Building Coco Space - #13 - Light & Shade

Back to Siargao, new community, construction finishings, and new things to take care of.

Back to normal (?)

I'm back in this little paradise with great waves to surf, friends to hang out with, and amazing places to chill. But since I returned, doing any of that feels out of place. I still do it, but it's not the same. I can't believe that even surfing feels... void. I'm positive it will change because I do feel improvement over time.

It's hard to stop thinking of what's happening back home with my friends, family, and people I know. Keep refreshing the news to see who died, hoping not to see any familiar faces again. Every time something happens, there's this painful feeling of guilt for not staying there, even after my service ended.

It's getting somehow better for a few hours or a day, and then some memory or news I get takes me back. It's pretty shit, and I never experienced it at this level.

Going back to the international world is also not great. I barely even open social media anymore. I'm not going to get into politics, but as someone who has lived and breathed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict all his life, it's painful to see how easily people are being manipulated with disinformation. People I know say terrible things about me and what I am part of without understanding even a bit of the complexity of this conflict.

Anyway, the good part is that I have millions of things to do. To be fair, Coco Space is my escape right now, I care about it enough to make me forget other things. I also want to get it up and running before I might need to leave again.

Community

While away, I missed an event I organized and was looking forward to, the digital nomad community anniversary. It was a great success with almost 70 nomads who joined!

Getting this photo was one of the nicest things while being in Israel.

While away, my dear friend, who took care of some things for me, started the Siargao Digital Nomads page, helping me to keep the community events and group chats working.

I don't even remember how things went, but I like the idea of having a separate community for all Siargao nomads and one just for the space members. The old community will still be under Coco space responsibility, but just open for everyone.

It's hard to tell how this synergy will work, but I have a good feeling about that.

Construction

With construction, also thanks to friends who took care of it for me, it felt crazy to come back and see how much had changed. Windows, doors, canopies, floors, wow.

Obviously, not everything is exactly like I wanted, but I'm not gonna bitch about it. It is still fairly impressive.

We are late in the schedule, though. We had some electricity issues, and now the new enemy - leaks. As I mentioned before, it keeps me busy, so it's not too bad, and I learned a lot about the structure of water/electrical systems, which I oddly enjoy.

Operations

That's quite new to me and a bit frightening. Until now, it was all about building, but I am already late in planning the actual operations of the space. I had a lot of time to plan guidelines and ideas, but now it's time to get practical.

From deciding which ice cream machine or researching POS systems to start hiring staff. I plan to learn and prepare for that from other businesses here and this time to avoid my trial-and-error method, which I use too often.

I also decided to open gradually. It's my first time, I'm still working full-time on my apps, and that's not a great time for additional stress. So happy I decided to do this project on my own - no pressure.

Another principle I will try to follow is to make the place independent, meaning I won't have to be there for it to function. I don't know yet exactly what I'm about to do next, but I feel like staying for a few years on the island is not an option anymore.

Looking forward

Despite the mess, I slowly get back the excitement of what this place is going to be for me and everyone else. I have so many ideas and dreams, and Coco Space is about to be the platform to make some of them happen. Cheers for that.

Promised myself I'll stick to my habit of writing every month, at least until we're open.

Thanks for reading :)