By week 3, I could begin to say that life's settled into some sort of a routine... just in time for us to start wrapping up, right!
AM - wake up, make Via coffee in the room to enjoy while getting ready,
oatmeal with mango or bananas for breakfast most days, meet at the lobby
and load up on the MICS vehicle b/n 7:45-8:00 AM to get to City Hall.
If going to the Medical Center we'd take a taxi...
Upon arrival we are greeted with coffee
and esp. Mam Terry is always around to
make sure we have everything we need
and lately has been bringing in special
snacks to share various Cebuano
delicacies with us.
NN (noon time) - lunch break is observed very strictly at the government offices from 12-1 PM. The food vendors come by City Hall ~ 10:30 AM and many would take a break then to go to the rooftop, where the vendors gather, to pick up their lunch. At noon all lights are dimmed and many take a rest, napping at their desk or empty conference rooms. We haven't taken on the latter habit yet, but there have been a few days when it sounded quite tempting. No down time...
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| Rest during the lunch break |
We usually go to nearby restaurant serving local food for P40-75 ($1-1.50) depending on how many options one picks, and eat soup, rice, pancit (noodle dish), and a variety of fish, pork, chicken, veggie dishes they offer (3-5 different choices each day). They also have desserts we sometimes pick up for merienda (snack) at the office.
PM - we leave work ~ 5 PM if working at HR to use the City Hall office vehicle to take us back to the hotel, or else take a taxi back. Over the last week or so, we've opted to take a few afternoons to work at the hotel where the network connection is more reliable, and we can discuss our observations and prepare materials. We are in the midst of the final push to build our presentation and organize reference materials we'll submit to our client and will likely work from home (i.e. our suite at the hotel).
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| CSC working team meeting |
CSC team meetings take place most evenings at 7:30 PM in the lobby or one of the suites, esp if we have a new treat / discovery to share or work on something together - e.g. Harvard Business Review program assignment the other night, or planning group activities like our
Gabii sa Kabilin (Night of Heritage) outing tonight. Most often we go out to dinner and combine a trip to Ayala Mall, where there is a good variety of local and international cuisine, with laundry drop off/pick up and any other errands - shopping, spa, etc.
The other night we had
special desserts to try - Daniel brought in
pichi pichi and Phil had ordered
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| Mangosteens |
mangosteens (most delicious but out of
season and hard to get). Thanks!
Throughout the weeks we've gotten to enjoy
Hungarian spirits, Swiss chocolate, Brazilian
candy, Oregon hazelnuts, etc. and discover
many Filipino foods. Will definitely miss the
mango most and thinking of creative things
to bring back home to share with friends and
family - definitely some of the dried mango.
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| Huge fish selection |
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| Homemade kinilaw |
A few nights Tati and I enjoyed dinner at the hotel, mostly to save time and be here when family on the other side of the world are awake and available to skype, or to get ready for whatever the next day may demand. The best home dish was making
kinilaw - raw (we got tangigue) fish marinated in cane vinegar with calamansi, onion, tomatoes, ginger, and hot peppers, also good with a splash of soy sauce. David helped us pick some fresh fish from the market and make it the other night and we enjoyed with (garlic and plain) rice from the hotel restaurant - yummy!
* * *
Now, meetings... we've had many many one on one interviews and small group sessions, but it wasn't until this week that we got to observe typical meetings. They start with a prayer - usu. accompanied by music and inspirational images and text projected on screen. We've been told that usually the national anthem follows, and we are including it in our plans for next week's final presentations and workshop. Meetings seem to start about 30 min later than scheduled and any schedule changes or absence notifications are handled via phone texting. While there is agenda and in the example we attended, materials, those were not distributed and everyone was expecting to capture what they needed from the content. Minutes are taken but also not shared, rather saved for the record. Interactive discussion.
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| Planning HR Collaboration Event w/ Yvette and Julie |
Most of our work requires iterative input and findings validation, which in turn has afforded us opportunities to meet with many interesting people and representatives from different areas of the HR function.
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| City Administrator, Atty. Poblete |
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| Core HR Work Group - Mario, Ma. Perla and Ma. Terry |
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| Meeting w/ HR and Mayor Consultants, Ms. Seno and Ma. Belle |
* * *
And because we work hard and play hard, I must share our latest adventure - a visit to Mountain View park, arranged by our CCMC clients - thank you! The trip was exciting, the view of the mountain and city lights were enchanting, and we had a tremendous time doing karaoke (a favorite pass time here) and wrapping up with a nice pizza dinner at the mountain top.
Upon arrival we are greeted with coffee
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