I was fortunate to be given the chance to officially attend the 56th Annual PSAE Convention and 4th International Agricultural Engineering Conference in Butuan City in April 2006.
We stayed in the Balanghai Hotel which was also the venue of the convention. During breaks, we toured the city and visited the museum. Butuan and Agusan province are historic. Balanghai came from the word balangay, the Butuan boat, which was used during the old times when the place was the center of trade and commerce in the Philippines. There were a lot of artifacts found in the vicinity supporting this claim.During the last day, we were brought to the Filipinas Palm Oil Processing Plant in Agusan del Sur. I did not know that we would pass by the town of San Francisco where my college friend was residing. We did not see each other there but she went to the hotel to see me before I left. She gifted me with a watercolor painting by her architect-husband.
