Back in California!
The memories of those dense waves of water heavily pouring down from the sky during my last days in Manila are still lingering in my mind. We had just completed our 2 nd round of medical mission in Santa Barbara, Pangasinan, and very pleased with the immense progress of the RHU midwives performing ultrasound. Prior to that, we had also visited Culion, Palawan as we prepare for our next big mission project starting in January 2024.
Our team got lucky for there was no rain during those days despite the typhoon season. But then, two cyclones passed by the Philippines within a week at the end of August. No landfall and no direct hit, and that meant no reports about damages in the news - but massive rains and local floodings nevertheless. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the blessing of California’s best time of year with its late Summer sunshine now that I am back here.
Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the blessing of California’s best time of year with its late Summer sunshine now that I am back here. Yet, my thoughts are still with those people subjected to the rain when those two typhoons passed. The “Nipa” style huts made of bamboo, palm leaves and wood with dirt floors are not putting up much resistance to the elements. Not to mention the wooden houses on stilts with rusted corrugated roofs...
The rural poor already face food insecurity due to their dependence on agriculture. With those common natural disasters, they often lose what little crops they had planted as the base for their marginal existence. The diet they turn to then is simple: plain rice with ++ salt. Not sufficient for anyone, let alone a pregnant woman in need of iron and calcium for the new life growing inside her...
Food - when thinking about the Philippines, one sooner or later, has to turn one’s attention to food. I just recently found out that more and more of my “Fil-Am” (Filipino-American) friends and physician colleagues are becoming “pescatarians” (vegetarian diet plus seafood) in order to remain healthy as we all age. When we discussed this, we realized the irony in it. In essence, they are actually returning to the original Filipino diet of their forefathers, most of whom were fishermen in the Philippine archipelago. In the meantime, ironically, most urban Filipinos in the Philippines have turned to eating all sorts of meats from lechon (bbq-ed suckling pork, the crispy skin is considered a delicacy) to the highly popular “crispy chicken” soaked and fried in vegetable oil as offered in the ubiquitous fast food chains and small restaurants. Meanwhile,vegetables and fish continue to be considered as “poor peoples” foods, and sometimes even hard to find on the menus.
In Manila itself, this irony is turned on its head: Many of the “urban” poor in the slums rely increasingly on food from the garbage the very same fastfood outlets produce. Once dumped on a landfill, this garbage is scavenged for food scraps. Chicken bones with some meat left on them and other scraps are separated from dirt and inedible materials, washed, mixed with salt and some spices, deep fried in cheap vegetable oil for a second time and then consumed (often with delight) as “pagpag.” This process worsens the already poor nutritional value of fastfood,and adds the dangers of poisoning or infection if improperly done. If you click on the hyperlink below, you can watch and see for yourself. https://youtu.be/o8qhhNbxdKA?si=AKZiVWDmxHCmF5nl
There is hope: At some point, the idea of healthy eating will gain track in the urbanized areas (there are some signs of it among fashionistas in Manila already), become trendy everywhere and eventually (hopefully!) will end up in the rural areas as well. In the meantime, we at LMI, will have to do our part in spreading the dietary benefits of vegetables and seafood through knowledge transfer to the remote provinces...
Later in the day, I had to go and see a notary public to certify some documents for next year’s medical mission required by the Philippines’ authorities. This can be challenging as the lines are usually long, the notaries often overworked and unsure about how to certify these documents destined for abroad. I told the first notary what the documents were needed for, but she was unable to help me. She barely listened. So, I moved on to another. Again, I explained about our missions and that we will be doing 5 of them altogether next year in remote islands of a province called Palawan.
This time I got lucky. The lady who helped me listened attentively. She knew exactly what to do and took the time to help me with the paperwork. When all formalities were done and I got ready to pay for the services, she refused to accept my payment. Imagine my surprise. “Consider it my contribution to the voluntary work you do there to help the poor mothers”, she said, and “God bless you!” It literally brought me to tears. When looking at this lady I had come face to face with humanity.
This reminded me of one indisputable fact: there is so much goodness, there are so many good people around us. Only last week at our monthly LMI meeting we had so many new people interested in our charity work. Everyone is super motivated. All our volunteers spend their own time and resources to travel halfway around the world to help make a change to the most needy there. 3 nights ago, I received a request to bring our mission project to two additional island municipalities and beyond. It shows there is plenty of positivity and humanity in this world - one just needs to open one’s eyes, see it and reach out.
The daily news we get to hear or see rarely focuses on such positivity. “Positive” is considered the baseline. Only the deviation, the “negative” is considered newsworthy. We have to remember this when we want to find out what is going on in this world. Traveling helps to get a more balanced perspective. The news won’t report much of the good to us, we have to recognize it ourselves in our daily lives. It is there.
And we can do our part and add to it. How? By displaying our own humanity in our faces.