Reach the poor

Yesterday Mack and I went to a new member briefing at Benguet Electrical Cooperative as a prelude for getting a new BENECO membership and an electrical connection to the shack that his family resides in. Afterward, I had a horrible headache, as if I’d been shot in the head. So we went to a pharmacy, and I bought ibuprofen. One has to take ibuprofen with food or milk, so we took tea and a snack in Vizco’s restaurant beside Session Road. more →

Chariss and Toni Rose have been ’sick as a dog’ for days (while I was in Sagada). Six-year-old Toni Rose had chicken pox weeks ago, and missed a week of Kindergarten. Then her eight-year old sister contracted chicken pox. I would have thought that it’d run its course and that they’d be well, but Charisse’s immune system was weakened, I suppose, and she got influenza then passed that to Toni Rose. They’ve both been miserable, and I hadn’t known. more →

Tropical Storm Higos (”Pablo”) has been marching across the Philippines for two days, and we are getting beaucoup rain in Luzon! Ramadan ended today, so all Republic of the Philippines government employees were excused from work, and classes were suspended in public schools. I’d bet that schools will be ‘closed’ tomorrow due to flooding and risks of mudslides, rockslides and drownings. more →

Today I read in a national newspaper the findings of a study conducted by the U.N.’s World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Republic of the Philippines Department of Health. About ten thousand Philippine children die each year from diarrhea. Can you believe that? That’s preventable childhood mortality!

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Nikko came to the flat with Toni Rose in tow, and he said that his stomach hurt. I asked if he wanted to go to a pharmacy or Chinese of Filipino herbal remedy store or a physician’s office. He wouldn’t express a preference. The quickest and cheapest thing to do is to go to a pharmacy and buy Pepto-Bismol or Maalox or Tums. These can’t be had in grocery stores and convenience stores in the Philippines. more →

I waited here in the flat for Nikko to come up from Baguio Gold after school. The intention was to take a jeepney to the city to buy a bicycle tire inner tube (again), brake pads and exchange the pedals that I’d bought days ago for ones with thicker studs. These are things that we couldn’t get yesterday after the bicycle shop in Shoppers’ Lane had closed at 6:00. We also wanted to get groceries and sundries that we couldn’t get in Baguio City Public Market (fire trap and crime haven). And Mack, who lost hundreds of pesos that I gave to him on Sunday to get replacement eyeglass lenses, wanted to meet me after his school session to go with him to an optical shop for new lenses.

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This morning Audrey knocked on my door much earlier than I expected, earlier than the time I’d set on my alarm clock. Yesterday we’d agreed to go with Nanay into the city to see a physician in a free clinic. I should have gone to bed earlier! Bleary-eyed, I pulled on a white t-shirt, tan trousers, shoes, slipped my wallet in a pocket, poured some coins in a front pocket, picked up my keys and sunglasses, and headed out without breakfast or caffeine.

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Thanks to Quin and Joyce for their donation through Wachovia. We will be able to build another chicken coop, add corrugated sheets of galvanized steel to the roof of the A/V/A family’s home and buy another barrel, for potable water for the kitchen. I will tell the kids tomorrow of their Florida benefactors.

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My head feels as if it’s stuffed with putty, and it aches. My throat is sore. I’ve been getting worse for days. My body aches. I’m achy and fatigued. So I think that I’m fighting an infection. I could have gone to a pharmacy - or gone to a physician for PhP 200 then to a pharmacy. Oh, well.

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Mack met met at home early in the morning so that I would accompany him to the National Statistics Office in Baguio City. I had suggested last week that we go to apply for a birth certificate copy because NSO would likely not have a copy in my mail box on Wednesday. Mack had Nikko in tow, so I asked him if he wanted to go to the city. He said yes, so I picked up my backpack and keys and locked the front door, wondering why Dominic hadn’t come home yet. And away we went.

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Today I, Mack and Toni Rose accompanied Nanay, their grandmother, to a physician’s clinic in the Anita Theresa Building, off Session Road. Afterward we walked to a nearby Mercury Drug store to fill prescriptions. Several “st.josephdrug” and “Mercury Drug” stores, and many physicians’ offices, are in the buildings overlooking Session Road. more →