Yo yo yo! Welcome back to the blog (thanks for sticking with me)! This will be a report on our third & final field deployment, along with our 3-day weekend adventure!
Cavite Deployment
Last and final deployment, wow time flies! Cavite is the closest province yet, only about an hour-long commute via van. Throughout our 8-day stay, we spent time with three separate teams. All of which were stationed in different areas within the Cavite province. I will give a brief report of the events that took place with each team below!
Team #1
This team was stationed closer to the main city within Cavite. Having said this, it was different compared to my previous experiences which primarily consisted of rural, farm areas. In one aspect, it was less of a shock for the local people to see foreigners. We didn’t experience any floods of people wanting to take pictures which was kind of relaxing… now I understand why celebrities get sick of paparazzi haha! In another aspect, we were in the range of Grab (the equivalence of Uber/Uber eats). Having said this, I was able to order food whenever I pleased haha! Nothing against the Filipino food made by the teams in the field, it just didn’t always fill the tank. With this being said, it was nice to have a Costco-sized hot dog available for delivery at the tip of my fingers (yes, I ordered a few hot dogs and a pizza during my stay).
In terms of data collection, it was all the same as it’s been on the two prior deployments. However, being near to the city made it much harder to find willing respondents. In the rural areas, the people spend the majority of their time at home working on their farm, causing them to have availability for the time commitment that comes with the data collection. In the city, many people spend a lot of time away from home for work, causing them to not be so readily available.
After our 3-day stay with this team, they ordered pizza and donuts for our last night as a sendoff. If you remember back to my previous blog posts, I’ve had some trouble trying to fill my pizza craving here. No pizza has been able to meet my level of satisfaction and I’m happy to announce that this time was… drum roll please… not satisfactory. Never before have I tried a fried sushi or spinach cream pizza. They weren’t as bad as they sound though, I still chowed down! That first bite of good pizza back home is going to be so good. Deep dish Giordanos here I come!
Team #2
This team was stationed a bit further from the city. With this being said, they were a bit more shocked to see us foreigners. The place we were staying in was right next to a big basketball court where kids gathered all day long. They were all so happy to see us and kinda went crazy for our presence… felt like a celebrity! They were so much fun to spend time with through playing basketball, volleyball, badminton, and just hanging out. Their English was pretty good too, which they have picked up in school and through enjoying American music/movies/TV shows.
Upon our arrival, the local barangay officials were unable to meet. We always set up a meeting to introduce ourselves and the work being done prior to starting data collection. Their unavailability granted us with a free day to do whatever we pleased! With this being said, we spent the day in Tagaytay which was only about an hour away. If you remember back to one of my previous posts, we traveled there one day for fun on a weekend. It is a big tourist destination due to its breathtaking views of the Taal Volcano in the middle of the lake and its rolling highlands. We had breakfast, rode horses, and had a late lunch on a hill overlooking the beautiful lake. Although we’ve been here before, my level of enjoyment didn’t fade and the sights were just as beautiful. It was so much fun hanging out with our fellow team members in a non-work setting too!
Team #3
This team was stationed in a more rural area within Cavite… unfortunately out of range for Grab food delivery. The local people were shocked to see us so the photos started flowing once again! Instead of sleeping on the hard tile within one of the community buildings like I’ve become accustomed to throughout the deployments, our team was given a house! One of the local families was out of town for the time being and they offered us to crash at their pad! Although there was no air conditioning, I was ecstatic to have a mattress.
We observed data collection for only about half a day due to our limited time with the team. Having said this, I only took a few blood pressures and observed interviews. This team was super friendly and it felt more like a group of friends living in a house rather than colleagues at work. They made us feel like home and even offered to make our favorite Filipino dish for a meal, which mine is pancit so far!
Weekend with the Waves
On Friday, after arriving back at our condo the night prior from Cavite, we (Hunter, Abi, Kennady and I) traveled to La Union! It’s known as the surfing capital of the Philippines so I had to give it a visit. It is on the same island as Manila, so we didn’t have to travel via plane or boat. It was a simple 7 hour bus ride!
We stayed in another hostel which was motivated by our awesome experience in El Nido. This was a bit different though. Instead of having a room, we had two sets of bunk beds on a wooden structure with a roof above us. It was all open air but the beds had mosquito nets surrounding them… thank goodness! It had a great location as we were right across the street from the “best surf spot” in town. There was less of a social atmosphere in this hostel compared to El Nido as we only met one other resident who happened to be from Illinois and named Lukas too! Small world!
I came into this trip with a craving to try surfing once again. I’ve been once before but that was years ago in California. Stands that offer surfboard rentals and surf lessons line the beaches so we took our pick. We decided to get a one hour surf lesson as it wasn’t pricey and it was basically everyones’ first time. It was so much fun and we all got the hang of it pretty quickly! We had so much fun that we decided to wake up early the next morning to hit the waves again at 7am as it’s said to be the gnarliest time to be out there! However, surfing came with a price more than just renting the board… sunburn. It doesn’t feel too cozy but hopefully it turns into a nice golden brown pretty soon! I experienced “surfer nips” for the first time too. I guess due to the friction of your front side on the board while paddling irritates the nipples a bit and causes pain… which is then exponentiated in the salt water haha! Anyways, I’m so glad I had the opportunity to fill my surf craving. It was so fun meeting other cool people out there shredding as well!
La Union is a popular area for handmade pottery making. With this being said, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to bring home some unique souvenirs… as long as they survive the long journey home in my luggage. We went to a popular place that offers pottery making lessons which was so much fun! My structures aren’t the best but it’s the effort that counts. Little story: after this we were all hungry as we hadn’t eaten since before the 7am surf-sesh. Google maps directed me to a restaurant… 4.2 stars and a 6 minute walk down the road. It was called “Casa Margarita” and my mind instantly went to nachos… yum! The internal excitement to chow down on some nachos grew as we walked down the road, just to arrive at a small, house-shaped building hidden behind a parking lot full of weird sculptures. Anyways, once we walked through the maze of strange, inanimate objects and found the entrance, the one worker turned the lights on and hit the power button for the AC… I guess they weren’t expecting company! It surely gave off a strange vibe but nothing that a big plate of nachos can’t make up for. After getting the menu and giving it a quick skim, the entire thing comprised of Filipino dishes… no nachos for me. My one question is why would you name a restaurant “Casa Margarita” and not have it be Mexican food? They didn’t even have a margarita on the menu! #FakeAdvertisement
On Friday night, we met a cool group of friends around our age at one of the beachside bars. We met them out again on Saturday and now we’re planning to meet them in Manila sometime this week! The friendliness of the Filipino people really is something special!
Altogether, it was an awesome weekend filled with sand, salt water, and good company. Can’t beat it!
Stay tuned for the final blog post documenting my last week here in the Philippines… time sure does fly!
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