Bravo, Bayanihan Dance Company!

Here's something to fatten your Filipino heart. Something to be proud of more than Pacquiao's victory last Sunday.

No fanfare to triumphant Bayanihan dance troupe


MANILA, Philippines -- No lavish airport honors awaited the victorious Bayanihan Dance Company, which took plum honors from the World Folk Dance Festival in Spain, when the troupe arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Tuesday on the heels of triumphant boxing champions Manny Pacquiao and Bernabe Concepcion.


The 27-person delegation, including seven musicians and 16 dancers, casually walked with other passengers into the terminal where they were met with sampaguita garlands by Department of Tourism personnel.


The multi-awarded 50-year-old Bayanihan was declared “absolute winner,” or the grand champion of the World Folk Dance Festival’s 22nd competition last Saturday, besting delegations from 50 countries of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.


The troupe’s entry was an eight-minute dance narrative called “The Voyage for Love and Peace,” which told the tale of star-crossed lovers through several famous Philippine folk dances in the Bayanihan repertoire, including the singkil and the kuntao. They won the nod of the judges from Spain, Australia, Argentina, the Netherlands and Wales.


“We depicted the voyage for love and peace. We weaved the dances together with the story,” said the company’s executive director Suzie Benitez.


“We said we wanted to tell the story of the Philippines, we wanted them to see our culture, but we also wanted to win. And so when they called us the grand champion, we were all feeling so high, and so proud, and the sprinkling of Filipinos who were there were all crying with us,” she said.

Handurawan

Here's a TV program you simply shouldn't miss if you call yourself a Bisaya:

Handurawan (Every Saturday, 9-10:30 PM @ Channel 56)

Haranistas play classic Cebuano music requested by the viewers.

One thing you will immediately notice: they're all old! Yes, and a very precious aspect of our culture will be lost forever with them unless a new breed of artists will take their place.

Why do you believe in God?

I am always troubled when I encounter people (online) who are atheists. It troubles me especially if the person is smart, or very intelligent (and people who consider themselves atheists usually are). It troubles me because it poses to me a very great challenge (and one that is very burdensome, too) -- Please defend your religion!

Agh!

If an atheist would ask me, "Why do you believe in God?" My first answer would probably be, "Because I *know* He exists." Not a very convincing answer for a rationalist, lol.

Then I'd probably say that I don't have all the answers yet (not even the basic answers), that I am just starting on my faith journey, studying my faith, reading up on apologetics and theology. I plan to study all these, little by little, as I go through life. Apologetics and theology are tremendously vast areas of study, and countless really smart and intelligent people are devoting their profession/lives to studying them, and it seems that they can never exhaust the subject; it seems that they can never plumb the depths of God's mystery (Of course, for how can finite beings with limited intellects understand the infinite, the absolute Being?).

What I believe is basically this: We can know God through faith and reason. Reason can point us to God's existence, but it has limits. It is faith which actually helps us to know Him deeply and personally.

Bo Sanchez on homeschooling

Do you know that Bo Sanchez advocates homeschooling? Well, now you do. And that's one more thing that's great about him. He speaks what he believes to be true, even if it's highly unconventional, and even radical.

Here's a great article about homeschooling he wrote for the Catholic Filipino Academy: Why More And More Parents Are Sending Their Kids To The Best School In The World: Their Own Home. It's very long, but it's really worth your time.

If you're new to the idea of homeschooling, it will really strike you as very radical. But if you think about it carefully, doesn't it make a lot of sense?

Someday when I'll have kids of my own, I'll homeschool them, too. I've been passionate about the idea since way back in my first course in college. I even wrote an oration piece about it in English class. I didn't actually get to deliver it to the whole class. We were short of time then, so I had to deliver it privately to my teacher, just when the semester was about to end. I felt elated when my teacher said afterwards, "That's a good food for thought".

Compulsory schooling is harmful
and does not foster real education

I wish to propose for your consideration an idea which I’m sure will appear wildly subversive. The idea in question is this: that compulsory education or compulsory schooling does not foster real education, and that it in fact is harmful to our development as human beings.

First, why do I say compulsory schooling does not foster real education?

Several famous and noted men in history – writers, artists, poets, philosophers, even scientists – have in the past spoken against compulsory education. Albert Einstein, the most well-known among them perhaps, once said, "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by coercion and a sense of duty." Einstein recognized that this "delicate little plant," this fundamental source of a child’s capacity for growing and learning, needed freedom from compulsion and control. He believed that true learning only happens when the child is free from manipulation and compulsion, when she is left to discover and follow her own inner drives. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, two of the greatest writers in American literature, have also spoken against compulsory education in their time. They believed that mass schooling destroys a person’s individuality and his desire to learn. Mark Twain, also a great figure in American literature, once wrote, "I never let schooling interfere with my education." The great poet William Blake expressed his frustration about school in "Songs of Experience." In the poem "The Schoolboy," he wrote:

I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, -
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning's bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

George Bernard Shaw, another great writer, said that education is not supposed to be the "filling of a pail," the mere transfer of information from the teacher to the student, but the "lighting of a fire," or the ignition of the child’s interest or curiosity. John Dewey and the psychologist Carl Rogers also each criticized compulsory education, they each envisioned alternatives to the modern methods of schooling. The philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell once wrote, albeit more bluntly, that "Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education." These are just some of the notable men in history who have spoken against compulsory education. There are yet many others, including more contemporary ones.

One such modern thinker, a well-respected author in the field of education, is John Holt. John Holt passed away in the late 80s, but his ideas about education are still very influential today. John Holt is one of the founders of what’s called in America as the "Homeschooling" or "Unschooling" movement. It’s a growing movement of about 2 million families who believe that real education only happens when the child is left to herself, free from compulsion and control, to discover her own true interests and desires. It’s based on the philosophy that true learning only happens when it is self-directed. So children and teenagers who unschool don’t go to school, they just stay at home. They don’t follow a fixed curriculum. They just follow their own interests and desires, do the things they love; they never stop learning. Learning for them becomes indistinguishable with living. John Holt believed that children have the innate desire to learn, that they are naturally curious, that they have a natural desire to know and learn things. If left to themselves, with the trust and support of parents and other adults, if given the time and the resources, children grow up to become better learners and beautiful human beings. However, after a few more years, each child has to go to school, and for the next 16 or 17 years or so, that is to say, for the rest of his or her childhood and teenage years, he/she has to spend a great deal of his/her time, a great many hours, confined inside classrooms, detached from the natural world and real world experience. The child inside the classroom is disciplined and controlled, and as a result, his/her natural drive for learning, his/her inner curiosity, is stifled, and his/her capacity for authentic creativity is curtailed.

What follows in the succeeding years in the child’s life as a student is mere indoctrination. Education is reduced to mere transfer of information from the teacher to the student. The child is treated as a mere receptacle to be filled by information that the school or the teacher deems as important. This concept of education was first introduced by the Brazilian philosopher and educator Paulo Friere. He called this the "Banking" concept of education, wherein students are mere receptacles to be filled by information while the teachers act as the "experts" who deposit information to the passive students. As a result the students learn how to be passive and compliant. Then after they graduate they go out to the larger society and adjust to the present order of things instead of questioning them. They adjust to the unjust conditions of society instead of challenging and working to change them.

So in short, school really teaches passivity, conformity, and mediocrity.

Now, why do I say compulsory education is harmful to our development as human beings?

Well, because it detaches us from the bigger picture of society. It detaches us from direct experience of the real world. It gives us a fragmented view of reality. It teaches us to become passive, compliant automatons in society instead of active participators in its transformation. It teaches us to accept the status quo.

To quote John Nash in the movie "A Beautiful Mind," "Classrooms dull your mind, destroys your potential for authentic creativity."

We should not wonder, then, why, as students, we are usually so mediocre, so dull, so incapable of independent thinking and coming up with original ideas.

Also, we can take a close look at the educational system, particularly the grading system. It compares and classifies people into hierarchies. It teaches conceptions of inferiority and superiority. It teaches the values of competition instead of cooperation.

So far I have only presented the "negative side" of compulsory education. What about the "positive side"? Of course, our schools do produce competent professionals – doctors, nurses, therapists, engineers, architects, and so on. However, according to the nationalist historian Renato Constantino, these professionals are inevitably "compartmentalized" in their view and involvement in society. A compartmentalized worldview and orientation is the product of a compartmentalized kind of education wherein the student is merely fed fragmented reality. Again, this goes back to Friere’s concept of "banking" education. You cannot expect to cultivate the student’s critical faculties by treating him/her merely as a container to be filled by information and "knowledge". These professionals are inevitably only concerned with matters within their particular fields of interests, and not much on the things beyond. For example, most doctors are concerned only with their careers, and most nurses are concerned only about their own private goals, like, as is commonly the case with us, going abroad. They’re not really curious or interested about the bigger picture of society, they don’t really have that sense of involvement in the bigger problems of their community. It’s no surprise that while our schools do produce competent and capable young professionals, there are only very few among them who truly and sincerely care about the country and are sensitive and responsive to its needs.

There’s still so much that I have left unsaid. It is of course entirely up to you to agree or disagree. But you can ask yourself whether, as a student, you really feel free and liberated. Because education is supposed to liberate you and stimulate your curiosity and desire to learn new things and to grow in every aspect as a human being.

End

Yup, I was pretty charged then. It's funny how I now find myself in the opposite side -- I'm studying nursing and planning to go abroad!

Finally, you must watch this video: Sir Ken Robinson on TED Talks. "In this talk, he makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it."

Uniqueness

I received this simple message in my inbox:

"You are a human being. Your chromosomes and DNA make you a unique
person. There's no need to copy someone else's personality. Just
discover yourself." (Anonymous)

I'm just struck by the profundity of that message. It's so simple, yet so profound.

This message resonated with me at least because I just realized that I actually spend most of my waking time trying to copy someone else's personality, or at least try to behave in a way that lives up to the expectations of those around me. When I'm around people, I find that I always, unconsciously, check myself and think about the people in my life who I highly respect and try to ask myself how would that person behave under the same circumstance that I am in. As a result, I try to act the way that person I imagine would act under similar circumstances. It's a very stifling habit. That insight is so liberating!

Makati

I'm in Makati right now. Wow! I never imagined Makati is this beautiful. The skyscrapers, the well-groomed and organized streets, the malls, and especially Greenbelt... I feel like I'm in another country. This is my only second time here, my first was more than a decade ago, and so much has changed.

We visited two hospitals this afternoon. An uncle of mine is being admitted in Makati Med because he met an accident while at home. An aunt is right now undergoing D&C in PolyMed because she has polyps in her uterus and ovary. Both hospitals look really decent.

Outside Makati, though, the traffic is awful. Buses are everywhere. The streets are teeming with people. All sorts of billboards compete for your attention. And I've never seen so many overpasses and skywalks!

I'm having a hard time communicating in Tagalog, so I'm just speaking less and listening most of the time.

Early tomorrow morning we leave for Baguio...

Off to Baguio

We'll be taking the first flight to Manila tomorrow. I'm already so tired, yet I'm still here in front of the PC, saving episodes of A Tale of Two Cities from the BBC radio (I just can't resist the BBC's radio dramas). Yesterday we started our completion duty in the DR at St. Anthony's in Basak. Our shift was 6-2, but we extended till 9PM because there were two patients who were already in active labor. And today, we again reported at 6 AM. We assisted two deliveries plus a caesarean section. (I'm really relieved that I'm almost complete with the required number of DR cases, and I'm hopeful that before our last two-day duty on the 13th and 14th we'll all be complete with the requirements; though I feel guilty that the other half of our group will be left behind [they weren't able to join us]).

I'm still not certain what audiobook I should bring for the trip. I have Religious/Catholic lectures (which I've downloaded from Wordhaven.net -- a mind-blowing site with the sheer quantity and quality of its audio resources), a good thing to listen to for the Holy week. But what else? I'm thinking, I may want to listen to Pride and Prejudice again. Or this fascinating lecture - A Way With Words: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion (A TMS course, which you can also find in that, again, awesome, awesome site, Wordhaven).

I'll bring along my copy of Signet Classic's The Complete C. S. Lewis. I bought it last week. Medyo mahal, pero it's actually already a bargain since it contains seven of C. S. Lewis' classic books on apologetics (the most popular being Mere Christianity). I've listened to an audiobook of the latter, but I didn't understand it at all. I'm blaming the reader. Something about his reading style that gets me (too "snobbish" sounding, and with a repetitive and bland tone; sort of like a robot with a human touch). If you buy each book separately, and it's hard to find copies of them in our bookstores here in Cebu, it will cost you a fortune because each book is priced for around 500-600 pesos. I think Mere Christianity is better read than listened to.

I much prefer stories than lectures. I have a very short attention span for lectures. Stories are much more interesting. So I'll probably go for stories. Or, more stories than lectures. Tolstoy?

Sonic boomed!

Urbandub's performance last Friday was awesome (as usual).

The venue was a bit small. Club Royale Concourse is actually a small bar. There was not too many people, probably because the event was not much advertised.

When my brother and I entered the place the first thing that I felt was awkwardness, because it seems like most people there knew everybody else, except us hehehe. The place had the feel of, um, intimacy, because we were too close to the artists. Too close that, at one moment, John Dinopol of Urbandub stood right behind me watching the show. And Lalay Lim sat right across us together with her group of friends. It was surreal.

The other bands were great, too. Of course, there were the Ambassadors, but there were others less well known and relatively new to the scene: Pelican Steet, Still, and The Line Divides. Faspitch was supposed to play, but their set was cancelled when one of the members (probably the drummer) met an accident that night.

Needless to say, we came out of the place needing "ear repair", and a little bit tipsy because of the free red horse.

Reveal the Remedy:



Quiet Poetic:



Safety in Numbers:



Sailing:

Urbandub at Royale Concourse

Urbandub will be playing tomorrow at the Club Royale Concourse in Gorordo, along with Faspitch and the Ambassadors.

Ticket price is Php150. It will be available at the entrance. The show will start 7:30 PM.

Caffeine, jolt, jazz

A cup of coffee and the music of Paulo Santos: hopefully these will stimulate my mind and jolt me to start reading my Pharmacology notes. I've been very weak, mentally, these past few days. I don't know why. I just feel so numb and weak. Wala na ko'y gana magtuon. As a consequence my MS exam this afternoon was terrible. And days before that I tried to read my notes but I couldn't absorb the information. So I didn't study at all, I just flipped through the pages of my notebook, without understanding what I was reading.

Mura ko'g zombie. I need to feel alive, hence the music and the coffee. And I'll have more cups pa tonight. But the thing is the more coffee I drink the more nervous I become, the more worried I get about the exam, and the more I won't be able to concentrate...

I think ingun ani lang jud ni basta finals na. My brain is telling me, "I'm tired. I'll just go on ahead with my vacation. Bahala naka diha."

Another thing that I do when I study (or at least try to) is play some music in the background. I tune in to "mellow" radio stations. Love songs. Yikes! The trouble with it is that I often end up singing along with the song...

Maghimo ko'g playlist hehe... Nina Simone, Natalie Cole, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys... Jazz, baby.

On fasting

"Our Lord knew that to draw strength and efficacy from fasting, something more than abstinence from prohibited food is necessary. Thus He instructed His disciples and, consequently, disposed them to gather the fruits proper to fasting. Among many others are these four: fasting fortifies the spirit, mortifying the flesh and its sensuality; it raises the spirit to God; it fights concupiscence and gives power to conquer and deaden its passions; in short, it disposes the heart to seek to please only God with great purity of heart." (St. Francis de Sales)

Unexcusable

I'm watching the live coverage of the hostage-taking in Manila. It's crazy. Maybe Ducat's intention IS noble (the media tells us of his background; and he is even the owner of the day care center?), but putting those children's lives in danger so he can air his message??? It's unexcusable. Maybe he just mentally snapped, or something. Basin tinuod naa siya'y problema sa panghuna2x...

(And what the heck is Chavit Singson doing there???)

Usa Ka Dapit Sa Atong Kagahapon

There's a great program over at DYAB (1512 in your AM dial) that airs every Sunday (7:30-9:30AM):

Usa Ka Dapit Sa Atong Kagahapon

It plays Classic Cebuano songs from the best Cebuano composers from decades past. What's great about this program is that in addition to featuring rare Cebuano songs (songs most people, or at least folks from my generation, haven't heard of before), it also provides a bit of background information on these songs (when they were written, by whom, and some information on the other works of these composers, what happened to their careers, where they are now, etc).

Baguio-bound

I'll be going to Baguio with my family the week after the finals exam. I guess I ought to be excited, considering that it will be my first time ever to visit the place. I had a chance to visit it a long, long time ago (when I was still in Grade 4 hehe), but I traded my ticket for a betamax! (My father made my brother and I choose between a trip to Baguio or a betamax; of course, considering how things were then - movie rental shops have just sprouted all over the city, and we were hungry for movies - we chose the latter). But I really don't know what to expect. Everybody says Baguio is a beautiful place, but really I can't picture how it'll look like. I wonder if it's still cold there the way it was when my family went there.

Will be bringing of course the essentials for a long trip: digicam, a book, and some audiobooks for that long, long bus ride to Baguio from Manila.

You are my joy!

How long has it been since
I last heard your voice?
How many weeks?

I take delight in our
conversation.
You bring
forth from me
so much joy.

My heart, wearied
by the daily routines of life,
finds relief
in the soothing familiarity
of your voice and
laughter.

I listen with an open
ear.
I trace the paths
to which your words
lead me,
and I'm amazed,
at your mind.
It is a world
made beautiful by the
color of your words
and intellect.
In this world,
I am close to you,
in this world
I'm at rest.

A Man For All Seasons

I really love and enjoyed this book. I read it a long time ago, but I just listened to a BBC radio adaptation of it. Brilliant!

I think it's required reading for all the politicos out there who are running for office. Rare na lang kaayo these days ang mga taw nga nag-hold og some sort of political power nga unshakable ug integrity og faithful sa iyang conscience (and therefore to God's law). Thomas More is one man all politicians, statesmen, lawyers, civil servants, etc., can emulate. In fact, he is someone all of us should look up to as our role model. A man of great intellect, morality and character!

A "thank you" goes a long way

I really liked my patient this week. She's a very kind old lady. She had choledocholilithiasis and she had a surgery last Monday. I monitored her condition after she was transferred from the recovery room. At first I thought she's kind of emotionally distant, because she had this expressionless look on her face every time I talked to her. But later I realized she's actually very kind and warm. She thanked me tonight before I left the ward.

Well, she didn't exactly say "thank you". She said it differently. She asked if it was already the end of our shift, then she said she was glad for our help, and she nodded and smiled with the warmest kind of smile. It really touched me. I really felt happy. Suddenly this whole pursuit of wanting to become a nurse had meaning, had purpose. You know (for me at least, this is true), nursing can become quite empty and tedious. It can sometimes get depressing. But once in a while you encounter experiences like that, moments when you are able to connect with your patient in a deeper and meaningful way (times when you understand the patient's condition and you are able to communicate your concern for him or her, and that person responds to you), that the meaninglessness of the whole thing goes away. This is the spirit of nursing after all, service and love for our fellow human beings.

Maayo unta ingun ani pirme hehehe.

Death is the road to awe

I went to see The Fountain this afternoon. (Yup, I usually see movies alone). The story was confusing at first (I got inside the theater halfway through the movie). I almost regretted not choosing Curse of the Golden Flower or Ghost Rider instead. But I risked it, thinking that I wanted something that is more than purely entertaining. And boy was I rewarded.

The movie is actually beautiful, with many layers of meanings, about love primarily, but also life and death. (Spoilers ahead).

There are three narratives in the story. The first takes the 21st century as its setting. Tommy (Hugh Jackman) is a doctor and scientist who is on a (desperate) quest to find the cure to brain tumor. His wife (Rachel Weisz) is dying of the disease. Throughout the movie one could see how much he loved his wife, to the point wherein he is almost obsessed with his research. The irony is that he ends up not being totally "present" at his wife's side (he is still distracted by his goal of saving her life). He still cannot accept the reality of his wife's impending death. But Izzi (Weisz) is already at peace with her fate. She helps Tommy accept this and realize that death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something eternal.

Izzi is writing a fairy-tale book called "The Fountain", and this is the second narrative of the movie. Tommy is Izzi's hero, and here Jackman plays the part of Tomas, the conquistador, ever loyal to his queen, Elizabeth (Weisz), and on a mission to save her and Spain. He is on a quest to find the Tree of Life at the middle of the Mayan jungle. He seeks immortality, but most of all he wants to be united forever with his queen.

But Izzi leaves the final chapter/s of the book unfinished. She wanted her husband to finish it for her. She gave him the freedom to decide how the story was going to end. The story helps Izzi express to Tommy how she understands the sacrifices he's doing for her, but she is also leading him to realize an immortality beyond the physical kind.

In the third narrative, Jackman is a sort of Zen buddhist, travelling far into space towards a nebula, enveloped in a huge bubble with the Tree of Life. This is actually far, far into the future. Here he is still on a quest for immortality, with the memory of his wife still haunting him. The Tree of Life is actually part of Izzi, since it has grown beside her grave. So he considers it as she, loving it with the same love he has shown her. It, too, is dying, like Izzi, centuries ago, was dying. He wants to bring the bubble to the nebula because Izzi believed that rebirth lies at the death of a star. While on their journey Tommy finds sustainance at the life-giving properties of the tree's bark. "You give me life," he murmurs to his tree. "We're almost there," he assures her. Such is his love for Izzi. Here we see that Izzi is truly the fountain of his life! Isn't that such an amazing and beautiful way of looking at love? (In addition to the idea that a man can treat his spouse as a queen, to whom he has wholly submitted himself in loyalty and to whom he is ready to sacrifice his whole self, including his life, to be truly united with her forever!)

You have to see this movie to understand it. Or you may perhaps get different interpretations from mine.

I met up with my bro afterwards and saw another movie, An Inconvenient Truth. This is really one movie everyone should see.

Norweigan Wood

I just finished Norweigan Wood. I feel so depressed. It's such a sad novel. I also find disturbing the, um, sex scenes. How can I say it? Lahi ra kaayo'g morality si Murakami with regards to sex. There's plenty of those in this novel. Probably why I've felt and continue to feel so sad... because the characters are so lost in their own brand of morality... Oh, if they can only discover/ realize that there's such a thing as objective truth or natural law, and that the Truth is actually a person...

I can't really say I like Murakami. Maybe my opinion of him will change after I listen to his other novels. Or probably not.

MV Doulos

I saw the MV Doulos just as it was leaving Pier 1 this afternoon. I saw it as I entered the SRP from the Plaza Independencia entrance. Seen from a distance, it's not a very big ship at all. Pare-pareho lang kadak-a siguro sa Superferry or Cebu Ferries. But it's amazing, to think that it's one of the oldest, if not the oldest, ship in the world, being younger than the Titanic by only two years. It is indeed a historic ship. Or put another way, it indeed belongs to the pages of history.

And I was very fortunate to visit it at the very last minute last night. I forced myself to go, despite the sheer fatigue that I felt from lack of sleep, because it was to be the ship's last day here in Cebu (At last I finally found the time to come!). I heard that the ship's present tour is actually its last. Its owners have determined that it has served enough (it has indeed lived up to its name, which means "servant"). Its time has come.

The ship was still packed with people last night. My eyes delighted at the sight of the books! My brother and friends warned me days ago that the books are not really that good, or interesting. Most of them are "religious" books, the rest are children's books. But I wasn't disappointed, really. I like to read "religious" books. I was hoping to find books by C. S. Lewis, his Christian apologetics. But I only found one of his Narnia series. There were also books by Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. But I ended up buying a compilation of all of Oscar Wilde's works. Lipay na kaayo ko ana. For Php 300, I think that's already a bargain! My brother bought a hardbound book on painting and a Special Air Service (SAS) pocket guidebook on surviving life-threatening situations or something. I didn't know what he wanted it for. I told him that such a guide will only be useful in doomsday scenarios, like if we were attacked by terrorists or if we were struck by some sort of catastrophe, but he went ahead and bought it anyway. He didn't find books on architecture. My mother bought a cookbook.

We shelled out about Php 1500 at the counter. It's nice because we've never spent that much money for books before. At least once in a while we spend money on things that matter.

Siguro nindut kaayo ang mga books the first few days the fair opened. Sayang kaayo last minute nami naka-adto.

What explains MV Doulos' popularity? Is it because it is such a historic ship? Or is it simply because we Filipinos are actually book lovers and it's just not that obvious? Hmmm... I think the latter is true... :)

On our way out the ship a black woman, one of the ship's crew, asked me if I was studying to be a doctor, because I was dressed in all white. I said I was studying to become a nurse, and she was surprised. "No kidding!" "But in Africa," she added, "we also have male nurses." I just smiled.

On ECS

Before we began our clinical duty in Eversley Childs Sanitarium we had mixed apprehensions about the place. We thought that because it’s a "leprosarium" we will necessarily be exposed to leprosy patients. Some of us were concerned that we may somehow acquire the disease once we are there.

We were very wrong. ECS is a very, very clean and safe hospital. It’s the complete opposite of the government hospitals in the city. In the city the government hospitals are overcrowded and sometimes dirty. In ECS, the place is so clean and the environment is totally stress-free. The hospital grounds are so wide and there is so much greenery. There is no noise pollution (exept for the few motorcycles and tricycles that occasionally pass by the building) and the air is more breathable. It is really an ideal hospital.

Our earlier apprehensions about ECS reflected fears and misconceptions about leprosy that still lingers in our society today even after so many years. Leprosy has been around for centuries, in fact, yet to this very day there is still that stigma about leprosy.

During our clinical duty we’ve learned that leprosy is actually highly curable and that we need not fear it. We need not discriminate against those who have leprosy because in reality they are victims of the disease. They need to be helped and be accepted by society.

Jesus in the poor

"We begin our day by seeing Christ in the consecrated bread, and throughout the day we continue to see Him in the torn bodies of our poor. We pray, that is, through our work, performing it with Jesus, for Jesus and upon Jesus. The poor are our prayer. They carry God in them. Prayer means praying everything, praying the work. We meet the Lord who hungers and thirsts, in the poor.....and the poor could be you or I or any person kind enough to show us his or her love and to come to our place. Because we cannot see Christ, we cannot express our love to Him in person. But our neighbor we can see, and we can do for him or her what we would love to do for Jesus if He were visible."


-- Mother Teresa

Temptation and virtue

"Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife."


-- Pope St. Leo the Great

Finding God in bad situations

"Many may not find giving up food and drink and a soft bed too difficult. But bearing an insult, a wrong, or hurtful words.....this is something to be done not by many but by few. God wants us to know how to find Him in all those things he allows to happen, and that can go against our likes and dislikes and preferences and upset our plans."


-- St. John Chrysostom

These Dreams

These are a few of Jim Croce's best songs:



These dreams



Time in a Bottle



I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song



Operator

Sigh... I feel so nostalgic.

Murakami

I've been listening to The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami. The stories are sometimes funny, sometimes surreal, and often strange and weird... But I like the way he writes (Wait, is he even a "he"? This is my first Murakami audiobook, or book for that matter, so I don't know).

Eversley Childs Sanitarium

Our clinical duty this week is at Eversley Childs Sanitarium.

A few things about the hospital:



Eversley Childs was an American industrialist. In 1928 he donated money for the sanitarium to be built (I guess he's a philantropist). On that year construction was started and was finished two years later. It opened in May 1930 and was turned over to the government.

The sanitarium's area is very wide: 27 hectares.

It is the second largest and oldest sanitarium in the whole country (there are only 8 in total). The first is the one in Culion island, in Palawan.

It originally exclusively functioned as a leprosarium, but when a new and more effective treatment was developed in 1981 (Multi-drug therapy) which led to the dwindling of the number of leprosy cases, it expanded its services to avoid being shut down. Thus, today, it serves as a regular secondary hospital.

I read this touching account of a woman who was admitted in ECS in 1939 in this website: The Oral History Project of the ILA Global Project on the History of Leprosy. I find it helpful to know about the place's history. It feels less alienating and more interesting.

Alabama Rain

I really love this song by Jim Croce:

Alabama Rain

Lazy days in mid-July
Country Sunday mornin's
Dusty haze on summer highways
Sweet magnolia callin'

Chorus:
Now and then I find myself
Thinkin' of the days
When we were walking in
The Alabama rain

Drive-in movies, Friday nights
Drinkin' beer and laughin'
Somehow things were always right
I just don't know what happened

Chorus

We were only kids
But then I've never heard it said
That kids can't fall in love
And feel the same
I can still remember the first time
I told you "I love you"

On a dusty mid-July
Country summer's evenin's
A weepin' willow sang its lullaby
And shared our secret

Chorus

Walking in the Alabama rain

I love just about every song by Jim Croce, but especially the one above. His songs are the theme song of my childhood. Those were such happy, innocent times. I remember I would be sitting in the rotunda in the Redemptorist compound, my feet so small they'd hang above the ground. It was always night time when I came out of the school (I went to St. Francis of Assisi in grade school; no, not the funeral homes, but the school in the Redemptorist compound). My karate class always ended at night. I always hated it when I finished my karate class and I found when I got out of the school gate that my parents were not there yet. I'd walk to the rotunda with fear in my heart, afraid that they'd forgotten to fetch me. I always felt like crying...

Then they would arrive, in our red Nissan turtle-top pick up, and I would run so happily towards them. My mother and I always sit in the front. And I love putting my little face before the freezing blast of the airconditioner, and watch the green light of the controls of the car stereo. I would press on the buttons and skip from station to station. But my father always had cassette tapes ready. We would listen to Jim Croce all the way home (we lived in Pardo then). Sometimes we listened to John Denver, Kenny Rogers, America and Don McLean. And I remember, I always was a very fanciful boy, because I always imagined that I was the one singing those beautiful country songs, and I was performing in front of my classmates at school, putting them in awe at my talent, and serenading them with my songs.

Alabama Rain. I wonder what the place Alabama looks like. Someday if I can really go abroad with my future family I think I'll go to Alabama. I wonder if the place won't look so alien. Of course, it will look very alien. But the name will always be a part of my childhood.

Charity for everyone

"All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone - for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good."

-- St. John Vianney

A very busy week

This is our busiest week yet. We've been having exams and oral reporting daily. We've covered whole units of our MS and Pharma book. Yesterday and the day before that, we spent most of the afternoon just taking notes. No breaks. Our hands ached. Our CI talked a bit too fast that my penmanship deteriorated and looked like a doctor's handwriting. My stomach grumbled and complained. I thought all the while: "Risk for imbalanced nutrition, less than body requirement, related to cancellation of recess" or something.

Tomorrow, one final quiz. I have to read up on the different bowel surgeries and the different inflammatory diseases in the GI.

The DR nurse's role

If you're a first-timer in the Delivery Room you might find this useful. These were our responsibilities in St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital (The DR nurse's role varies from hospital to hospital):


If you're the Handle:

• Prepare the anesthesia (Lidocaine) using a 5cc syringe
• Prepare the OS
• Support the patient's perineum when there is already 'crowning' (when the baby is about to be expelled) using a sterile pad (In the Cabrite Birthing Home in Labangon and Estardo Birthing Home in Lapu-Lapu, we were actually allowed to be the ones to pull the baby out)
• Note the time of delivery and the time the placenta was expelled
• Assist the doctor during suturing if an episiotomy was done (prepare the needle and suture)
• Do SOAPIE for the mother after the procedure

If you're the Assist:

• Wipe the baby's mouth with an OS
• Clamp the umbilical cord at the middle with a Kelly curve forcep
• 'Milk' the cord (towards the baby)
• Clamp the cord with the Kelly straight and cut in the middle with a Mayo scissor
• Bring the baby to the table prepared for him/her
• Do suctioning (the mouth first and then the nose)
• Wipe the baby's body thoroughly using OS soaked in water and Lactacyd
• Do SOAPIE for the baby after the procedure

If you're the Cord Care:

• Wipe the cord with OS soaked in alcohol from the bottom up at least 3 times
• Clamp the cord this time with a, um, cord clamp (several inches from the baby's belly)
• Wipe the top of the newly-cut cord with OS soaked in alcohol at least 3 times
• Wipe also the base of the cord
• Measure the baby's head circumference, chest circumference, and length in centimeters
• Weigh the baby
• Administer Gentamycin eye drops
• Administer Vit. K IM at the anterior portion of the left thigh
• Administer Hepa B vaccine at the anterior portion of the right thigh (if ordered)
• Take the baby's footprints and the mother's thumb prints
• Take the baby's vital signs
• With the baby clothed, bring him/her to the mother for 'latching on' and note the time (We were advised to allow the baby to latch on for not less that 30 minutes)

I wonder why we didn't do APGAR scoring. Murag ang staff nurse ra'y nagkuha.

If your patient is still in the labor room, take her vital signs every hour. Do Leopold's maneuver to determine the baby's position and take his/her heart rate, using a stethoscope or a cardiotocograph. Monitor also the contractions (its duration, interval and frequency) every 15 minutes, or continuously if the labor is already active. Inform your CI for any abnormality.

The Basilica del Santo Nino museum

The other treasure of the Basilica del Santo Nino is its museum.

Its collections are mainly the different Santo Nino images (statues) that the Basilica has received from devotees through the ages (they are made of different materials: ivory, hardwood, etc). Along with them are the different vestments of the Santo Nino (they are changed every year), the oldest of which dates as far back as the 16th century. There are also jewelries, toys, liturgical materials and centuries-old books.

The museum is located at the basement of the Pilgrim Center. It is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 8 to 11:45 in the morning and 1:30 to 5:45 in the afternoon. Entrance fee is Php 10.

My mini-library

This is my mini-library...



But I'm not really much of a reader. I just got addicted to buying books a long time ago...

Faith/ Christianity/ Catholicism:



Fiction:



Filipiniana:





Education:



Philosophy:



Psychology/ self-help:



And of course, the (dreaded) nursing books:



I also have a kind of "virtual library" (ebooks, audiobooks, BBC radio dramas and audio lectures) in CDs and in our PC... There's just so much stuff I've already collected that it overwhelms me... I don't know if I can ever find the time to listen to all of them...

The largest collection of Filipiniana online

This site has probably the largest collection of Filipiniana on the internet: The United States and Its Territories, 1870 - 1925: The Age of Imperialism.

The United States and its Territories, drawn from the University of Michigan Library's Southeast Asia collection, comprises the full text of monographs and government documents published in the United States, Spain, and the Philippines between 1870 and 1925. The primary focus of the material is the Spanish-American war and subsequent American governance (approximately 1898-1910). The text collection is complemented by digitized images from key photograph collections drawn from the Special Collections Library.

What an awesome collection! I've browsed the site and saw a lot of interesting titles, some even from Cebuano authors. The images gallery contains tons of photos of the country during the latter period of the Spanish colonial era and early American period.

The Basilica del Santo Nino library

Do you know that the Basilica del Santo Nino have a library? I learned this from Sugbuanon Na Ni!, a radio program over DYAB two Sundays ago.

It is considered to be one of two treasures of the Basilica, the other being its museum.

The library has about 7,000 volumes of books. These are mostly very, very old books. The oldest title dates back to the year 1622! Most of them are written in Latin and Spanish. These books have survived the test of time because they are made from acid-free paper and are bounded by covers made of pig's skin.

Most of the collection are manuscripts of biographies of saints, others are journals and accounts of early priests in the country. The latest acquisitions are Augustinian books.

The library was close to the public until 2002. Before that only scholars and historians were allowed to use it.

It is located at the second floor of the convent, at the back of the Santo Nino chapel (where you see people lining up to see the Santo Nino). It is open Mondays to Fridays from 8AM to 12 Noon and from 1PM to 6PM.

Entrance fee is Php 20.00 for students and Php 30.00 for non-students.

Details for the MV Doulos book fair

This is MV Doulos' schedule for Cebu:

From January 26 – February 19, 2007 the ship’s book fair will open daily to the public. Opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm, Sunday and Monday from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The entrance fee is 10 Pesos. Children under 16 are free to visit, but must be accompanied by parents or guardians.

Doulos is berthed at Aduana Pier - Berth 28 (Domestic Berth)

Our last day in St. Anthony

We welcomed four more babies into this world today. Again, the DR was all ours, no other school was on the morning shift. Three patients were already in the room when we got there, with students from the University of San Carlos (from the night shift) monitoring the progress of their labor. None of them were in the active phase yet. So they had to endorse the patients to us. I felt sorry for them because they had not even a single case.

It was around 10 when one of the patients showed signs of true labor, but it was not actually until 2PM, when our shift ended, that she delivered her baby. And what a difficult labor it was for her! She laid on the table for more than an hour and tried very, very hard, despite the doctors', nurses' and institute worker's (yes, an IW did also help) occasional comments that she's not trying hard enough, to push her baby out. The doctor already episiotomized her and set the IV fluid to fast drip and still nothing happened. We could already see the baby's hair so it was so frustrating for all of us. One of the doctors eventually used forceps to hasten the baby's expulsion.

The second patient had to be referred to another hospital because there was no progress to her labor and she was already eclamptic (her blood pressure was persistently high). There was no progress to the third patient either, although it was already her third pregnancy.

At around noon two patients arrived with active labor. Their delivery was relatively quicker and easier.

I realized nga lisud jud diay kaayo ang manganak... grabe ka-torture. Wala pay labot diha ang 9 months nga pagsabak sa bata. Maybe that's the reason why our mothers can sometimes be so protective of us, to the point of being "over-acting" or paranoid, because they know fully well how precious we are.

We all finished at around four. We were exhausted because we missed lunch. Richard and I went straight to the hospital canteen while the rest of us went on ahead.

Next week we will be continuing our discussion on the hematologic disorders and we will be reporting finally on the drugs used in the autonomic nervous system. *Gulp*

Remember MV Doulus?

Remember MV Doulos? They're back!

I was very young the last time they docked in Cebu. But it's not really the books I remember most of that experience. It's the ice cream! They sold a very delicious sort of ice cream.

They will be opening tomorrow at 2PM and close at 10PM. I'll go there this week end. Daghan siguro kaayo nindut nga mga books didto! Ako lang dad-on ako papa para naa koy back-up budget hehehe...

Our clinical duty this week

We had begun our clinical duty for this week last Wednesday. Our area is in St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital in San Nicholas, Pardo.

We had started late this week because Monday was a holiday (a rest day after the Sinulog), and on Tuesday we were sent home because we reported on the night shift instead of on the morning shift. We were not informed earlier so it was not our fault.

The hospital is a small one. It basically serves obstetric, gynecologic and pediatric cases. It's an extension of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

It happened that the Cebu City Memorial Medical Center is close this week for cleaning, so all DR cases go to St. Anthony.

Today we had three deliveries. Solo namo ang cases because no other school was on duty. But last night there were eight deliveries and no school was around!

We were sorry for the third baby because he had hydrocephalus. His fontanel was bleeding, too. He has also aspirated a lot of meconium. The mother had a very long labor (more than 24 hours).

We hope we can handle more cases before the shift ends tomorrow. On Saturday we will have a case conference. We haven't had a case conference for a very long time.

Purity

"Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh."

-- St. John Bosco

Modern man needs God as savior all the more

"Despite humanity's many advances, man has always been the same: a freedom poised between good and evil, between life and death.

“In this post-modern age, perhaps he needs a savior all the more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious.”

-- Pope Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message, Christmas 2006

Da King

Last night I had the weirdest dream. Weird because of who's in it:

Fernando Poe, Jr.

In my dream he looked a bit younger than at the time he died. He was just standing, holding what looked like a piece of newspaper, which he read.

I don't know what the connection is. Usually my dreams are connected to reality. They are things or persons whom I have seen earlier in the day, or in the past days. I can't recall having seen a picture of FPJ recently...

Creepy.

More quotes from saints

A lamp is not lighted by itself, so the human soul does not give light to itself but calls out to God: " You indeed, O Lord, give light to my lamp."
-- St. Augustine

Jesus is the teacher of holiness. I go to Him because I want Him to teach one how to become a Saint. Of what use to me is all I learn in school if I do not become holy?
-- St. Francis DeSales

Faith seeks understanding.
-- St. Anselm, Proslogion proemium

Don't draw back, and worse still, don't stop going up the Calvary of life. Jesus will extend His hand to steady you. The thought of the sustaining grace of God and the prize that Jesus has reserved for you will be a sweet comfort.
-- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

What was the life of Christ but a perpetual humiliation?
-- St. Vincent de Paul

There is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience.
-- St.Catherine of Sienna

Happy Sinulog!

Viva Pit Senor!!!

Pneumonia (community-acquired)

In response to Jules:

Hello!

Yup, it does get more and more difficult doesn't it?, especially when you get to MS. I am also in my 3rd year, although I'm already a regular because I'm done with all my minor subjects.

About your questions, I can only offer a summary. I haven't yet encountered this case in my clinical duty.

The common causes of community-acquired pneumonia are the following bacteria: streptococcus pneumonia, haemophilus influenzae, legionella pneumonia and histoplasmosis capsulatom.

It can also be caused by viral or fungal infection, aspiration of food, fluids or gastric substances, or irritation by noxious/ chemical substances.

So the pathophysiology looks something like this:

Inhalation of the microorganisms/ noxious substances --> inflammation of the tissues in the lungs --> exudates formation --> increased proliferation of bacteria --> insistent sputum production --> impaired gas exchange --> etc (signs and symptoms)

Common clinical manifestations: wheezing, dyspnea, cough, rales, rhonchi, chest pains.

Meds: Antibiotics (For example, Amphothericin B - IV route; antidote for the side effects of that drug: benadryl, steroids)

Disgnostics: Chest X-ray, sputum exam with gram stain (the definitive test), culture and sensitivity test and blood culture.

Nursing management:

To facilitate adequate ventilation:

a. Increase fluid intake to at least 3 L/day;
b. Chest physiotherapy;
c. Chest splinting;
d. Suctioning when necessary (not more than 9 secs at a time);
e. O2 when needed;
f. Incentive spirometry
g. Administration of antibiotics (penicillin for pneumococcus, ampicillin for haemophilic influenzae)

I don't know about the prognosis and the discharge planning, though.

Hope that helps.

Good luck to you!

BTW, my references are the MS books by Black, Ignatavicius and Udan.

Definition of irony

You quit your job as a technical support agent because you find that computers are highly complex machines, and end up enrolling in nursing and trouble-shooting the infinitely complex machine that is the human body. Hah!

The Bayanihan National Folk Dance Company

I watched the gala dinner of the Asean leaders and delegates in Shangri-La Mactan on TV last Sunday. What a fabulous affair. It must have caused millions to organize.

Anyway, what really fascinated me was the presentation of the Bayanihan National Folk Dance Company. I was totally blown away by their whole presentation. They performed the diffirent folk dances of the country. It was so rich and beautiful. Some of the dances there I saw for the first time. How ironic that I call myself a Filipino and yet I'm alien to this aspect of my culture. It made me realize just how rich and beautiful our culture really is and how important it is that we preserve and cherish them.

A great travel blog

What a fantastic blog this is: Ivan About Town

I envy him (hehe) because I love to travel, I love to visit places with historic significance (heritage sites), take photos, enjoy nature, etc... He's doing all the things that I'd love to do if I have the resources and the luxury of time.

The December 2006 NLE result is out!

The PRC has already released the result for last December's NLE. If you're having difficult time accessing the Inquirer or other websites, try this link:

http://www.ofwcenter.com/gallery/images/Blog/20070114_NURSE1206.pdf

or

http://88503928.gabbly.com/http://images.pentagonreview.multiply.com/attachment/0/RapPvwoKCkEAADV@4Wk1/NLE_12_2006.txt

Congratulations everyone!

For those who didn't make it, please don't lose hope!

Prolonging the agony

Sorry folks, the December 2006 NLE results aren't out yet. I'll post it here as soon as I see it.

Good luck to all of you!

Medical Detectives

If you like House and Grey's Anatomy, you might want to check out Medical Detectives. It's not a new TV series though, but a radio dramatisation of "stories based on actual events, all about pinoneering investigation in the field of medicine and pathology" over at BBC 7.

The first episode started last Monday and is called Death in the Parish:

When cholera strikes Soho in 1854, the Rev Henry Whitehead calls in the brilliant but mercurial Dr John Snow to investigate.

The December 2006 NLE results is due out Sunday

Good news: According to PinoyBSN, the December 2006 Nursing Licensure Examination will finally be released this coming Sunday, January 14, at 12 midnight or later.

PinoyBSN will be releasing the results then, or you can also check the online version of the major dailies.

The Happy Prince

If you hurry you might still catch The Happy Prince, a short story by Oscar Wilde, superbly read by John Muffit over at BBC 7. It was aired last Friday.

A touching tale of love and sacrifice.

Busy week

Been very busy this week. Daily exams since Monday. Stayed up late each night to study and record BBC 7 programs.

Missed the first set of exam this morning due to heavy traffic brought about by check points on the way to the city by military men, part of the security measures for the Asean Summit tomorrow.

Arrived in school just in time to deliver our oral report. I stood in front of the class dazed and numbed due to lack of sleep, but still anxious.

Asked the CI for a special exam. Request not granted. Later she changed her mind, thankfully.

Too much talk in the radio about the preparations for the Summit tomorrow. I wish they can also discuss the issues that the Summit will tackle. Or: What the heck is the Summit all about, anyway? What's it for? How can it particularly benefit Juan de la Cruz?

Today's CDN editorial cartoon has the answer: "Social justice, security, investment and jobs." Yes, but more discussion on these issues in the media, please...

Thank goodness for the holiday. I'm ready to collapse in my bed.

The student nurse as patient

Conan didn't tell us about it. He was silent. We found out, a day later, that he was going to have an operation. At our own hospital, where we did our clinical duty a few weeks back.

We joked about it among ourselves. "Is it a major case? Oh, I want to be the scrub nurse!" Or maybe Conan will take it as his own case, do the scrubbing himself. "Retractor." Conan groping for the instrument in the Mayo tray: "Yes, doc."

Luckily, the surgery fell on a Saturday. Or maybe he deliberately scheduled it on a Saturday, because there are no student nurses on that day in the OR theater.

Conan is always the life of the group. Young, bugoy, very funny, and at times serious, he bonds us all together with his down-to-earth and unpretentious personality.

A few weeks ago he was so morbid. A below-the-knee amputation just ended and the OR staff were out. He held the patient's amputated foot and told us to take a picture of him with a celfone camera. He was going to post it in his Friendster. I wasn't amused, it was so cold-hearted of him to do that.

Now, he is going to be the patient. He is going to be the one who lays on the OR table, totally at the mercy of the surgeon's scalpel.

But it's alright. It's nothing serious.

Get well soon, Nanoc!

Cataloguing books

One of these days I'm going to catalogue all of my books. Ian Casocot did that for his enormous collection of over 800 books!

My own collection is relatively very small. I'll show you a picture of my book shelf later.

It grew years ago when I was obsessed with buying books. I bought a lot and read very little. I don't do that anymore. Now I only buy books that I really want to read (if I have spare money).

History

When my parents came home from Leyte a few days ago they told me of an uncle who had a queer hobby of collecting old love letters. The love letters are from his grandparents. Not only that, he collects old cans of sardines, soft drinks, stamps, and a picture of Dolphy in his early years.

I've never heard of this uncle before.

Is he old?, I asked, because I pictured in my mind that a person who's interested in this stuff must be old.

No, my mother said, he's middle-aged. He's also a lawyer.

My father said he's a nerd. He was sent to the US before to study history.

So this uncle of mine is fascinated with history. I imagined that he must have a much larger collection of historical artifacts than the ones he showed my parents. And what excites me is that when they told him that I am also interested in historical stuff he lightened up and asked about me, how old I was, etc. Peculiar, he must have thought, for a 25 year old guy to be interested in the past.

I am especially interested in our family's past. Not only with my direct family's, but with our whole clan's. From what I've heard, my grandfather's father was from Aklan. He was said to be a very luoran type of person. If I remember right, he was not given an equal share of the family's wealth. Hence, nagluod siya og ni migrate sa Leyte. And it was in Leyte where he got married, had kids, and built his family. I never knew we were from Aklan, until I look up our family name at FamilySearch.Org. I thought we were originally from Leyte. He never returned again to Aklan. It was as if he completely willed to forget his past.

And so that explains why I'm also very luoran. I sometimes can't help it. It's a very strong emotion for me that it sometimes ruins relationships.

Does this uncle of mine keep records of our family's history, too? He said he was interested to meet me, and will drop by our house when he visits Cebu. I'm very interested to meet this relative, too, and see his collection when I go back to Leyte.

Grey's Anatomy

I just saw two episodes of Grey's Anatomy for the first time (can you believe?) tonight. I really like it.

I like House, too.

I'm compelled to buy copies of the previous seasons somewhere...

Quote of the day: On praying

"It is impossible for a person who prays regularly to remain in serious sin; because the two are incompatible, one or the other will have to be given up."
-- St. Teresa of Avila

Ooooppss, I forgot to...

... greet everybody a happy new year!!!

To us all and our families: more (spiritual and material) blessings, good health, God's guidance, peace, love, and joy in our hearts, in our homes, families and relationships...

God bless!!!

BBC 7 radio dramas

How many of you have been following the programs over at BBC 7 recently? Some of the current productions are really amazing:

• Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie
• Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silverchair and Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

What you missed, hehe (these were aired a few weeks ago):

• The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
• The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley
• Tomb by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
• The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, and Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis.
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

Imagine, all these great works in only a short span of time! I wonder what they have in store for us for a whole year!

It's sort of a crash course in Western literature. I mean, because of these productions, I'm introduced to works I haven't heard of before (like Daniel Deronda). This is the reason why I love what BBC 7 is doing. They introduce us to these great works. They attract us to them because they bring to life these literature. I mean, if I encountered them as books, I would think twice about reading them because they're written ages ago and in a language that is not easy to understand. Like Charles Dickens, I find him a bit difficult to read. But having listened to the radio production, I am more encouraged to read and appreciate his books. And they're not all radio dramatisations. Their Best Sellers segment features readings by actors of "the finest fiction and non-fiction."

So start listening to BBC 7! They also offer comedy shows (classic and modern). Plus, a whole lot more!

Nursing in the US

Via Filipina Soul, this touching story of a Pinay nurse working in the US. Plus, a lot of interesting facts:

As the need for nurses swells, the foreign-born step up

Classic Cebuano songs stir the Cebuano soul

I really love listening to Hawiran Ta Ang Kagabhiun. It's a program over at DZRH (1215 in your AM radio dial) that features classic Cebuano songs sung by local haranistas. (I don't know, what is the English word for "haranista"?)

Some day I'll record their programs and put them up in a blog. I'll have to ask the station's permission for that, but I think they won't object to it. It's a way of promoting classic Cebuano songs, making it available to a larger audience. I'm sure a lot of our countrymen overseas would like to listen to them.

Quote of the day: Acceptance of God's will

"Consider Jesus' act of acceptance in the garden and how much it cost Him, making Him sweat a sweat of blood! Make this act yourself when things are going well and also when they go against you. If your will flees from rebellion you may be certain that the will, in its own way, has uttered its act of acceptance."

-- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

Saddam's execution

Saw it last night on BBC. Not the actual hanging, of course. It just showed a footage of him in a room with masked men placing a noose around his neck.

Yes, he's committed crimes against humanity. But still, I find the video very disturbing.

Back to the textbooks

Our classes will resume this coming Wednesday, January 3. Only two days after the new year! But we have to start early because the ASEAN Summit will start the week after next and our schedule will again be interrupted. No classes, but not a cause for celebration because there would be plenty of stuff to read, I'm sure.

We will have a post-test next week on alteration on oxygenation. I have to read my book again for that.

The topics to follow are the cardiovascular system and hematology.

I love the cardiovascular system. I love the human heart. It's a very beautiful organ, structurally and functionally. It's easy to understand how it basically works.

So I have a mountain of reading material to face in the next couple of days. Whew. Wish me luck (or a miracle).

Ah oh, we have an oral reporting too for our Pharmacology class. Our topic is the autonomic nervous system and the drugs used in that system. Complicated but interesting stuff.

Rizal joins Dickens and Austen

Here's some really good news for Philippine literature: Penguin Classics publishes Rizal's 'Noli Me Tangere' (Touch Me Not).

PDI: Rizal joins ranks of Dickens, Austen

JOSE Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere” has been published in a new English translation and released worldwide by Penguin Books, one of the major publishing houses of the English-speaking world, under the Penguin Classics imprint. The publication effectively canonizes the novel as one of the classics of world literature.

Augenbraum said he stumbled upon Rizal’s novel in 1992 while compiling a bibliography of North American Latino fiction writers. He said he came across the name of National Artist N.V.M. Gonzalez whom he thought to be Latino. He went on to read Gonzalez and “loved it” and thereby got “introduced to a whole world of Filipino and Filipino-American literature, which I began to seek out here in the US.”

“The name of Rizal came up several times, so I read the ‘Noli,’ which fascinated me,” he said. “Then I read the ‘Fili,’ which also fascinated me. Then I read the Austin Coates biography, and Rizal himself became one of my heroes.”

Augenbraum said the “Noli” should be required reading in Asian-American courses in US universities “because it is the foundational novel of the nation, with large implications for the diaspora and its influence on other writers.”

Very exciting indeed.

About a week ago I also got excited by the idea of reading Rizal's books into a podcast (after I found out Project Gutenberg actually has them as etexts, including his essays). No one's doing it, as far as I know. Librivox reads all sorts of books from the public domain, most of which, if not all, are great works of literature. But no one's doing classic Philippine literature. No one's doing Rizal's books.

I still have much, much, much to improve on my reading, particularly my fluency and pronounciation of the English words. But with practice, I believe I can eventually arrive at a reading that is at least understandable hehehe.

What I really want to see in the future is people 'converting' Filipino literature into audiobooks. Librivox is doing an awesome job with Western Literature, why not do the same with our own literature? We have a wealth of books, essays and poems, I believe, and they would add to the richness of the audiobooks available in the public domain.

Cute

Go visit prayertoons.com

More quotes from saints

"Let us avoid evil companions, lest by their company we may be drawn to a
communion of vice."

-- St. Augustine

"Do you want our Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him often. Do you want
Him to give you few graces? Visit Him seldom. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament
are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil.
Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be
powerless against you."

-- St. John Bosco

"The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not
despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we
are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to
Him."

-- St. Elizebeth Ann Seton

"Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no
conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife."

-- Pope St. Leo the Great

"The Christian life is a continuation and completion of the life of Christ
in us. We should be so many Christs here on earth, continuing His life and His
works, laboring and suffering in a holy and divine manner in the spirit of
Jesus."

-- St. John Eudes

If the rape happened in the US

One letter writer, um, writes in today's PDI:

If rape happened in the US

As an American, I can say unequivocally that had the incident--where an incoherent, drugged or drunk, sexually abused young woman was flung in a state of degrading undress on to a street filled with horrified citizen witnesses--occurred in the United States, the criminals (even if they were a group of foreign soldiers) would all be
facing long prison sentences. There would be no spiritual advisers like Fr. James Reuter, no "We Love The Rapist" female fan clubs in Makati and, certainly, no overt or covert pressure from any foreign government to "go easy on the lads."

Where on earth can such things happen except, it seems, in the Philippines, where a significant sector of the population still indulges in a self-hating colonial mentality, which gives a disgusting, foreign rapist higher importance than the rights and honor of an abused local citizen?

Precisely! If a similar incident happened in the US, how do you think the citizens in that country would react? Don't you think they would be outraged? And don't you think the US would be gravely insulted all the more if the foreign government would still push for custody even after a conviction while at the same time, it appears, blackmailing them?

I think our government is to blame for this because, in the first place, they entered into an agreement which may have unfair terms, that is the VFA.

Bernard Leach: pottery and dish

Bernard Leach (1887-1979), British studio potter and writer.



















So beautiful aren't they? :) I love art that I can actually touch and feel with my hands. For this reason I love sculpture, too. I can appreciate sculpture more than painting.

Malipayong pasko

Malipayong pasko kaninyong tanan!!! :)

Protection

A PDI news article reads: US cancels military exercises with RP over rape case

“The custody issue is at the heart of this,” embassy spokesman Matt Lussenhop told INQUIRER.net. "Due to the current custody issue (over the US Marine), the usual protection provided to US servicemembers is in doubt."

But Mr. Lussenhop, doesn't it now appear that our people, especially our women, need more protection from your troops than your troops from us? Our people have never harmed your servicemen. History will show, rather, that it is they who have committed various crimes to us since you established your military bases here. I guess what you mean when you say "protection" is that you want to shield your troops from wrongful accusation. But in Smith's case, the matter has been decided in our court, his guilt has been proven. He has already been convicted, so why are you still pushing for his custody? Are you really seeking justice, or do you just want your troops to be exempt from our laws?

I wonder, what does the VFA really contain? Is it putting our country and our people at a great disadvantage? In short, is it fair? And what's the Balikatan exercises for, anyway? If it's doing more harm to us than good, then thank goodness they're cancelling it. And hopefully they'll pull out totally and permanently.

W.H. Auden: In Memory of W.B. Yeates

Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

-- From In Memory of W.B. Yeates by W.H. Auden

Temptations

"If you intend to serve God, prepare your soul for temptation, for it is an infallible truth that no one is exempt from temptation when he has truly resolved to serve God."

-- St. Francis de Sales

Why we study

"When you begin to study, look up to Him and think: 'O Lord, how worthless this knowledge would be, if it were not for the enlightening of my mind for Your service, or for making me more useful to my fellow men.'"

-- St Elizabeth Ann Seton

The Screwtape Letters*

"My Dear Wormwood,

"So you "have great hopes that the patient's religious phase is dying away," have you? I always thought the Training College had gone to pieces since they put old Slubgob at the head of it, and now I am sure! Has no one ever told you about the law of undulation?

"Humans are amphibians -- half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withraw his support from Him.) As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but
as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation -- the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life -- his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it."

"Talk to your patient about "moderation in all things." If you can once get him to the point of thinking that "religion is all very well up to a point," you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good as no religion at all -- and more amusing."

"You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

* A book by C. S. Lewis. It contains a series of letters written by an elderly retired devil, Screwtape, to a young devil, Wormwood, his nephew, which talk about how best the latter can undermine the faith of his first "patient", who is a recent convert to Christianity.

The way we live our lives

"Our life helps paint our neighbor's picture of Christ."

-- Monsignor Esteban Binghay

A breather

Went to the beach yesterday with some of my duty mates. The tide was somewhere between high and low. Cool water, soft sands, quiet place.


Me, Conan, Chielo, Michael, Lalaine, Ate Janice and her son Ladie, and Richard

The Red Studio

"The Red Studio" by Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Davao plaza

Here's a beautiful photo of Davao plaza that appears in today's PDI front page.

Misa de Gallo

Went to the first Misa de Gallo this morning in our parish church. Overwhelming number of people. The church grounds were crowded and even the streets beside it.

My first in so many years. The last was in Sto. Nino. I was still a little kid.

The early morning sunlight after the mass revealed a beautiful day.

"Ate" and "Kuya"

What's interesting about our school is that we have a lot of second-coursers. A huge number. They, or should I say we, make up 30-40% of the student population, I think. That's much bigger than with the other schools.

That's one of the reasons why I chose to study here. I was conscious of my age, you see hehe. I don't want to stand out among my classmates.

So it was a pleasant surprise for me when I found out that there were people older than me, much older than me, folks who are old enough to be my parents!

So I found myself in the middle of the age group. Some classmates of mine call me "kuya", and I in turn call my other classmates "kuya" and "ate".

"Kuya" and "ate" are very curious labels because we still use them even with those who we would normally call "uncle" and "auntie" or "tito" and "tita" outside the school. Perhaps it's just a sign of respect? Because they would probably be embarassed if we call them "tito" and "tita" in school. It emphasizes their age. Whereas if you call them "ate" and "kuya", you limit any adverse psychological impact it may have on them as much as possible hehehe.

Last day at MCH

It seems our CIs are in vacation mode already. We waited for him/her in the hospital this morning and he/she didn't come. He/ she was to relieve our CI yesterday, who told us that she couldn't work today. She didn't like her assignment (MCH) because she's not very comfortable with the staff and she's more used to the OR in Sotto. I thought that's a very silly reason.

So we went to Chowking in JY to have breakfast. We hitched a ride with Ate A.

What's interesting with Ate A is that she's an entrepreneur. She and her husband owns a well-known restaurant and a snack bar in SM. She's well off, and I've wondered about this because she and her family is already doing well in life yet she still wants to become a nurse. She told me she wants to give her children a wider option later on. If things get worse in our country, her kids can choose to live abroad.

I really want to ask Ate A for some advice about entrepreneurship. I see her as a really successful person, and I want to know how she did it. I wish she could share with us her knowledge and wisdom and motivate us to succeed also in our lives.

I don't know if I'll be able to go to Davao this Christmas. I really want to, but there are financial considerations. There's a reunion of our relatives this month in Leyte but I don't feel like going.

Isaiah 48: 17 - 18

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD
your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should
go. O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have
been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea."

MCH this week

We've been having our clinical duty this week at the Mandaue City Hospital Special Area (OR and DR). No OR cases so far, only DR ones. I assited a delivery two days ago. An episiotomy was performed. Poor woman. Is it always necessary? Because at the birthing homes where we were assigned it was not. The babies were delivered spontaneously.

"Bitchy" doctor hehe... Didn't do anything much than merely stand at the doctor's side and handing her the instruments. Our C.I. commented afterwards that she herself don't like the doc. The latter always seemed to have bad days, never having "happy moments"... Well put, I thought.

We spent the day today standing around and walking aimlessly about the S.A. room because there was not much to do. The SWU and CDU students did the same hehe.

Vacation starts next week.

New look

I'm trying out a new look for this blog. I've been wearing old clothes for quite some time now. This gives me a fresh feeling.

The links will follow, plus more new ones that are quite interesting.

Bossa

I'm listening to Sitti right now. The music fills the entire house. I can do that because I'm alone hehe.

But I kind of like Sofia's voice more than Sitti's. I have both CDs, pirated though they are hehe. They were a gift from pangga's father to mine. Both men love bossa.

I remember my days in Davao at pangga's house. We would be alone together and listen to the music. Breakfast would be laid in the table and we would enjoy each other's company.

The day before I was to leave for Cebu I saw in Matina Town Square that Sofia was going to play there on the same day of my departure. Sayang. And I remember about a week ago Sitti had a concert here, in Ayala. I saw the posters advertising her gig and was shocked to find out the tickets were sold for 800 and over a thousand pesos! Didn't watch it, though I would've wanted to.

BBC 7 Radio

I think The Horse And His Boy is a more majestic and more beautiful book than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I just finished listening to the former (published by Harper Audio). It's the fifth of the seven Narnia series (in the order in which they were written).

The timing is just right, for I just discovered BBC 7. They actually have dramatisations of classic works of literature! This week, they have just started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew! To follow in the couple days or so is The Horse and His Boy. It's simply amazing. When I discovered it I was so excited and thrilled. I felt like devouring all the great stuff they have (A Thomas Hardy classic is ending this week; an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel just began its first few episodes; there's a short story by Mary Shelley about to disappear from the 7-day radar [I'll explain this later]; and another classic book by G.K. Chesterton -- these, to mention only a few).

I wish I could share this with more people, especially with my pangga, and all those who don't have regular access to the internet. Because the catch, you see, is that these programs only stay in the website for 7 days. Such a waste, isn't it?

Not really. Thank goodness there are such softwares as Audacity (it's a freeware, btw, so just Google it). It can save stream audio as MP3 files! So I'm gonna be collecting these great productions from now on and share them with my love ones.