Idle Moments in Davao

Unfortunately, our work here in Davao stopped completely as my partner was sent home to Manila to have our instruments and equipments fixed. Because of this, I was stucked here in Panabo City in Davao del Norte. No I am not complaining...actually I feel good that we had stopped the work for the time being (instead of being subjected to false hopes by our unpredictable equipments).

Our project coordinator here in Davao had me settled in the boarding house of her parents. Grabe, nahihiya na nga ako dahil sa ang bait ni "Nanay." Parang spoiled na ako.

Because I was stucked here, I used my time to learn some Visayan words. What I learned so far:

Numbers from one to ten:

isa duwa tulo upat lima unum pito walo siyam and napulo

My driver had me say these words to one of the girl in the boarding house:

"Ginihugma ako sa imo"

Which means, as I found out later after a round of laughter, "iniibig kita" in Tagalog or "I love you" in English.

In the course of our work, we had seen different parts of the Davao shorelines. We had seen rocky shores, beaches and the best of them all are the mangrove forests.

Our work will resume on Sunday. I just hope and pray to GOD that our work will continue without further ado and that we may finish the work as early as we can muster.

I hope that I learn more of the Visayan language.

We Are Not Perfect

We are doing all the best things that we could...we are all doing the things that are within and sometimes beyond our capacity. Darn it...I'm pissed off! The Boss told us this after another failure of one of the equipments that we are using this night:

"YOU DON'T HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO USE THE EQUIPMENT"

sh%t man! First you did not taught us all the capabilities of the equipment...second, we are just fresh graduates and no one should expect that we can do fieldwork on the level of seasoned engineers...and lastly is that you are not here in the field. The whole team in the field is only composed of me and my fellow fresh graduate. Don't blame us if we err...we are just beginners.

Thank God that he is still with me. I Love you my dear GOD!

(Ishmael unloading his stress after an exhausting day with backpains and increasing sadness).