our fingers crossed.

Lastly, the alliance anti-corruption agreement was finally signed by the mayors! This is the first agreement of this kind ever to be signed in all of Mindanao. The document sends out a strong message to the community, but, equally important, to foreign investors. This agreement will be included in all future proposals, and should win us a lot of extra evaluation points for DFI (Direct Foreign Investment).

So, in summary:

Personal lowlights:

• Having missed the all-hands products community meeting back in Germany.
• Finding a cockroach in my apartment, and then another. And another.
• Being continuously cut off in international phone calls from back home, because connections just aren’t very good here.

Personal highlights:

• The continuing excitement of collaborating closely with mayors, national government representatives and funding agencies.
• Getting meetings to start on time by suggesting that whoever comes latest writes the meeting minutes.
• The feeling of relief when during a power failure I realize that my laptop’s battery has kicked in and I haven’t lost all of my work.

Take care, please keep in touch, and write soon!

Martin