the perils of

It's been roughly one month into my stay here in my new area, and so far, things are going well (*knocks on wood*). My uncle who lives in town helped me set up these cork boards in my office, and now I have a nice cork canvas to get creative with. I've also spent at least one day a week going around the different barangays, joining in on the house-to-house vaccinations. It hasn't been easy.  My previous job in Butuan mainly involved me staying put in a vaccination center. The people I dealt with were all willing to be vaccinated, even if in the tiniest degree, so it was not as much of an uphill battle. But now that I'm working on the ground, I am more exposed to the proportion of people who don't want to get vaccinated. And it upsets me. It hurts even more to think that we go through such lengths to bring vaccines closer to people - which can sometimes mean riding precariously balanced motorcycles on dangerous dirt paths deep into the mountains.  What do we get in r...

*** In the past month and a half, I've seen a drastic improvement in my mental health despite doing pretty much the same thing as before, which is vaccination work. A change in scenery made all the difference. I didn't realize how much of my negative outlook before was brought about by my work surroundings.  In the vaccination post where I used to work, the temperature was always uncomfortably hot and humid. It was a closed gymnasium with tiny windows, so the air circulation was awful. Also, because it had poor ventilation, it drove me crazy to see patients with their masks lowered, mouths agape, noses exposed. Poor ventilation plus unmasked people in a pandemic situation equals bad news.  If I were a Sim, my mood meter would instantly plummet into the red upon setting foot into this place. I was constantly sweaty, uncomfortable, and angry at unmasked people. But the worst part of it, in hindsight, was that work didn't feel meaningful to me. I was one of two doctors there...

To address the elephant in the room: I recently got transferred out of Gigaquit.  I'm sure you're thinking: what, why, what happened, omg so soon, huhu. But trust me, while the news is extremely heartbreaking, I believe this was the right choice for me.  During my brief time there I truly believed that I was the luckiest Doctor to the Barrio (DTTB). I had a great and dependable set of staff. A super supportive boss who eventually became my mentor (and grandfather to my newly adopted puppy). An LGU that was so easy to work with. I even found a second family there in the form of my landlady/foster mom.  Twice I'd run into problems on the road and needed to be rescued. Each time, random people offered their help, without me even asking. They even refused when I insisted on paying them. The people of Gigaquit are truly something else. I don't know if I'll ever be so lucky to be assigned somewhere with their same energy. They set the bar pretty high.  And I can't eve...

I know you've been worried sick about me. Masks and alcohol are in short supply, and more and more people are getting infected across the country each day.  It may be a futile request, but please don't worry too much. Here in my little barrio (if you can even call it that), things are so much more peaceful than what you see on TV.  The police and fire patrol are doing their job well. We at the health center have been monitoring the situation daily.  The groceries are well-stocked and there are anti-panic buying rules in place. Farming continues. My foster fam recently adopted this puppy named Skrrrt and I love it with all my heart. I'm safe for now but I won't be letting my guard down. I miss you all and I can't wait to go home. Stay healthy folks! 

I'm almost four weeks into my first ever job as a Doctor to the Barrio, and it's been an amazing ride so far. When I first found out about my assignment sometime in January, I was apprehensive. When you google Gigaquit, Surigao del Norte, there's not much information you can find. It's mostly just news articles about their recent spate of NPA attacks. As a baseline anxious person, I had a never-ending list of worries: What if I'm kidnapped? What if I'm killed? Or worse, what if there's no Internet??? I had no idea what I was getting into, and I would soon find out. 1. I'm a town celebrity - whether I like it or not. "Doctora, what's your complete name?" read the text from Gigaquit Municipal Health Officer, Dr. Roland Mira. Yup, I thought to myself, he's definitely making me a welcome tarp.  We'd never met in person before, but I'd heard much about him from mutual colleagues. A veteran doctor who'd spent most ...

My unemployment is almost at an end. I've been accepted into Doctors to the Barrios. Deployment is two or three weeks away (DOH has been keeping us in the dark about our schedule). The days of Netflix binges, unlimited snacking, and random video games are coming to a close. I haven't been this relaxed in years, and I will sorely miss bumming around the house. Change terrifies me, but I'm ready to put my best foot forward for my future barrio this 2020. Anyway, I'm excited to write about my December favorites. I've seen so many good films and played so many good games lately and I'm raring to share them with you. So, without further ado: Movies Marriage Story. Despite its title, Marriage Story is a movie about separation, specifically the divorce of Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson). What's refreshing about this movie is how its central characters still treat each other with so much love, despite going through the breakup. (In fac...

I love Christmas. I love spending time with family, receiving presents, and unwrapping them on Christmas morning next to the ratty old plastic Christmas tree we've been recycling year after year since I was born. What I don't love, however, is the residual clutter than ensues. I come from a very big family, with more than 70 family members from my mom and dad's sides combined. Imagine the volume of presents that translates to! Each year, we give and receive so much stuff that by the end of the holidays, we would have enough content for an entire season of  Hoarders. As a solution to this, last year I came up with (what I thought was) a pretty genius idea. I tried gifting people with gifts they had already received but probably didn't remember because they got buried underneath all the clutter. My younger brother Jiggy received my old barely-working Gameboy Advance from the 1990s, external lamp light and all. My sister Cait got her old Pokemon-themed Tamagotchi that...