i was assigned to another rural
health unit for a week, this one in mayorga, 2 hours south of tacloban. the
commute was a bit rough, squeezed into the back of a lurching hot, sweaty
jeepney with 20 other commuters for 4 hours each day. the town is having a big
push for “zero open defecation”. an obvious problem from a public health
perspective is that people defecate in open areas when they don’t have anywhere
else to go. so a big ngo brought in a bunch of toilets to install. now every
house has a toilet, but without running water they aren’t as useful as they
could be. the town actually employs inspectors who roam the villages looking
for human excrement, and the villages loose out on funding if it is found.
another cool public health initiative in the town are free regular zumba
classes for everyone!
my commute each day brought me past
the historical site of the leyte landing, which is where u.s. general macarthur
first came ashore during the liberation of the philippines from the japanese at
the end of world war ii. the site is commemorated with bronze statues of the
americans - wearing aviators - wading onto the beach. interestingly, tacloban
was actually the capital of the philippines for a few short months at the end
of the war, until manila was liberated.
we were invited a birthday party
feast one afternoon in mayorga, one of many feasts thus far, which has been
great. the hospitality is wonderful, but i’ve got to say that the food here is
as unhealthy as you can imagine. filipinos eat white rice for every single
meal. if they have the money, the addition will be pork; the fattier the
better. at a more impressive meal, the rice will be supplemented with other
empty carbohydrates, such as white wonder bread, chow mein noodles, rice cakes,
and cooked cassava (for the uninitiated, similar to a baked potato except drier
and with less flavor). the fatty pork will be supplemented with an
alternatively flavored selection of fatty pork, fried cicken, and fried fish.
absolutely never vegetables, which is disheartening. though the fruit is
amazing, it is enjoyed by the average person as a rare delicacy maybe just a
couple times per year. little wonder pretty much everyone here that is middle
aged and older has rampant hypertension, diabetes and kidney failure.
while on the topic of food, i will
end with a couple of the few bright spots. one is halo-halo, literally
“mixture.” it is shaved ice soaked in sugary milk, topped with various
selections of jello, ice cream, pieces of fruit, red beans, yellow beans, taro
jam, crème de leche flan, and corn flakes. another is belut, a 14 day old
chicken or duck fetus that is still in the shell. the fetus is killed when the
egg is bioled, and the belut tastes best immediately afterword, doused with
vinegar. seriously, its delicious!
