In between two emergency responses were two less hectic trips.
I probably should have declined this trip. It was scheduled a bit late, and I already had a trip to Iloilo scheduled for the same month. But I knew they needed support, so off I went to Cebu.
I went to Cebu to support our Field Human Resources team from Hong Kong. We were doing a recruitment drive at a pediatrics conference, in addition to a small gathering for our colleagues, and a small event to further encourage applications. I was recovering from the typhoon Kristine response and my birthday weekend. And of course there were still other things that needed work. So I hopped on a plane, landed, found food, and sat down to work.
Because I had been with the Field HR team in Iloilo in April, we knew what to do and things were slightly less stressful. It helped to have two new colleagues with us, and it was their first time visiting the Philippines. We were also supported by two other colleagues who lived in Cebu, so that was very helpful–and they made sure we got to do a teensy bit of sightseeing during out limited free time.
It had been more than a few years since my last trip to Cebu, maybe ten? There were a lot of places I hadn’t seen in Cebu! (Probably a separate blog post in the future!)
I think I visited Fort San Pedro on my fist trip to Cebu. We didn’t have time to go in this time though.
I have no idea what this church (above) is called, but we parked beside it.
And of course, every trip to Cebu means good food.
Honestly, I’m surprised at how much sightseeing we packed into one day! And then the rest of the trip was work.
At the pediatrics congress, we invited convention attendees to join Doctors Without Borders.
And at our small sharing session, we invited a pediatrician to talk about her first mission in Nigeria (below, right).
Above, left: I don’t know what I was saying here, but I’m pretty sure I introduced one of our staff and asked her a few questions about her work.
Honestly it was a great trip, except oh my God the traffic was just horrible. The traffic in Manila has long been bad, and I knew that traffic in other urban centers in the Philippines was getting worse, but I really did not know how bad it could get in Cebu! My previous trip to Cebu had been during Sinulog festival, and that was expectedly terrible because of the crowds. But our hotel should have been a 10-15 minute drive to the conference venue, and instead it would take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour! Once or twice we just walked because it was faster. If we weren’t carrying so much stuff, we probably would have walked every day.
So yeah, traffic aside, compared to my other trips in November, I guess this was pretty chill!
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