How I Joined the Peace Corp While Having Dinner on the Discovery Channel

O.K. No one panic I didn't actually join the Peace Corp. Seeing as how it's the "United States" Peace Corp, I think I'd have difficulty getting in anyhow. Honestly, I really had no idea what the Peace Corp was until yesterday when I was introduced to a young woman named Emily. She and her husband John, originally from Missouri, are with the Peace Corp and are spending the next two years volunteering with city departments here in Puerto Princesa. They arrived here Monday, after having been pulled off a job in Luzon for "safety" issues (aka local political violence).
I found out by word of mouth that another city employee happened to have a couple of Canadian interns staying with them also. So we arranged to go have drinks at a Kinebuch (owned by an expat Russian/American ex-motocross rider). I set out for Kinebuch only to have the tricycle I was riding run out of gas, and I had to help the driver tip it on its side to drain any remaining fuel from the tank into the engine. No success. So I asked how far it was, and was told with a gesture, "just over there". Naturally, just over there ended up being several blocks in the dark up to the main road, at which point I took another tricycle the kilometer or so down the road to the bar (welcome to Puerto). When I arrived I saw a group of North American looking folks so I walked up to ask if they were the Canadians I was meeting. It ended up being Emily, whom I had met early in the day, her husband, and another Peace Corp volunteer named Roger, from Los Angeles, who is here teaching at the local university. After finding the two Canadians, we all joined up and had a couple of drinks.
So, that was my introduction to the Peace Corp workers as for joining up and the dinner bit. I was invited to go, this morning at 5:15am, with a few people from the Mayor's Office (including my new Peace Corp associates) to a blessing for a dolphin and whale watching venture. Although this group has been operating for a while, this was a PR opportunity for the Mayor and guests (us) to make an appearance, have the group blessed by a local priest, and tour Puerto Princesa Bay in search of dolphins. All of this was part of the promotion of the Mayor's Green City campaign which has seen Puerto transformed from a derelict town into what is becoming quite a nice place to visit. All of this was also caught on tape, not only by local media, but also by a group from the Discovery Channel who accompanied us on the trip and are developing a documentary on Mayor Hagedorn and his developments around Eco-Tourism. After a couple of hours of searching for dolphins (which we ended up seeing about twice), the Americans and I headed back to the city. On the way off the boat I was asked by a local reporter for an interview about the experience, and apparently I was featured on the evening news, although I didn't see it.
This evening, we were guests at a dinner hosted at one of the local hotels, by the Mayor. Apparently, just about every week guests of the city are treated to a wonderful dinner, with a video presentation highlighting developments which Mayor Hagedorn's government have seen realized, along with some singing and dancing by a group of cultural entertainers. In the introduction which was given, while waiting for the mayor to arrive, we were given a brief introduction, at which time, Emily was introduced as the head of the Peace Corp for this region (which she was impressed by) and I was introduced as being part of the U.S Peace Corp. Although I made an attemp to correct the speaker, things just rolled on, and so I just had to laugh. Although I had met the Mayor briefly at the airport on the day I arrived, I'm sure he didn't remember me, and I was told by Melissa, my Agriculture Department contact, that I had been introduced to him in the morning as part of the Peace Corp as well. There are definitely worse things you could be mistaken for.
The cultural show which was put on after dinner, included singing and dancing by a traditional costume clad performers, and included a birthday song to the Mayor (whose birthday is in a few days, and which is a big event, judging by all of the banners strung up across town). The Mayor even got on stage and joined in the singing of a local song about "unity" (once a week they said?) It is nice to see the positive changes that have been made in Puerto under strong leadership, but for a Canadian, all of the song and dance is purely entertaining. It's all a big show. The City's official logo is the peacock and it is easy to see why. All of this wonderful fuss at dinner was, once again, caught on camera under the careful eye of the Discovery Channel crew, who filmed everything from us eating to the the mayor benevolently giving us all local gifts. So keep your TVs tuned. (see more photos)

Generating Ideas

Imagine taking a bunch of house wives or a group of farmers, sitting them down, and asking them to brainstorm and draw, for the first time since they finished school (if they finished school). Imagine that these are all wonderful people who have all sorts of knowledge about the world around them which you are interested in gathering, but they are not used to thinking about the world around them, because they are too busy thinking about getting chores done, and what to make for dinner. What I describe could be just about anywhere. And this is in no way meant as any disrespect to farmers and house wives, for without them, we'd all be lost.
For my first project here in Puerto Princesa City I am focussing on branding and packaging for a group of women cashew processors. As such, I am faced with a typical design predicament. For the uninitiated, design simply looks like the process of making something pretty. And this can be done, more or less easily, with the right knowledge of typography, layout, and some awareness of what constitutes engaging photography or illustration. The difficult part of design is the gathering of information, the analysis of this information, and the synthesis of it into a new idea and form. It is easy enough to make a product look just like another product, but the idea behind a good design is that it takes into account the type of audience (or consumer) for a product, and tries to communicate to them a little bit about where the product is coming from. In addition to this, it is important not only to make this product look unlike everything else around it, so that it stands out, but also to use the correct visual language to imbue the product with additional value in the form of associations to other qualities it may have or inspire. These qualities can be everything from "natural" to "fresh" to "healthy" to "local", all of which make the product more valuable compared to those which are just "as you see them" in a jar or plastic bag.
As a communication designer, it is important for the function of what you do to be incorporated as part of the communication objectives of an overall marketing plan for a product, which includes the identification of a target market, along with pricing, placement, and promotional strategies that will ensure a positive return on all of this effort. The products I'm working with have no real marketing plan, but are rather placed into a supermarket with the hope that they will sell. As I am not a marketing intern, there is only so much I can do in this area that goes beyond suggestions. So, with the necessity of developing something in the time I have, I am left with the need to leave the specifics of a target market up to conjecture and develop a visual language that will communicate something of the qualities that any good local food product should have. I decided, therefore, that in order to gather local information about what qualities are important to the Kasoy Processors of San Jose, I could either spend weeks reading, or I could ask them. My timeline and lack of local information resources makes it implausible to just read about local life, and simply asking 20 different women what goes on around them, didn't seem to be very time appropriate either. So, I decided the best method for gathering info would be to do a group exercise.
This was a great idea, not only for gathering info, but also for showing me just how completely little I know about working with a group of people who know nothing about what I do (which from what I understand, is most businesses when it comes to design). I thought up a series of exercises which included the recording of words to do with the sight, taste, touch, and smell of Cashews and Kasoy fruit. I had them draw something that reminded them of a good memory, their family, tradition, and to list their favourite animal, colour, song, flower, etc. Lastly I got them into groups and brainstormed about words and ideas associated with "local", "safe", "health", "value" and "culture". I would like to have done more, but after a brief presentation on what a design should do, what we did already took a fair bit of time. Exercises like this are valuable because, as a designer, it is easy to get wrapped up in what you like, and overlook what is important to your audience or client. For instance, when having the group brainstorm about "value", I was thinking price, but ended up getting a lot of feedback about family, church, and neighbours. I found that a lot of what I was looking for in terms of local iconography was missed, due to my lack of experience in guiding the process, but even this is a valuable experience for next time. So now comes the tricky part, what do I make of all of this and what else do I need. Time is growing shorter, and the next step is visualization. (see more photos)

Is Right of Way Right?

As with any two countries or cultures, there are always irreconcilable differences in social customs, that when visiting a place, are difficult to get used to. The western idea of "right of way" is one of them. In traditional Euro-American culture, we take turns, and make space for others when appropriate.

Many asian cultures, whether by tradition or by density do not have the same space bubble that other cultures have. Even in Vancouver, I am sometimes annoyed when Vancouverites of Asian descent (usually first generation) step out in front of me with out looking, or cut me off. With the hope of not sounding racist, this is a lack of understanding on my part, as I have not experieced this with a group from any other part of the world, and I'm not even sure if its indemic to every Asian coutry or only some.

When I visited China this was apparent, and a friend who visited Korea once, sat down in an empty park with friends to have a picnic, only to have a local group come and sit down right next to them. The Philippines has not noticeably been extreme in this case, except when it comes to driving and in other small ways.

Where as in North America, we wait until the traffic lights change, or when coming onto a main road from a side street, we wait until the other traffic has passed. Here on the other hand a vehicle coming off a side street will push its way into traffic regardless. Other drivers will continually swerve around this person, until they can no longer possibly do so. It is unusual to me (although I have experienced it before) but it seems to work, like most systems, since everyone knows how it operates and acts accordingly.

Another example of this different approach follows. Yesterday I visited baranguay San Jose with a few people from the city Mayor's Office. A few got in the back of the van, and then Melissa jumped in on the front bench and said, " you can sit here or in the front". The front seat had things on it so I decided to sit in the back. When she didn't move, I thought maybe it was her way of suggesting the front seat would be better, but in actuality she expected me to get in passed her, because I guess she likes to sit by the door.

Visiting other countries always does a good job of letting you know exactly how little you know about people. It is somewhat unfair to say "we" or "our culture" when talking about what I'm used to as well, because of course, Canada is made up of a lot of "we's" and many different cultures. So the important lesson to learn is that different ways of doing things, work for different people. There isn't necessarily a best way for anything.

San Jose Kasoy Processors

Today along with Melissa and Enera from City Agri, I had the opportunity to visit the Kasoy processors of San Jose. Design is a complicated process, and although cosmetically it seems like a system of beautifying the world, the majority of its process is spent travelling around looking at things, asking lots of questions and organizing the information retrieved from that process. The actual making part, although not easy is a relatively short and systematic part of the whole process. After having been somewhat frustrated last week by slow government processes, today standing in a small bamboo hut with a thatched roof asking question about how the Kasoy processors go about their daily lives, something turned on inside me. I suddenly realized what a wonderful learning experience this really is.

The purpose of my internship here is to help people, and to make it possible for them and others to continue getting help after I leave, and as such, working with these women to help develop a language to represent themselves is going to be a pleasure. For most small product developers here packaging their wares consists of buying bulk plastic bags or generic containers from a local store and labels are produced through small reprographics stores who help groups pick a bad font or two.

The Kasoy processors are groups of local women who shell and roast or fry fresh cashew nuts purchased from local farmers. They buy the cashews in bulk, dry them out and then store them. The head of the one group I spoke to buys and stores the materials and then other women shell and roast them at home, while she does the packaging and sells them at the market. Other groups who were there today, shell and roast but sell their products to sellers at the markets who then package the nuts and apply their own labels. For these women, they are avoiding the costs of permits from the City Mayor's office, the Department of Trade and Industry and the taxes that go with being a registered business.

The goal will be to both look into who is actually their customer base, what kind of packaging solutions might be possible, who else they might sell to, how they might maximize working together to reduce costs, and finally coming up with a graphic branding language that will truly represent them and their products as unique and different from the other similar products already being sold in the stores. Their current generic labels have, like most local products, a bad character font, next to a drawing of the item, with a superimposed version of the image in the background. Oh, we can do so much better than this. (see more photos)

The City Agriculture Department

When I was introduced to this OTOP project, my understanding was that, at the city level, products were being searched out to represent different city baranguays so that whatever products were already being produced could be promoted. As it turns out, Puerto Princesa City has mandated that the two areas of concentration for their own local OTOP focus would be marine products, and Kasoy (cashew) products full stop.

Yesterday morning, I finally had a chance to sit down with Melissa from the city Agriculture Office, along with Delia and Enera from "Agri" who deal with specific issues in that department. We were also joined by Leo Bachiller who helped Sam Carter, an Emily Carr Instructor who put on a workshop here for local producers here this spring, and Hipolito Murcia who works for the Agriculture Office and also happens to be the head of the Liberty Fisherman's Co-operative that I visited earlier (in Canada, that would be called a conflict of interest, hmmm). Boots from the city Tourism office was an active participant as well. Oddly, there was no one representing the city Planning Office, who is supposed to be the first contact for OTOP procedures.

I was able to give them a short presentation about what Communication Design is and what its potentials might be. I also explained to them what my observations had been after looking around for a week and a half. I divided my remaining time here into two stages during which, with their input and assistance, I would try to complete one major product branding project, one projecgt aimed at promoting and communicating the existence of these products to their respective markets, plus a number of educational seminars to help create foster some avenues for future productivity.

I think everyone was a little beside themselves when I asked marketing questions like who is the target market for a product, what kind of promotion has this product been given, and what makes these cashews different from those cashews? Making mention of observations like the lack of promotion through tourism channels or how the current vernacular of print shop label making could be improved, however, everyone was right on board.

I also asked about how the city goes about identifying producers that need assitance, and what program there is for helping them, but it is done on a pretty fragmented word of mouth basis, and they are handed off to which ever department will best be able to offer support for their area of need. This is not by any means a centralized process. Although there are other products, which are made locally, it seemed clear that for many baranguays, fishing and cashew production were the two principal industries, and so in the spirit of OTOP, we identified a group of women in the baranguay of San Jose who have been roasting, packaging and selling Kasoy products for twenty years, but have no formal packaging system, and could use some organization to boot. I decided that I could spend all of my time searching, or I could find someone whom my time here could really benefit from the ground up, and get the ball rolling. Cashews it is. (see more photos-more to come)

Plan of Action

After a rather depressing weekend, which included a chest cold, rain, power outages, and a great feeling of being lost, and not knowing what to do next, I decided that I had better clarify my intentions and get focussed. I spoke to Melissa from the City Agriculture Office who was supposed to be my contact. She attended a lunch at Czarina's place for a bunch of Australian Filipinos who were up visiting common friends. We agreed to meet with others from the Mayor's Office the next day.

After looking at many different products with the same kinds of issues, and the lack of promotion they were actually getting, I decided on a plan of action. Firstly, the interest in me coming here, was to help the local OTOP team with packaging and branding, because even with my student's knowledge, there is little specialization in design here. So ultimately it would be good to help design something along these lines, and ideally for someone who really needed help from the ground up.

Secondly, outside of introducing food products into the local supply chain, there seems to otherwise be no concept of marketing whatsoever. There is no consideration for who the producted is being aimed at, but rather a general hope that if it's in the store, then it might be purchased.

So this is the plan. The next five weeks will be aimed at project one. This will be the immediate identification of a producer who requires significant assistance, followed by a process of gathering information not only about their operation, product, competitors, and sales channels, but also with some focus on an attempt to identify possible target markets and alternative destinations for their products. I will work with the city and this producer to identify a visual language that will best create an unique identity to tell their story and create demand for their product. This will include a process of gathering and developing indigenous iconography that does not necessarily have to be a literal representation of their product, but should identify it with them, their history, and the place that they live. We will look at the availability of packaging materials and printing options, and develop a series of packages that will look unlike everything else on the shelf.

Along side this, the DTI is interested in holding a conference for local producers and all of its local partners. At this event at the end of the month, I will give a prensentation on the basics of good design, visual culture, and hopefully run some exercises aimed at promoting the use of simple design methodologies to help create better branding.

The second stage of the project will be directed at communicating the existence of these products to a selected target audience. This will either focus on promoting the benefit of buying local to the local market, or it will educate visitors to Puerto Princesa City about what is available and where to find it. At this time we will try to run a second and possibly a third presentation/workshop which will address souvenir shop owners needing help with promoting local products, and possible people from the printing, art, and packaging sales industries.

If all goes well, I will also hopefully be able to develop some kind of resource for local producers to reference in the future, for more information on how to pursue the ideas we will communicate.

Rain and More Rain

This past weekend the heavens opened up and dumped the South China Sea down on Palwan. Although most of the literature seems to say that the rainy season here doesn't end until November, most of the locals seem to think it doesn't usually rain this much at this time of year. Of course, we tell visitors to Vancouver that it never snows, and that our summers are wonderful (look at the one we just had).

Rain isn't usually so bad, but when all of the local transporation is by motorcycle sidecar, the internet goes down frequently and there are brownouts and no lights, it can become a bit more tiresome. I have been told that a storm like we had this past weekend hasn't happened here in about 10 years. Apparently because of its geographic position, Palawan is spared the monsoons, and cyclones that other areas of the country have to grin and bear.

I stayed in a hotel on Sunday night, who had power only because of their generator which is constantly on guard, and which is even advertised in their brochure. (see more photos)

Team Building Seminar

Following the day out at Langogan, where I began to feel I was being lead a bit off track, an even less constructive day followed. In the morning I was invited to a meeting at the city office of the Palawan branch for the Department of Trade and Industry. The DTI is the federal body who is charged with bringing national initiatives involving trade, investment and business to the local provinces and regional goverments. It is they who along with local city council, have intiated the OTOP project. They help small enterprises in the areas of identifying, branding, and marketing products, and bringing together the necessary resources for communities, including training and community processing centers. They do good work. Like all similar agencies world wide however, they like to go in circles, and the more feathers in their cap the better. I had been hoping to come and find out what the OTOP project was all about, but the discussion focussed on the available sites for a particular communities processing center and that was all the time there was.

In the afternoon, I was invited to a DTI sponsored "TEAM BUILDING SEMINAR", which was exactly what you're probably picturing. A bunch of people sharing communal activities such as building a group coat of arms based on our lives, and following on screen dance steps. This sort of thing is used by many organizatons, and they are probably even practical, but I spent the whole time thinking, "I might as well be working for Wal-Mart". I was inspired by the stories of a few single working mothers (everyone has lots of kids here) and met a few interesting people. One of these people was Attorney Vic Tan, an Chinese Filipino who commented that upon visiting family in Richmond (Vancouver) he couldn't understand why there weren't any white people. He was just about to open his store Budget Home Depot (with a few borrowed names—no such thing as intellectual property here). Although Mr. Tan prefixes his name with Atty. he apparently only practised law for a few years, because as he explained, everyone knew him and wanted him to work for them as a favour.

So a few interesting people were met. I received a number of texts afterwards, asking me to come up with packaging designs. I think I inherited Attorney Tan's problem. I escaped before dinner as I had another appointment and spent the next couple of days thinking what the heck am I doing here? Such is the adjustment period of coming to a new place.

The Green City

Puerto Princesa City has been given numerous awards for its efforts to build a green city and an economy which focusses on Eco Tourism. Under Mayor Hagedorn, the city has become the first in the country to have an engineered sanitary landfill facility. Green garbage bins are a regular fixture and there are laws against both littering and smoking in public places that carry fines, and even time in jail upon a third offense. The city has gone out of their way to ban any mining (a big industry for Palawan) within the city limits, much of which is rural and mountainous.

The fleets of tricycles with their dirty emissions, have been regulated so that an operator may only work on certain days of the week depending on whether they are in group 1 or group 2, in order to reduce the competition and over-abundant pollution created. There is even talk of banning tricycles from the main roads and restricting them to rural areas only. This would be a defeat for the hundreds of people who rely on this method of earning an income, and not much of one at that, however, if the city is going to continue to clean itself, this will be a necessary evil in the long run.

For a western foreigner who is used to finished sidewalks and groomed yards, it is sometimes difficult to see the good of these initiatives for all of the dirty air and crumbling concrete. When visiting the fishing docks or some of the communities outside of the city center, you can't help but notice all of the trash in the water, the batteries and empty liquor bottles on the beach. Compared to our world, this reality of thatched huts and remodelled old vehicles seems like a step back in time, but for a country like the Philippines these green projects are the best steps in right direction. The people here are friendly, and although the infrastructure will take a long time to develop if it ever fully does, the abundance of natural landscape, and a government focussed on promoting an eco-tourism economy will make Puerto Princesa City stand apart for a long time to come. (see more photos)

Animals

The Nokia mobile phone which I purchased here includes the sound of a rooster crowing. I believe most Nokia phones including the one I have at home include this ring tone. The difference here is that if I sleep through my alarm set to this tone, I can be sure that in place of the snooze feature will be real roosters crowing outside. Not only first thing in the morning either. Even in Manila in the 19th floor of a hotel, I would know it was morning by the sound of the roosters somewhere in the city.

In Puerto Princesa, there are chickens and other animals that run freely through people's property and somehow don't seem to run out into the road. A house down the road from where I stay has a front yard full of turkeys and they just stay there. I have to say, I actually find the roosters to be quite beautiful. They are the kind of cocks that have golden necks and bright green tail feathers (the kind you see on the Kellog's Corn Flakes box).

Other animals include goats on the side of the roads, and there are ridiculous amount of stray dogs here, and all of a similar sort. I asked a few people what the breed of dog seen everywhere is called. They literally call them "stray dogs" in Filipino and no one is really sure of the breed. Especially on the highway, there is a dog every half kilometer. The Lim's have several dogs in small pens on their property. Some are let free at certain times, but there is one retreiver who never seem to be out of the cage. Not sure why.

Insects are of course prevalent here, being a wooded tropical area. The mosquitos so far are second rate to the swarms you see on the Canadian prairies, but there are small midges which have left my ankles and forearms spotted and itchy, and there of course lots of flies, small spiders (which eat the flies) and a few friendly geckos. What really gets me are the ants. There are very small black ants which will throw a huge party if any food is left poorly wrapped. I spray the room with raid and I have about a day before the next battalion arrives.

One of the most interesting experiences I have found so far, is every day at quarter to five the crickets make music for about twenty minutes. It starts as a hum in the forest, and you can actually hear in move across the trees like surround sound, until the whole world around you is humming. Just as instantly, twenty minutes later it stops. Wow.