Dear people,

And then finally our experience at the Philippines has come to an end. I think it was an incredible time, I’ve seen, learned and heared a lot of new things and made many new friends. I can tell you all many many things but it just won’t fit on this page… Nevertheless, I haven’t told you anything about the last few days yet, so let’s start at the Friday, when the graduation and byebye party were celebrated.

In the afternoon of friday we had an official closing session, with again Cassey and Hermans as ceremonyleaders and Frans and many others as speaker. Also, two alumni gave a speach about their experiences at PTC+, one alumni from long long ago, and one who just got back from the Netherlands last may. It was very nice to hear about their experiences and their thoughts about the Netherlands. Two participants also had the chance to give a little speach, first of all it was Chaweewan who told about her ideas of these two weeks and with a lot of thanks for all the people that made it possible. After her it was Razak’s turn, and he made me blush, since he told everybody all about my work during the course. I was a lot on the back ground but still very busy with the CD, preparing things for presentations etc. After these speaches it was time to hand out the certificates. One by one the participants were called to come forward and Hermans told a few words about them, what happened during the last two weeks. And after all these official happenings it was time to celebrate!

First we had a lovely dinner at the canteen at the ITCPH, prepared by the restaurant inside our hotel, who actually prepared all our food for the last two weeks. I would like to thank them for all the good service they gave. Anyway, there was a lot of choice, and since it was the last day I decided to try a bit of everything, accepting the fact that the chance of diarhea was quite big…
After dinner a band started playing, and also Hanny sang a lovely song. Around 8.30 I took everybody’s camera with me to put more pictures on my computer, and it was time for me to start selecting things. This night people were going to leave Lipa to go home, so I needed to start burning CDs. At a certain moment we were called back, since the ITCPH organised a special gift round, with fungifts that were real personal. My present was a poem written by a banana, as well as two plastic bananas! Not real hard to guess why…

At 10 we went back to the hotel and even during the trip I kept on burning CDs. When we were at the hotel I lent other people’s laptops as well to burn more CDs at the same time. Suddenly we found out that one programm on the CDs wasn’t right and we had to start all over. around 1.30 at night the job was done and we went to bed, to get back up at 3 when the first group of participants left. Again at 5 we stood up, and the last group left at 8.30. Although we were quite tired, we went shopping that saturday and I went to a massage with Philipina. Sunday we went snorkling in the sea and saw many beautiful fish and other animals.

And then, monday, it was our time to leave the Philippines. we left the hotel at 6.30 AM Philippin time, and arrived at Schiphol at 5.30 PM. Time to split up and each go our own way, back home.It was a wonderfull time and I met Hermans and Frans from a different side. Thank you all for this great experience.

Sincerely and hopefully see you all again!
Frans, Hermans and Evelyne.

Dear people,

Finally I can place some articles from participants about several farmvisits and other expeditions! Her they are!

After Philrice the group went to the nearby Central Luzon State University where they visited the small ruminant centre, the river buffalo gene pool and the vegetable and fruit seeds production centre.

June 30, Caraboau Centre by Judith
The logest day of the four-day field trip- longest in the sence that we had to wake up early at around 4:30 a.m. to prepare ourselves for the visit to PCC milking barn. A vasectomized bull made focus and paced before the camera of his amused visitors. Another striking scene was the calf playing with Nory. It was such a nice viewx85 a mother and a baby (calf)
Then, the long journey startedx85 at first everybody was alive.. with big smilesx85 and happy mood. Even the driver of the bus went x93internationalx94. But hours passed by and wex92re still in the mood. From time to time x93tour guidesx94 Quezy and Jovi gave information for every interesting site we reached. Long journeyx85 tiring not only for the x93elderx94 participants but  for the x93not too oldx94 participants as well. We need TOILET! TOILET! Cried out loud by Mian, Nopporn, Chien and Lihn.
At last! Fort Ilocandiacan now be seen from a distancex85 a warm welcome through an indigenous song energized everybody. Dinner was served at the x93eat all you canx94coffe shop of the hotel. Participants went to casino, swimming pool and took some pictures. But its is pity we werenx92t able to see the beauty of FortIlocandia because we left early the following day.

July 1: trip to Loang City, by Mian:
My experience in the journey at 1 July in Loang City. The program of the Refresher Course Philipines is very interesting. At first we went to the Marcos Mausoleum. I prayed for him, while my heart was beating: x93He is just a victim. A politician is more hazardous than a killer.
By the time it  was shopping time, I forgot that I havenx92t pesos in my wallet. There are some Euro( 2 x 50 ) given by PTC+. I asked the seller if it was acceptable if I use euro and she said x93okx94. I must pay an amount of 1200 pesos. And I was very surprised when I received a change from the seller. So I got 1750 pesos ( 1 euro = 59 pesos). I thought at that time I was very rich. I have very much money to buy more souvenirs. Thanks God.
Thank for all to PTC+ especially MR. Frans, Mr. Hermans and Ms. Evelyne.

2 July, Feedmill by Kungwan:
Finally the last day of trip came. After getting out of our comfortable bed and a nice breakfast at the 5 star hotel, Holiday Inn, we went to visit the Univet feedmill at Sarimanok, Pampanga city. It is a very good feedmill with a capacity of 40 ton/hour (actual production 35 ton/hour), which keeps up a high standard at processing by technical collaboration with the well known organisation, Akey form the USA and its mother organisation Provimi Holding from the Netherlands. Consequently this feedmill is in the top 5 of the feedmills in the Philippines. The main products  are feeds for pigs and fighting cocks which I could not imagine. Is that  glambling  bird contribute to better livilihood for mankind? Before leaving we were served a very nic and big meal.
In the afternoon half of the group went to see a pig farm at Rizal city. This farm is keeping 250 sows to produce their own weaners for fattening.
There were many interesting things that made these farm unique such as:
-         small feedmill to produce mash feed which is lowering the feed cost.
-         the biosecurity system that can prevent pathogenic diseases from outside.
-         Good waste management by the use of manure to produce biogas and transform this to electric power which is enough to supply the farm and the household. This is thus a friendly environment practice. Again before leaving the farmer provided us with a grilled native pig. Fabulous! We eat ad lib. I really donx92t want to go back home having reached the slaughter weight. The other group went to a 400 sow breeding farm where they produced boars and gilts of pure breeds like Large White,, Landrace, Duroc, Pietrain and Hampshire and also two way crossbreeds.  Very good biosecurity included showering which took some time. Also on this farm biogas production. A snack was offered after visiting the very nice and clean farm.

July 3, Fishermen by Hanny
Leaving ITCPH by bus to visit a fish farm at Taal Lake, Batangas.
It was nice to know how the Philipino fishermen are making money in the lake, good experience to me to see the farm in the lake. Wex92ll never know if wex92re not visiting those farms. And we have to go (on visit) by boat. I could imagine how rich they are (fisherman). When it is harvesting time  the catch around 3000 kg. This is a revenue of 3000 x 110/kg = 330000  pesos When we were returning with the bus I discovered that my wear is wet. So wet on the boat, wet in the bus.
—
I know, I know, it is a very long article, but that is what I already told you!

Sincerely,

Evelyne, Frans and Hermans.

June 27, layer poultry farm by Razak
Vine Farm San Salvador, a medium scale eggs production (15.000 birds) located at the outscirt of Lipa. The farm received services from a private veterinarian. It was an open house system with thre tier. White Leghorn was the breed of choice with an average mortality of 10%, feed was given twice daily at the amount of 105-110 gram per bird per day. The feed was home mixture in mash form at the cost of 16 peso per kg. The FCR was 1:1.95 and the farm operated manually. The farm follows the routine vaccination program. Debeaking was done at day old. Most of the cages are of recondition type, replacing bamboo to minimize the inputcost. Point of lay was at the 19^th week and the light maintained at 15-16 hours per day after peak production. The eggs were collected and graded manually. The farm had achieved 92-93% eggs production during the first 4-5 months laying period and at 68% after 500 days. The spent hens are culled at the age of 675 days. Eggs are sold at wholesale price of 3.43 peso per piece and the cost of production was 2.35 peso per egg. Records were kept manually by the farmworker. Farmworkers were paid at 3500-4000 peso per man per month.

June 29, Philrice by Albert
The first day of the participants out of Lipa City was a six hour educational trip to central Luzone at the Phillipine Researh Rice Institute, or Philrice.

The participants were treated for a short video about the programs and projects of Philrice as regards rice improvement, production and utilization. In addition they were given a tour of the facilities and museum of the institution.

Hi everybody,

First of all I would like to thank all the alumni who wrote a little reaction on our web-log. It is very nice to hear how you are doing at the moment and ofcourse we will tell all our colleques about your greetings!

Furthermore, we came back from our trip to the north last mondaynight, to late to write a little message, and after that there was not really a lot of time to write. During these last few days, two participants became ill and Linh from Vietnam decided to leave us and flew back home yesterday. Jovy from the Philippines didn’t feel that good either, and went to the hospital for two nights, just to be sure nothing would happen. She feels better now and will stay untill saturday.

Now I can write a huge story about last weekend, but I wont. I will ask participants to write a little day by day and hope to place these stories at the web-log tonight.

Till later!

Just a short message as you asked for. It is very hard to shorten the messages, the fact is that are so many things you see and do that it is hard to loose some enthousiasm. Also, the texts look quite long since the layout is very "thin" in reality they are less than 1 page.

For the next couple of days there will be no message since we are going to the north for a few days. A message about the last two days and those days will follow but these will probably be long. I will try to split them up in days, but still there will be a long tekst to read.

Sincerely,
Frans, Hermans and Evelyne

Hi everybody!

A new day after a nice party. It was notable many people where still a bit tired, but it was time to continue our refresher course.

This morning we had three presentations; Norita started with a presentation about the ITCPH and itx92s development. A very interesting presentation that showed the future plans of the ITCPH. After Norita it was time for Hermans, who gave a presentation about the BHIP, the Back Home Improvement Plan. This project started last year and since all of the participants were in Barneveld way before that it was good to tell them about the BHIP and the reason why we started it. The presentation included a question round where the participants had to tell briefly what their pilot-project had been about and if it succeeded. The following presentation was from Roderick, a fresh student back from the Netherlands in June this year. He worked on a BHIP and showed the participants how he planned it, what he learned, how he used it and what the end result was. The presentation ended with a large discussion with a lot of questions from the participants to Roderick.

This afternoon we went to the farm Roderick used for his BHIP. To be prepared for this visit, the participants where asked to work in groups and make some discussion points that could be discussed with the farmer.
The trip to the farm took about 1.5 hours. The farm we visited was a backyard farm, with normally around 8 sows. In our eyes they looked a bit thin; food and water were given by hand with a can. One of the pigs had access to a very special nipple system; the nipple was attached to a line that ended up in a tub that was filled with water! The gilts and finishers looked quite alright and had various colours, Roderick didnx92t know what kind of boar ad been used but it could have been any race. Medication was stored in a small box on the wall and a calendar showed data of deworming etc. This was about all the information we could find outside about the treatment of the animals. The pens are daily cleaned with water; manure is swept away. All wastewater and manure end up in the environment. No hygiene handlings were used and the sows seemed a bit bored since they were chewing on their boxes.
Even though this might sound quite bad, it probably was quite good. You cannot compare the circumstances in the Philippines with the Netherlands. If you look at the condition of most houses, streets etc. this farm seemed quite alright in materials. The layout of the pens is quite equal to the Dutch standards. The boxes where made out of metal. Next to sows the farmer owned several dogs that were barking all over and the chickens ran everywhere.

After the farmvisit we went to the research centre where Roderick works. This centre does research on cattle, poultry and swine. In this centre we started with questions that were made up earlier this day, followed by a discussion and advice towards the farmer. We also met an alumnus from the three month poultry course from 2006 (Fabien).

After the visit it was time to go back to the hotel and have dinner. After dinner we had a little surprise for the participants, since we showed the photo lists of the alumni from previous years. Also, Frans took the laptop with him and showed the x93face to facex94 from I-Link. The participants where very pleased and had a lot of fun laughing about the pictures.

Thatx92s all for now, c u tomorrow,

Frans, Hermans and Evelyne.

Dear people,

First of all I would like to thank you for the nice reactions on my messages in the web-log. It stimulates me to continue! As an answer to Gert-Wouter’s question, the food is quite diarrhoea-proof, except for the last two days for me, Evelyne. But since I’m the only one it almost can’t be the food. Last night it was a bit late to write a message, therefore I’m using this little break between all things in the schedule.

Yesterday was a very long day; the morning seemed to start as every other morning, except for the fact that I have been practising the song "Lang zal hij leven" with the participants in secret, like in the bus when Frans wasn’t around and during several other circumstances. We all stood up during breakfast and sang the song quite loud, especially the HOERA at the end. The card with texts and birthday wishes from all colleagues was appreciated as well.

After breakfast we needed to hurry a little bit since many people had to change clothes for the special opening ceremony at the building of ITCPH. Several people were invited to join the ceremony, like the sponsors of ITCPH (Univet, provincial agricultural organisations etc), the community secretary of Lipa-city and several other people. Frans, Hermans and me were asked to sit on stage, together with the director of  ATI and the director ITCPH. Hermans en Quezy were the "masters of ceremony" to present the  presentations of Frans and the manager of ATI-ITCPH and give the ceremony a little entertainment. During the ceremony the key of the ATI-ITCPH was reached to PTC+ by the manager and loads of pictures were taken.
After the official opening we had a little time to change clothes for more casual wear and after that we had a little tour on the area of the ITCPH. Also the dormitory was shown, since it turns out it is quite common in the Philippines to have a little rest after lunch, as some participants also did. Other participants decided to go on the Internet after lunch to check mail and sent new mails all around.

After lunch four presentations were given, including two from participants of the refresher course. The first presentation was given by the director of the ATI Department of agriculture, mr. Asterio P. Saliot. The subject was the national agricultural extension agenda of the Philippines, focussed on livestock. The presentation was very detailed and interesting, however other people seemed to be quite tired….
The second presentation was given by Dr. Jose Q. Molina, senior environmental animal health officer. His subject was livestock and the environment issues and concerns in small hold farming.
The following two presentations were from the participants Sumarni Tjokromidyoyo (Ami) and Hanny Kartadisastra (Hanny). The theme of the day was training; Ami’s subject was the indigenous farmer institution empowerment in agricultural revitalization and even though she was the first participant to give a presentation, it went perfectly well. Also Hanny’s presentation in good management and appropriate media for agricultural training (SWOT) was very informing.

After all these presentations it was time to develop some discussion points, to let the participants think about the effects the presentations showed. They had to write down their opinion about solutions on the questions. These answers were meant to be presented but time was to short.
The questions we discussed were:
*  How to design an optimal extension service
*  How can you minimize negative effects on the environment of
   livestock production on farmlevel
*  What do you think of similar farm institutions  in your own country (see Amix92s
   subject)
*  How to solve the problem of ununiformed level of participants in training
After writing down ideas on flip over sheets it was time for dinner.

Of course we had to sing before dinner for Frans, in Dutch as well as in English. Frans got a birthday cake with two candles on top, a 4 and a 5. First they were planted as if he was 45, of course he could only wish he wasx85 candles got changed and Frans blew them out. Then dinner started with the cake as a desert.

After dinner a special dance group was arranged and they showed very special Philippino dances, including one where you have to jump over long bamboo sticks that close and open on melody. After the show Frans was asked to come forward and do the dance as well. Of course I was laughing, but they asked me too! It was much fun to do, but you get out of breath quite fast. After the two of us other people were asked to try it.

After this show it was our turn to dance, a karaoke started. It was very clear Asian people do this more often, since nearly all could sing very nice and tried to sing with the song. Frans and I decided to go singing in case there would be a Dutch song in the book, but oof, luckily there wasnx92t any! We staid at the ITCPH-building till 10 PM and then it was time to go back to the hotel. After arriving the hotel offered Frans a cake as well, so he could blow out another candle and make a wish. His wish was a prosper and healthy life for all of us. We shared the cake with the hotel staff and when it was gone it was really time to close the day.

A very special day for the refresher course as well as for Frans. Once again we all wish him the very best!

Sincerely,
Hermans, Frans and Evelyne.

Dear people,

First of all I would like to thank you for the nice reactions on my messages in the web-log. It stimulates me to continue! As an answer to Gert-Wouter’s question, the food is quite diarrhoea-proof, except for the last two days for me, Evelyne. But since I’m the only one it almost can’t be the food. Last night it was a bit late to write a message, therefore I’m using this little break between all things in the schedule.

Yesterday was a very long day; the morning seemed to start as every other morning, except for the fact that I have been practising the song "Lang zal hij leven" with the participants in secret, like in the bus when Frans wasn’t around and during several other circumstances. We all stood up during breakfast and sang the song quite loud, especially the HOERA at the end. The card with texts and birthday wishes from all colleagues was appreciated as well.

After breakfast we needed to hurry a little bit since many people had to change clothes for the special opening ceremony at the building of ITCPH. Several people were invited to join the ceremony, like the sponsors of ITCPH (Univet, provincial agricultural organisations etc), the community secretary of Lipa-city and several other people. Frans, Hermans and me were asked to sit on stage, together with the director of  ATI and the director ITCPH. Hermans en Quezy were the "masters of ceremony" to present the  presentations of Frans and the manager of ATI-ITCPH and give the ceremony a little entertainment. During the ceremony the key of the ATI-ITCPH was reached to PTC+ by the manager and loads of pictures were taken.
After the official opening we had a little time to change clothes for more casual wear and after that we had a little tour on the area of the ITCPH. Also the dormitory was shown, since it turns out it is quite common in the

Philippines

to have a little rest after lunch, as some participants also did. Other participants decided to go on the Internet after lunch to check mail and sent new mails all around.

After lunch four presentations were given, including two from participants of the refresher course. The first presentation was given by the director of the ATI Department of agriculture, mr. Asterio P. Saliot. The subject was the national agricultural extension agenda of the

Philippines

, focussed on livestock. The presentation was very detailed and interesting, however other people seemed to be quite tired….
The second presentation was given by Dr. Jose Q. Molina, senior environmental animal health officer. His subject was livestock and the environment issues and concerns in small hold farming.
The following two presentations were from the participants Sumarni Tjokromidyoyo (Ami) and Hanny Kartadisastra (Hanny). The theme of the day was training; Ami’s subject was the indigenous farmer institution empowerment in agricultural revitalization and even though she was the first participant to give a presentation, it went perfectly well. Also Hanny’s presentation in good management and appropriate media for agricultural training (SWOT) was very informing.

After all these presentations it was time to develop some discussion points, to let the participants think about the effects the presentations showed. They had to write down their opinion about solutions on the questions. These answers were meant to be presented but time was to short.
The questions we discussed were:
*  How to design an optimal extension service
*  How can you minimize negative effects on the environment of
   livestock production on farmlevel
*  What do you think of similar farm institutions  in your own country (see Amix92s
   subject)
*  How to solve the problem of ununiformed level of participants in training
After writing down ideas on flip over sheets it was time for dinner.

Of course we had to sing before dinner for Frans, in Dutch as well as in English. Frans got a birthday cake with two candles on top, a 4 and a 5. First they were planted as if he was 45, of course he could only wish he wasx85 candles got changed and Frans blew them out. Then dinner started with the cake as a desert.

After dinner a special dance group was arranged and they showed very special Philippino dances, including one where you have to jump over long bamboo sticks that close and open on melody. After the show Frans was asked to come forward and do the dance as well. Of course I was laughing, but they asked me too! It was much fun to do, but you get out of breath quite fast. After the two of us other people were asked to try it.

After this show it was our turn to dance, a karaoke started. It was very clear Asian people do this more often, since nearly all could sing very nice and tried to sing with the song. Frans and I decided to go singing in case there would be a Dutch song in the book, but oof, luckily there wasnx92t any! We staid at the ITCPH-building till

10 PM

and then it was time to go back to the hotel. After arriving the hotel offered Frans a cake as well, so he could blow out another candle and make a wish. His wish was a prosper and healthy life for all of us. We shared the cake with the hotel staff and when it was gone it was really time to close the day.

A very special day for the refresher course as well as for Frans. Once again we all wish him the very best!

Sincerely,
Hermans, Frans and Evelyne.

Today our breakfast started for the last time at 8 AM. From now on it will be getting up an hour earlier! Anyway, after breakfast everybody had some time to go back to their rooms and have a little rest, since some participants arrived past midnight and were quite tired. We had lunch at 12 and after that we arranged a little surprise, we went bowling!

At 2 PM we departed from the hotel to have a little break in the day and to start with getting more acquainted. The bowling centre was part of a big mall and Ming was waiting there for us. It was quite enjoyable to play and even most of the ladies were bowling as if they were a professional. The real professional however turned out to be Ming. During the bowling Bet Leung joined the group. He already checked in. After two hours everybody was a little tired and were more enthusiastic to visit the mall. After that we returned to the hotel; half of the group wanted to make a stop at another mall with excellent facilities especially changing money. When that group with a small delay picked us up at ITCPH another participant from the Philippines, Jovi joined us to go with us to the hotel.

During bowling Hermans and I went to the ITCPH building since we still had to arrange some things. It is hard to realise how much organising a refresher course makes you do! It also seemed like we were having troubles with my computer, but luckily I was able to fix it at the ITCPH. Another nice diner was waiting there for us, which was closed with some enthusiastic karaoke singing form some participants like Hanny, Razak, Judith , Joe and the Vietnamese. And actually, even during writing this letter they are still singing!

Thatx92s all for today. Tomorrow everything will be different, the busy schedule will start and there wonx92t be a lot of time to really relax. Nevertheless, it will be a great experience and very interesting! Write you tomorrow! Sincerely, All of us.

Today it was the last day Frans, Hermans and me were together with just the three of us. And to be honest, I might even miss it since we have had a lot of fun. But I shouldn’t make this conclusion, who knows how much fun we’re going to have together with all the participants!

The first participants arrived somewhere around 7 PM, so we had a whole day to tour around. Again Ming and Alex, the driver, picked us up and first we went to a large church. At the moment we arrived a wedding was happening and even than you’re allowed to enter the church and view the wedding or the church itself. Also, you are allowed to take pictures inside the church, something we were not really used to. When we entered the parking-lot many chilldren tried to sell us candle and other things. Children and also adults try to sell all sorts of things when people get out of their car or even when they are still inside the car and the trafficlight is red. I don’t like to ignore them, but they just don’t lissen to you when you say no, they keep on trying. To be polite Hermans said to one of them the word "later". Result of this was that as soon as we were back at our car, the children came to him since in their idea he promised them to buy something. To solve it Hermans kep on saying: "much later", "much much later" finally the kids got the clue and we drove away. After the church we went to a market where Ming showed us the weddingdresses. These are made along the road, by hand, and are very beautiful. The men even where a special shirt. It depends on what material the clothing is made of, but still it is very cheap compared to Dutch prices. It might even be cheaper to sent your sizes to the market, let them make you wedding gown and sent it back to the Netherlands. At the other side of the market food was sold. We bought a coconut to drink the water inside. It had a strange taste but wasn’t bad at all. We looked a it around, saw how they make sausages and how the porc is hanging everywhere. To keep the flies away some cartons are making circles on top of the food. The fishmarket looked quite fresh and all sorts of fish where for sale.

After the market Ming decided to go to a restaurant close to our destination, what turned out to be the lake aroung the world’s smallest vulcanp, which is still active. The vulcano lies within a lake and erupts every sixty years. The next eruption will be in 2020. In the lake around the vulcano are a lot of fishcages since the lake carries a large amount of talapiafish. We let Ming choose our lunch to surprise us, and all sorts of food came on the table, including a real Philippine product, made of beef and a sauce with peanutbutter. It tasted quite nice, as well as all the other things. After this we drove around the lake and went to the highest top in the area. To get there we had a small ride in a jeepey, the name of the taxies I mentioned yesterday, since it was raining and people don’t want you to go up the mountain in your own car. On the top we could have had a nice view, but the clouds were hanging very low and it was raining. At a certain time the sun brake through for a while and we could have a better view. After this topvisit we went back to the hotel on a shortcut.

It was planned that the first 4 arrivals, Cuong, Chien, Hang and Razak, were arriving at the hotel around 6.45 PM. It turned out to be a bit later, but soon we had out dinner at the launch where we will eat for the rest of the period. Dinner was already made and could be served staight away. It was some sort of mushroomsoup, a salad, a chickenleg and fresh fruit. Fresh fruit is the best thing you can get in the Philippines. All the fruit tastes very sweet and is very cheap. Watermelon, Pine apple, mango and papaya are the fruits we were served. Dinner has just finished and everybody went to bed.  The next participants will arrive somewhere this night, they have been delayed. The roomservice will call us as soon as they arrive so we can welcome them.

That’s it for today, I’m going to bed now and try to get awake if Frans knocs on my door, since that means the other participants have arrived!

Sincerely,
Frans, Hermans and Evelyne.

p.s. I do ow ITCPH an appology, since I wrote their name wrong a couple of times in the last message. I’m sorry for that.

Hi there,

With this message I would like to officialy open this web-log concerning the 2007 refresher course to the Philippines. A small introduction: three trainers from PTC+,Frans Aerts, Hermans Voortman and Evelyne Kroese went to the Philippines on the 20th of June to give a refresher course together with ITPCH. This web-log will describe all our experiences, adventures and some funny stories.

Lets start!

We left Schiphol airport at 2.15 PM and took KLM’s longest one way flight to the Philippines. This flight took about 12 hours, we landed at 9.10 AM local time. The time-difference between the Netherlands and the Philippines is 6 hours at the moment, so we were quite tired when we arrived at Manila national airport. Also, the flight was a little delayed, it couldn’t land on time because the airport was to busy. Nevertheless, because of this the plane had to circle for about 10 minutes and we had the best sightseeing from above you can get! When we stepped out of the airplane we met the climate of the Philippines, very humid but also very warm. It felt to me like a sauna.
We were picked up by Ming, a former PTC+ student and a driver and took us on a trip through Manila, since we had a meeting at the Dutch Ambassee at 2 PM and had to do something untill that time. We saw a lot of impressing things. Traffic in Manila is a chaos, cars move everywhere and anywhere, sometimes not even bothering the lights. You hear a lot of horns, mainly from special taxies made from small busses. These taxies are painted very nice, I haven’t found out how to add pictures but as soon as I know I will show you some.

We also went to the Asia Mall, a huge mall with an ice-skatingpark in the middle! Ming told us a time ago a figureskatingcouple of the Philippines won the golden medal at the world championship, what is very special since the Philippines never have snow or ice! We also went to a specific part of Manila, enclosured by walls from the Spanish days. In this area we visited Fort Santiago, where the Japanese tortured many civilians around 1942. The fort has also been headquarters of the US military.

We had a lunch at an "all you can eat" restaurant where they had all sorts of food, from fish till porc. Luckily Ming and a cook could tell us what it was because it all looked quite strange. Nevertheless, it tasted very nice!
After this lunch our driver took us to the embassee, at least the building that should be the Dutch ambassee. We arrived as promised at 2 PM, but it turned out the embassee had moved! The e-mail they had sent us contained the right adress but all we did was ask the driver to take us to the embassee. A little mistake…
We had a nice conversation at the embassee with a representative since the embassador was not at the Philippines at the moment.

After all these happenings we decided it was time to go to the Lima City Hotel to check in and see our rooms. We had dinner at the hotel and after that it really was time to go to bed. We were very tired after not sleeping for a very long time.

Today, our second day, we made an appointment to arrive at the ITCPH building at 9 AM. We met a lot of people that are involved in the refresher course. We also met the manager, who gave us the key of the building as a symbol. After some discussions we had a small trip in and around the building to see all the facilities available for the refresher course. We had lunch at the hotel, together with a group of ITCPH. We didn’t knew we were going to join them and had already ordered lunch. Therefor we had a very special lunch, sandwiches with rice, beef, chicken, fish etc. Joining the other people also had an advantage, we tasted many different things and therefor knew what to order for dinner this night!
After lunch we went back to the ICTPH for more discussions and after that we went to a mall nearby, way smaller than the Asia mall, but still quite impressive. After shopping we went back to the hotel, decided to take a little rest and try to connect to the Internet for an hour and after that we were going to have dinner. It took a bit longer since I, Evelyne, had lost the key of the hotelroom! I turned everything upside down and after a while even Hermans started searching. We couldn’t find the key and decided to have dinner first and look again afterwards. It is very frustrating when you know a key should be in your room because you came in, but can’t find it back. After quite a while I suddenly said a word starting with an O was appearing on my head, followed by EN, cause yes indeed, this OEN was carrying the key in her wallet all along…. To be "punished" I was told to write this happening on the web-log.

This evening we finally got connection to the Internet and I started the web-log straight away. We have to pay Internet by the minute so I will stop for today.

And for the ones disappointed, tomorrow a new day will bring new experiences!