No Reservations

One of the many challenges we have to face everyday in the Philippines is Lunch. There are several difficulties involving lunch here. The first is that most places that you can lunch are quite hidden. That doesn't mean they haven't put up a sign or anything, on the contrary. Considering the amount of traffic on every street in Tacloban putting up a sign is an excellent, cheap, and effective style of advertising. No need to explain to people where to go either, it's beneath the sign! And some time ago, everyone in the Philippines seems to have figured that out, roughly at around the same time. Some larger companies were courteous enough to supply every business with a sign: A large Coca-Cola or San Mig advertisement with a nice whitespace on the bottom for your own personal message to the world. These signs are usually slightly larger than the business it's advertising, so the overlap with the sign of the business next door usually hides the lunchplace quite effectively. You know it's there, you've seen the sign after all, but the place is nowhere to be found.
A while ago i said there were three problems with lunch. Let us get on with that. The second problem is that while these signs usually say something like "Rosie's Kitchen" or "LUNCH!", sometimes they say something different, like "Rosie's place" or "EATS!". With the latter category it's difficult to figure out if it's a restaurant, bakery, catfood factory, or indeed just the place where this Rosie person lives.
This might come as a shock to some of you, but the third problem has nothing to do with advertising. The third is a law of nature that seems to be especially applicable here in the Philippines, and possibly a larger area (maybe it's the Pacific, maybe it's the entire equatorial area, or maybe it's just Leyte and surrounding islands. I'll keep you posted). It is the sensations of 'hunger' and 'warm' are somehow mutually exclusive. Somewhere in our brain (possibly only the European or cold-weather brain of us people of the North) as soon as 'warm' is registered this creates a chemical in our brain that eliminates hunger. Perhaps because the heat reminds us of being huddled around the fireplace, our bellies already full of sausages and mashed potatoes. Perhaps it reminds us the bathing-suit season has already begun and you still haven't started on your New Year's resolution. Likely a mix of both though.
So by the time you've gone out into the sun, walked lazily towards a sign that might be a restaurant and sat down, the fireplace-bikini feeling has already kicked in, eliminating your hunger. So you just order a fruity cold summery beverage and walk lazily back to the office, where the airco reminds you that your tribe hasn't caught any deer or mammoth yet that day, making you instantly hungry again.

That's lunch. I'm sure you're all filled with questions that start with "Well why don't you just .... ?" to which the answer always is "Where would be the fun in that?!" Til next time.

The River

For an earth scientist, making a river cross-section is not that difficult. You just cross the river and 'section' it (measure the height relative to some line of reference, preferably a horizontal line of reference.) But, and this is where this post get's interesting, what if I told you the water in the river - and any stagnant pools of water around the river - are filled with a rather small but rather deadly parasite?
Finally, all those hours playing "the floor is made of lava" as a kid and "the floor is made of Pahoehoe" as a student paid off. I hope. I guess we'll know for certain in 4 to 6 weeks.

Homeland

I guess the first post on a blog should be some form of introduction. At this moment I'm still in the Netherlands, surrounded by packed boxes, waiting for my plane to leave. That gives me a solid 32 hours to write this.
So here's what you missed: my name is Rein, and I'm going to the Phillipines. I'm not there yet, so I'll save the whole "what am I doing?" thing for when I'm actually doing anything.