connecting

On Sunday, I decided to take a long walk around town.  I just started walking down the street with no map and soon my urban surroundings began to engulf me.  Before long, a small man began walking along beside me.  I wasn't too concerned because he was rather non confrontational, but I did sense that he was interested in communicating with me.  I walked for blocks and, of course, it wasn't long before we started a conversation.  Boyan was 60 years old and spoke english quite well.  He had worked as an RN for many years in Saudi Arabia but left to come back to the Philippines after 911.  He was sad that he and his wife had separated and that he does not see his two grown children anymore.  I would say that he was rather well dressed and in no way resembled the many homeless we passed as we continued walking.

Boyan became my tour guide.  We came upon an historic Spanish fort along a river that leads to the sea. Built in the 1600's the fort is rock solid and is covered in moss and vines.  Boyan explained how, during WWII (1945), the Japanese invaders forced tens of thousands of filipino's to descend into the dank and dark underground tunnels that the Spanish had dug so many years ago.  We walked down these steps ourselves until we were blocked by the bars.  These tunnels became dungeons for the victims.  There was no escape as the full moon high tide would fill the dungeons with sea water and those inside would be drown.  After, the Japanese would remove the dead bodies and then march a new group of filipinos into the tunnels to their death.  Absolutely haunting.

Boyan and I walked to several historic Catholic churches, also built in the 1600's.  Catholic churches are pread around town and stand majestically within Manila.  Over 95% of filipino's are Roman Catholic and prayers have already begun to ensure the safe arrival of Pope Francis to the Philippines in January 2015.  Of course, the churches we visited were silently filled with people who had stopped, like Boyan and I, for meditation and reflection.

Boyan brought me to Chinatown, where we stopped and had lunch.  Boyan encouraged me to order the bull penis soup because he noted that it was combined with special Chinese herbs and was known to be a very potent aphrodisiac.  I laughed and reminded him that my wife was in the USA and that I had no need for such medicine here!  I ordered the fried tofu instead!

We had walked for over 4 hours and I am sure we had covered over 7 or so miles.  Before Boyan and I departed, he told me that he had one last place to show me.  Since I was in the field of disaster management, he felt that it was important to take me to the local filipino hospital so that I could better understand "true Philippines".  The downtown Manila hospital actually consists of two hospitals - there is a hospital for people who can pay for services, and there is one for people who have no money.  We went into the emergency room dedicated to the poor.

It is difficult to describe this scene.  Perhaps the best I could do would be to ask you to imagine an emergency care unit in a war zone.  Not that I could see much blood, but there existed a frenzy of health care activity not unlike what I might imagine in a true MASH unit.  The dirt and filth was everywhere and row upon row of the sick lay on gurneys that had no sheets.  No air con, no glass on the windows - only bars.  I watched as a man pulled himself to the edge of his gurney in order to vomit out of the window.

There are no doctors here.  The highest level medical staff stationed in the emergency room for the poor are merely interns.  If they have questions about treatment, they must run to find a doctor who is hopefully available on the other side of the hospital.

Boyan and I walked past the psychiatric ward of the hospital as well.  Boyan seems to feel that there is an increasing number of mentally ill as the years progress, and he asked my thoughts as why that might be. He noted that the insane have few choices:  prison, the ward (also a prison), or the street.  I noted to him that this situation is not unlike what probably exists in most countries, including the US.

Amazing day.  In the end, I offered my guide 500ps for his time (about 15US) , which he gladly accepted.

I also purchased a 'pocket wifi' device yesterday that should aid in enhancing my connectivity once I get to my rural community.  Hurray for that!!