It's not been a good week. It seems that every supplier has let us down and this is so frustrating - our plans just fall to pieces. Even our contingency and back up suppliers have been equally useless and the client is all over us to get started.
It's something that's difficult coming to terms with and to understand when you're an expat working in the 3rd world. Honouring agreements, the understanding that time is of the essence and being direct is something that is alien to these cultures. Although having said that, the UK is rapidly becoming the same way. Hopefully the current recession will change that.
The most difficult part of a Project Manager's role overseas is dealing with your staff and employees. By far the expats are the worst and can be highly petulant and demanding. Honestly, it's like dealing with kids at times.
This week Mad Dave has been complaining about receiving text messages from a one-night-stand complaining about abusive text messages she's been recieving from another of Dave's conquests. As it turns out this is not the case. The abusive text messages were coming from the proprietor of the guest house we've been staying in.
Apparently, our landlady was peeved that Dave came home with a loose woman (not my sister) and knocked her out of bed at 2:00am to let them in. Dave in a hissy fit packs his bags and leaves but according to the landlady he pissed on the bed before leaving. And I'm expected to smooth all this over and keep everyone happy.
The good news is I've found a place to stay so I can disassociate myself from all this nonsense. The place isn't ideal but it's the best I've seen so far. I was hoping for a place on the beach or overlooking the sea but as you'd imagine, places like that are rare and difficult to find. I've also noticed that the build quality of every house I've seen to date has been pretty shoddy. I'd have thought that there would have been a few shining examples. The taps in the guest house where I'm currently staying are all live and it's 240v so it's not ideal standing in a pool of water, shampooing your hair (or what's left of it) next to tap that's likely to electrocute you. I've reported it but no one else seems to care.
I made a couple of trips to Cebu last week, principally to visit the bank. Instead of taking the usual route back to Toledo we took the old road over the mountains. It wasn't spectacular scenery but it was pretty impressive. Due to the cooler air it's principally used for growing flowers and vegetable and the green hills, orderly terraces and lines of flowers make for a refreshing change. I tried to capture this on some photos but they were disappointing (as usual).
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| Mangoes wrapped on the tree to protect them from insect damage (so I'm told) |
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| The sun sets over the island of Negros |
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