Weeks 1 and 2 – Getting Oriented and First Excursion

Here I begin my adventure – an internship in the Philippines. Just to give a brief background, I will be working at the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI). I will be doing fieldwork to assess food insecurity in certain communities through data analysis and anthropometric measurements.

We had a 31-hour trip from O’Hare to Manila. A 13-hour flight from O’hare to Doha Airport, a 9-hour layover, and an 8-hour flight from Doha to Manila. During the layover, I explored the airport and it was very pretty. 

Once in Manila, we met with Tito Mon, our coordinator, and ate dinner. If you don’t know I have a gluten allergy. I was very scared of finding gluten-free food but it turned out to not be a big deal. Most restaurants serve rice, vegetables, and meat. The term “gluten-free” is not well known but Filipino food is mostly gluten-free. Most times I eat rice and some meat like chicken, beef, or pork. 

We had our orientation at the University of the Philippines – Los Banos for two days. It was a city, about a two-hour drive away from Manila. We had a crash course on Filipino culture, and Tagalog, the language spoken by Filipinos. On our last day at orientation, we had dinner and everyone started to leave. First, the interns at Cabrini left, then the interns at IRRI left. The interns at FNRI (us) left last. 

We live at Siena Park residences, a nice condo with a swimming pool. We went out to buy groceries and a wifi box. After that, we settled and rested for a bit. 

Our first few days of work were a bit of an adjustment, to say the least, but we got through it. We had two full days of work from 8-5 then on the third day we left early at 12. The day after we had our first excursion, we left at 10 pm by bus and arrived at Candon, Ilocos Sur, the city and province we started our fieldwork at 6 am. The city and province are largely rural.

The weather in the Philippines is very hot. It is crazy to think about home much time people spend in the heat. Many people in the Philippines work in farming and construction. Most of them don’t return to an air-conditioned room. 

Our job in the internship is to collect data in rural communities to assess food insecurity in the Philippines, analyze the data, and come up with plans to combat it. On our first day of fieldwork, we set up data collection at a barangay hall. A barangay hall is the center of each town in the Philippines. Most of them, if not all, have a basketball court. Basketball is very popular here.

I am very lucky to have gotten this internship. I think that a rapid and major difference in the way I live will make me a better person. A change in my environment will change the way I see that world. The biggest problems for me have been my dietary restrictions, getting accustomed to the heat, and being in rural areas. However, I haven’t met one person that isn’t nice. Everyone is very nice, joyful, and hospitable. Knowing that there are people who want to help makes this new environment so much easier to navigate. I think in the U.S people tend to be self-sufficient and keep to themselves, but exposure to a community where people want to help others is good for me.

We had a great first day touring the town. On the second day, we shadowed medical technologists while they conducted surveys on some households in underprivileged communities. We also learned how to take blood pressure and take measurements. It was very interesting to see and learn about. I can’t wait to do this in the field. Today, we toured Vigan, Ilocos Sur. It had a lot of Spanish-style buildings presumably due to Spanish colonialism in the past. 

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