A Sigh of Relief

First off, let me apologize to anyone who was concerned about my whereabouts this past week. But let me back track a minute and I will explain…

It’s been a wild, yet oddly calm few weeks. Having returned from Guimaras, I had about 10 days in Manila filled with serious paper writing, important interviews, visits from friends and of course, excessive relaxation. My Wednesday afternoon consisted of a debate between hitting up the open market, taking a swim in my (albeit small) rooftop pool, or just continuing to hang out at Friendly’s, maybe popping open a San Mig (I managed two of the three). It’s moments like those when I stop and wonder what my friends at home must be doing, thinking Oh yes, wisely you chose.

But you’ve got to work hard to relax hard. Saturday night I met my professor and some of her Japanese counterparts to catch a 4:30AM flight down to Negros Occidental, one of the larger islands south of Luzon. It was only upon arrival that I discovered we actually had nowhere to be until the next morning. My frustration however was fleeting – we happened to catch the last day of the Masskara festival in the capital city, Bacolod.

Thirty years ago, Negros Occidental had fallen on hard times, and the “City of Smiling People” found it difficult to live up to their name. The sugar cane production was doing poorly, Bacolodnons were out of work and to top it all off, a vessel with the mayor’s whole family on it sank. The city donned bright, smiling masks and paraded the streets to mourn the family and to show the world they could smile in the face of adversity. The festival has since grown into a 2-week event filled with costumes, dancing, and celebration. If there is one thing I respect most about Filipinos, it is their positive attitude in the face of even the bleakest circumstances.

The next morning we headed to Calatrava to a region where schistosomiasis (snail disease) is endemic. Crammed into the back of an old, covered pickup as we drove along a butt-numbing dirt road in the midst of a typhoon to a distant village in order to collect stool samples, I asked myself (not for the first time) what in the in the hell am I doing here? A question which is usually followed by I could seriously go for a burrito right about now and the occasional who really DID kill Roger Rabbit?

The first day of collection was long. I smeared stool samples back at our guesthouse until well after midnight. The following four days were a blur of long drives, local introductions, interviews on cultural practices, data collection, and lots and lots of rice.

Friday morning I finally checked my email to find multiple messages wondering where in the hell I was. Once I communicated I was safe, several emails caught my attention. First – GIANTS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!! Can’t believe I missed an epic end of the series against the Cardinals but it feels like a miraculous repeat of two years ago when I was in Ghana. Secondly I landed an internship with the WHO!!! But…I have to miss Christmas because the internship is slated for December/ January. Looks like it will be a belated celebration this year.

For now, I’m headed to Bali for a week, with a huge relieved smile on my face, ready to meet Aunt Karen. I head back to Manila next Saturday and will give myself a few days before heading out to spend November traveling SE Asia. Look out for the next exciting posts – I promise they’ll be memorable J