Pictures of Manila- No Banana Leaf Huts

Saturday afternoon 3.45pm and I find myself at Starbuck's. The condo property manager seems to think that I may have internet access at home in a week or so. Until then, I am now recognized by the security guard and the baristas know my name and drink. The first week of work went good. As many of you know from my emailed updates, power has been a challenge because of the typhoon that hit the last week of September. Many trees were uprooted and billboards torn down. One of the guys at work asked our computer geek Roger if he heard a lot of sirens and emergency vehicles after the typhoon struck. Roger's response? "Emergency vehicles? This is a 3rd world country, we don't have those services." After a week, the city still looks like this: They say the typhoon was the worst to hit in 10 years. It will be interesting to see if the destruction debris is cleaned up or if we'll be walking around tree roots and piles of branches the entire time we are here.

To give you an idea of where I am staying, here's a shot of the condo bldg. The red marking is the 24th floor:

And here's the view from the deck. Obviously no banana leaf covered tiki huts with coconut shells for communications.

The first week of work went very well. We have 30 small business sales reps making outbound calls to the childcare industry. Jay and Drew have done an amazing job on training the teams. There are a total of 4 training groups with another one starting on Monday. The last batch trained have gotten up to speed quite fast. On Thursday, 3 of them each had 4 orders and 4 new customers. Hats off to Jay and Drew.

The camaraderie at the office is a welcome sight. I started my usual golf clap when folks landed accounts, and the clapping has continued. I'm sure it was happening before I came, the people are genuinely excited for each other and for the success of the office. I also made sure to bring my BIG SALE HAT for good luck. When I pulled it out on Tuesday night they looked at me a bit odd, but I showed them how I wear it and put my headset on over it; told them of the lore behind it and the magic powers. Said that the hat works even better if you chant as you dial the phone, "big sale, big sale, this is gonna be a big sale" I hung it up on the cube wall between myself and Ivan (whom hadn't landed an account yet.) I asked if it was okay that the hat hang over in his area. Being polite he agreed. Before the night was over, he had landed an order and the legend of the hat was cemented in Manila.

Ray ,shown in the photo above, was next to wear the hat. He is trying so hard to land business. He came in the day afer this shot and said, "I dreamed about the big order from Lisa. I figured out that I can offer a lower price if she buys in bulk. I'm going to call her now!" That's the spirit, think outside the box, be creative.

Signing off for now, almost out of wireless service. Off to find a salon. What was I thinking when I decided to grow out my bangs?