Yesterday was a red-letter day for the remaining Mabuhay Guides. It was the day when the remaining guides paid a courtesy call to newly-appointed Department of Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim. I say remaining because from twenty-five the number has been drastically cut to fourteen active Mabuhay Guides. Some have opted to leave the group for better pastures while the rest who were stricken of the roster failed to make the desired rating.
Oh yes, Virginia... the Mabuhay Guides underwent an acid-test of sorts for an entire year while taking on various guiding duties. Each and every group we went with were given an evaluation sheet of how satisfied/disatisfied they were with our guiding skills.
But I digress. As a show of solidarity and support for the newly-appointed secretary, we were all instructed to be in our gala uniform and be at the Secretary's office at 1:30 p.m. Suits for the men and for the women, their black pencil skirts and their orange tops and matching blazers.
We were ushered into the recieving room and were made to wait for Sec. Lim as he was still out on a meeting with PNoy. Whilst there, we all exchanged pleasantries and tried to catch up on what each and everyone was doing outside of the Mabuhay Guides. As is usual with our meetings, there was a lot of fun and laughter which we did with a lot of resttraint so we don't make the wrong impression on the Secretary.
At half past two in the afternoon, Secretary Lim enters the door from his office and he was a bit surprised that we were dressed to the nines as if a reception was underway. Apparently the cabinet meeting would have taken till midnight if the president had not included another meeting he had to go to. My first impression of Secretary Lim was that he was a no-nonsense kinda guy. He's a pretty tall man with a serious demeanor. Eventually, he slackened when we each introduced ourselves to him. Of course, our mother-hen, The Susan Calo-Medina was there to steer the conversation to our plans.
I liked that Secreatry Lim was quite supportive of the future plans of the Mabuhay Guides. Like us, he believes in upgrading the quality of the guides in the country and that he is willing to provide us with logistical support if and when necessary. He also believes in strengthening the Mabuhay Guides brand so we can professionalize the guiding industry as an effective conduit to tourism. Like any businessman, he can be direct and exacting to the point that he gets misconstrued... misquoted... perhaps even misunderstood.
All in all, the meeting was a pleasant one and shows lots of promise for the Mabuhay Guides who choose to stick it out and spread the love for country and travel to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, as we all undergo the renewal process for our individual accreditation, we're most anxious for the guests to start pouring in. The rainy season has set in and at the moment, it's quite a long wait for each and everyone of us to get assigned to a tour.
That's tourism for you... we're dependent on the weather. We can make the worst of the rainy season look good but we have an eye out for brighter sunshine to make our guests enjoy what the country has to offer.
Oh well, since it's summer in the US, my cousins have all decided to come home for a spell. For them, this is the best time to come home to Manila. The weather isn't that bad and it's a lot cooler than it is during summer. Since I haven't taken my turn yet I may as well get some practice showing my cousins around...
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