My January journals started out in Manila, hanging out with other Peace Corps volunteers and friends including Toni, Dan, Mike McQuestion, Yonky, Neal, James, Lorrie, Al, Liz, Georgia, Gordon and Phil. We went to movies, to Makati, for long walks along Manila Bay, hung out at Luneta Park, went to happy hours, went to Faces to listen to music, drank and rang in New Years all day in various parts of the world. I was sick again, but made it home to Bugasong to do a little work and to attend town fiesta.

I don’t and won’t pretend to know
why I’ve come to this strange place
and mood and left behind
those other incompleted wanderings

Return of the Amoeba

Americans have little resistance to the local parasites and we don’t throw them off so easily. By the end of December, I was sick again and couldn’t hold down food.  I went to the Peace Corps doctor’s office as soon as I arrived in Manila and was sent to have liver scans taken at the hospital. When the results of the tests came in on January 5th, my liver and spleen were swollen. So I was hospitalized again and got hooked up to an IV. In the hospital I mostly slept and slept. The first day I was wakened at 4 a.m. for enemas and hours of tests and X-rays, after which I slept again for most of the next days. James, Al, Jerry, Steve, Gordon, and Phil visited. I hated the feeling of helplessness, lying in a hospital bed. Doctors came in and poked around. The doctors told me that I have some hereditary extra thing in my intestines, sort of like an appendix. They said that it doesn’t usually show up until old age. Mine just showed up early because of the amoebic dysentery. At least I was comfortable with an automatic bed, air conditioning, telephone, and television, not to mention electricity. Eventually the doctora came in with the GI specialist and told me that I had a bad case of amoeba. I was put back on a regimen of medicines. The next day a nurse mistakenly told me I could check out, which was wrong. But I had already checked out. I ended up sleeping all day in the hotel. I was in bad shape and easily wiped out. On January 14th, with a suitcase full of medicine, I caught a flight to Iloilo and the next day I headed to Bugasong, arriving exhausted. Friends were happy to see me and I was happy to see them. I had loads of mail, especially cards, and some gifts. I was still pretty sick and I went to bed at 6 p.m.

The remainder of January I continued to have a lot of pain, be exhausted, and was weak. I contemplated going back to the hospital in Manila. I even bought a plane ticket, though I never used it. I have a doctor now in Manila and permission from Peace Corps to travel there at any time for any medical treatment. The doctor is a GI specialist who studied in the the states. I have confidence in him. Still, I have never felt this sick in the states, though it is becomng the norm for me here. For the past 10 months or more I almost always have diarrhea, weakness, pain to some extent.  I’m definitely learning to appreciate my health.

Between the return of the amoeba, and adjusting to the culture, I predict a thinner year with fewer ice cream escapes. The true sign that I am adjusting was the way I handled the Christmas present from my Great Aunt Leila. For the second year in a row, she sent me three canned cakes. The first year I pretty much hoarded them for myself, as a reminder of home and as a comfort. But this second year, I shared the first two cakes with my colleagues and friends here in Bugasong, and the third with other Peace Corps Volunteers. Perhaps I am becoming less selfish.

Birthday & Fiesta

On Friday, January 16, 1976, I turned 24. I woke at 8 a.m., finished rereading my mail, cleaned my house, unpacked from vacation and began feeling at home and happy in my house again. I went to the opening of the Nutrition Fair. I delivered belated Christmas presents for Flor, Rosit, and Corazon. We all went for birthday snacks at the Rendezvous and wandered the town in the mood of Fiesta. It was a pleasant but different birthday.

Only real eating establishment in Bugasong in 1976. It was across from the town plaza. This is the owner wth the best smile.

On Saturday the 17th, I woke late and shuffled around the house until 11 a.m. when I went to the Riveros. I’m comfortable there and have a good time with Peachie and Cherrie. I often drop by to iron my clothes with their coal iron, play with the children, hang out.

Peachie and Cherrie Rivero

After lunch I took a nap and was awakened by the parade. Costumes and Ati Atihan style dancing were great. Then I walked to the plaza with Nene and Doctora but had to go home and rest a while. Brother Roy and a Peace Corps volunteer named Phil came up to town for fiesta. We watched old silent movies  projected on the side of the church.

After Bugasong’s fiesta, Phil and I caught a ride to Pandan to attend a regional Peace Corps conference in Kalibo. The ride was full, so we had to sit atop rice sacks on the roof of a Ford Fiera to Pandan. I won’t say it was comfortable, but it was fun. The next morning, Toni, Mike Z, and Mike McQ came banging on my door to wake me for a birthday cake they’d bought for me. Neat Surprise. We all went to the beach. I enjoyed myself even though I still felt terrible, was weak, and had stomach pains. We went bowling to end the day and that was fun.

Work

After the Nutrition Fair, I busied myself setting up a feeding program for the following week. I went to San Jose to schedule some lectures for the feeding program and for my next project.  I went to barrio Talisay where our Mother’s Class Community Garden had been part of the #1 winning Green Revolution Contest in the Province and the Region. Too much! With this success, our feeding project should proceed well. The mothers are enthusiastic, excited, and cooperative.

Unfortunately, we can’t hold any mothers’ classes during February or March because the two midwives and doctor will be at seminars during the two months, and the two family planning motivators are on pregnancy leave (yes, I catch the irony). All our underboard nurses have completed their training here in Bugasong (a requirement of 6 months for all nurses in the Philippines), and we have no permanent nurse at our clinic. That leaves the sanitary inspector, who might also be called up for a seminar, and myself. I guess I’ll make toilets and posters for two months. I’m sure I’ll be able to keep myself busy enough and maybe save time to go swimming late afternoons.

At the end of the month I headed off to Iloilo en route to my Peace Group 81’s mid-service conference in Dumaguete. I wasn’t excited about the 7 hour bus ride followed by a 2-3 hour boat ride and then a 10 hour bus ride to the site of our conference, but the trip was scenic. The travel was made a bit more grueling by the fact that when I arrived in Iloilo City at 2 p.m. all the hotels were filled. I dragged my suitcases around the city for four hours, trying to find place to stay for the night. At 6 p.m., exhausted and frustrated, I ran into Mike Z. and he invited me stay in the hotel room he was sharing with Neal. We ordered an extra cot for the room.

At the mid-service conference we plan to fill out reports on what we’ve done, prepare for the next rural health group to enter the country, and have our one year physical examinations and immunizations. I’m still not feeling well, and hope I pass the physical.