Man, I write my posts like I’m the screenplay writer for Memento.  So this actually happened the day before I left for Palawan; Friday, June 17th was the scheduled day for the last of the on-site trainings and orientations for the worms project I’m assisting with at the NIH, taking place in Cavite.

Cavite is a province two hours southwest of Manila, just past Tagaytay (a popular tourist destination in Luzon).  Everything is much more spread out in Cavite, though there are still pockets of commercial clusters — just look for the SMs or Robinson’s, or visit Dasmariñas City.  The main road that passes through Cavite is very narrow, which blows traffic to epic proportions come rush hour.

The morning of the orientation, I piled into a big ol’ 12 passenger van along with the other RAs and the Pittsburgh med students.  The med students were tagging along to observe and to make contact with Cavite health staff, since part of their research takes in Cavite.  After picking up a mountain of Chow King food for lunch, we made it to the Korean hospital where the orientation was to take place.  

Setting up was made a lot easier with the med students, who helped put up tables and arranged chairs.  Otherwise, the orientation went pretty similarly to the other orientations (see here for the typical flow of events), so I won’t bore you with that.  But here are some pics:

me doin’ my MC thang.

speaking: the provincial epidemiologist of Cavite.

the attendees:  a mix of Department of Health officials, local government health workers from the health centers, and DepEd staff.

a lecture on parasitology with the medical technologists, who will be examining study participants’ stools for worms.

The other RA and I explain how to obtain consent from potential study participants.

Medical technologists practice identifying worms under the microscope.

The other RA and I demonstrate how to take height measurements using the “height measuring apparatus” we designed for the study.

What I didn’t expect was the culture shock I experienced with the medical students.  Don’t get me wrong, I love ‘em, they’re really nice and passionate peeps.  And the shock wasn’t positive or negative, just surprising; I was getting a huge dose of America interacting with them, and it served to highlight for me all the little things that the Philippines had changed in me.  Haha, it’s difficult to word this delicately…being in the Philippines has taught me the benefits of speaking subtly, of patience.  For me this has manifested itself into a sort of soft-spoken introverted-ness (and it doesn’t help that I get super shy about speaking in Tagalog).  But interacting with Americans, it’s like a different self was emerging, maybe my old self — cracking American jokes, talking in strong American cadences about American things (San Francisco!  American med schools!  American fast food!).  So it was interesting, to be made aware of that dichotomy in myself.  But I guess that comes with the territory — as a Filipino-American, I am not quite Filipino and not quite American.  And I’m figuring out what balance of the two I want for myself.  

After the orientation, we headed back.  Traffic at the end of a Friday = krrrrrraaazy!  But we eventually got to Manila around 6 PM, where I jetted pretty quick since I had to prepare for a show later on that night at Conspiracy Garden Cafe (more on that another time)…

Next up on the blog queue:  FOLK U!  (i’m talking about a concert, promise ;P)

A couple of weekends ago I went to Palawan, which is a group of gorgeous islands southwest of Luzon.  It was a spur of the moment sort of thing; a group of med students from Pittsburgh doing research with the NIH (where I work) invited me to come along, and it sounded like fun :)  I met the med students at the Puerto Princesa airport; once we were all there I used my Tagalog to help haggle down the price of a van + driver that we could use for the weekend.  In general the trip was really good for my tagalog speaking/comprehension — maybe I should be traveling more in general. 

Once we got a van and driver, we crowded in for the 2 hour drive to Sabang, which is home to an underground river!  There were a whole lotta people so we hwad to wait a while.  In the meantime we took goofy photos, which i don’t have a copy of at the moment.  The river itself was super cool and amusing — the guide pointed out rock formations that looked like Jesus, a mushroom, corn, an Easter candle, poop…obviously the guides have pretty good imaginations :P

After floating through the cave we stayed the night at Port Barton, a small town of 4000 that only has electricity from 6 PM to 11 PM every day.  When we drove in, you could see families chillin’ on their front porch, some of them in near-darkness.  Though it was already pretty late, some of us went to satiate the traveling muchies with a late dinner, where i hawd some yummy calamari.

In da morning we ate again (yay!) at a resort called Greenview, which had scrumptious corned beef (quickly becoming my new fav Filipino breakfast).  Then we hopped on a boat to do some island hopping!!  We went to two islands: ‘Exotic’ and ‘German’ island.  Since it’s off-season for tourists, there were very few people; it felt like we had rented out the islands for ourselves!  sooooo coool.  And apparently German Island is owned by a congressman in Palawan, but lets people visit the island?  Random.

After island hopping, we rode back to Puerto Princesa and got back early evening.  We found a place to stay for the night (one way to haggle:  have four people talking to the hotel owner simultaneously.  Thankfully he was very gracious about it), then roamed the streets for food, settling for an epic bar/grill type place that had really good sweet and sour lapu-lapu.  

But the night was not without incident:  While walking on a sidewalk that wasn’t well lit, I didn’t see a sewer hole, and my left leg fell in!  Thank goodness it was a really shallow one, but my knee got scraped up a bit.  One of the med students behind me underestimated what I meant by “hole” and basically fell in — she had to go back immediately to wash the poop off :(  The rest of up carried on, ‘cause there was a festival nearby!

At the festival, in true Pinoy fashion, there was a stage for dancing and singing, so we watched the local performers.  Afterwards we wandered around the shops and stumbled upon an even bigger stage with breakdancers.  But by that time it was getting late and people were pretty tired so we headed back.  

The next morning was my flight back to Manila (sadness!)  All in all, it was a really fun but brief vacation; hopefully I’ll be able to go back to Palawan with my family one of these days.

Next up:  Cavite!

Hello, and welcome to Fulbright Flashbacks!  As I approach these last (eight) weeks of my Fulbright grant, I’ve decided to take the time to backblog a few cool things that I’ve experienced these past few months in the Philippines.  

First up on the list is the conquering of Mt. Apo back in mid-March.  The tallest mountain in the Philippines, standing at 9,692 feet, Mt. Apo is no walk in the park.  Not that I expected it to be.  But to give you an idea of where my mind was at, here is a sample conversation of between me and my Davao friend, who was spearheading the trip:

me:  so how fit do I have to be to climb Apo?

friend:  you walk to work right?

me:  yeah, like a 5-7 minute walk…

friend:  great, you’ll be fine!  don’t worry.

Little did I know…

So anyhoo, a couple of friends and I booked our tickets to Davao at the very last minute and caught an evening flight.  We met up with our Davao friend as well as several other Fulbrighters at the charming Viajeros Inn before calling it a night.

The next day, we had to make our way to base camp, which entailed a trike (tricycle) ride + walk over to the bus station, for a two hour bus ride, where we went to the Mt. Apo tourism office, which oriented us on the rules and safety regulations we should follow while climbing the mountain.  We also met our guide for the climb at the office.  After the orientation, we grabbed dinner at a BBQ side stand and transferred to a van for another 2-hour ride to base camp.  We got to the base around late evening, grabbing some snacks before calling it a night.  

Then the fun begins.  I can’t remember if we got up at 4 or 5 AM.  Needless to say, it was early!  Our guide’s family prepared for the group a nice nourishing breakfast before we headed out.  

What followed next was some of the toughest physical activity of my life, bar none.  I was in no way or shape prepared for the climb, which was literally a climb — no rails here folks, just uphill after uphill.  It was exhilarating and exhausting all at once.  The first few hours saw my best friend slip on a ledge and hurt her knee (thankfully she was okay for the rest of the climb), and another friend bailing out of the climb after his asthma started acting up.  From then on it was hours of crossing rivers, tomato-and-cheese sandwiches, and ridiculous ledges.  At one point, there was a dirt ledge, with nothing stable to hold on except for a log.  Let me tell you, I clung to that log for dear life!  It was one of those moment where you’re too scared to be embarrassed about the situation, which was a grown dude suspended in midair, bear-hugging a log like his mommy.  Ah, life :)

Oh, and did I say there were no rails?  There is one rail…at the 90 degree section of Mt. Apo.  It’s a good 100-foot vertical climb, and in some parts there is nothing to hold on to but a wooden rail that extends down the majority of the 90 degree section.  Scary as heck!  But also super cool.

Did I mention how cool it was?  It’s definitely cool.

After 11 hours of climbing, we make it to the lake, which is about 5 hours from the summit.  We set up camp by the lake, which is probably the most pristine lake I’ve ever seen, and rest up.  We had some pretty tasty pesto/white sauce pasty for dinner.  Our hunger made it taste even better ;)

I don’t think I was able to sleep more than two hours that night.  I had no sleeping bag and only a set of thin blankets to keep warm — that, along with the rock hard floor made for a very cold and trying night.  Alas, we had to get up at 4 AM for the final stretch.  

That final stretch was ridiculously trying.  I don’t think I would have made it without the relentless support of my best friend, and vice versa.  Part of the difficulty was psychological.  The guide said it would only be 3 hours to the top, but our group overall moved at a slower pace, so it actually took 5-6 hours.  At the time, we had no idea when we were gonna get there, and morale was definitely waning among the group.

But in the end…perseverance!!!  The sweet, sweet taste of summit air.  The view was totally breathtaking, though at least half of us were content to collapse and nap.  

I forgot to mention that I brought a cheapo guitar with me, all the way to the top, just so we could all have a sing-along at the end.  Here’s a video of me covering “Hallelujah” at the Apo summit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Kh2ul_KaM

Unfortunately, there was no helipad, as I had secretly wished for while climbing to the top; the truth was, we would have to…

wait for it…

climb back down.

AHHHHHH!

After packing our things and heading out, the climb back down seemed straightforward enough.  But as time went on, it was clear that we weren’t advancing quickly enough, and night fell just before we were halfway through the climb.  Now that was some SCARY stuff — when you’re manuvering on a slippery ledge, with a cranky river 50 feet below you, the blood pressure tends to rise :P.  Furthermore, I had to share a flashlight, since there wasn’t enough to go around, which led to an amusing mini-game.  My friend with the light would walk about 20 feet ahead of me, lighting the path.  I would then wait for him to turn around and light my path, which gave me a few seconds to traverse before he turned around and walked some more.  Rinse, lather and repeat!  I felt like a little kid, in a good way :)

Also, I didn’t bother with any pretense of climbing — my legs were gone, so I basically slid down the majority of Mt. Apo on my butt.  Woohoo!

But yeah…it also started sprinkling, which upped the ante since our guide said that the rivers would flood if it started to all-out rain.  In other words, we had to high-tail it down that mountain.  Although there was a bit of hyperbole involved, I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so in danger for such an extended period of time.  All of us in the group really had to work together in order to make the successful climb down.  

After at least another 10 hours crossing 5 rivers, butt-sliding, drinking iodine treated water, and a grueling final uphill, we at last made it back to the main road!  Phew.  epic, epic, epic.  I don’t think I’ll ever climb Mt. Apo again, but I am really grateful for the experience!  It truly extended my physical and psychological limits and brought me closer to my friends.  I heartily recommend Apo — just remember to pack a sleeping bag with the tent :)

Next up:  Baguio!

(packing for orientations.  Lord help(ed) us.)

(Bear with me, this happened about a month ago :)  But I should be keeping a better record of what I’m doing research-wise, so here ya go!)

Quick recap:  my main Fulbright research is a Department of Health-funded study on worm infections in adolescent females and pregnant women.  My role in the project is volunteer research assistant, while my advisor is the principal investigator.  Because our project requires the parasitologic assessment (read: looking in poop for signs of worm infection) of thousands of participants (4,750 to be exact), we need a lot of assistance; hence we have to train and orient local health workers in each of the six project sites across the Philippines to do the field work necessary for the study.  

The first two training/orientations for the project were scheduled for May 12th and 13th in Tacloban, Leyte and Cebu City, respectively.  The other two research assistants and I stayed up till 10 the night before preparing the materials necessary for the training and orientation.  It’s an epic task, since we also have to prepare the materials needed for the duration of the fieldwork.  Thus, we had to distribute laboratory materials, consent forms, reference materials, etc. to separate bags for the medical technologists and nurses, then pack the bags in a balikbayan-sized box.  It’ll be a miracle if I ever learn how to tie crazy-good knots like Filipinos do here.

I got up at three in the morning the day we left for Tacloban.  The other research assistant and I lugged the cargo to a taxi and headed straight for the airport to meet with the rest of the team.  After a sleepy flight, we were met at the Tacloban airport by Mr. Olobia, the soil-transmitted helminth (STH, or worms) program coordinator of the region.  It was pretty cool; after all those months of helping with preparation, I was finally sitting in the back of a pickup, heading for the first orientation and talking to DOH higher-ups.  Oh and I saw MacArthur’s landing, but I didn’t have my camera ready at the time (Doh!).

Fast-forward to the orientation itself; it was a bit nerve-wracking at the beginning, as everyone on the team is multitasking their butts off.  My main role for the orientations is MC, but I’m helping out whenever I’m not MC-ing:  preparing reference materials, answering participants’ questions/requests, debating on the sequence of activities with the rest of the team, etc.  And the heat was in full-force, which cast a sleepy air over the proceedings.  

But things kicked into high gear quick.  The orientations/trainings generally unfold as follows:

1. I (the MC) welcome everyone to said orientation/training and introduce the STH coordinator (in this case, Dr. Olobia)
2. The STH coordinator makes some welcoming remarks, then has everyone introduce themselves
3. Dr. Belizario (my adviser and principal investigator for the study) leads the orientation portion, followed by a summary of data collection activities given by Dr. Doy, an associate professor on the team.
4. The participants are then split into two groups:  the nurses and the medical technologists.  The nurses receive training on collecting stools from study participants and obtaining height and weight data (metrics for nutrition), while the medical technologists receive training on preparation and examination of stool samples for worms.
5. Participants reconvene for a logistics discussion led by the STH coordinator, in which they hash out how everyone will work together for the next few months.
6. Closing!  Everyone goes home with enough data collection materials to last a few months.  The whole shebang doesn’t take more than 3-4 hours.  Oh, and there’s lunch and merienda (Tagalog for snacks).

(Dr. Doy explaining the informed consent form, using visual aids I helped design)

(Dr. Doy, assistant professor, guiding nurses on proper height-measuring technique)

Not all of these things were in place at Tacloban; #5 (the logistics discussion) was a particularly brilliant bit of improvisation on Dr. Olobia’s part.  And we were still working on the transitioning from #3 to #4.  But things went off without a major hitch.

After the orientation, we made a quick pasalubong (read:  the Filipino practice of bringing back goods/souvenirs from the places you’ve traveled) run at the grocery, where I bought some sweets for my relatives, before catching the afternoon flight to Cebu.

(Dr. Doy and Fidel, co-RA, lookin’ tough.)

[insert flight nap here]

We got to our hotel in Cebu; once we settled in and grabbed a yummy Filipino dinner, Dr. Belizario called for a debrief meeting over a couple of San Miguels (ok ok, I had a banana shake — I don’t really drink hehe).  He paid me and the other research assistant a high complement — I forget the Tagalog word, but it means “light bodies.”  In other words, we were always working and anticipating possible needs, which he very much appreciated.  

The next morning we headed to the Regional Health Training Center in Cebu for the next orientation/training.  The series of activities basically followed the nifty outline I wrote out above, but the transitions were much more fine-tuned.  The other RAs and I became better acquainted with each other’s working styles.  And it was fun to assist Dr. Doy walk the nurses through the data collection process.  The nurses were clearly amused as they role-played in pairs, getting familiar with the process of explaining the study and consent to potential study participants.  And outside of the issue of obtaining “fresh stools” for the training of the medical technologists, the Cebu orientation/training went over smoothly.

(The kind and charming Dr. Erasmo, STH coordinator in Cebu City, leading the orientation.)

(role-playing!  so good.)

What struck me most about the orientations/trainings were the nuances of regional identity inherent to each place’s healthcare infrastructure.  Huh?    Basically, Tacloban/Leyte health workers go about things in a much different manner than health workers in Cebu City.  Healthcare in the Philippines is highly decentralized, which means that, while there is a central Department of Health issuing administrative orders and the like, local government units have a lot of flexibility in how they implement said orders.  At the orientations, it was clear that the medical technologists and nurses had their own region-specific preferences when it came to working together; even group personalities and qualifications were different from place to place.  The variety is definitely in keeping with the kaleidoscope of colors that is the Philippines.

After the Cebu City orientation/training, there was another pasalubong run.  I look for my prized Cebu mangos (tasty and cheaper than if I get them in  Manila) and bond with the other research assistant about the past few days and work in general.  And that was that: dalawang bagsak (Tagalog for “two down”), four more training and orientations to go!  

my favorite food on this earth:  sisig.  mmmmmmm

my little studio (or as my cousin likes to call it, the bachelor pad) 

I can’t believe I’m finally here.  Well I’m here, but I’m not quite here yet, if that makes any sense (probably doesn’t).  

It’s the second day of my nine months here in the Philippines for my Fulbright fellowship, and I’m not sure what to do with myself.  Freedom!  So much of it.  My research adviser was kind to let me have the first week off to get myself adjusted, and there is lots of adjusting to do.  For starters, this whole waking up at 3:30 am probably won’t work out in the long run.  But still…everything is up to me.  I’m sure my working friends have a head start in that department, but it’s weird.  I could stay in my little studio all day, or I can roam to my heart’s content (just jokes, mom and dad!). Gotta get started with finding that balance.

But anyways.  I got into Manila on Sunday night, close to 11 PM.  The Pilipino American Educational Foundation (PAEF), who are my Fulbright support in the Philippines, arranged for me to be brought to a suite near their office so I could be oriented the next day.  I couldn’t sleep, so I worked on the immigration forms they left me while watching a rerun of Eagle Eye (I still don’t understand why Shia Lebeouf is considered an action hero).  

I head out of the hotel around 8ish in the morning for my Fulbright orientation.  I finally got to meet many of the email addresses I’ve been sending my myriad questions to, which was nice.  Everyone at the office is good-natured and humorous, and I really look forward to communicating with them more throughout these next nine months.

The rest of the day was errands galore:  I somehow managed to get my stipend deposited in a brand new bank account, get me + my boxes to my place, buy groceries with my cousin, and get unpacked and more or less settled by 9 PM.  Sleep was amazing, needless to say.

So many things running through my head…there’s so much to do, so much Tagalog to learn.  Gonna start exploring the area, get familiar with potential places to perform, find a church, etc.  I’m really grateful for all the people and experiences that have somehow brought me to this point, and while a potent cocktail of excitement and fear surges through my veins, I’m looking forward to the adventures.

One more thing…the sunrise is spectacular from where I’m at.  I’ll post a pic or two later this week.

I hope you’re doing well, wherever you are.

Cheers,

Andrew