Notes from Caraga

Am back! But am not going to flood with my blog with a day-by-day account of my experiences like last time. Because to be honest, they were either not that outstanding....or they're memories I would not rather relive.

Beaches galore--pero hanggang tingin lang
I did not get to visit the Tinuy-an Falls that I talked about earlier because of some screw-ups in the schedule (I'll talk more about this later). I also visited more beaches over the past five days than I have in the past five years, but again, I did not get to enjoy them as much because I was either too busy or too tired to linger. And while I did get to spend the night in Siargao, I did not enjoy that particular aspect of the trip, because

a. we got there at low tide--so not only did we not see any waves, the seawater had receded so the only thing we could see were muddy sand;
b. it was work, work, work from the moment we got there until the time when it was already too late and too dark to do nothing but go to sleep;

and the clincher

c. we were informed early on that our accommodations would be "courtesy of the mayor." I had no fantasies about staying in five-star resorts, but the least I expected was a clean bed with a bath that had hot water. Not! Instead, we were offered a room with no airconditioning, no screens for the windows, a door that opened out to the street, and--the most "You've got to be kidding"-moment for me--a communal bathroom whose drainage was blocked so the whole place was pratically flooded. With God knows what.

"The Simple Life"
Yup, when we were in Siargao--and for most of my stay in Caraga, for the matter--I felt like I was Paris Hilton, starring in my own version of The Simple Life! I had always thought of myself as a low-maintenance, able-to- adapt-to-anything kind of girl, and it actually galls me to have to admit that I need certain pampering necessities. Because I could live with a bathroom that has no showerhead and the mode of bathing is de tabo; I can even live with a bathroom whose mode of flushing is de balde. But I cannot take a communal bathroom. Or one that doesn't even have a sink (which I experienced in Surigao del Sur).

In the same way, I can take sleeping in non-airconditioned places, but not where the heat is stifling (buti sana kung beach-front para may sea breeze pero hindi) and windows don't have screens to protect from mosquitoes. And where the doors don't have locks. And where spiders the size of my palm roam the bathroom, and where there are lizards inside the very same room that go "tsik-tisk-tsik" the whole night. If this makes me spoiled and pampered.... you know what, I really don't care.

Helplessly mad
Because it's not as if I had better options in the matter. Apart from the major cities in the region (and there are only three) the lack of development in Caraga is just so sad. Many of the roads are unpaved, their colleges look more like public elementary schools than institutes of tertiary education, and many people are just plain poor. So I cannot help feel but feel mad and at the same time helpless when we would pass by rows of simple houses by the roadside ... and then suddenly come across this huge mansion. "Bahay ni governor/mayor/congressman," our DTI escorts would tells us matter-of-factly. So that's where the pork barrel goes. I wonder how these politicos can even go to sleep at night.

Along for the ride and nothing else
But my overall dissatisfaction over the trip has more to do with the constant screw-ups in schedules courtesy of our Department of Trade and Industry escorts. Their overall inefficiency was galling, from last-minute changes or cancellations because of mismatched schedulings to fixing us up with interviewees who don't even have any good stories to tell! There was one in Surigao del Sur whom we work up at 6am and travelled for two hours for an interview--only to find out that he was already going out of business! Tama ba yan? With people like these in the DTI, no wonder the region's industries are going nowhere.

The principle of dichotomy
Life is certainly full of contradictions.

I mentioned before that when I was preparing for my Region 12 trip, I first wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but ended up wanting to stay longer. I carried that enthusiasm with me when I left for Region 13, but two days into the trip, I was so dissatisfied and disillusioned, I wanted to leave.

My biggest worry when I got back after Region 12 was how I would fit everything I want to say into 1,500 words. My biggest worry now is how I can stretch what I want to say about Region 13 up to 1,500 words.

I'm just glad I'm back home.