11 May 2012
93 degrees Fahrenheit, Partly cloudy,
Humidity 66%
The build up to re-locate to
Manila has been tremendous both from the personal and business perspectives but I
am now here and already noting differences and similarities to life back in the
UK. Clearly life in general will be a
huge adjustment; living in a high-rise apartment, dining out more, being the ‘stranger’
in town whose physical appearance is different and so gets stared at but in a
nice, friendly way and of course the climate!
High temperatures and high humidity are some of the biggest challenges I
will need to address but then I keep telling myself this is all part of the
experience.
My first impressions of Manila are
that it is very like other big, bustling cities with lots of people, traffic
and high-rise buildings. The people are
very friendly, welcoming and honest. I
am already greeted by my first name in the local coffee shop and I had an
interesting experience the other day that made me reflect on values.
Many organisations espouse
organisational values of trust, honesty and integrity but the other day I
experienced these values in action. I
was looking for my mobile phone (an Apple i-phone) one morning and having
searched the apartment thoroughly could only think that it must have fallen out
of my bag the previous evening whilst sitting in the local coffee shop. I returned to the coffee house the next day with
little hope in my heart of ever seeing the phone again, but yes, the phone had
been found and it was waiting in the office, in a sealed bag, waiting for its
owner to come and claim it! I would like
to think I would have experienced the same outcome in the UK, but I suspect this
might not be the case (I once had my laptop stolen from my desk at work, never to
be seen again).
My key objective over the next
couple of weeks is to find a permanent place to live for me and my partner
after which time I can then focus on business opportunities for Level 7. I am reminded of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
which suggests that unless our basic, physical needs are met fulfilment and
self actualisation need to take a back seat.
Whilst Maslow is considered somewhat old hat, personally, I still think his
theory helps us to put our purpose and actions into perspective.
Finally, technology is making the
move to the other side of the world less traumatic; keeping in touch with the
UK is easy, I just need to remember the time difference!
Signing off for now
Our Correspondent in Manila
No comments:
Post a Comment