When it Rains, it Pours, Floods, Drowns...

I am so blessed that people, influential at that, recognize me.

When I visited Tacloban on April 2 and 3, Ms. Babes the KALAHI-CIDSS's Regional Project Coordinator of Region VIII offered me the Regional Financial Analyst's position , currently held by my good friend Laboy. Knowing that my concurrent project is just short-term, she asked me to really reflect on it. It is actually attractive, earning, say 60,000 pesos, gross of 15% tax is more than enough when you stay in Tacloban where cost of living is a bit cheaper than Metro Manila. 

My best of friends in Kalahi-CIDSS Region VIII. It was so great to be reunited once in a while.

My project is ending this May, and so I intend to practice my new accreditation with National Water Resource Board (NWRB), to be a Technical Service Provider (ATSP) for water utilities. As experienced by my mentor, Ma'am Stella Salas, a 10-day++ work is worth 50,000 pesos. "++" indicates that the contracted days is the least workdays when you have the heart to help selflessly, since assisting mostly small water utilities is an advocacy. But the idea of starting it with 1 contract and then 2 to more, the advocacy would turn into a lucrative undertaking.

There will be this matching conference with potential water utilities in Baguio City on April 24-25 hosted by NWRB. Unfortunately, I cannot join because I have Boracay trip that same days.

Our current project is Phase 2. Then the Phase 3 is already packaged and undergoing procurement now. The latest information was that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will push on the Public Financial Management Program in the Philippines for more, more years. The Program decided to hire the Phase 3 consultants directly through its project implementing arm, the Coffey International. The project is expected to start in July, which means that I have 1 idle month (June). One-month wait won't hurt for as long as I am enlisted. Based on the last conversation with our Team Leader, I was asked to stay put.

I love to stay in this small team headed by Paul Seeds, the Brit Team Leader, Marisa and Ulrich.

Phase 2 is contracted through an Irish consulting firm, which is our current employer. With Phase 3 coming, this consulting firm will be out of the picture. So the manager as reported has other plan for the team. Having won a project with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, he intend to bring the team there. He specifically identified my name in his email to me that he wanted a talk about a new work program after May.

Out of humility, I can say that there actually a lot on my plate right now. Praise God! And I am in the state of confusion, just like high school (hihihihi!).  I would love to stay with the firm because it's tax-free. But then it would be so attractive to be working directly with Australian government, but the tax is purely compensation income tax (32%). The Tacloban offer seems attractive as well, so that I can watch my nephews and nieces there, but my comfort zone is here in Metro Manila.

I actually don't know what to do... just yet.

It really is true that when it rains, it pours, and that you cannot catch them all. So it floods and sometimes will drown you.