Rare Books and Rare Finds

The last few days have been a whirlwind since we left Manila for Palawan. The day before our departure, we had some interesting things happen. Our morning began with a site visit to Lufthansa. Initially our group was unsure why we had vocation time at an airplane maintenance and repair site, but msn was it awesome. Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos to brag, but we fit up close and personal with all kinds of airplane that were receiving mandatory maintenance. All in all we learned that large planes are made of a ton of small parts.

Our next trip was to the office of Congressman Eduardo "Edza" Zialcita. Edza was a very interesting person to talk to. Unlike the other politicians we have cone across, Edza was honest about the shortcomings of government and had actual examples of accomplishments instead of a long list if juked statistics. The unfortunate part of Edza's story is that he is another career politician. He is currently serving his last term in congress and will be on the ballot in May as a mayoral candidate. The dynasties continue, however from what I can tell Edza is there for the right reasons. He had a good sense of what the government could do to help and where the roadblocks were. Of course it would not be a political visit if they didn't show us his new campaign ad and gave us plenty if stickypads with his name stamped across the top.

Following our meeting, we stepped outside for lunch. We ate near a small wading pool. Halfway through lunch a waiter ran our and pointed to the pool. The water was slushing back and forth. Apparently we survived an authentic Filipino earthquake. It was only a 4 in Manila, but a 6 at the epicenter.

Our last visit of the day was to the University of Saint Thomas. This is the oldest university in the Philippines and is actually roughly 26 years older than Harvard. We toured the campus, their university museum and the rare book collection.