Hello! Thank you for being willing to embark on this journey with me as I share my experiences in the Philippines this summer at the International Rice Research Institute.
June 3, 2023 marks the date which starts this journey. In order to arrive at Manilla, Philippines I had to embark upon 2 flights in total. The first flight traveled from O’Hare airport to Abu Dhabi airport where a layover took place.
Semaj and I on the flight to Abu Dhabi just before take off
During this time in Abu Dhabi, we were able to explore the hotel and the city. The temperature that day was near 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I do not think I ever reached a point where I got used to these high temperatures but nevertheless I was determined to make the most of the time we had. The buildings in Abu Dhabi are extremely tall and impressive! Semaj, Jessica, and I decided to take pictures with some of these buildings in the background.
Semaj, Jessica and I attempting to do a jumping shot but sadly failing
Us in the evening on the hotel rooftop
Also, later that day we headed to Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Mameluke, Ottoman and Fatimid architectural styles blended in the construction of this mosque. It felt surreal to be there walking through Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Around 9:00 p.m. we headed back towards the hotel in order to prepare ourselves for our flight to Manilla, Phillipines which would leave at 2:50 a.m.
Images of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
When we arrived at the Manila airport on 6/5/23, we met Tito Mon and Kuya Carlo. They explained that we would have to wait a couple hours in the airport in order to wait for Sam and Hannah to arrive. This allowed time for many IWU students to exchange currency. After this, I bought a mango green tea with boba and a Jollibee order of rice and fried chicken.
My favorite part of the Jollibee order was the gravy! Later on, Hannah, Julia, Jessica, Sam, and I headed to IRRI in a vehicle provided by Tito Mon. When we arrived, we checked in with the front desk and were able to enter our rooms within Harar Hall. We were also given a drawstring bag which contained snacks, sanitizer, an IRRI booklet code of conduct, and a short itinerary indicating that the first part of our IRRI orientation would take place on Wednesday. As soon as I settled in, I fell fast asleep.
On 6/6/23, we had the IWU orientation at around 1:15 p.m. In the morning, I had my first meal at IRRI and it was great!
The orientation was led by Tito Mon and Kuya Guillian. We started off by learning a couple phrases in Tagalog. Also, we learned that saying “po” is a sign of respect and should be used very often at the end of a sentence. Furthermore, “kuya” signifies older brother and “ate” signifies older sister. They come before a person’s name and demonstrate that one is showing respect to older generations. We also learned that the most common form of transportation in the Los Baños and Manila areas is the Jeepney and it costs 12 pesos to climb onto one. I plan to take a picture of a jeepney to show you what it looks like but as of now it resembles a long taxi that can fit about 20 people. We then had a “merienda” which signifies a snack. Our merienda was buko pie. This type of pie has chunks of coconut layered within with custard in between these layers. It is super “masaran” (delicious) and not very sweet.
We then continued on with the presentation by playing memory games surrounding the Tagalog language. Also, we were placed into 3 groups of around 4-5 and tasked with coming up with a skit to perform and illustrate how far we have come with the Tagalog language. My group included scenes on a jeepney and within a market. After each group performed, we all headed to Kamayan at Palaisdaan, a restaurant in which we had traditional Filipino food and Halo-halo for dessert. My favorite dish from tonight would have to definitely be the coconut marinated Tilapia!
The IRRI orientation to place 6/7/23. We headed to the IRRI Education building and met with Kuya Froilan. During the Security & Safety presentation, I took notes regarding important emergency numbers. Later, we were taken to get our pictures taken for our ID’s.
Kuya Froilan took us on a tour of the Los Baños area on an IRRI shuttle. We picked up a buko pie and also stopped at Rizal Park and saw Laguna de Bay which is the largest lake in the Philippines.
When we got back from the tour, everyone was dropped off to their specific divisions in which they will be interning in. As a part of rice breeding innovations under Dr. Swamy, I am in N.C. Brady Laboratory.
I was nervous to meet Dr. Swamy even though I had previouslky prepared by reading his research. During this one on one meeting, Dr. Swamy gave me valuable advice. For instance, he explained that to overcome a challenge in the laboratory, one must first employ self-help and then only later should one ask others. He also emphasized the importance of creativity, consistency, and how action has to match one’s words. Dr. Swamy explained that there is a peak in rice breeding towards the end of June because higher temperatures often signify greater chance for budding. Therefore, for now my tasks are to interact with the research team and learn about their own distinct projects and read articles they recommend.
On 6/8/23 I spent my day analyzing further readings published by Dr. Swamy at BeanHub coffee shop right next to the IRRI cafeteria. I took notes surrounding topics such as how some quantitative trait loci in low-yielding susceptible varieties negatively affect/ lower grain yield under drought. For high-yielding varieties, this is the opposite. So, mainly these research efforts aim to deduce candidate genes that are present in drought tolerant rice varieties. Also, to produce more of such varieties through crosses, comparative genomics, and the creation of consensus maps with markers.
The next day, 6/9/23, I attended an online thesis defense presented by Ms. Maria Raquel L. Avanica who is an undergraduate student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. Ms. Maria Raquel L. Avanica presented about how high vitamin A deficiency can be combated through the biofortification of Golden Rice (GR2E). They plan to find alleles which help maintain beta carotene concentration in different GR2E introgression line populations.
After this, the team celebrated Raquel’s hard work by going to Beanhub cafe where I tried a Mudslide which is a frozen chocolate milk drink with vanilla ice cream on top. When we headed back to N.C. Brady Laboratory, I spoke with Ms. Hsu Myat Noe Hnin who is a PhD student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. They are analyzing how heat stress affects rice yield. I will be learning about the transferring of rice strains to different chambers at IRRI this upcoming week. IWU students then visited Seoul Kitchen which is a Korean restaurant near the University of the Philippines. We took the IRRI shuttle to Raymundo gate and then walked about 5 minutes. I ordered Rabokki!
On 6/10/23 we celebrated Hannah’s 20th birthday! We woke up early and headed to the market where businesses were selling food, drinks, clothes and more. I purchased matcha milk tea boba as well as an ube pandesal with ube jam and cream cheese filling.
We then walked to Dalcielo Restaurant & Bakeshop and shared a pizza amongst the group.
Lunch and pizza
Lastly, we sang karaoke! I sang Grenade by Bruno Mars, Hannah sang Ehu Girl by Kolohe Kai, Julia sang Rolling in the Deep by Adele, Sam sang Dancing Queen by ABBA, and Jessica sang Chandelier by Sia. My favorite part was singing happy birthday to Hannah a bit off key.
Stay tuned for week 2 in which we will meet interns from New York and Korea!