Gearing Up

Wednesday night, October 11, 2012

I'll be in Dumaguete City
(look for the island Negros)

I'm packing for my big trip to the Philippines tonight. 

People keep asking me "Have you ever been before?" and the answer is NO!  I have virtually no connection with the country whatsoever aside from Alana Fournet and a stuffed pangolin.

Alana's been a Peace Corp Volunteer in the Philippines for the past two years and a one time client.  She invited me to come over there and teach EFT.  Her tour is just about over and my workshops there will be her final project.

The stuffed pangolin is another story.  When I was about 9 years old my sister and I had outgrown our bikes and my dad gave them to a Filipino family he knew from work.  In return they gifted my dad with a stuffed pangolin, which looks like a cross between an armadillo and an anteater.  It has big claws for digging, and I seem to remember it can also spray like a skunk!

Ours was stuffed and mounted on a piece of wood and I treasured the thing for years.  I still have it boxed up in storage somewhere.  I understand that the Philippine Pangolin is threatened as a species.  I'd love to see one, but that's not actually why I'm going.

Another reason I'm not going is to make money.  That's usually a big factor in going somewhere to teach a workshop.  Even though I love teaching, it's a lot of work.  But it turns out that Filipinos are kind of broke.

Even though we're charging for the workshop at the University (I think the tuition is 1000 pesos) it's not enough to even cover our expenses.  And I'm not talking about my airfare and lodging and all that!  Just renting the hall and supplying everyone lunch and the printing and such. 

By the way, 1000 pesos is around $25.  For a three day workshop.  And that includes lunch.  Sheesh.  I couldn't really afford to pay to teach these folks.  So I decided to raise funds for the trip.

And we got backers!  Some 40 wonderful and generous people who've made donations to make the trip happen. You can see how we raised the money through Kickstarter here.

So the big plan is to make a documentary of the trainings.  I'll be editing that when I get home and with luck will have it done by Christmas (we'll see).

I'm starting this blog just to keep family, friends, donors and anyone else who might be interested, posted on this venture.  I'll try to keep the photos coming, so check it out time to time!