It was neither a new nor a bright idea that burgeoned from nowhere; and if an analogy should aptly be made, it can be compared to a slowly-dying ember that the lion tamer decided to rekindle so that it may again relight its cinders and used sometime later, only, the subject of this article is not fire but water. And the precious liquid that she endeavors to engender can readily satisfy the water needs of several hundreds of residents of three different places. But let the aging lion narrate to you this unique tale right from the very beginning.
Some two years ago when the harelip assistance project was already in full swing, the lion tamer’s aging pet noticed that in addition to Harelip Repair, the calling card of Darin and Farrah Goertzen of Christian Service International shows that they also engage in the assistance of “Waterworks Projects” of rural residents. Thus, seeing the prospects of being of further service to her town-mates, the lion tamer approached a lady official of the town and explored the opportunity of providing water where these are needed. Consequently the latter said there is a baranggay that can benefit from the sponsoring entity as their source of potable water is a reservoir that is located at the upper portion of the community. She said that if a pipe is installed from the water source to the center of the community and faucets are provided in strategic places, then the “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme that one sings during their school days will easily be a thing of the past. The rational option then was to prepare a request that is duly supported by a bill of materials complete with its estimated cost so that it may be presented to Darin Goertzen for review and consideration.
But local culture prevented the submission of the written proposal to the sponsoring organization. The proponents who made the written proposal, adept at preparing bloated cost estimates, assumed it should be no different from a budgeted public expenditure and therefore should be no less than double its estimated cost that can deflate the ego of the nation’s congressmen and senators. The cost of cement, deformed steel bars and gravel, among others, were outrageously overpriced even an ordinary laborer will notice the glaring attempt to fleece the donors of their moneys’ worth. The aging lion and his tamer therefore, ruefully shelved the idea, for if pursued, can only tarnish the good image that they had been patiently cultivating with the sponsoring charitable organization.
But some two months ago, while on her visit to another baranggay called Bulawan attending to another project in her capacity as vice president of the town’s ladies organization, she saw an inoperable water pump by the ridge that is adjacent to a ricefield of a hinterland baranggay and casually she inquired from a resident how come it was left untended for the use of the residents. The classic reply that she got was “lack of funds” of their baranggay. Remembering Darin’s calling card, she called him if that offer of assistance is still open and the reply that she got was “Yes.”.
Darin and the lion tamer then arranged for a meeting with a baranggay “kagawad” and the possibility for the rehabilitation of the jet pump operated deep-well was discussed. It turned out the job was not difficult. Presently, water about the size of a thumb freely ooze from the connecting pipe because it is still the rainy season that residents can still use, although water no longer comes out during dry-spell months. By installing a brand new jet pump as replacement and also by constructing a shade, it can easily benefit more than forty families that comprise some two hundred residents including children. It was agreed therefore that the cost of the jet pump and its appurtenances will be shouldered by Darin’s group while nipa thatches, sand, gravel and labor will be provided for by the baranggay. The residents also must clean the place. All these happened while the aging lion silently watched in the sidelines.
It turned out there is another inoperable deep well the water of which was also previously being extracted through the use of another jet pump at the upper portion of the baranggay and so was also inspected for possible rehabilitation. Unlike the first deep well, however, the water is about a meter below ground level and will need thorough cleaning before clean water may be pumped from the source. An arrangement with another kagawad therefore arranged to have the well cleaned before the materials are delivered by Darin Goertzen. The aging lion consequently was tasked to inspect the deep well to personally see to it that it was indeed cleaned of debris before the needed jet pump and its accessories are delivered .
On their way home, Darin also asked what happened to the proposed water project that the lion tamer asked some two years before and so the latter narrated to her what happened to his amusement. Needing but pipes and related materials, the work is not really difficult but the resultant effect will be inestimable. He assured both the lion tamer and her pet that attempts by intended recipients for petty thievery are not at all unusual but that we should not worry.. He said he automatically reviews the proposal anyway and gives only what is needed for the project adding that in most instances, he personally provides the actual materials thus eliminating the possibility of graft occurring on the project.
By Saturday December 2, Darin brought with him from Tagbilaran a brand new jet pump and was immediately installed gushing out clear and potable water. He also ordered at a local hardware that the needed cement, pipes and other materials and had these sent to the site so that the shed may be constructed. Darin also reported that the he has already arranged that the pipes and materials for the waterways at the Guinacut project is already scheduled for delivery the coming week. The materials for the second deep well, however, was held in abeyance as the baranggay councilor has not yet sent word that the site is already ready for the aging lion’s visual inspection.
Which makes the aging lion glad. He feels confident that all the three projects can benefit no less than five hundred persons and will be completed before the year is over considering their amiable relationship with Darin Goertzen of Christian Service International. With practically no funds to work on but with cordial and amiable relationship with the donors he and the lion tamer are able, like that American brother who reported at the Internet the successful installation of a water project that cost his group US$ 265 somewhere in Nueva Ecija some eight months or so before, helping these less privileged people is a pleasure worth more than its pecuniary value in gold..
And the aging lion yawns!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Thursday, November 30, 2006
CLUBFOOT
Tenderfoot and clubfoot are two words with entirely different meanings- the former represents the lowest grade of boy scouts whithersoever dispersed; the latter will be the subject of this unique but otherwise heartwarming article.
J A, a two-letter acronym, is the nickname of a three-year old boy named Jose Albert Molina who on December 21 will turn four. But when Bro. Felix Vicuna, Jr., the expert orthopedic surgeon who is single-handedly administering the charitable projects of the Shrine Foundation for Crippled Children in Cebu City asked him how old he is, the boy smilingly flashed out the middle and fore fingers of his right hand in reply to the consternation of his 33-year old mother and with her own hands helped him add his ring finger to indicate his age is already three. But the good doctor was instead keenly touching his thumb, almost massaging it, saying: “this finger needs fixing by grafting a tendon on the upper part of his hand and transferring it on the thumb so that it can move. The same holds true for the thumb of his left hand, at the same time gently moving it to show it also does not work “. Why Dr. Vicuna no longer paid attention to the young boy’s index finger, the aging lion could not tell, but it could be because that smallest part of the hand is good only for taking out the solid object that may have already hardened inside the nose (in local parlance, kulangot) and nothing else!! But let that yucky possibility not distract the aging lion from his chore of narrating this poignant but otherwise controversial article right from the very start..
It was barely three weeks ago when the baranggay captain of Guinacut, a seaside village of Guindulman town who, upon learning that the lion tamer is active on her harelip assistance project, asked if she can also help a young boy who was born with a congenital physical defect. She said she will try and asked that the boy be personally brought to us so that we can see if he can be helped..
We did see the boy and noted that his movements as a human being was disheartening. Instructed to move around the house, he would hold on to a sturdy object like chairs, sofas or bamboo railings, and like a chimpanzee would use his hands to move his frail body around, using the blades of his feet as he cannot set his foot firmly on the floor the way normal persons do. Left alone in sitting position, he would wave his two arms high above his head from left to right in alternating motion as if waving to the tune of a charismatic song and thus would be able to inch his way to the place inside the house where he wants to go. Which could also remind the reader of a battery-operated mechanical toy but without the rollers to make it move. Understandably, his trousers would collect the dirt on the floor as he performs that peculiar motion but he doesn’t mind. What mattered he was able to go to the place he wanted and that’s it.
The lion tamer was, however, adamant whether we should take them to Cebu City. Taking both the mother and the boy there for operation will understandably drain our meager resources and will surely adversely affect our scheduled visit to our folks in the big city for the Christmas holidays. But at the back of our minds we felt there is no way we can ignore this special errand of the GAOTU.. The only logical option then was to call Dr. Vicuna long distance for assurance that help, in addition to footing the hospital bills, is forthcoming especially because a modest allowance for the incidental expenses of both the mother and the young boy are to be expected. Fortunately, the good doctor assured us that that help will come similar to a relay- we take the boy and his mother to Cebu and he picks up the problem from there. With the aid of a mental speed calculator therefore, the aging lion estimated it would cost them from two to three thousand bucks to take them to Cebu before Dr. Vicuna takes over.
So the plan to have the boy operated on was formulated. The mother went to Limasawa in Leyte with her one year old daughter in her arms so that the relatives of her husband may care for the girl meantime she will be caring for her son at Vicente Sotto Hospital in Cebu City. Sadly however, she returned home with her youngest child still in her arms because the relatives of her husband in Leyte would not want to share with their burden as they most probably also have their own unbearable loads to bear.
The lion tamer for her part approached the DSWD office in Guindulman and asked for financial assistance. The office gladly did and appropriated P500, the maximum amount the DSWD office can defray to indigents. She next called the town mayor who also volunteered another P500 and so a check for P1,000 was finally withdrawn from the town’s only savings bank.
On the Sunday evening of November 26, the foursome composed of the lion tamer, her aging pet and the mother with the boy clinging at her back boarded the J & N Ferry at Ubay and on the early morning of the next day arrived at the famed Queen City of the South. After a side trip to the residence of her aunt for a hurried breakfast and a refreshing bath, they proceeded to the Cebu Doctors Hospital for their appointment with Dr. Felix Vicuna and there his expert diagnoses that was mentioned earlier was performed until finally by eleven in the morning, he scribbled his instructions to the staff of Vicente Sotto Hospital that the young boy be admitted and the preliminary tests, among them, x-rays, taking his blood pressure and other tests required by the operation be carried out
Those who have experienced accompanying patients to this government hospital will attest that being admitted as a patient can already be an ordeal, not because the staff are inefficient for surely they are not, but simply because the number of patients that need medical attention far exceed what the hospital can possibly handle. It is not unusual for patients who were admitted at the emergency room to stay there for a couple of days and wait for a patient to be released before he or she is formally admitted to a ward as replacement to the patient who was released. Fortunately for us the admitting nurse was a Boholana from Sevilla town who attended to our needs with dispatch and also because our patient is under the care of Dr. Vicuna of the Shrine Foundation which automatically entitled him to a bed in the hospital. Nonetheless, he had to be taken to the Orthopedic ward not on a stretcher as normally should have been done but on his mother’s back so as not to invite quizzical stares that he was admitted way ahead of the others. The ward, after all is a forty-bed room that already accommodates no less than sixty patients. The boy and mother were finally admitted to the ward at five in the afternoon and thus enabled us to return to the residence of the lion tamer’s aunt to rest and map out plans to return home the next day after giving the mother the P1,000 pocket money that the lion tamer smooched from the DSWD. On the side, the aging lion advised the mother to scrimp on her expenses hopefully to make it last at least two weeks and let the lion tamer worry where the additional pocket money will come from next. Silently, the aging lion also mused that perhaps Bro. Tony will not mind if part of the P5,000 that he generously sent will be channeled to this charitable activity that just appeared at our very doorsteps.
The mother, for her part, obviously had worries of her own. Probably expecting that the admission process will be done in a jiffy, or because she was also worried at her youngest child in Bohol, or it may be because the crowded condition at the hospital made her ill at ease as she is herself a polio victim with a frail body and thus felt she may not be able to endure the rigors of patiently nursing her son while at the hospital, she sent a text message when we were already on board a ferry to return home the next day that she be replaced by her husband to attend to the needs of their son at the hospital, a text that irked the lion tamer because of her lackadaisical attitude at having the defect of her son attended to. It’s good that she reconsidered at the last minute because word has it that her husband skipped his trip Cebu City otherwise it would surely have meant additional financial worries for them which would be quite difficult to solve.
Barring adverse medical tests therefore, the boy will be subjected to the knife today, Friday, the first day of December. Once performed, the next worry to mull about will involve the length of time it will take to enable him to finally stand on his own two feet unaided by sturdy objects like chairs, sofas and most probably crutches if his disheartening defect is not at all corrected?!
And the aging lion yawns!
Note: Please feel free to forward to your friends as you please.
J A, a two-letter acronym, is the nickname of a three-year old boy named Jose Albert Molina who on December 21 will turn four. But when Bro. Felix Vicuna, Jr., the expert orthopedic surgeon who is single-handedly administering the charitable projects of the Shrine Foundation for Crippled Children in Cebu City asked him how old he is, the boy smilingly flashed out the middle and fore fingers of his right hand in reply to the consternation of his 33-year old mother and with her own hands helped him add his ring finger to indicate his age is already three. But the good doctor was instead keenly touching his thumb, almost massaging it, saying: “this finger needs fixing by grafting a tendon on the upper part of his hand and transferring it on the thumb so that it can move. The same holds true for the thumb of his left hand, at the same time gently moving it to show it also does not work “. Why Dr. Vicuna no longer paid attention to the young boy’s index finger, the aging lion could not tell, but it could be because that smallest part of the hand is good only for taking out the solid object that may have already hardened inside the nose (in local parlance, kulangot) and nothing else!! But let that yucky possibility not distract the aging lion from his chore of narrating this poignant but otherwise controversial article right from the very start..
It was barely three weeks ago when the baranggay captain of Guinacut, a seaside village of Guindulman town who, upon learning that the lion tamer is active on her harelip assistance project, asked if she can also help a young boy who was born with a congenital physical defect. She said she will try and asked that the boy be personally brought to us so that we can see if he can be helped..
We did see the boy and noted that his movements as a human being was disheartening. Instructed to move around the house, he would hold on to a sturdy object like chairs, sofas or bamboo railings, and like a chimpanzee would use his hands to move his frail body around, using the blades of his feet as he cannot set his foot firmly on the floor the way normal persons do. Left alone in sitting position, he would wave his two arms high above his head from left to right in alternating motion as if waving to the tune of a charismatic song and thus would be able to inch his way to the place inside the house where he wants to go. Which could also remind the reader of a battery-operated mechanical toy but without the rollers to make it move. Understandably, his trousers would collect the dirt on the floor as he performs that peculiar motion but he doesn’t mind. What mattered he was able to go to the place he wanted and that’s it.
The lion tamer was, however, adamant whether we should take them to Cebu City. Taking both the mother and the boy there for operation will understandably drain our meager resources and will surely adversely affect our scheduled visit to our folks in the big city for the Christmas holidays. But at the back of our minds we felt there is no way we can ignore this special errand of the GAOTU.. The only logical option then was to call Dr. Vicuna long distance for assurance that help, in addition to footing the hospital bills, is forthcoming especially because a modest allowance for the incidental expenses of both the mother and the young boy are to be expected. Fortunately, the good doctor assured us that that help will come similar to a relay- we take the boy and his mother to Cebu and he picks up the problem from there. With the aid of a mental speed calculator therefore, the aging lion estimated it would cost them from two to three thousand bucks to take them to Cebu before Dr. Vicuna takes over.
So the plan to have the boy operated on was formulated. The mother went to Limasawa in Leyte with her one year old daughter in her arms so that the relatives of her husband may care for the girl meantime she will be caring for her son at Vicente Sotto Hospital in Cebu City. Sadly however, she returned home with her youngest child still in her arms because the relatives of her husband in Leyte would not want to share with their burden as they most probably also have their own unbearable loads to bear.
The lion tamer for her part approached the DSWD office in Guindulman and asked for financial assistance. The office gladly did and appropriated P500, the maximum amount the DSWD office can defray to indigents. She next called the town mayor who also volunteered another P500 and so a check for P1,000 was finally withdrawn from the town’s only savings bank.
On the Sunday evening of November 26, the foursome composed of the lion tamer, her aging pet and the mother with the boy clinging at her back boarded the J & N Ferry at Ubay and on the early morning of the next day arrived at the famed Queen City of the South. After a side trip to the residence of her aunt for a hurried breakfast and a refreshing bath, they proceeded to the Cebu Doctors Hospital for their appointment with Dr. Felix Vicuna and there his expert diagnoses that was mentioned earlier was performed until finally by eleven in the morning, he scribbled his instructions to the staff of Vicente Sotto Hospital that the young boy be admitted and the preliminary tests, among them, x-rays, taking his blood pressure and other tests required by the operation be carried out
Those who have experienced accompanying patients to this government hospital will attest that being admitted as a patient can already be an ordeal, not because the staff are inefficient for surely they are not, but simply because the number of patients that need medical attention far exceed what the hospital can possibly handle. It is not unusual for patients who were admitted at the emergency room to stay there for a couple of days and wait for a patient to be released before he or she is formally admitted to a ward as replacement to the patient who was released. Fortunately for us the admitting nurse was a Boholana from Sevilla town who attended to our needs with dispatch and also because our patient is under the care of Dr. Vicuna of the Shrine Foundation which automatically entitled him to a bed in the hospital. Nonetheless, he had to be taken to the Orthopedic ward not on a stretcher as normally should have been done but on his mother’s back so as not to invite quizzical stares that he was admitted way ahead of the others. The ward, after all is a forty-bed room that already accommodates no less than sixty patients. The boy and mother were finally admitted to the ward at five in the afternoon and thus enabled us to return to the residence of the lion tamer’s aunt to rest and map out plans to return home the next day after giving the mother the P1,000 pocket money that the lion tamer smooched from the DSWD. On the side, the aging lion advised the mother to scrimp on her expenses hopefully to make it last at least two weeks and let the lion tamer worry where the additional pocket money will come from next. Silently, the aging lion also mused that perhaps Bro. Tony will not mind if part of the P5,000 that he generously sent will be channeled to this charitable activity that just appeared at our very doorsteps.
The mother, for her part, obviously had worries of her own. Probably expecting that the admission process will be done in a jiffy, or because she was also worried at her youngest child in Bohol, or it may be because the crowded condition at the hospital made her ill at ease as she is herself a polio victim with a frail body and thus felt she may not be able to endure the rigors of patiently nursing her son while at the hospital, she sent a text message when we were already on board a ferry to return home the next day that she be replaced by her husband to attend to the needs of their son at the hospital, a text that irked the lion tamer because of her lackadaisical attitude at having the defect of her son attended to. It’s good that she reconsidered at the last minute because word has it that her husband skipped his trip Cebu City otherwise it would surely have meant additional financial worries for them which would be quite difficult to solve.
Barring adverse medical tests therefore, the boy will be subjected to the knife today, Friday, the first day of December. Once performed, the next worry to mull about will involve the length of time it will take to enable him to finally stand on his own two feet unaided by sturdy objects like chairs, sofas and most probably crutches if his disheartening defect is not at all corrected?!
And the aging lion yawns!
Note: Please feel free to forward to your friends as you please.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
ICING ON A CAKE BAKED SOME YEARS BEFORE
October 21 was a particularly lousy day for the aging lion. Earlier that day, at about five thirty in the morning, he received a long distance call from the lion tamer saying she has finally arrived at our ancestral residence in Project 8 .The trip took forty four hours travel from our adopted hometown all the way to the metropolis, or a delay of almost nine hours when compared to our previous trip the month before. And there was no more need to relay the details, the power of cell phone technology already gave her the opportunity to chronicle the cumbersome details as these happened, delays that included a flat tire, the inability to catch up with the scheduled ferry from Allen, Samar to Matnog in Sorsogon, and finally, the threat of the Mega bus being impounded at Pasay, the last of which she managed to avoid by talking to the MMDA apprehending officer that she be allowed to take the taxi home while the latter and the bus driver were hotly contesting a certain traffic violation that could have further prolonged the already arduous ordeal. Luckily, the MMDA officer gladly consented by personally arranging with a cab driver that she be brought home, but only after she mentioned the name “Philmore Balmaceda” who the officer volunteered that Philmore has already retired, gladly accommodated her request and personally hailed a taxi and allowed to leave the scene meantime his companion and the bus driver were hotly debating on the supposed traffic violation.
Her trip to the big city of course was not without urgent reason. Their three-month old youngest grandson, his father’s miniature clone, was having health problems and is periodically being brought to the hospital because of intermittent fever. Not only was the ailment draining the pockets of his parents but it was also getting in the way of their daily work schedule. It was therefore time for “Darna”, err. . . . the lion tamer to lend a helping hand to sort things out. Some of the brethren in the medical profession, Doc. Billy, included may also be able to help. And the aging lion?! He had to stay behind, financial considerations and the upcoming palay harvest insured that joining her on the trip would be without valid reason!
At seven that morning, he decided to dry the five sacks of palay that was delivered to him by a tenant the day before and assured that it was harvested through upland cultivation, that is, irrigated only by rain water, he looked forward at having these milled and set aside for personal consumption as he was informed that rice produced from upland farming tastes better than those grown via irrigated process. But the effort was already becoming an ordeal, what previously was just a whiz of a job is now taking a lot of effort, and who says “only carabaos grow old?! Well, perchance, but why shouldn’t an aging lion??
By four in the afternoon, having completed putting the grains of palay in the sacks, he tiredly slumped on the garden seat at the veranda, and while at that worn-out posture, heard an elderly lady loudly knocking at the gate asking for “Nang Lorma” the lion tamer, at which the aging lion barked backed that she is presently in the metropolis. But the lady was obviously persistent, which piqued him all the more, and so he decided to approach the gate with the intention of impressing upon her that no transaction can possibly consummated as she is not around.
Imagine to his surprise and mild amusement when a charming young girl, about seven years of age and clad in Girl Scout uniform suddenly appeared at her back, clutched the aging lion’s knuckles and executed the traditional “Mano Po!” without muttering a word, and the ritual done, the elderly lady, her grandmother, explained that she is Annabelle Bernadas, the young harelip whom we have helped being operated on some two or three years before. Previously bothered by that ugly torn lips, she is now a good looking girl, definitely a young dainty beauty to behold. And she was among the fifty or so harelip patients whom the lion tamer has successfully engineered that she be operated on through Christian Service International and the Ramiro Community Hospital at Tagbilaran City.
Which made the aging lion glad “to the bone”. A good seed planted some years back has already turned into an admirable shoot!.
Her trip to the big city of course was not without urgent reason. Their three-month old youngest grandson, his father’s miniature clone, was having health problems and is periodically being brought to the hospital because of intermittent fever. Not only was the ailment draining the pockets of his parents but it was also getting in the way of their daily work schedule. It was therefore time for “Darna”, err. . . . the lion tamer to lend a helping hand to sort things out. Some of the brethren in the medical profession, Doc. Billy, included may also be able to help. And the aging lion?! He had to stay behind, financial considerations and the upcoming palay harvest insured that joining her on the trip would be without valid reason!
At seven that morning, he decided to dry the five sacks of palay that was delivered to him by a tenant the day before and assured that it was harvested through upland cultivation, that is, irrigated only by rain water, he looked forward at having these milled and set aside for personal consumption as he was informed that rice produced from upland farming tastes better than those grown via irrigated process. But the effort was already becoming an ordeal, what previously was just a whiz of a job is now taking a lot of effort, and who says “only carabaos grow old?! Well, perchance, but why shouldn’t an aging lion??
By four in the afternoon, having completed putting the grains of palay in the sacks, he tiredly slumped on the garden seat at the veranda, and while at that worn-out posture, heard an elderly lady loudly knocking at the gate asking for “Nang Lorma” the lion tamer, at which the aging lion barked backed that she is presently in the metropolis. But the lady was obviously persistent, which piqued him all the more, and so he decided to approach the gate with the intention of impressing upon her that no transaction can possibly consummated as she is not around.
Imagine to his surprise and mild amusement when a charming young girl, about seven years of age and clad in Girl Scout uniform suddenly appeared at her back, clutched the aging lion’s knuckles and executed the traditional “Mano Po!” without muttering a word, and the ritual done, the elderly lady, her grandmother, explained that she is Annabelle Bernadas, the young harelip whom we have helped being operated on some two or three years before. Previously bothered by that ugly torn lips, she is now a good looking girl, definitely a young dainty beauty to behold. And she was among the fifty or so harelip patients whom the lion tamer has successfully engineered that she be operated on through Christian Service International and the Ramiro Community Hospital at Tagbilaran City.
Which made the aging lion glad “to the bone”. A good seed planted some years back has already turned into an admirable shoot!.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
CLEANSING THE CHALICE, SHARPENING THE BLADE
There‘s no way anticipating what the lion tamer would think of. Before her trip to the metropolis last March for example, she unexpectedly asked if she could allot P300 from our meager funds and when her aging pet asked why, she calmly said she is on a birth control binge. When asked what exactly does it mean since she has already hurdled menopausal stage, she supported her idea with three impregnable reasons. These are:
Paz, the mother of our first harelip patient named JR and the wife of Yukyuk, approached her saying she desires to undergo ligation and that her husband is amenable to the idea since they already have four children, only, they don’t have the P300 minimum donation that the Center requires, and
She is also taking Flor and Baby, Upiong’s and Junjun’s wives respectively, to the Center to undergo pregnancy test (isn’t this and the frog test the same?) so that if the two aren’t pregnant yet, then the she will cajole the Center to give them the needed birth control pills gratis et amore so that Cupid’s deadly arrows may not hit their fertile targets.
And so the mandatory (the lion tamer mandates, her pet obeys) request for funding was approved and off to the Center the four ladies, one past the menopausal phase and three still on fertile stages went. Predictably, one went through the knife and had her fecund organ ligated while the other two went home with the needed birth-arresting pills to defang the venomous sperms that their respective husbands scatter while doing their sexual assaults whenever time and opportunity permits. And the lion tamer? Well, she is now good only at threatening the aging lion with her proverbial whip because the aging lion’s armor now points at five-thirty, and never mind if it is sunshine or rainy weather.
And to make this short story still a little shorter, the first thing the lion tamer did upon her return after six weeks’ stay in the metropolis that commenced on the last day of March was to check on the status of the project that she left behind her. True enough, Paz and Yukyuk, the pair to whom she acted as fairy godmother when they got married some two years back (and don’t play the role of a mathematician will you?!, the time difference of two years married life and the number of years it will take to sire four children were caused by the fact that they had already lived together for four whole years before getting married) are now enjoying wedded bliss subject only to the limitation that all their four children are either wide awake or inside the house whenever they intend to perform their romantic somersaults since obviously amorous advances cannot be done under the very noses of their kids.
Flor no longer kicks Apyong on the groin whenever he makes sexual advances after arriving from the sea before dawn. All the couple do is shove their two young daughters to the corner of the room so that their rhythmic sexual jousts will not awaken them. And the reason they could not yet decide on ligation is because they are still mulling over the prospects of having a son to also become a fisherman someday. Word has it that there are even times when it is Flor who awakens Upiong in the midst of his slumber, and when asked by the latter whatever is the matter, would reply, “Can we do something totally enjoyable, or you would rather continue your sleep?!”
But Baby, Junjun’s wife, was a failure. When asked why, it turned out she discontinued swallowing the birth control pills allegedly because she did not like the taste. She therefore reverted to plucking the strings of rhythmic sexual cadence but whose cord obviously Junjun strung in error and lo! the sperm and the female hormone united as one. Baby got herself pregnant to the consternation of her Surigaonon husband who, in flawless Tagalog said (they met and got married in the metropolis some eight years back) “Ayaw kasing makinig sa titser!! Pero dapat, maligate na paglabas ng bata, pang- apat na yang nasa tiyan ah, mahirap na ang panglima. (All because she would not listen to the teacher!! But then, ligation is indeed necessary later; after the baby gets out of the womb, it being the fourth already, the fifth child will just result in endless misery.)
The lion tamer also added that Jimbo and Liza had already intimated to her that the wife will also request for a similar ligation after their fifth child is delivered this coming June.
To the obvious pleasure of the aging lion when she was making her report.
But the aging pet’s enjoyment was short lived. The lion tamer made another funding request, and this time involving the circumcision of Benjack, EJ and Christian, sons of Eben, Pilo and Jimbo respectively. When asked how much it will cost, her reply was a hefty P500 since the Center requires a P150 voluntary donation per boy but that she can haggle to lower it down to P100 as stipend of the guy who will do the job. The expected P200 surplus may then be used for unseen medical expenses like antibiotics or gauze bandage that may not be available at the Center, she said.
While the three kids were being interrogated however, another young boy named Kyde, who is Junjun’s eldest son, asked if he can also be added in the list, wherefore the aging lion ordered his tamer to ask the boy’s parents if they are willing. Having got the affirmative reply, she trooped to the Center much like a lady Pied Piper with four young boys in tow. But when they returned, only three went through the knife because the soft outward skin of EJ’s armor has not yet reached the inner core, thus the circumciser decided to skip incision on the organ of Pilo’s young boy.
Through it all the aging lion could but silently muse. Helping these married women avert pregnancy elicited a one-on-one persuasion and on this the lion tamer is knowledgeable. The number of children already existing, the varying temperament of the couple and even the delicate and touchy questions on sex had to be answered tactfully and wisely. One husband even argued that according to some, women who have undergone ligation show maniacal tendencies to which she replied that the word maniacal is cruel; what obviously result is that she is now more open to her husband’s sexual overtures. One ignorant and jealous husband even declares he will not allow his wife to have herself ligated to make it easy for him to know if his wife has been unfaithful. As if he already knew the powers of DNA and that he can afford it attendant cost!!
Circumcision, on the other hand, requires a much simpler procedure but proper timing must be observed. Planning it during end of school years, all that is needed is to scout for aggressive young boys who have not yet undergone the knife and presto, the project will be as good as solved to later prepare them for aggressive and amorous manhood. Last week as the aging lion was swimming at the beach for example, he befriended four young boys with ages about ten years old. When asked if they are already circumcised, two said yes while the other two posted negative retorts.
Of course there are costs to be met, but why bother? Since these projects are done on small scale, the lion tamer and her pet’s financial resources can somehow still manage to defray the cost , although indeed it would be better if someone out there can help to make the scope of the projects a little wider, for as any SSS pensioner will tell you, their pension can never be above starvation pay such that if one manages to survive, he should be able to fund the additional expense from somewhere else.
And what about the symbolic meanings of the words “chalice” and “blade” that were used in the title of the above-mentioned article?
But of course!! The aging lion thought you’ve read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code (see Chapter 56) from where these words were copied as it is obviously to attract the readers’ undivided attention.
Paz, the mother of our first harelip patient named JR and the wife of Yukyuk, approached her saying she desires to undergo ligation and that her husband is amenable to the idea since they already have four children, only, they don’t have the P300 minimum donation that the Center requires, and
She is also taking Flor and Baby, Upiong’s and Junjun’s wives respectively, to the Center to undergo pregnancy test (isn’t this and the frog test the same?) so that if the two aren’t pregnant yet, then the she will cajole the Center to give them the needed birth control pills gratis et amore so that Cupid’s deadly arrows may not hit their fertile targets.
And so the mandatory (the lion tamer mandates, her pet obeys) request for funding was approved and off to the Center the four ladies, one past the menopausal phase and three still on fertile stages went. Predictably, one went through the knife and had her fecund organ ligated while the other two went home with the needed birth-arresting pills to defang the venomous sperms that their respective husbands scatter while doing their sexual assaults whenever time and opportunity permits. And the lion tamer? Well, she is now good only at threatening the aging lion with her proverbial whip because the aging lion’s armor now points at five-thirty, and never mind if it is sunshine or rainy weather.
And to make this short story still a little shorter, the first thing the lion tamer did upon her return after six weeks’ stay in the metropolis that commenced on the last day of March was to check on the status of the project that she left behind her. True enough, Paz and Yukyuk, the pair to whom she acted as fairy godmother when they got married some two years back (and don’t play the role of a mathematician will you?!, the time difference of two years married life and the number of years it will take to sire four children were caused by the fact that they had already lived together for four whole years before getting married) are now enjoying wedded bliss subject only to the limitation that all their four children are either wide awake or inside the house whenever they intend to perform their romantic somersaults since obviously amorous advances cannot be done under the very noses of their kids.
Flor no longer kicks Apyong on the groin whenever he makes sexual advances after arriving from the sea before dawn. All the couple do is shove their two young daughters to the corner of the room so that their rhythmic sexual jousts will not awaken them. And the reason they could not yet decide on ligation is because they are still mulling over the prospects of having a son to also become a fisherman someday. Word has it that there are even times when it is Flor who awakens Upiong in the midst of his slumber, and when asked by the latter whatever is the matter, would reply, “Can we do something totally enjoyable, or you would rather continue your sleep?!”
But Baby, Junjun’s wife, was a failure. When asked why, it turned out she discontinued swallowing the birth control pills allegedly because she did not like the taste. She therefore reverted to plucking the strings of rhythmic sexual cadence but whose cord obviously Junjun strung in error and lo! the sperm and the female hormone united as one. Baby got herself pregnant to the consternation of her Surigaonon husband who, in flawless Tagalog said (they met and got married in the metropolis some eight years back) “Ayaw kasing makinig sa titser!! Pero dapat, maligate na paglabas ng bata, pang- apat na yang nasa tiyan ah, mahirap na ang panglima. (All because she would not listen to the teacher!! But then, ligation is indeed necessary later; after the baby gets out of the womb, it being the fourth already, the fifth child will just result in endless misery.)
The lion tamer also added that Jimbo and Liza had already intimated to her that the wife will also request for a similar ligation after their fifth child is delivered this coming June.
To the obvious pleasure of the aging lion when she was making her report.
But the aging pet’s enjoyment was short lived. The lion tamer made another funding request, and this time involving the circumcision of Benjack, EJ and Christian, sons of Eben, Pilo and Jimbo respectively. When asked how much it will cost, her reply was a hefty P500 since the Center requires a P150 voluntary donation per boy but that she can haggle to lower it down to P100 as stipend of the guy who will do the job. The expected P200 surplus may then be used for unseen medical expenses like antibiotics or gauze bandage that may not be available at the Center, she said.
While the three kids were being interrogated however, another young boy named Kyde, who is Junjun’s eldest son, asked if he can also be added in the list, wherefore the aging lion ordered his tamer to ask the boy’s parents if they are willing. Having got the affirmative reply, she trooped to the Center much like a lady Pied Piper with four young boys in tow. But when they returned, only three went through the knife because the soft outward skin of EJ’s armor has not yet reached the inner core, thus the circumciser decided to skip incision on the organ of Pilo’s young boy.
Through it all the aging lion could but silently muse. Helping these married women avert pregnancy elicited a one-on-one persuasion and on this the lion tamer is knowledgeable. The number of children already existing, the varying temperament of the couple and even the delicate and touchy questions on sex had to be answered tactfully and wisely. One husband even argued that according to some, women who have undergone ligation show maniacal tendencies to which she replied that the word maniacal is cruel; what obviously result is that she is now more open to her husband’s sexual overtures. One ignorant and jealous husband even declares he will not allow his wife to have herself ligated to make it easy for him to know if his wife has been unfaithful. As if he already knew the powers of DNA and that he can afford it attendant cost!!
Circumcision, on the other hand, requires a much simpler procedure but proper timing must be observed. Planning it during end of school years, all that is needed is to scout for aggressive young boys who have not yet undergone the knife and presto, the project will be as good as solved to later prepare them for aggressive and amorous manhood. Last week as the aging lion was swimming at the beach for example, he befriended four young boys with ages about ten years old. When asked if they are already circumcised, two said yes while the other two posted negative retorts.
Of course there are costs to be met, but why bother? Since these projects are done on small scale, the lion tamer and her pet’s financial resources can somehow still manage to defray the cost , although indeed it would be better if someone out there can help to make the scope of the projects a little wider, for as any SSS pensioner will tell you, their pension can never be above starvation pay such that if one manages to survive, he should be able to fund the additional expense from somewhere else.
And what about the symbolic meanings of the words “chalice” and “blade” that were used in the title of the above-mentioned article?
But of course!! The aging lion thought you’ve read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code (see Chapter 56) from where these words were copied as it is obviously to attract the readers’ undivided attention.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
THE COMEBACK KID
Those of you who still remember the article “The Pathetic Plight of Jonel Lustrado may find this sequel worth your leisure hour while those who have not yet done so are simply advised to scroll down and read it to understand what the phrase “comeback kid” is all about.
Last Saturday, March 18, the lion tamer and her pet had two female visitors at their den one of whom was already familiar named Dading, while the other, the aging lion could not remember. Amusingly, the lion tamer remarked that she is the mother of Isabel Bernadas, a teenage harelip patient whom we have helped some two years ago, while the other was the mother of Jonel.
So let the aging lion now rewind the hands of time as far as Jonel is concerned.
Of course the lion knows Jonel fully well. He is that young lad whom they brought to Cebu City at Chung Hua Hospital last September 29 to undergo “Magnetic Reasonance Imaging”, or MRI, a modern medical technique that effectively determines the patient’s ailment but is more expensive than the traditional x-rays that old timers are familiar with. On the next day, September 30, which was his 26th birthday we returned to Bohol with mixed feelings as the prospects of Jonel’s recovery was as clear as mud.
The lion recalls that he considered Jonel’s case as more or less already closed since the good doctor at Cebu City later advised the inadvisability of conducting an operation considering his worsened condition; the most pronounced of which was that he was already no different physically from a crab who has just shed his old shell and with his new shell still pliant, his strength is all but gone which in local parlance is called “luno!” Worse, the doctor also diagnosed his ailment as tuberculosis of the bone and that the chances of recovery were very slim, indeed!
The doctor’s words notwithstanding, the lion tamer was undaunted. If medical science is no longer of help (Doc Billy emailed saying there is a possibility it can be remedied in the metropolis but the cost would be gargantuan), then surely, the power of prayers still can, she said. And at the town’s parish newly-built “Adoration Room” that she frequents she added the name Jonel on the long list of names she usually ask the Lord for help. The mystic powers of prayer she added to the medicines that Bro. Jack Galbreath purchased at Cebu City and when it was fully consumed, she badgered the town’s medical center to give Jonel’s mother the needed medical tablets, the prescription slip of which she asked from Dr. Jesus Vicuna, Jr. at Cebu City later.
.And so back to where we started this story on March 18.
The mother of Jonel was in high spirits when she was telling her story. All these six months, she said that all that was in his son’s mind was to bounce back to normal, with the mother always around to lend a helping hand. Inside the house, she installed a bamboo railing and strung sturdy ropes which Jonel could grasp to exercise his hands and move himself around; and as he progressed, similar contraptions were also attached out of the house to enable Jonel to get fresh air outside. To the consternation of Jonel’s grandmother berating her daughter for giving too much attention to Jonel, and to which the mother simply dismissed the admonition by shrugging her shoulders. Which could easily remind the DeMolay readers of the “Flower Talk” that they have memorized so well. “You can go down to the depths, but your mother . . . .” Oh, well!
And he also did not forget the aging lion’s parting words on that epic September 30, during his birthday that communing with the Lord at the stroke of midnight is usually very effective for as the latter said, “there is no static nor unusual interruptions when you commune with God during that time for almost nobody else is praying!”
But it was not all physical conditioning that Jonel and his mother turned their energies into. Jonel’s time also glued his ears to the radio listening to religious songs, music and charismatic masses that made him commune with God on his own. One time on her visit, the mother asked the aging lion whether making offerings to the spirits at the brook where he met an accident some two years back will do Jonel any good and receive a reply in the affirmative. And when the lion tamer gave a quizzical eye because of the aging lion’s nodded as his reply, he simply later said that “Magic”, not the Salamanca type one usually sees on TV, but the magic that was clearly elucidated by Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough do has that awesome powers of putting ailing persons back to recovery.
Miscellaneous help to Jonel came. In addition to prayers and medicines, donations were not also found wanting. Part of the US$ 80 that WB Dave of the American Samoa sent was generously spent for transportation and incidental costs to the mother whenever she makes a visit; their family was also included in the bags recipients of groceries for the noche buena of the four fisher families that WB Tony funded during the Christmas holidays.
More importantly, Jonel’s mother said he can now walk without a cane and even wished he could bathe himself at the beach. Wherefore the aging lion replied it is not at all a problem. All that was needed was to take Jonel down from the boondocks and presto, he can bathe on the beach at the lion’s backyard, with the lion preparing the food as cook, courtesy of the man of the house.
And so on March 25 they arrived with Jonel, his brother in law at the wheels and the two aging ladies at the back of the motorcycle. There they bathed at the beach and during lunch where they partook of a half-kilo liver mixed with mushroom and cabbage, and broiled “tulingan” that the aging lion himself cooked, they talked energetically about his physical progress which in modern parlance can be compared to a cell phone with two bars blinking while being charged, which means that while he has not yet fully regained his health, he is now on the road to recovery. He said he has not yet seen his family, his live in partner and his new-born son. He of course wish he could physically be with them to the reluctance of both his mother and the lion tamer fearing that a third child might ensue. To which the aging lion empathically remarked: “Of course that can be avoided, the efficient use of condom or some other contraceptives can easily avert that dreaded possibility!!”
After they left for home that afternoon, additional help for Jonel’s welfare followed. Upon being informed on the phone, the lion tamer’s cousin volunteered to purchase multi-vitamins for Jonel’s medical maintenance to further improve his health. For Jonel’s part which he said earlier, joining a group at their baranggay’s parish to serve during mass is a wish that he wants fulfilled to put him right on track.
Which augurs well for him, his live-in partner Wilma, his daughter and his new-born son who were left behind last September in Cebu City.
------
THE PATHETIC PLIGHT OF JONEL LUSTRADO
(Note: whole text is deleted. Readers interested to read the article are advised to open the previous posting as shown somewhere in the caption titled Faith, Hope. . . .etc.)
Last Saturday, March 18, the lion tamer and her pet had two female visitors at their den one of whom was already familiar named Dading, while the other, the aging lion could not remember. Amusingly, the lion tamer remarked that she is the mother of Isabel Bernadas, a teenage harelip patient whom we have helped some two years ago, while the other was the mother of Jonel.
So let the aging lion now rewind the hands of time as far as Jonel is concerned.
Of course the lion knows Jonel fully well. He is that young lad whom they brought to Cebu City at Chung Hua Hospital last September 29 to undergo “Magnetic Reasonance Imaging”, or MRI, a modern medical technique that effectively determines the patient’s ailment but is more expensive than the traditional x-rays that old timers are familiar with. On the next day, September 30, which was his 26th birthday we returned to Bohol with mixed feelings as the prospects of Jonel’s recovery was as clear as mud.
The lion recalls that he considered Jonel’s case as more or less already closed since the good doctor at Cebu City later advised the inadvisability of conducting an operation considering his worsened condition; the most pronounced of which was that he was already no different physically from a crab who has just shed his old shell and with his new shell still pliant, his strength is all but gone which in local parlance is called “luno!” Worse, the doctor also diagnosed his ailment as tuberculosis of the bone and that the chances of recovery were very slim, indeed!
The doctor’s words notwithstanding, the lion tamer was undaunted. If medical science is no longer of help (Doc Billy emailed saying there is a possibility it can be remedied in the metropolis but the cost would be gargantuan), then surely, the power of prayers still can, she said. And at the town’s parish newly-built “Adoration Room” that she frequents she added the name Jonel on the long list of names she usually ask the Lord for help. The mystic powers of prayer she added to the medicines that Bro. Jack Galbreath purchased at Cebu City and when it was fully consumed, she badgered the town’s medical center to give Jonel’s mother the needed medical tablets, the prescription slip of which she asked from Dr. Jesus Vicuna, Jr. at Cebu City later.
.And so back to where we started this story on March 18.
The mother of Jonel was in high spirits when she was telling her story. All these six months, she said that all that was in his son’s mind was to bounce back to normal, with the mother always around to lend a helping hand. Inside the house, she installed a bamboo railing and strung sturdy ropes which Jonel could grasp to exercise his hands and move himself around; and as he progressed, similar contraptions were also attached out of the house to enable Jonel to get fresh air outside. To the consternation of Jonel’s grandmother berating her daughter for giving too much attention to Jonel, and to which the mother simply dismissed the admonition by shrugging her shoulders. Which could easily remind the DeMolay readers of the “Flower Talk” that they have memorized so well. “You can go down to the depths, but your mother . . . .” Oh, well!
And he also did not forget the aging lion’s parting words on that epic September 30, during his birthday that communing with the Lord at the stroke of midnight is usually very effective for as the latter said, “there is no static nor unusual interruptions when you commune with God during that time for almost nobody else is praying!”
But it was not all physical conditioning that Jonel and his mother turned their energies into. Jonel’s time also glued his ears to the radio listening to religious songs, music and charismatic masses that made him commune with God on his own. One time on her visit, the mother asked the aging lion whether making offerings to the spirits at the brook where he met an accident some two years back will do Jonel any good and receive a reply in the affirmative. And when the lion tamer gave a quizzical eye because of the aging lion’s nodded as his reply, he simply later said that “Magic”, not the Salamanca type one usually sees on TV, but the magic that was clearly elucidated by Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough do has that awesome powers of putting ailing persons back to recovery.
Miscellaneous help to Jonel came. In addition to prayers and medicines, donations were not also found wanting. Part of the US$ 80 that WB Dave of the American Samoa sent was generously spent for transportation and incidental costs to the mother whenever she makes a visit; their family was also included in the bags recipients of groceries for the noche buena of the four fisher families that WB Tony funded during the Christmas holidays.
More importantly, Jonel’s mother said he can now walk without a cane and even wished he could bathe himself at the beach. Wherefore the aging lion replied it is not at all a problem. All that was needed was to take Jonel down from the boondocks and presto, he can bathe on the beach at the lion’s backyard, with the lion preparing the food as cook, courtesy of the man of the house.
And so on March 25 they arrived with Jonel, his brother in law at the wheels and the two aging ladies at the back of the motorcycle. There they bathed at the beach and during lunch where they partook of a half-kilo liver mixed with mushroom and cabbage, and broiled “tulingan” that the aging lion himself cooked, they talked energetically about his physical progress which in modern parlance can be compared to a cell phone with two bars blinking while being charged, which means that while he has not yet fully regained his health, he is now on the road to recovery. He said he has not yet seen his family, his live in partner and his new-born son. He of course wish he could physically be with them to the reluctance of both his mother and the lion tamer fearing that a third child might ensue. To which the aging lion empathically remarked: “Of course that can be avoided, the efficient use of condom or some other contraceptives can easily avert that dreaded possibility!!”
After they left for home that afternoon, additional help for Jonel’s welfare followed. Upon being informed on the phone, the lion tamer’s cousin volunteered to purchase multi-vitamins for Jonel’s medical maintenance to further improve his health. For Jonel’s part which he said earlier, joining a group at their baranggay’s parish to serve during mass is a wish that he wants fulfilled to put him right on track.
Which augurs well for him, his live-in partner Wilma, his daughter and his new-born son who were left behind last September in Cebu City.
------
THE PATHETIC PLIGHT OF JONEL LUSTRADO
(Note: whole text is deleted. Readers interested to read the article are advised to open the previous posting as shown somewhere in the caption titled Faith, Hope. . . .etc.)
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