Breakfast at Tiffany's - Dinner at Jana's

Pizza: 1,100P. Salad ingredients: 900P. Wine: 700P. Time spent preparing food and washing dishes: 3,000P (German labor is expensive :-) ). A great dinner with friends: priceless.

So there we are, 7 people (a total of 5 nationalities and 4 different languages!) squeezing around my dinner table. Hardly any of the dishes or cutlery is matching. Long drink glasses are filled with wine (Mon dieu! Quelle faux pas!). The Yellow Cab pizza box in the middle of the table is the final statement: this is not a fancy dinner! And true enough, it wasn't. It was a spur of the moment idea to bring together interesting people to meet each other. And an interesting bunch we were!

There are my neighbors M. and T. An American-Filipino couple (interesting already for the mere fact the SHE is American and HE is pinoy) running a production company. Media people always have interesting stories to tell!

Then there are my friends and project partners B. and V. They are the funniest and smartest pinoy couple I've ever met! With a great idea and a passion for coffee they are revolutionizing the Philippine coffee industry. You bet they have stories to tell!

My new colleague L. and her boyfriend G. were definitely the sweetest couple on the table (which we figured might have to do with the fact that they are not married yet :-) ). An Austrian-Argentinian perfect match with a hiking record longer than my credit card bill.

And then there is me. The German host. Bow.

While stuffing our faces with greasy pizza we climb Mt. Matutum in Mindanao to visit coffee farmers, join an expedition in Eastern Nepal to talk to indigenous people, go skiing in the Alps to cool down, plan a joint trip to Sagada, listen to the wisdom of the married ("Do not get married!"), get carried away by some cheap magic tricks, discuss politics and corruption, learn a lot about coffee and civet cats, listen to "how we met" and "covering Iraqi" stories... and at midnight were stunned how time flew by without noticing!

Alright, I can't cook so do not expect a fancy dinner with silverware and crystal at my place... but a warm welcome to anyone who wants to share an interesting story!

reposted, April 2009

Manila - The Beauty or the Beast?

Metro Manila is congested with a registered population of more than 11 million people. 2009 estimates raise that number close to 20 million. Manila is noisy and polluted – just like any other mega city in an emerging country. Manila is suffocating in its traffic. Everybody who is commuting to work (using public transportation like I do) will share my frustration.

Unless you are hiding inside gated subdivision neighborhoods poverty is right in your face wherever you look. Sometimes a face looks back at me and smiles. That's when I'm reminded that beauty is not just on the outside. I admit it is hard to see the beauty of Manila at first sight.

But it's there. It has to be – otherwise I wouldn't be living here for more than three years now.

It is the (way too loud) friendly greeting at the mini stop store, the (almost lethargic) please-don't-rush mentality, it's the sunset at (polluted) Manila Bay, the freshly chopped coconut (at a foreigner mark-up) in Intramuros, it’s the international airport (and its corruption scandal) from where I can travel to the nicest destinations in the Philippines, it's my friends (without exception!) who care for me.

Manila's beauty is not on the outside (unless your vision is really blurred). In Manila the Beauty dances with the Beast at all times.

My World Wide View

I was born in the Eastern part of Germany nine years before the German wall--and with it the Iron Curtain--fell. Growing up in a socialist country I remember a happy childhood but also subtle indoctrination.

Little did I know about world politics when Germany reunited. As a 9 year old I was overwhelmed by the unprecedented abundance of colorfully wrapped consumer products. Then change approached the schools. Learning Russian wasn't mandatory anymore, no more collective after school activities.

The world changed. Countries which used to be our "Big Brothers" and friends--Russia and the Eastern Bloc States--crumbled and fell apart. I had to "de-learn" and "re-learn" which countries were "bad or good". Communism versus capitalism. Red or black.

20 years later I've lived and worked in various different countries: the United States, South Africa, Cambodia and the Philippines. Not to mention the countries I explore traveling. Opportunities my parents never had. The walled country they lived in walled their minds and jailed their dreams.

With those who can't see with their own eyes I want to share my World Wide View.