Field Trip

Today was a national holiday for the (private, not state) funeral of Corazon Aquino – I had to work (!), but I did see people on the streets with yellow flowers and part of the mass on TV.

Work was still on because some guests were in town, and this day was scheduled to show them some of the home sites for Habitat for Humanity Philippines. The guests were wealthy potential donors from India and Habitat for Humanity staff from the U.S., Asia-Pacific (based in Thailand), Singapore and Thailand. They often use the Philippines as a model for other countries to follow. Habitat for Humanity International is about to start a major capital campaign and they were also information-gathering. It was interesting for me to see the sites, of course – it helps to actually see what you are trying to market – and it can’t hurt to have met these people. As we were sitting at lunch with the mayor of Taguig (for me, some spinach tempura that I couldn’t have enough of, and a mango!), I had a flashback and remembered that I had worked for HUD for a summer in a former life. Now if I can remember more than seeing the Goodyear Blimp outside the window, I might actually bring it up! Housing really is a basic need and it is something I think I might be interested in working on in my next life.

There are a few things Habitat for Humanity Philippines does differently from other countries. One thing is that in Metro Manila they are building medium-rise apartments, not detached single-family homes. Another is the proprietary concrete blocks – they look like Legos and connect like them too. They help to build schools and do other things to make communities where the homes are solid. And they are helping with a cleanup of the Pasig River, the one that flows through Manila. Their part is to resettle squatters; it’s a joint effort of many organizations. It rained all day long – either the same tropical storm that caused Saturday’s day-long rain or the next tropical storm; hard to tell from my new source, typhoon2000.com. Most of the other days it has rained only a little, a lot at once, or not at all.

We were near it, so we went to the American Cemetery. It’s managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission. 17,000 are buried there, and the memorial contains the names of an additional 36,000 missing. The memorial also contains maps showing battles of the Pacific Theater. I saw similar maps at the cemetery in Honolulu (still to be written up) – starting at the Bridge over the River Kwai, I am amassing some knowledge about WWII in the Pacific. I look forward to going to Corregidor and possibly Bataan. Today is close to the anniversary of the bombs dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki– I pulled that out of some remote corner of the brain too. As for the cemetery – well, I may as well quote Douglas MacArthur since the Philippines is where he said it and say I Shall Return!