So I've written about the food and my stupid photo ops from the CDO-MisOr-Davao trip.
What I have not written about is the real reason why I took the trip.
I had to cover two events - the launch of the Telesurgery Program in CDO/MisOr and the turnover of the Automatic Weather Station to the LGU in Davao.
Yeah, the names of the events sound far from the core nature of the telecommunications industry but both utilize the resource and expertise of the telecoms industry in one way or another.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but my work is about the community service side of the company. CSR (corporate social responsibility) in short. I work with a team that deals directly with the communities/organizations in implementing programs. My task is to provide publicity and communications support to the programs.
That's why I had to go to CDO/MisOr and Davao. I needed to gather information and photos about the programs, which we'll use for news articles.
Field work, particularly the ones that require me go to remote areas and the most rural parts of the country, is always a happy task for me. Not only because it reminds me of my Pahinungod days, but also because it is during these work assignments that I get to go out of the comforts of Makati and see the real world. Until now, I believe that one of the greatest methods of learning about the reality is immersion - packing one's bag, taking the habal habal (or if you're lucky, a car with A/C lent by a generous sould), and going down the road less traveled.
That's exactly what we did in MisOr. After the almost two hour flight to CDO from Manila, we boarded a van headed for Gingoog, Misamis Oriental. The travel took around three hours. My work colleagues and I joined locals who are heavily involved in the telesurgery project in the provinces.
Upon arrival at Gingoog, we were given a tour of the provincial hospital. The hospital was impressive, I must say. Given that it was quite far from the much more urban environment of CDO, Gingoog's provincial hospital seems to be ready to serve the needs of the local community. From the people I got to talk to, the person to be thanked for this are the hospital leaders who are progressive thinkers and visionaries.
After a tour of the hospital and a briefing of its services, we boarded our ride again and hit the road once more. This time, we were headed to a remote barangay to talk to a candidate for surgery thanks to the Telesurgery program.
From the asphalt roads of the main highway, our ride turned right at one of the smaller roads. A little further and the concrete road became rough soil and rocks. The ride became bumpy. The trees on both sides of the road grew thicker and thicker. Every so often, we'd see a nipa hut.
Ah, it was such a familiar sight, I thought. I've been down this road so many times - in Mindoro, in Palawan, in Benguet, in Camarines. And I felt exactly what I usually felt in those other occasions - happy.
The pickup eventual stopped, and when we got out, we were greeted by a soft drizzle and the smell of trees and earth that have just been kissed by the rains.
We walked a little down a muddied path and reached the house of Mang Ignacio and his wife Nenita.
It was a two-story house, made out of wood. If you remember the way houses in the barrios are described in the Filipino folk stories that were read to us when we were kids, that's how their home looked like. Just outside the house is the "kitchen." On one side are wood from wherever, gathered from the forest, piled neatly and ready to be used as firewood. Sleeping happily on the moist earth are several piglets. They don't budge even as we approached. Haha!
For the next few minutes, we got to speak to Mang Ignacio. The man is over seventy-years old and is afflicted with hernia. Thanks to the telesurgery program and the province's efficient health care program, Mang Ignacio will soon undergo surgery. The cost would be a fraction of what the family would have to pay, if they were to go to a private hospital in CDO.
Mang Ignacio says that if not for the program, he wouldn't bother getting the hernia treated. He is ready to live with it.
The same is true for 12-year-old Inin, another candidate for surgery through the provincial hospital's telesurgery program. Inin has meningocoele. In layman's terms, she has a huge mass (about the side of a pear) on top of her nose. I don't know how it affects her breathing, but I'm quite sure that it affects her vision. Try putting your curled fist in front of your nose. That's how Inin is.
Her mother, on the verge of tears, tells us that if not for the program, she would have no choice but to just leave the mass alone. No, her daughter would have no choice but to leave the mass and live with it.
Mang Ignacio and Inin are just two of the I dunno thousands of people who need quality health care. I was told that there was one other person from the barangay of Mang Ignacio who has myoma. Since the family does not have any resources, they are doing nothing. They are just waiting for the person's time. You know what I mean.
I am always thankful whenever I meet people like Mang Ignacio and Inin. No, it's not because they make me see how fortunate I am. No. Something's just not right with learning how to be grateful because of other people's misfortunes.
It's because they remind me that something needs to be done, that I should get involved in one way or another, that I can do something maybe not for them but for those nearer to me.
In this case, I may not be able to directly help Mang Ignacio and Inin. But I think that when we are able to put down their story into words, and get it out there for the public to read, and that hopefully, one more soul will be moved to do something, then I think that I was able to do my job.
This is one aspect of my job that I really am thankful for. That I have a chance to come face-to-face with the reality of things, no matter how sad it is sometimes. These are things I would never learn about if I didn't head out. Yeah, I know I can read about it but I'm telling you, experience is the best teacher. That's what Pahinungod taught me. That's what UP taught me.
Anyway, one of the things I'm really driving at here is the importance of action. It doesn't have to be grand. Every small act counts. What matters is that we do something, and not just let the world pass us by.
One man I look up to told me that I shouldn't just be another face in the crowd. Thanks to the trip to CDO/MisOr/Davao, I was reminded of that advice.
The trip did me good I think. Though I was dead tired and the pain on my left ankle made walking extremely difficult, I was glad I was assigned to do the trip. I went back to Manila feeling less jaded, less angry (hehe!) and with a little more belief in the good of people.
