Made all the connections with Cebu Pacific air, touching down in Tacloban in the late afternoon. Aaron was at the airport to greet me before we took a tricycle (that's a motorcycle with a 1.5-person-wide sidecar, more maneuverable but slower than Indian or Thai autorickshaws or tuk tuks).
We had enough time that evening to plan the next day over pork adobo and San Miguel's before heading for the local/NGO watering hole run out of a truck. It was the only bar in town after Haiyan/Yolanda and has a special place in everyone's hearts. Fancy looking burgers too. They should open a franchise in Seattle.
The next morning we picked up another tricycle for a gas-powered tour of Tacloban and environs. Our first stop was a memorial commemorating the return of General MacArthur, thanks to whom US visitors to this day enjoy a friendly welcome in the Philippines.
From there we checked the work sites and projects of three NGO's involved in the recovery from the hurricane. Aaron has been studying disaster response efforts and he made an excellent tour guide as we discussed everything from stakeholder participation to construction techniques. There was even a "makerspace" for individuals to check out tools from a "tool tree" to help them rebuild. I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into Aaron's role of observing and evaluating efforts after having volunteered multiple times myself with Engineers Without Borders.
After this it was time to see firsthand the evidence of Yolanda's destructive power multiple ships had been dropped by the storm surge onto housing areas. Chilling.
We continued slightly further north to the longest bridge in the Philippines, which connects Leyte and Samar islands. Aaron, a civil engineering PhD student was ever excited to show me this.
Now since we did Aaron's thing, I convinced him to check out the local climbing gym and outdoor store. Our belayer kept us safe in between watching over his two young sons. Climbing barefoot in the heat and humidity definitely increased the challenge!
Now off to the airport for Manila via jeep bus. This involves a fun system of passing passengers' fares from one person to the next up the bench seats towards the driver, who makes change in between gear shifts and passes it back along the same chain.
With a little luck tonight we will be on an overnight bus to Banaue and its beautiful rice terraces.
No comments:
Post a Comment