FRIDAY

The pic above represents the different tribes on the island of Mindanao--apparently a couple of them gave regular human sacrifices to their Gods. There were two classes, the royalty and the slaves. Slaves were sacrificed.

Today I felt a bit under the weather. Spending 10 hour in the heat and under the sun definitely took its toll on me. Luckily, today we decided to end the workshop 2 hours early so that we could offer the participants some free time (i.e. shopping time).

During the meeting today I decided that I have found a new saying that I would like to add to my list of annoying management phrases; Amanda and I have a short list of sayings that we think all managers learn to say in trainings, such as “coming down the pike” Well, I’ve learned a new one that they use in workshops to describe an epiphany or realization; they call them “Ah-ha moments”—the opposite would be an “oops moment.” This term was used many times throughout the week and was definitely played out by the time Friday rolled around. Amanda, pray that Ann, Todd and Luke don’t get a hold of this one!

I also learned some random facts today about Madagascar (you can tell that the workshop was not keeping my interest). For instance, did you know that the Malagasy government has banned holding workshops for all government officials? Apparently, this was because the government was holding huge, expensive workshops and there wasn’t a benefit from it. This makes it hard for organizations like Conservation International to train government officials…


Also, like many other countries, Madagascar has a group of people that maintain the language. So if there’s a new word created in English, this group will make up the Malagasy equivalent. Apparently, the translation for computer is literally “brain replacement” in Malagasy…haha!

After the workshop I shopped a little and then met up with Marian, Ivan, and the SDC Asia crew to take them out to dinner. They took us to a place on the outskirts of Davao City, on the side of a mountain. From the restaurant we could see the entire city all lit up. We ate, drank, and, in typical Filipino form, had to dance. There was an awful band playing old classic rock songs—but the really slow depressing ones that make you want to jump off a bridge. Of course, Jonah from SDC, convinced them to change their genre by offering the white girls up as bait…which is how we ended up dancing in the first place. I ended up getting home around 11 pm and hit the sack!

Another SEXY note: Jonah, one of the guys we ate dinner with, gets frequent text messages. Unlike us normal people whose phones beep, ring, or vibrate when we receive a text, his phone says “Pick up your phone sexy!” The sexiness is never-ending around here!