“Good marriages are not just accidents. They are the result of hard work and understanding.”
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Thank you Lord for this summer vacation. Back to my calling in a few days.
Cheers to this one last year. It’s the last hurrah before getting down to business.
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And just like that, I say goodbye to OB EAMC. Ended up with Day 1 by accident—bunutan para fair. Really wanted Day 2 para may Christmas and New Year breaks. Little did I know I would have the best duty group ever. I will sorely miss my senior and junior interns. OB was extremely fun because of you!
East Ave Duty has got to be the Kick-Ass Duty. Walang binatbat yung iba hahahaha. Thankful for the upper that is my duty group!
A doctor is one whose profession is all service. Because, really, who is in more position to serve than a doctor?
A Day Like No Other
It was another day at the Liwanag clinic.
It was a day that was no different from the rest. We waited for patients that afternoon, but only one came for a consultation. Just before we were about to call it a day, we were told that a resident in the barangay, a mother butler from St. Peter’s Parish, was suffering from bedsores that needed our attention. She suffered a stroke not too long ago, that without much pity or second thought, left her crippled, bedridden and simply unable to help herself. Her husband stood at the clinic door that late afternoon. A dazed look was on his face. He did not have to plea as we felt his desperation from a distance.
He lived alone with his wife and a 10 year-old son, with no close relatives to lend them a hand. He was from Bicol, while she, from Davao. And because he had to work as construction worker during the day, there was no one to take care of his wife. He was only fortunate to have known a neighbor willing to look after his son. After her stroke, it did not take long for his wife to soon suffer from bedsores. He was told, at first, that the bedsores would heal if he gave it proper care. Proper wound care, he did give—but proved not enough for her wounds. Her bedsores grew to ulcers, the ulcers grew much larger, and new sores started in new body parts which caused him alarm.
He recounted his story ever so slowly as we walked deep into the community, turning at little streets we never knew existed to visit the once-healthy mother butler who so selflessly served the church. As we reached their most modest home, we discovered how the little sore has grown to the size of a fist, and also, become visibly infected. There was pus around the wound, and its foul smell engulfed their small living room. She did not have fever, but she was in obvious pain. Helpless, we stood in the room. We quietly watched the husband carefully change his wife’s dressing.
Quietly, we watched him save his wife. Quietly, we watched him love his wife.
I looked at them and felt saddened. I felt awful. There was nothing tangible we could do or offer, and advise was all we could give. We laid out specific instructions for the patient’s urgent confinement so his wife would get better.
“Mahirap po ang buhay,” was his retort.
He had to give up work for a while to accompany her, but that also meant not having the salary to pay off their hospital bills. Mahirap po ang buhay resounded hard in my head. I wanted to get angry at him for choosing to leave their provinces where they could live close to family. Things then would have been much easier. But I couldn’t—didn’t know any better. I saw poverty. And I saw how poverty was a complex issue, weaved into different aspects of human life. Poverty was not all economics. I had ignorantly believed that, but saw now that it was a problem that defied boundaries and limits. Poverty does not also solely root from laziness, or from the unwillingness to help oneself, because these people were far from lazy. They worked hard, but were stuck in a rut. They worked hard, but were simply unlucky.
And it was at that most unexpected moment, I realized the importance and impact of community work. Helping the poor is not the government or church’s sole responsibility. They will not suffice. They also do not give us the license to turn blind eyes and deaf ears. It is social responsibility, it is justice, it is doing what is right, it is doing our part.
Because really, those who are given plenty are given plenty so they can offer help to those who need the help.
Fingers crossed for an asian tour!
I miss my blog. It’s been a while.
I have great respect for Apple, which is why this upsets me so.
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As American consumers ogle over shiny new gadgets at this week’s Consumer Electronic’s Show, the workers that make those products are threatening mass suicide for the horrid working conditions at Foxconn. 300 employees who worked making the Xbox 360 stood at the edge of the factory building, about to jump, after their boss reneged on promised compensation. It’s not like this is the first time working conditions at Foxconn have made news outside China. But iPhone and Xbox sales surely haven’t lagged in the wake of those revelations and neither Apple nor Microsoft has done much of anything to fix things.
Foxmann Chairman Compares His Workforce to Animals
“Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” said Terry Gou, chairman of Taiwan’s Hon Hai, the parent company of Foxconn.
This was his statement at the end of year party, and considering recent events in Foxconn; Gou picked a regrettable choice of words. Unfortunately, what could just be poor wording is made much worse by the fact that he also suggested he wanted to learn management techniques from Chin Shin-Chien, director of Tapei Zoo.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/asia/foxconn-chairman-compares-his-workforce-to-8216animals/776
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Little books inside a bigger book.
Bookception.
(via bookwormlily)