Live and Learn! January 1 – January 11

Welcome again into my world of wonder in a wondrous world. After blogging a bit and getting the hang of it, a lot of positive reactions came my way. I want everyone to know, who take the effort and time to read it, that it means a lot to me that you do. So please don't hold back on any thoughts or comments.

The Alchemist:

Last Tuesday, January 6, we ended up at night sitting all together at Aris’ place. We had quite a few things to discuss. That day Aris went to Olango to sort out the situation about Enoy, while David and I went around to work off our to-do list for the boat. 

We brought him a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label as a surprise gift. We more or less owed him one and in any case we agreed that he deserved it. He had managed the project into a steady and solid state, which neither me or David could have done better. Also we wanted to celebrate that FINALLY we had our boat up and running again. The moment couldn’t be better. When we sat ourselves down, Aris mumbled to himself if he had some more booze. We presented our little gift and were gratefully and very enthusiastically hugged for this unexpected present.

That night was golden. We discussed many, many things and the inspiration was literally flying over the table. Goals and plans were spoken out loud to each other and we started to plan with them.

 

Inspiration in all kind of ways...

Our diving project was thoroughly discussed throughout the night. As well as our future plans of how we want to build on all this to eventually make it a functioning diving operation. Besides the diving project a spectrum of ideas and plans came up:

We decided that we wanted to learn to play the guitar. Aris just bought one and he was going to teach us. We will try to learn some Visayan, for which Ella will play the role as teacher. We came up with a plan for finishing David’s Divemaster, Aris’ Rescue Diver and Ella’s Open Water, which of course comes down to me. And plans were made to get on top and truly fit again. David is trying hard to get to be a good free diver and he proposed to teach us about this whole process. In less than 30 minutes time everyone was unintendedly endowed with a role as teacher.

A lot more interesting views, experiences and thoughts were shared and it was incredible how much our thoughts, desires and ideas were aligned. In one conversation Aris told me about a spiritual experience that he had once in Spain. To accentuate his point, he mentioned the book “The Alchemist” from Paulo Coelho. It reminded me that I had it with me. I had been dragging it around for already more than a year through Thailand last winter and last summer through Rhodes. I somehow really wanted to read the book, but never got to it.  That night the time flew by unnoticed. We finished the bottle of whiskey and I went home with the idea to finally read the Alchemist. 

After running some errands first thing in the morning on January 7, I took the Alchemist and started reading. I finished the book non-stop from cover to back. It’s an absolute masterpiece put in to the incredible amount of only 135 pages. 

For those who haven’t read it; it’s about following your heart and to live out your own legacy. Contrary to what other people might think you should do and with the faith that you will succeed. That once you are in touch with your own heart and your own legacy, the universe contracts in a way to provide you with what you need. Everything is one. The way towards the dream is never easy, but when it is needed the most the universe will put out a sign for you. In order to see the sign, you need to be on the way of your own story. Also the road towards your dream is at least as important as the realization of your dream itself.

Reading it felt like I was reading something about myself. I too, made the decision to leave and to live out my own story. I too, had the in the book mentioned so called beginner’s fortune and I too somehow lost this feeling on the way. 

It feels like I am somewhere in the middle part of the book where I just got a sign; the reading of this book. It inspires me to feel what is happening in a bigger picture. The way towards the fulfilling of my dream, my own legacy. When I keep my bearings on the horizon towards my dream, I will get there. The road is not easy, and sometimes you feel as if you’re completely off. Until one moment, one happening, one meeting and you see how it suddenly all makes sense.

That is what it tells me about what is happening to me now. The road towards your dream might be a hard one, but on that road you learn all you need to learn about yourself, the bigger entity that you’re part of, how to realize your dream and to fulfil yourself.

Our whole project fits into the process of living my own legacy. I learn a lot everyday about creating something for and from yourself and what you are really after and how to chase it. It is an amazing learning process and after all the frustration, setbacks and failures you overcome, you learned a valuable lesson and it gives you more power to pursue what you are after. 

Remarkably Aris is using two slogans a lot, which are like a red thread throughout the Alchemist. Namely: “Live and Learn!” and: “A man can never walk out of his own story.” If you haven’t read the book; read it! Or at least put it on your list. At the right time it’ll find you…

The Boat:

The last 10 days have been frustrating, educational, rewarding and above all inspirational. Last time I wrote an entry, our boat was, again, stranded. This time because of engine problems. A problem we, again, overcame, but it, again, wasn’t easy.

To get our engine repaired we needed to get some parts from a shop in Cebu City. Aris had been there before, but it was out of stock. In this endeavor, Aris came up with the idea to, besides repairing the old one,  buy an extra new engine as well. This would cover us on a longer trip for acute problems. Problems that in contrast to Europe, are difficult, if not impossible, to solve at the spot. The idea to be stranded in open sea in Filipino waters made us very easily agree to this. Aris was told to come back to the shop on Friday, January 3, for the parts we needed. We planned to go there then and to buy us a new engine as well.

On Friday morning I got up early and met with Aris at our place. Before leaving we had to wait for a key master for our motorbike. Aris had lost the key the night before. Luckily James (our guy we hire to drive us on his motorbike) knew someone who could fix this. Two guys showed up and began fiddling around in the lock of the bike. Astounding to see how quick and easy they managed to produce a key that actually works. In less than 30 minutes it was done and we were good to go.

The plan was to go together with James, who could drive back the engine on the back of his bike. David stayed in after a nightly adventure in Lotus, the discotheque. I hopped on the back of James’ bike and off we were. It took around 40 minutes to get to the shop and I took the moment to make some snapshots of Mandaue’s madness. 

 

The bridge from Mactan to Cebu

The channel inbetween Mactan and Cebu

Welcome to (the Jungle of) Mandaue

Traffic, so much traffic

The light turns green and the race has started

We arrived at the shop and Aris went straight in to ask for the promised spare parts. Of course they weren’t there. Aris made a fuzz and had the store clerks going around to come up with a solution.  It was more a show that they were doing something than actually solving the problem. It ended up with the around 70 years old lady (imagine this working in your local hardware store) telling Aris that he could get his money back. He in no way agreed to this and threw an even bigger fittie. On this note he left to have a look in another shop, while I stayed waiting to see if they would come up with something. 

Seaman, the shop

 

Organized chaos in the shop, with the old lady on the left

 

While waiting outside the shop I had a chance to experience some sides of the Filipino society. It really is like being in another world. All kinds of people passed me by. Most remarkable were a group of young boys. They were street kids left alone to their fate. One had a knife cut on its face which would have had to been stitched, but never was. Leaving it a wide open scar where some skin had grown over. The boys walked around making a mess of everything in their way. A vendor next door had some roles with rope outside which they pulled out all the way. Their frustration was being as obvious as sad to see.

What amazed me most though, was the store clerk who was outside the shop standing beside me. First of all he was very interested in my height. This I start to grow used to here. I’m a walking rarity here and get questions and comments from everywhere. It sometimes gets very annoying, but luckily it’s seen as a great thing for which they have great respect. 

After we had a little small talk, he offered me the girl working in the same shop next door. He was talking in Visayan to her and said she liked me. Also this is common practice. Everywhere we go, people offer us girls. From guys who offer their friends to guys who offer their sisters. Somehow it is  a big thing to get involved with a Westerner. Besides that, the amount of girls attracted to us in an open way is a new kind of experience. I get called Gwapo (handsome) a lot of times and the girls let there be no doubt about their intentions. This is not my kind of way and I find it hard to make a real spiritual connection with the people we meet.

This whole situation of trying to interest me in the girl got the clerk steamed up.  He somehow got hold of a banana and started to make all kinds of vulgar gestures with it. First to the girl and then to the people around him. It got so far that he was showing it off in front of his crotch to colleagues and even people passing by. He really was enjoying himself with this for a while. As a grand finale he showed it as a penis to an older female colleague, walked up behind her and started to push it against her bum! Was I really seeing that??? Oh my god! I couldn’t believe what I saw and certainly didn’t know what to think about it. But it was a gross play to see. It made me imagine a scene like this in a shop in Europe. A guy standing right outside the shop with a workers t-shirt on doing what he did would be fired on the spot. Here everyone witnessed it and no-one even blinked. 

A while after this whole show finished, Aris came back to the shop. As if a miracle had happened; had the parts somehow arrived and we went looking for an engine. We looked around for a while and decided to go for a 14 horsepower Moto Star diesel engine. It’s a China made engine of not the best quality, but very affordable. We roped the engine on the back of James’ bike and went home. 

 

Building up our engine

Testing out our engine

Roping the engine on James' bike

Aris and James

At home; getting the engine ready to let it run 5 hours straight before taking it to the boat

On Saturday Enoy came to pick up the parts needed to repair the engine. On Sunday Enoy picked us up early in the morning and we took our new engine to Olango. The mechanic showed up and he helped us installing the new piece. After a very frustrating week without any trips on our boat and hardly any diving the hump in the road was taken!! Such a relief! This week felt like it was going to be like this forever and got us all very frustrated. Soon we could take her out diving again and start to plan our longer trips.

 

The mechanic letting out the oil from the engine

Our pride and glory ready to rock and roll again!

While we were installing the new engine we found a couple more minor things to repair or make on the boat. Aris came up with the idea to make a small toilet on the side bamboos. We needed to find a way to get our rain cover attached and some bamboos needed to be replaced. Also we made a list of necessary things to buy and get done before the trip. We had a little walk around Olango and enjoyed lunch at Enoy's place, after which Enoy brought us back home.

beach house in Olango

More of Olango

Aris and the carpenter who built and sold us the boat

Ready to go back home

On Tuesday Aris went over to Olango to find ways to get the boat in shape. Also Aris wanted to have a chat with Enoy’s mother about the whole situation around Enoy. The talk with his father didn’t really clear the air and he hoped to resonate better and clearer with his mother. He took Ella with him to make sure that everything would communicated clearly. This seemed to be a fruitful conversation, since Aris decided to keep Enoy on board as our boatman. David and I are very pleased with the result and we hope that we can shape things with Enoy to our wishes. 

Since we were “fired” from dealing with Enoy, David and I took the day to go shopping and work off our to-do list. We were on a roll and managed to get a whole lot done. After a shopping spree in Grand Mall and the hardware shop we went to the motorbike repair shop to change our exhaust. The old one had a hole in it and was making strange noises. 

They brought over a new pipe and started installing it. It looked very fancy. Though when it was installed and they started the engine, I couldn’t believe how much noise it was making! Incredible, like I was driving a Superbike. Here in the Philippines they love this sound and many are driving around on a bike like this. For us this was way too much. On the way home it made me half deaf. After doing some shopping, we went back to return it. We were not prepared to, as well as on our boat  also having to wear earplugs on our bike. They told us to come back the next day so they would install a silencer.

The next day they fiddled around with the exhaust trying to make it more quiet. They put in a silencer, but still it was way too loud. They put in a metal piece at the end, but it blew out on a test drive. David and I were losing our faith in getting it to our wishes and asked to put the old one back under. This one turned out to have the hole already patched. They installed it and it sounded like new. We managed to sell the new one back to them with a minor loss, but avoided a bigger one.

Crossroads:

With all our major issues concerning the boat resolved and Aris having extended his stay till April, we can now start to get ready for our first big trip. We took our boat on two diving trips since the new engine was installed and it runs smooth (though still very noisy) like the sun. Little by little we have come so far, that we are almost ready to go. 

Today our diving trip was cancelled due to bad weather. It was strongly advised to not leave the marina. This in turn gave me time to make a new entry on the blog. Also I could at ease sum up all the outcomes of our conversation and earlier set goals. I decided to make a list with all my goals written out. Making it clear for me where and how I have to put my energy into. 

This leaves me standing at a crossroads where I feel in control of taking the leashes of my own life into my hands. Making up my mind what I want, and where I stand for. Now is the time to make it happen! The trip, my life, my goals, my dreams and… my legacy. Very exciting times are up ahead!