Counting Down

So we are right in the thick of our last two weeks in the Philippines, and they are definitely proving to be two of the busiest and challenging weeks we have had here. We started off both recovering from sicknesses picked up from the change in weather brought on by the beginning of the rainy season. We had been in a mountain area with the ICM children’s choir – I took them on a camp for four days to prepare for our presentation, and while it was beautifully quiet with breathtaking views, it poured and poured, and all the children complained of being too cold – it was probably 22° at the coolest! I can’t imagine how Filipinos cope when they come to live in Europe or the States! But a  strong increase in humidity and slightly cooler temperatures obviously woke up all the bacteria and so the common cold ran us down for a few days and I wasn’t much of a voice coach

Nevertheless, we had a few days to do the preparation for the premiere of CANO, Michał’s short film, at Villa Esperanza which was the location of the shoot. It’s a very poor area, built on top of a landfill area, and so the land literally shakes underneath you as you walk between the bamboo houses. We wanted to do the premiere in that area, as a way of saying thank you to the community, and so we took over the school outdoor stage for the evening, and put on and evening of music, film and food for the whole barangay.

Nothing is ever straightforward here though… After having trouble hiring the right sound system, we found out as we were sound checking that there was a “brown-out” scheduled for that evening between 6 and 10pm (The government rotates turning off the power in different areas for hours at a time with brown-outs, as the country doesn’t produce enough power). So a pastor called the power grid to confirm that there would be a brown-out, and they told us it was scheduled. We frantically tried to hire a generator big enough to power all the lights and huge speakers, which ended up costing P7000, and it arrived just before it went dark. So after repatching the lights and sound system, we waited for the brown out to start and the everyone in barangay to come to the only place in the area with power… but 6 o’ clock came and went… and no brown out! It’s typical that the only time we wouldn’t actually mind the power being switched off it stays on all night!

But the event was still a great success. I opened the evening with a few songs followed by the screening of the movie. Many of the attendants had been extras in some of the scenes, and so we got great reactions every time they saw themselves on screen. Later we had snacks sponsored by Charlie Co while on the stage there was an amazing performance by The Wicked Tarsiers. I think we’ll be remembered there for a long time

Now we’re preparing our final project for our time here – the children’s choir presentation for the Hong Kong exectuive on June 13th, the evening before we leave! Michał has some shooting to do of ICM’s programs, which he has to wait until early next week to be able to shoot, and so it’s gonna be a last minute finish for him I expect. The kids are so excited about the performance – they’ll be ready technically but I’m not sure how their nerves and adrenaline will translate onto the stage. Some of them have a really hard time standing still and concentrating for the whole 15 minutes… I’m sure with the extra excitement they’ll find it even harder! It’s one of those things that you can’t teach – it only comes with experience, and so we’re putting on a performance for the parents and friends a few days before, which will hopefully get them in the zone I’m so proud of them and the journey they have come on in this past six months. Now I’m just anxious to see if they’ll be able to hold it all together and sing like I know they can!

We started to pack up our things today, a process which I know will be pretty hard – we always have to leave things behind, nothing usually of much value but often of great sentiment. And we won’t be able to do any cheap shopping here, which I would have definitely loved. Then there is the issue of our hand luggage which I have nightmares about! Michał’s hard drives and camera are so fragile that we can’t take them as checked baggage, otherwise we risk losing all of our footage and equipment, rendering our trip mainly wasted… And so we have to take them as hand luggage, but the problem is that it’s all so heavy and in protective back packs, so we end up having about 20kg each!! Every time we fly we just have to pray that they won’t weigh our hand luggage… if they do, I don’t know what will happen… nightmares…

So the schedule for our last few days will be pretty full, but we’ll still be enjoying the culture, food, environment, people and the ups and downs of Filipino life. We know that there will be so many things that we miss, even if they’re things that annoy us now, and so we’ll be trying to soak up as much as possible before we leave.

We’ve got a week booked in Hong Kong, but I think both of us are just anxious to go home! We don’t particularly have plans there, and don’t have the money for a holiday, so I’m sure we’ll just take time to relax and see some friends, but mainly just look forward to going home… and of course… buy a few hard drives to add to the baggage!

This won’t be our last update – we’ll be posting more pictures and our reflections looking back at the six months here. But since it’s getting close to the end, I would like to thank everyone for reading and supporting us, and to let you know that song in a different way will not be finishing, just ever-changing location and form… We will still have the same vision wherever we are – to bring art to communities all over the world, to discover different cultures ourselves, and to keep telling people’s stories.

Louise Joachimowski