Together again for the first time: Meeting the Accenture team in Manila

When planning my three-month trip, I decided that I had to stop by the Philippines. Not for the beaches, snorkeling, or the desire to be disappointed by large, under water mammals (happy, nerds?). My main reason for wanting to stop in the Philippines was to visit the Accenture team in Manila that I had been working with for the past two years. I'd spent many late nights on the phone with these awesome developers and testers, and thought that it was about time to meet them in person.

Wilbert, who is from Manila and lives there now, but worked in Seattle with me for a couple of years, was gracious enough to pick me up from the airport and act as a tour guide around Manila. He was awesome. He drove me all over pointing out interesting spots and took me to some really good meals that varied from higher end food in the newly developed business district (BGC is awesome!), to food carts overlooking Manila Bay while live bands serenaded us to the likes of Luther Vandross and Brian Adams. I also made a request to visit Jollibee, which is pretty much the Philippines' version of McDonald's, only more spaghetti.

Black Gulaman - black jelly dessert drink.

Mango/chocolate cake. Great combo.

Fried chicken and spaghetti at Jollibee.

Eating on the boardwalk in Manila Bay.

Before getting to meet the rest of the team, I had a bit of free time so I visited an area in old Manila called Intramuros, which is a walled-off area that used to be occupied by the Spanish. It was a really interesting area where I got to see some old churches (with amazing paintings that looked 3D. I felt like I was surrounded by a giant Magic Eye book...following my every move), museums and monuments - all while losing about 10 pounds through sheer sweat.

The Manila Cathedral.

The St. Agustine Monastery. Amazing that  there are no carvings in this ceiling.

That night was the night I had been waiting for. I took a cab to the office and on the way there I realized how I actually looked to the outside world - sweaty, unkempt, and unshaven in shorts and flip flops. This was definitely the first impression I wanted fellow Accenture employees (including higher up managers) to have of me!

When I got into the office, I felt like a needle fell off a record player and all eyes were on me - a sweaty, slightly homeless looking drifter. Karla, one of my late night partners in crime on the PLC project (manual conversion what, what!), proceeded to introduce the entire team to me, about 35 in all. I had worked with about eight of the 35, but it was great to meet everyone nonetheless. Everyone was really welcoming and talkative, and did a great job of pretending like I didn't have cartoon stink lines coming off me. I even got to meet a couple of the Senior Managers, immediately apologizing for my appearance. All they said was "hey, you're on vacation." My kind of guys.

PLC FTW!

Before getting into the rest of our evening together, I want to write a little love letter to the Manila team. Like I said, I had worked with them over conference calls for about two years and had been impressed and grateful for their hard work since day one. Any praise I received from the client was directly attributed to the Manila team's air tight knowledge of the system and patience with my sive tight knowledge. They truly blew me away on a daily basis with the detailed knowledge they knew of each nook and cranny of the system - something that was invaluable to our team's success. They made seemingly difficult tasks very manageable and always with a smiling emoticon on the screen :). There's a reason Gates Foundation team in Manila has won multiple awards over the past couple of years, and is the team that everyone in the Manila office (about 20,000 employees) wants to join. Team, I can't thank you enough, but thank you again.

Sooooo.....karaoke. That's what the Manila team does. I had heard stories of teammates visiting Manila and being treated to karoake (or vidoeke, as they call it in Manila), so I was excited for my initiation. One thing I quickly noticed about the Philippines is that everyone loves to sing. It didn't matter where I was, people were singing (a lot of Celine Dion for some reason). It was awesome. And the Accenture team was no different.

Princess reserved a "presidential suite" which included a huge room, pool table, card table and buffet which included Filipino favorites such as chicharones (think pork rinds, but with intestines) Definitely a different experience from the laser discs I have at home (Thanks for planning, Princess!). It was so much fun singing. Not only did people sing really well (Joseph blew me away), but they chose really great songs including Britney Spears' "Born 2 Make U Happy" (a truly underrated song, if there ever was one) and an amazing rendition of the Cranberries' "Zombie" by Mika - "zo-ombie, zo-ombie, zo-ombie, ie, ie." We sang the night away with some San Miguel Lights - not really much more I could ask for.

The presidential suite.

The delicious spread.

With the guys.

Now with the ladies.

A bunch of award winners...and me.

On our last night in Manila, Wilbert graciously let Carolyn and me stay at his place...before waking up at 5am to take us to the airport...one hour away. Man, he's a good friend. Wilbert, I will buy you no less than one dozen San Mig Lights next time you're in Seattle. One other thing I mentioned to Wilbert was that I loved how warm and caring Filipino mothers were. I have a handful of Filipino friends in Seattle and have always been treated with so much care. Wilbert's mom was no different. She knew we were leaving bright and early in the morning to catch a flight, so she woke up at 3:45am (!!!!) to make us breakfast. Ms. Lacbay, I will also buy you no less than a dozen San Mig Lights next time you're in Seattle...and make you breakfast.

No better test lead/BA combo. Unless you paired Wilbert up with a better BA.

I truly had an amazing time finally meeting the Manila team in person and getting to know them outside of work. Their warmth and humor was a joy to be around and I hope I can visit Manila again in the near future. I'm bummed we won't be working together anymore, but hey, we'll always have Britney.