Filipino Time at Work

“It's island time, man!” This is going to become the moto here during these next 2 years. Coming from the States where you're on time if you're 5 minutes early and you're late if you're on time, this change of pace has definitely required some major adjusting. Filipinos even have a joke where they say at least Filipino time is better than Indian time (people from India that is, not Native Americans), because while Filipinos may be really late to everything, Indians just never show up!! Not sure how true that is, but it's what they say.

Now, when I say that Filipinos are late to everything, I'm not talking about a few minutes here and there, I'm talking a couple hours at least. And this isn't just referring to social events like being “causally late” to a party. It's referring to work schedules, business meetings, church services, concerts, and transportation schedules, in addition to social events. The Methodist church I sometimes go to is supposed to start at 9am Sunday morning, but it actually starts sometime between 10 and 10:30, so people don't even show up until 9:45 at least. And for the concerts and shows here, let me tell you, it's a miracle if all the performers show up within the hour AFTER the show was supposed to start. The concerts and shows I'm talking about are usually dance concerts or beauty pageants (which are HUGE here). Every time they're scheduled to start at 8pm, and every time they start around 10:30 or 11pm. So those of us hopeful enough to think it'll start relatively on time are left sitting there for a couple hours while sound checks, lighting, and outfits get finalized. And then the shows run for a few hours at least and don't get over until 2am! (Side note: Filipinos wake up super early, like 5am, every day so I don't know how they can manage those early mornings after these late nights.) The only event I've noticed being an exception to this rule is school. From what I've been able to tell, all the schools start on time in the morning and after lunch. So it really puzzles me how Filipinos can be raised to be punctual for the first 16 years of their lives and then lose that skill completely!

And just for clarification, I'm not saying any of this Filipino Time stuff as a complaint. I'm just explaining how life works here because it is completely different from life in America. It's something I've had to adapt to and something I'm gonna struggle unadapting to once I get back to the States. So looking way into the future, I'm going to apologize ahead of time for all my tardiness. It will be inevitable.

I relate this Filipino Time to my day-to-day life also. On paper, my work day starts at 8am, lunch from 12-1, then off for the day at 5pm, Monday thru Friday. I abided to this my first week and found myself the only on in the office most of the time. Now my work day starts at 8:15/8:20, lunch from 12-2:15/2:20, then off at 4:30 if there's nothing to do. You may ask what it is that I do with these work days, and I would ask the same question. I've only been at site for about 3 months now, and that's a relatively short amount of time when you look at the big picture. During training we were constantly warned that we would have very little to do the first few months at site and may not even get a project going until 6 months at site. So far I've gone to a few high schools in the area and done a few IECs (Information, Education, Communication; basically lectures) on CRM and why it's important, but that only accounts for a few days. Mostly when I'm in the office I'm reading (both work and fun related things), working on language, doing crossword puzzles, using the internet, working on different Google Earth tasks for the office, or writing these wonderful blogs. It hasn't gotten to the exciting part yet. I go to Fishermen Association meetings at different coastal barangays when the transportation works out, too. I'm starting to get ideas of different projects I could work on and the politics involved in them, but that doesn't mean I can really do anything yet. I have to wait until I've been at site for 6 months before I can apply for grants for projects and the timing also hasn't been right to start anything. Now that it's December, the schools are closing for the holidays (which means no more IECs) and work motivation around the office is lessening even more than usual, and then you add in the different barangay Christmas parties that we have to attend. So this is a very laid-back month.

A couple projects I hope to eventually start working on are establishing MPAs (Marine Protected Areas) and training the Bantay Dagat (basically a barangay-level coast guard) to perform assessments on the MPAs already established. There's a scientific paper entitled “No-take Marine Reserves and Reef Fisheries Management in the Philippines: A New People Power Revolution” by Angel C. Alcala and Garry R. Russ that explains what MPAs are and the proven benefits of them if you're curious. But basically, MPAs create a no-fish zone that protects a healthy marine habitat and gives fish time to mature and reproduce before spilling over into the fishing area. Siaton has 3 MPAs established already, but it has the potential for a lot more.

(Side note: Dr. Alcala, the author of the paper, works at Silliman University here in Negros and I got to meet with him!!! He helped start the idea of MPAs in the Philippines, so he's a really big deal here! Little nerd celebrity moment there. And it was the alumni from Hope College who's lived here for 30 years that set up the meeting for me. I'm tell you, Hope College did me good!)

Hopefully I can start working on these projects within the next few months, but don't expect any exciting breakthrough blogs for a while because Filipino Time is contagious and leaks into every little project idea's pore and slowly poisons it until nothing is left but a vague idea of what could have been, until along comes a strong and guapa Peace Corps Volunteer to save it from a sure and painful death and raise it up to be a life-changing and powerful idea that will improve the lives of the Philippine people forever! Or at least, that's how the story's supposed to go.