Great Holiday

September 07 was declared a national holiday, but the seminar at Central State University went as scheduled. We were given a timetable and Doc Rey was to start at 8:30am. By 8am, Ariel, the coordinator was already texting finding out where we were. We are almost always on time so I appreciate it when people do stick to schedules.

The registration was very well organized and same may be said about the welcoming committee. As we were driving by the auditorium, they knew who we were...maybe we were bright as the sunshine :)

There is something about school organized seminars that are very rewarding for our team to do. The organizers are sticklers to details. They are passionate. You were invited because they thirst for knowledge. It is made open to the public and they invite farmers for the information exchange. Conversation is about advocacy and real honest interest to do better. It is offered for FREE to all.

We finished the day at CLSU feeling light hearted and knew that we will be glad to go the next time they ask. Rain or shine, holiday or not. We really thank the organizers of the Central State University's (CLSU) seminar.


Headed for Isabela after a very good lunch at their canteen...by 4pm, guess where we were???? Just before reaching Caranglan, there was a long line and the police were saying "not to move" as there was a landslide upfront. Not move up? But the landslide area is way up, like another 20kms away....

We inched our way up to the site. Thanked Zac Sarian in our minds, for giving me a bagful of sweet Rambutan from Teresa Orchard. He may have had a premonition, as he specifically said, it was to be eaten for today's trip!

The Caranglan landslide was open at about a little past midnight. Thing is, the vehicles from the other side, going to Manila, took up 2 to 3 lanes...some drivers even slept and was left obstructing the highway :) There was a more zigzagy road, in the already steep and curly roads of the mountain range....as you maneuver around the bigger trucks that created an obstacle course.

For some reason, God played a trick and speakers of the radio won't work during that long wait. No news nor music to listen to, strong rains that prevented you from mingling with other stranded motorists, poor cellphone signals....turned out well. Gave you quality time for talk :)

Landslide

Sounds like how you'd describe the outpouring of emotions or how the results will be :)

I may always talk in figures and ironies...but this is literally a landslide. I don't know how to save pics from mms sent to my phone but its on the news....a portion of Caranglan in between San Jose in Nueva Ecija and Sta Fe in Nueva Vizacaya, was closed to traffic because the can't clear the landslide. Four (4) hours of work is erased, or rather surmounted by 10mins of rain :(

Doc Rey left Santiago after lunch so he has time to rest in Manila before proceeding to Cavite for a seminar in the Capitol. Getting a call in the afternoon about closed traffic sounded like a delay. It was good...I was out with friends for the evening!

By 3am, the traffic was not moving...it spelled YIKES. It meant that I, yes moi....was to give the talk for Sunshines. Never did this happen. Give me a cooking demo even if I didn't know really how to cook. BUT to have technical questions thrown your way................can't say NO WAY and not show up.

Armed with a power point that was the scratch work of the present one...good it was even left in my laptop....,I introduced myself and came upfront with the prospects of listening to me. Wehehehehe, took out my nervousness as I already told them of my situation. I was the marketing person...shoot me later with questions about where and how to market. But for technicals, may we set that for Doc Rey?

I sit in during seminars, so going through the power point was easy. The participants were great. Attentive and put me at ease from the first minute. You know from the start if you are OK with your audience.

At the end, I knew I made the right decision to go on with the 3hr trip...more like 4 as I was getting lost..maybe wanting to get lost as an alibi for not showing up! Maybe I didn't satisfy their questions, but they sure understood that we are very open to going back to Cavite again :)

Thank you to Harbest for hooking us up with their projects.