And they're off: UP Medicine Class of 2009

The tarpaulin backdrop provides a muted understatement of the celebration and promise it represents.


I was in the University Theater attending the 100th Commencement Exercise and Internship Closing Ceremonies of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine – Philippine General Hospital last weekend, almost four years to the day of my own graduation from medical school.
Dr. Esperanza Cabral, Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and alumna of the UP College of Medicine, gave the Commencement Address.


It was with a mixture of wistful delight that we launch into the greater world outside the UP Medicine Class of 2009. This batch of students will forever occupy a special niche in my heart because they are the first ones I have taught full time. As their names were called and their faces flashed in the white screen during the capping and hooding ceremonies, I can still recall many of the words from the papers they’ve written, the conversations we’ve had, the activities they’ve facilitated in the urban poor communities we immersed in as part of their third year medical school curriculum. Some of them, I can hardly I can hardly remember or recognize- the skinheads then now have hair, some slimmed down, some- well- did not =] But I must admit that it is an honor when they do recall who I am, from among the 660-strong faculty of the college =]

Posing with UP Medicine Class of 2009 Class President Paolo Medina, his mom, and UP Medicine Class of 1993 Class President Dr. Portia Marcelo, and myself, UP Medicine Class of 2005 Class President.


After the capping and hooding ceremony, faux diploma on hand, many faculty members swarmed at the foot of the steps leading from the stage. We were not so neatly lined up with hands outstretched, shaking the hands of the graduates and their parents, some getting hugs from us, especially the ones whom we worked very closely with.

Dr. Brian Vincent DG Salvador, cum laude and class valedictorian, with Dr. Nina Dizon, Dr. Delen Dela Paz, and Dr. Jimmy Galvez-Tan.


What almost wrung tears from my eyes was when the parents thanked us for taking care of their children. I must admit that there will always be bad apples in any heap, but for the most part it was an immense joy with their children, and any group of students for that matter. It is an honor to have worked with and for these young doctors, even if it was just for two weeks within their five-year stay in our medical school.



I am confident that I will be taken care of by their able minds, hearts, and hands should the time come I or a family member be taken ill. God speed, UP Medicine Class of 2009. Blaze trails in honor of your parents, your patients, your teachers, your alma mater, and the country who look forward to your selfless sharing of compassion and competence.

PhotoHunt: Protect(ion)

This is an elevated covered walkway running perpendicular to a busy thoroughfare in Cotabato City, meant to protect both pedestrians and motor vehicle drivers plying this route. It also doubles as an area for hanging streamers and posters of congratulations to successful examinees from the city who passed the licensure examinations for physicians and nurses just released a few days before this photo was taken.

It's a poignant reminder on how many a Filipino family's hopes are pinned on college education. College education- which can lead to good employment- is their family's protection. And recently, with the Philippines having "exported" some 50,000 nurses in the last decade alone, having a licensed nurse in the family is almost like manna from heaven. Imagine, a Filipino nurse working in the country maybe earning roughly USD 200 per month, while s/he can earn something like at least 10 times that outside the country. To sweeten the pot, with the employment there also comes the chance to emigrate with his/her entire family. It seems like a no-brainer. To make matters worse, some 9,000 Filipino physicians are training or already have trained to become nurses, with a great number already employed in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, among other countries. Hospitals are being closed due to the absence of doctors who will run them and go on duty in them.

All this is happening in our country where 7 out of 10 Filipinos die without ever being attended to by a health professional.

So who's taking care of us left behind here?

I pray it will be those whose names are plastered on this elevated walkway...

To work in another country to feed your family or to stay in the country in service of your fellow Filipinos? It's not really a no-brainer, is it?

PhotoHunt: Triangle

Perched atop one of the rolling hills of Malaybalay City in Bukidnon Province, this new chapel of the Monastery of the Transfiguration gives a new meaning to the feeling of being close to heaven. Its simple architecture, benign wooden benches, and nondescript stone slab altar complement perfectly the wondrous beauty of God's creation surrounding it, the vista uninterrupted thanks to the glass walls on at least three sides of the chapel. The edifice blends seamlessly to its green surroundings as well as to the azure sky; it's like a pair of hands, touching fingertips to fingertips, palms about to press on each other, praying with expectant faith.

This is part of my April 2007 sojourn to Mindanao which you can find here.

PhotoHunt: Hands

A doctor's hands can excise a tumor, repair a broken limb, bandage a wound. But healing is not a duty and responsibility that is exclusively for doctors.

Whenever we listen to a friend's incessant rants about a boyfriend that is SO not into her; or sit beside a co-worker who has just lost a parent; or help a neighbor decide whether to stay in the country or migrate to the US, we, too, regardless of our degree or profession (or lack thereof), do our bit to become healers.

By virtue of our humanity, we have the innate capacity (duty and responsibility, actually!) to minister to one another, to excise the trouble tumor of anger, repair broken relationships, bandage a wounded spirit.

--==+==--

What needs healing as well is our environment. No matter how insignificant our singular, tiny effort may seem, when done in concert with a million, billion others, it WILL make an impact, more than we can ever imagine.

Don't forget to VOTE FOR EARTH and join EARTH HOUR 2009!

Lights out today, Saturday, March 28, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm!

PhotoHunt: Warm

To say that the last four weeks were hectic is the understatement of the year. We're in the thick of preparing for a week-long course for health professions students to be held this April; rolling out a project between the University and the Philippine Department of Health, and; laboring on the first draft of a book about our work among urban lower income communities. These on top of my regular academic load and activities with my Catholic renewal yuppy group.

This week brought some respite though as one of my classes held its last session for the year. The special seven-year Doctor of Medicine program of the University has a year-long once-a-week course called Introduction to Patient Care or IPC. The course title is a misnomer, carried along from its inception more than two decades ago. Thanks to its evolution, IPC does not only aim to make the medical student a good clinician. Moreover, it furthers the development of excellent physicians through a guided journey of self-discovery by way of activities that clarify their values, shedding light on their family's lineage, practice their skill for asking and giving feedback, among other activities. The course approximates a values and personality enhancement class that will hopefully ultimately lead to our students becoming caring, compassionate, and competent physicians.

As I have mentioned, the Wednesday past was our last day in IPC class. With all the things in my to-do list, to finally have all my Wednesday afternoons free starting next week is a tremendous blessing. But before we parted ways, all three of us facilitators received this token of remembrance from them. They wrote heartwarming messages on the other side of this framed sheet bearing the amazing illustrations of our likeness.

I will surely miss the 10 students we've been facilitating for the last 8 months.
They're a bunch of articulate, effervescent, talented, sincere students who displayed genuine interest and resolve to better themselves through the course. It was such a joy to have been given the chance to work with them. If they remain as diligent and human as they are now through medical school and beyond, I would entrust my health or the health of a loved one to them in a heartbeat.

Php 1:3-6
I thank my God for you every time I think of you; and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now. And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.

PhotoHunt: Bridges

Good thing I love being behind the wheel, else I would have gone crazy with the intermittent traffic jams in the Philippines. While anybody, including myself, would savor bottleneck-less stretches of roadway where we can push the pedal to the metal(?), I likewise enjoy the occasional stop-and-go traffic scenarios so I can smell the proverbial flowers, or take a snapshot of a roadside vista.

This segment of my route home has been the area of many a motorist's driving woes; but the latter may soon be things of the past. After more than three years of roadworks (if my memory serves me right), the construction of these off-ramps and bridges interconnecting the new international airport with the elevated and at-grade highway systems seem to be in its final stages.

Faster travel, cooler heads, mission accomplished. Finally!

PhotoHunt: Chipped

They lived in shanties made from light materials, with rusted roofs and walls with chipped or peeled off paint, beside a river that doubles as drinking water source and toilet. Now, several hundred families are rebuilding their lives in more dignified homes thanks to the initiatives of the Saint Hannibal Mary Di Francia Empowerment Center (SHEC), a non-government organization named after the founder of the Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus, a religious order of Catholic priests who initially spearheaded the NGO.

The priests and brothers while undergoing their formation studies used to just live with the residents of these slum communities in the city of Pasay, just adjacent to the Philippine capital of Manila. They engaged the community by basically helping them enrich their spiritual life. But seeing that their needs go beyond the spiritual and inspired by the community's tenacity and desire to better themselves, the priests and brothers founded SHEC and helped organize the community to form the counterpart people's organization, the Saint Hannibal Christian Community or SHaCC.

SHEC and SHaCC aim to build God's kingdom here on earth or at least something very close to it. The religious and the residents of these slums try to create a holistic community development program that include initiatives for and provision of quality shelter, health, education, environment, livelihood, values formation, peace and justice, and child and youth development. Knowing fully that they cannot do it alone, the NGO and the people's organization partner with institutions which help further their goals. Collaborators include the Habitat for Humanity and the government's Community Mortgage Program for the shelter component and the UP College of Medicine for the health component, among others.

The University, represented by myself and the students training under our Section of Community Medicine, visit the SHaCC housing site several times a month, engaging the volunteer health workers from among the residents through health education, covering a wide array of topics from the use of medicinal plants to reproductive health and healthy lifestyle initiatives like daily exercise and proper diet. Their eagerness to learn, improve their own health, and help their neighbors improve theirs are barometers through which I can measure hope and the possibility of change.

From shanties that get toppled when a stronger breeze blows to concrete homes which their own hands and sweaty bodies build; from a culture of dog-eat-dog to one that embraces the reality that they are each others' keepers; from a mentality of hands outstretched to receive alms and dole outs to a sense of renewed dignity where they can look anybody in the eye and greet anyone with a firm handshake- these erstwhile slum-dwellers have nowhere else to go but up and out, beyond poverty.

To help and be part of this worthwhile endeavor, visit the website of the Saint Hannibal Empowerment Center - http://www.shecrog.org/ or leave a comment after this post =]

PhotoHunt: Hats

As their reputations precede them, being in their presence is such a joy and a blessing. I am no art critic but seeing the works of Rembrandt (above) and Van Gogh (below) up close, their use of differing styles and colors in their aim to have a unique capture of life is enough to enliven the spirits of the most uncouth and uninterested. Museum-crazy that I am, sans all the other excellent exhibits in the Museum of Modern Art, these hatted portraits make all the walking and jostling through New York City so worthwhile.

And speaking of being mad and hatters, here's a tidbit I picked up when we visited the Savannah History Museum.

Aaaah. Now we know =]

PhotoHunt: Aftermath

In the aftermath of World War II, many countries, including Finland, were saddled by burgeoning problems, including financial collapse, health system challenges, and ideology shifts. But bouncing rather quickly from this quagmire, the Finnish capital of Helsinki successfully hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics which saw the debut appearance of athletes from countries like the Soviet Union and Israel, among others.

One of the main events of the Olympics- as in any Olympics before until now- was the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. In the Helsinki Games, Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn was one of two Olympic stalwarts who heralded the opening of the XVth Olympiad, alongside Hannes Kolehmainen. In the aftermath of the Nurmi juggernaut, the competition was made to drool at his nine gold medals, three silver medals, and 22 world records, earned all or in part when he participated in the 1920 Antwerp, 1924 Paris, and 1928 Amsterdam Olympiads.

PhotoHunt: Wide

This is the Hunting Island Light Station, located along the coast of South Carolina, USA. The light station was operational from the 1870s to the 1930s. The 136-foot tower helped hundreds of sailors- with its light covering a wide swathe of the Atlantic Ocean, visible up to some 17 miles or more than 27 kilometers away.

The two people by the Hunting Island Lighthouse are my parents, dwarfs vis-a-vis the tower but they are giants in my book. They exert a great influence on a wide range of aspects in my life; a huge deal of what I am and what I can be is because of the light and love they have shown in my almost 29-odd years of living =]

Yep, despite my stubbornness, God still made me win the parent lottery =]

PhotoHunt: Breakfast

The NGO I was previously connected with went to underserved, far-flung, lower income areas of the country- some as far as 1,000 kilometers away from the capital- to conduct surgical missions. We'd stay there for 2-3 days, seeing some 50-75 patients with problems that included cataracts, cysts, benign tumors, goiter, cleft lips and palates, among others. These areas suffered from acute lack of physicians and equipment that could have helped take care of their health concerns earlier. A full complement of volunteer surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and other allied health professionals and local health volunteers operated on patients free of charge.

It was priceless to see how seemingly minor surgical procedures did wonders to lives of the long-suffering patients; their smiles and profuse expression of gratitude made the trip worthwhile. The simple but nonetheless sumptuous breakfasts (and lunches and and snacks and dinners) the local residents lovingly prepared for us were excellent treats as well!

PhotoHunt: Metal

This steel and concrete edifice in Spartanburg, South Carolina is by itself, beautiful. But the BMW Zentrum is a treasure trove of art and technology and history that any car aficionado would appreciate. Among the many I found most interesting are the following:



A miniature model of what I believe is a BMW Roadster made from metal wires, a gift from the BMW group in South Africa.


The Isetta, BMW's response for postwar Europe's clamor for an inexpensive car in the 1950's.


And my pop will receive this one for Christmas from me- God-willing within the next three decades or so hehe

PhotoHunt: Reflection

The Angel of Waters shimmers as the afternoon sun bounces off the spray created by the Bethesda Fountain. This, another marvelous find when we were in NYC's Central Park last summer, has figured prominently in many a Hollywood product, most memorable of which for me are the George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer flick One Fine Day and small screen breakout series Gossip Girl.

PhotoHunt: Ruin(ed)

For my PhotoHunt this week, I am respectfully re-directing you to my photoblog- A Lonely Planet It Is Not. My last entry there for another blog prompt, I feel, is likewise appropriate for this weekend's theme.

My PhotoHunt entry is here.

PhotoHunt: Together

I love New York City because of its architectural masterpieces, glittering cultural gems, palpable history unfolding each second. It can be daunting for first timers, a bit impersonal, very taxing. Central Park though can offer a breather to the overwhelmed.


There you might just see, among the stringed benches lined up against unbelievable flora in the City That Never Sleeps, a testament to a love that humbles any skyscraper.

PhotoHunt: Blue

I took this photo early morning from our room in Discovery Country Suites in Tagaytay City. It was about 10C outside so the outdoor jacuzzi was devoid of users and, hence, was free to be photographed =]

It was hard to resist jumping in though...

PhotoHunt: Scary

In a recent trip with my parents to Savannah, Georgia, I jumped at the chance to join a "fright-seeing" tour of this historic city tauted as one of America's most haunted. The Ghosts and Gravestones Tour of Savannah took us to various "points of interest" including the fabled Sorrel Weed House, said to be the most haunted home in America. See if you can see something or someone in the photo I took of this home's basement...

And after our tour ended, I took one last shot of the trolley we were in and quite possibly caught something or someone else... =]