Goodbye Butuan!

As fate would have it, I am once again transferring. 

The neighboring town of Nasipit is in need of a replacement Municipal Health Officer after their previous one graduated from the Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) program.

The Department of Health Central Office also (unofficially) declared this year that there should be no more Doctors to the Barrios assigned to highly urbanized cities. Butuan City currently has two.

To solve these two problems, the DOH thought that the most practical solution would be to transfer one DTTB from Butuan to Nasipit. And that one DTTB would be me. Easy peasy.

Except it's been hard. Not just on me, but on my staff members - my nurses, midwives, medtech - who now have to manage patients on their own. Our health system is structured in such a way that patients who can't afford a private physician end up seeking consult at a barangay health center, where they are seen by a nurse or a midwife. Those nurses and midwives take a quick clinical history and even get some photos of the patient, and then they send the data to me. I ask more questions, we go back and forth a bit, until I find a satisfying diagnosis or a treatment. I send them prescriptions and give them advice through phone, and the patients go home satisfied that they received free healthcare, and the nurse / midwife feels satisfied that they provided free healthcare. Without me, the staff are going to have to find another doctor to take their referrals (spoiler alert: it's going to be hard). 

But it's not going to be all bad. Nasipit is just 30 minutes away from where I currently live in Butuan. I'm told the staff there are really nice. And the biggest bonus is that I actually have lovely relatives there who work with the local government and are happy to welcome me into the town.

All in all, I think this is a good direction for me. I've been stagnating at vaccination posts for the past year, reduced to repeating the same lines over and over (Do you have any allergies? Were you recently vaccinated? Do you have any symptoms right now?). I think I've written extensively about how soul-crushing the work is in a previous post. 

My new job at Nasipit is as Municipal Health Officer, and I'm told the work mostly involves managing health programs and staff. 

I'm scared. 

But surprisingly, excited!

I'm excited to use my brain again to get creative. I'm excited to see if I can implement these dream programs of mine that have been rotting away in the back burner of my mind for the past year or so. I'm excited for the opportunity to grow.

My moving to Nasipit also marks the third area that I'll be handling. For context, most DTTBs spend their 3-year contract in the same locality, so they can really see progress happen over time. But for me, I've been through Gigaquit, Butuan, and now Nasipit. As my friend Jeth put it, I'm probably the most displaced DTTB ever. 

And that's not a bad thing. I think it's kind of a privilege that I get to take a peek into how each area's health system works, learn from one and then bring those lessons into the next.

Still, I will miss my Butuan staff dearly. They are some of the most dedicated and hardworking individuals I've ever met in my life. Their compassion towards their patients is unparalleled. And their kindness and warmth towards me is something I'll never forget. If you're reading this right now, thank you! Daghang salamat. Salamat karajaw. Thank you for our time together, and I'll be seeing you around. :)

Indeed my staff threw me a nice little merienda/dinner party at the vaccination post last night. There was a program and everything. There were speeches, embarrassing videos, a gift-giving segment, and then of course food. One of the gifts they got me was this huge tumbler with their names and signatures on it, so I don't forget them daw. AWWWW! That is the sweetest thing!!! 

And of course at the end of it all, they asked me to give a speech. I am not good at speaking when I'm emotional. I could barely get through the first few seconds without sobbing. There were a lot of things I wanted to say, but couldn't because I was on the verge of tears. I just said "thank you" over and over through puffy, watery eyes.

I no talk good. 

Anyway, that's it. I'll update this blog when I get transferred. It's a sunny Saturday morning here in Butuan City. I woke up at 10 AM with my two cats beside me, one resting by my feet and one laying his soft head on my belly. I think I'm going to be okay. 

Have a good weekend everyone. :)