I was just two days off the plane and back in the Philippines when I heard that HSPFI’s 2009 Q4 Project Officers Meeting would be taking place the next day. I really wanted to make something for the POs as a small token of thanks, so I threw a video together and showed it the next day to whoops and cheers. I actually think this is the best Kiva/HSPFI video that I’ve edited to-date, so I was really glad to see it well-received.

A bit of context – the first part of the video is mostly made up of footage from the HSPFI 2009 Staff Christmas Party. The day kicked off with gift exchanges and team-building/general bonding activities at a nearby resort; the night activities took place in the HSPFI office and consisted of a big delicious dinner and the HSPFI staff dance competition (and videoke/impromptu dancing). Having seen how hard HSPFI staff works on a regular basis, it was really cool to see the organization give back to dedicated staff members on the ground with a kickass Christmas celebration.

(Video Background Music: Allison Crowe – “Immersed” and “Midnight”, available on Jamendo.com)

Other footage used in the video were taken from the 2009 Q3 HSPFI POs Meeting & After-Party; Iligan Branch’s 15th Anniversary and 2009 Client Christmas Party; and Gingoog Branch’s 2009 Client Christmas Party. I also threw in some of my favorite photos from various branch visits/field travels with awesome HSPFI POs.

Enjoy

So to celebrate me finding a new favorite spot on Earth, here are some memorable candids from Camiguin.

We found Ms. Mezyl Guerra‘s home/business surrounded by spindly, towering palm trees where you really have to crane your neck to look up at them. In the coming dusk, this spot felt beautiful yet slightly surreal.

This was a bit of a WTF find at Ms. Lina Micabalo‘s… a fish with fangs?! She said that it was real and dried as is though… I still feel the awe when I look at this picture

(She also had some pet rabbits in a cage, but after the fanged fish I can reassure you that they were nothing special )

This next pic is one of my all-time favorites. I guess I’m just a big sucker for people going down stairs. Plus, I snapped this shot on the way to the Sunken Cemetery and that place is a big reason why I love Camiguin so much. I’ve posted quite a few Sunken Cemetery photos in a separate blog post and they’re definitely worth checking out!

We also visited a small hot springs rock pool right next to the ocean. The water was scalding – I wished I had brought my swimsuit so I could’ve gone for a proper dip. Although, the one time I did bust out my swimsuit (after a staff dinner at a beach resort) it apparently caused a mini-scandal? I wasn’t wearing a skimpy bikini either, mind you – just a two piece that basically looks like a one piece. So maybe bringing that swimsuit wouldn’t have been such a good idea after all…

Here’s another one of my all-time favorite pics… Corroi (HSPFI Kiva Coordinator) snapping a pic of Sir Ronald Alipaopao (HSPFI Project Officer) on his motorcycle. And me, thirty feet away, stealing this picture of an unguarded moment in the field.

Bizarre is probably not the best word to describe this client interview, but without a doubt we were intrigued and utterly fascinated by the alien-looking blob we saw sitting pretty before us. Corroi, HSPFI‘s Kiva Coordinator and I found ourselves staring at a live (or semi-live) sea cucumber during a visit to HSPFI client and Kiva borrower Ann Lagrada on Camiguin Island.

(This is the second part of my “most memorable client interviews on Camiguin” series – check out “The Most Beautiful Client Interview (Part 1 of 2)” if you haven’t already!)

(If you have a soft spot in your heart, an ongoing and lasting fondness for sea cucumbers like the one above, and the thought of chopping/prepping a sea cucumber for consumption would cause you much undue stress, do NOT click on the “more” link.)

We peppered Ann with questions. I had eaten sea cucumbers before – it’s fairly common in Chinese cuisine – but I had never seen a live one before. Corroi hadn’t known before this that people actually eat sea cucumbers – so I tried my best to describe the slightly glutinous yet crunchy taste of sea cucumbers for her. A little bit like the seaweed dish that we had eaten earlier in the day.

Ann explained that her husband dives at night to catch the sea cucumbers. There are places in the Philippines where sea cucumbers are protected, she added, but there are currently no restrictions on harvesting sea cucumbers in Camiguin. After her husband returns with the catch, she’ll leave the sea cucumbers in small basins until they spew out any leftover sand and innards, then boil and dry them. Every two weeks Ann and her husband sells the dried sea cucumbers to a Filipino agent for $1,500 pesos/kilogram. She said that the agent will then export the dried product to Korea.

Ann estimates that she and her husband sells two kilograms of dried sea cucumbers to the agent every time they meet. At $6,000 pesos a month, this business is bringing in solid income for their family. John, the HSPFI project officer (or loan officer) who brought us here later told me that this business had successfully found a niche market and was one of the client businesses that he was most proud of.

Seeing our continued and somewhat lurid fascination for the sea cucumber, which had by this point of the interview ejected its innards, Ann asked for a knife and proceeded to saw the now completely dead sea cucumber in half. It had hardened much more than what I would’ve expected from its slimy exterior.

(Watch the below video at your own risk! Although I assume if you’ve gotten this far, this is probably what you’ve been waiting for…)

Ann’s husband had joined us towards the middle of the interview, presumably to find out why a foreign bumpkin interviewer was getting all excited over his sea cucumbers – joined in some of the answers and showed us his diving flashlight. We wrapped up with a few more questions and thanked them both. As we walked out to another interview, this time with Ann’s mother-in-law Perpetua Lagrada, John joked that Koreans liked to eat sea cucumbers because they’re believed to increase sexual drives. To which I laughed and replied, if that’s the case, sadly they haven’t worked on me at all!

Eva Wu is a proud member of KF9, and she’s still head over heels in love with the Philippines and her host MFI, Hagdan sa Pag-uswag Foundation, Inc.! Support HSPFI by lending or by joining the HSPFI lending team today!

I experienced a lot of firsts during my week in the field visiting HSPFI‘s Camiguin Branch. Some good, some intense, all of it exciting. Amongst all these firsts, I’m convinced that I witnessed on Camiguin Island both the most beautiful and the most bizarre client interviews that I’ll get to conduct while here in the Philippines. This post is about the former – check out the latter at “The Most Bizarre Client Interview (Part 2 of 2)“!

A bit of background on Camiguin – I had been excited about this outing for quite a while, because all of my HSPFI co-workers kept telling me about this “island of paradise” that has hot and cold springs; a walkway through an old inactive volcano with stations of the cross that Filipinos from all over visit during Lent; the sweetest lanzones in the Philippines; a sunken cemetery.

Camiguin - A View of the Volcanoes

Corroi (HSPFI’s Kiva Coordinator) and I spent most of the week trekking around with the project officers and interviewing clients, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can visit Camiguin again and spend more time touring some of the spots. Corroi and the Camiguin Branch staff were very thoughtful though in arranging the schedule – Wednesday turned out to be a work+fun day when we visited a bunch of HSPFI clients who ran souvenir shops, transport services, etc. at popular tourist spots. So we also got to check out some of the sights in between interviews.

At the sunken cemetery we found a HSPFI client who rows tourists over to the base of the massive cross marker. Corroi has an artist’s eye for picking out good backdrops for client interviews – she’s amazingly astute at this – and suggested that we do the interview in the boat while the client was rowing us over! So we did. It was a gorgeous day – bright sunlight, blue skies, aquamarine seas, and something undeniably romantic in the atmosphere – as there should be at this old cemetery, sunk beneath the waves because of a volcano eruption. We lingered beneath the giant cross and listened as the client told us about his business and his family. He runs multiple businesses to support his three children and their education while his wife is working overseas. The hardships that the client described contrasted with the beauty of the day and took my breath away.

After I came back to HSPFI’s head office in Cagayan de Oro I was disappointed to discover that this particular HSPFI client wasn’t posted on Kiva, so I can’t share the actual interview here despite building this entire post around how wonderful it was. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for the opportunity to meet this ambitious client and hear his story. He plans to purchase another boat so he can run more tours and catch more fish.

I’m proud to be working for an MFI that supports individuals like him, and I feel privileged to have found such grace on Camiguin Island. Standing beneath a memorial to the dead, I heard a living testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

Eva Wu is a proud member of KF9, and she’s still head over heels in love with the Philippines and her host MFI, Hagdan sa Pag-uswag Foundation, Inc.! Support HSPFI by lending or by joining the HSPFI lending team today!