So this year I had to come out to the factory solo. The rest of my team will follow me one week later. It's a lot of work to do by my self, stressful and busy, but I do the best I can. The first few days are a struggle to to get the product to turn out the way we want. Banging my head against the wall, I try to communicate in english to Korean and Tagalag speakers. The protos types come slowly. I wake up in the morning (too early) at the factory guest house, and after a shower I go down stairs into the empty dinning hall and head straight for the espresso mechine. After cranking out the strongest Americano I can get the mechine to make, I head out side for a walk. The guest house is located in what used to be a giant Americian Army instilation, mostly housing and entertainment venues ( see last years post for the old movie theater pictures); perched up in a series of smally run off valleys on a jungle mountain side. Most of my walks have been 30 to 40 minute explorations to the ends of streets, and sometimes into the jungle down sketchy trails. One morning as ventured in a new direction, a man on his way to work struk up a conversation with me. Earlier in the week I had noticed an overgrown road with a sign at it's entrance that read "..no unauthorized vehicles...." . I had planned that morning to walk the road and see what was down it. I asked the man, as I was not sure if it was OK for me to walk down, and he said that the road was off limits beacause the area was dangerous. I asked what made it dangerous, and he told me ,."....Cobras and Pythons will kill you..". Needless to say, I changed direction and headed for another road that I had noticed and seemed to be abandoned, but this one was paved. Walking up the street, I was amazed at how much work had gone into the constructiuon of the road, and investment; and wondered what were the cercumstances that allowed the jungle to take it back. Cresting the hill, I was suddenly confronted with a strange concrete building trying to escape the clutches of the green. It turnd out to be an abandon Hotel. Totally mysterous! It was hard to make out the entirity of the hotel complex becasue of the jungle, but I could make out a corner of a building here, and part of a stair way there. I explored for while, but was run off by a barking dog. This sort of experience was becoming a daily experience for me on my morning walks, at times feeling like I was discovering a long lost temple in the south americian jungle. On another day, I inquired about a road I had been trying to find, that I knew wound it's way into the mountains behind the factory. One of the Koreans told me that I should not go to that place because of the people who run away from the government, the rebels and the bandits camp out in the mountain. I begin to feel lucky that I have not been abducted by crazy venom drinking mountain people ( and I am reminded of Deliverence). I later learn from a coworker that grew up and lives in the area, that there are no bandits in the hills, and Cobra and Python den is actually a park that boy scouts and girl scouts camp at.
