After many months of wondering where I was going and when, I just got the notice today. I am heading to the city of Santa Rosa in The Philippines! I confirmed and accepted my assignment on Wednesday March 19.
"Congratulations!!! You've been assigned to the Philippines 14 Team with an expected departure date of July 18, 2014.
The in-country portion of your CSC experience will run through August 16, 2014 and you will be based in Santa Rosa. Additional details around your assignment location and CSC client will be developed as you process through the pre work phase in the twelve weeks preceding departure. Given your departure time your team will begin pre work the week of April 21, 2014.
Please confirm your acceptance of this assignment by Friday, March 21, 2014. You will need to discuss and receive approval from your manager to be away from your regular job from July 18 - August 16, 2014."
Southeast Asia was one my hoped for locales, but I really don't know a lot about the overall area other then the names of all the countries, some of the foods and tourist destinations and next to nothing about The Philippines. Here are 10 quick things on The Philippines :
- In 1542 The Philippines were named in honor of King Philip II of Spain.
- With a population of at least 99 million people, the Philippines is the seventh-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world.
- I have seen different numbers but over 75% of the population is Roman Catholic.
- There are 7107 islands. Hey I'm from an island too!
- The Philippines has more than 200 volcanoes, although only some of them are active.
- Filipino and English are the official languages. Filipino is a standardized version of Tagalog, spoken mainly in Metro Manila and other urban regions. Both Filipino and English are used in government, education, print, broadcast media, and business.
- Philippines are considered the “text capital of the world.” Every day, 35 million mobile subscribers in the country are sending about 450 million short text messages (SMS).
- Despite popular belief, karaoke was invented in the Philippines, but not in Japan. I have been told by a past participant that I should have at least one song ready to go just in case. Trust me, nobody needs that!
- The most rare and expensive shell in the world «Conus Gloriamaris» – one of the 12,000 species of seashells found in the Philippines. Guess who is going seashell hunting :-)
- The Philippines has a tropical maritime climate and is usually hot and humid. There are three seasons: the hot dry season or summer from March to May; the rainy season from June to November; and the cool dry season from December to February.
It's been a brutal winter in Atlantic Canada. Loooooot's of snow in 2014 so one of the first things I looked at was the weather. The Philippines looks like it will be tropical so let's see .....July-Aug is.......RAINY SEASON! I have heard it described as monsoon season, typhoon season, flood season.
Now I live on the East coast of Canada and consider it a wet part of the country. Kind of like the Seattle of Canada. (Like Vancouver only colder) It does not get too hot and it does not get too cold but we seem to have precipitation every second or 3rd day. Let's compare the worst month of precipitation in Halifax with the worst month in say Manila. (Santa Rosa is 40 minutes south).
- Manila Average Rainfall in July (420 mm) and Aug (486mm). Temperature range 24-31 C
- Halifax Average Rainfall in July (110 mm) and Aug ( 96mm). Temperature range 14-23 C
Oh my. :-) Time to pack the galoshes and raincoat. Ah well we will spend most of our time working on our assignment so it is all good.
The clock starts ticking now and more to come.
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