DUNKED IN MANILA

Bill Fink's story of a year of work, basketball, romance, and other disasters in the Philippines

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Back to Work


As the header of this blog mentions, Dunked in Manila covers the year I worked in the Philippines. While I often considered my work at IBM to be an inconvenience between games of basketball and trips to beaches or bars, somehow I managed to fulfill the duties of my AIESEC internship. My confusing first day at work is summarized here.

In my role of market analyst, my challenge was to make projections for the future of the economy. This would be tough in the U.S., but nearly impossible in the Philippines where the year ahead of me would hold earthquakes, coup attempts, volcanic eruptions, and the usual devastating typhoons, random bombings and kidnappings.

Years have passed, I'm not as thin as I was in this photo (which may explain my inability to dunk anymore), but the Philippines economy remains as chaotic as ever. One step forward, two steps back sort of thing. But the underground economy keeps on chugging. You may be able to see in the background of the photo I have a poster advertising that I was selling tickets for a Sharon Cuneta show at the University of the Philippines--looking for money to supplement my low IBM stipend. Just trying to fit in...

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