did you know?!

Cebu City, Philippines: Did You Know?!

what i've learned in my time here...

-did you know taxis in the Philippines are all white. the baseline charge for a taxi ride is P30 or about 60 cents US.

-did you know when words repeat themselves (for instance, "habo habo", "Yaya", or a name like "Jojo" - our guard), the Filipinos write it habo^2 (squared symbol) or Jojo will sign his name Jo^2. what a time-saver right? :)

-did you know you can fit 5 people on a small motorbike? Filipinos prove it is possible - baby in front, dad driving, two kids and mom on the back... that's safe.

-did you know that in the Philippines drivers do not wait for an opening in traffic to make left turns, instead they inch out slowly until their car blocks enough traffic that they can turn (there is a lot of horn honking involved - actually there is lots of horn honking pretty much any time you're in a car)

-did you know that the Philippines is considered to be the most corrupt country in the world? maybe that explains why there are security guards at the entrances to every building anywhere (even the entrance to Starbucks), and why you must pay for your gelato in advance then show your receipt to the scooper - who just watched you order and pay - to prove that you are getting what you say you paid for... same goes in Starbucks, receipt shown and stamped at the time of pick up.

-did you know if you leave any food out and unpackaged/open anywhere, the little ants will attack and destroy it. Lo and i learned this the hard way.... it is not enough to simply fold your cereal bag and keep it in a closed box on top of the fridge, we lost two new boxes of cereal to the ants that way :( they also sometimes manage to get into tupperware, so the fridge is pretty much the only safe place to keep food.

-did you know they don't call it the fridge or the refrigerator. they call it the ref.

-did you know to make lines on the street for crosswalks or distinguish lanes they sit in the streets with cardboard and chalk outlining where they will paint, then someone else sits there filling in the chalk outlines (did i mention they are literally sitting on the pavement in the middle of the day with traffic speeding by and hardly a cone to warn people?!).

-did you know fans are the basic form of air circulation here. we've got a fan in every room of the apt and lo and i sleep with fans blasting on high. that is also how the clinic, including the labor room, is kept cool - no thanks.

-did you know you cant flush toilet paper here. hilary says it's because the Filipinos were too cheap to buy big enough pipes for their sewer system. i, being a spoiled American, wish they would have splurged for the normal sized pipes.

-did you know that 11 women per day die of pregnancy complications due to poorly equipped hospitals (and I'm guessing also because many decide to do home deliveries)... I'm not sure exactly what area this statistic is for but even if it's for all of the Philippines it is shocking.

-did you know that if you need a blood transfusion here you are basically screwed? no really. allow me to explain... first you have to find the blood that you need (which is often impossible because Filipinos are scared of donating and most hospitals have no blood on hand - i don't think blood banks exist here), second, once you find the blood you have to pay P2500 for it, that is about $50 US - sounds cheap to us but that is terribly expensive here. Finally, before you get the bag of blood you found and paid for, you need to find a replacement bag. usually they don't care if it is the same blood type, but they want you to replace it with some type of human blood. after all of that I'm guessing it doesn't surprise you that many people die while their family is out trying to track down and obtain blood for a transfusion.

-did you know there is no such thing as malpractice in the Philippines... maybe i should follow hilary and do medschool here after all? it's also only about $1000 US a quarter - dirt cheap for medschool.

-did you know that the leading causes of death for women of childbearing age are 1) hemorrhaging. 2) infection 3) unsuccessfully trying to do an abortion - (since it is illegal and cannot be done safely in a hospital).

-did you know that many women try to induce miscarriage by overdosing on a drug called cytotic misoprostol (cytotec misoprostol) which is taken orally and/or vaginally and usually causes the women to bleed to death. they obtain the pills either from witch doctors or ironically, it is sold outside many of the catholic churches here.

-did you know that there a bright purple ice cream called Ube that is sweet potato flavored and it is amazing (trying to lighten the mood after those last few "did you know's")

-did you know that most things here are written in English but most people speak in Cebuano.

-did you know that Filipinos tend to wear shirts that say really random or funny or vulgar things on them (in English obviously). a few examples: at church yesterday a guy's shirt said "real men don't LOL", we've also seen: "yellow snow cones are not banana flavor" that one had an interesting picture to go along with it. and a mom who came to the clinic wearing a shirt that said "Most likely to steal your boyfriend".

-did you know Filipinos are extremely patient people... they also don't complain. i think Americans are the exact opposite.

-did you know to live in the Philippines you have to love karaoke and be willing to sing it daily. seriously, it is a requirement.

-did you know that polygamy is generally accepted here. once a man's wife gets pregnant the husband is allowed to find another women and often ends up with what they call a "second family". often they even live in the same house, send their kids to the same school, and the first wife even supports her husband's second family sometimes. all i have to say about this is um, no.

-did you know that the medical "system" here, if you can even call it that, is a combination of western medicine and traditional medicine. as for the traditional medicine we have learned that pregnant women sometimes stand over fire to get the bad spirits out (unfortunately, the CO2 causes the placenta to detach from the uterus and the baby often delivers prematurely or dies from oxygen and nutrient deprivation).

-did you know Hilary and David once took care of a baby that had pneumonia because the father blew cigarette smoke into the baby's mouth to get the bad spirits out. lack of education can be seriously dangerous.

-did you know on certain holy days like good friday the people here believe it is terribly bad luck to go in water, or even leave their houses, and all the women try not to have their babies on that day (we're going to the beach and taking advantage of having the place to ourselves! :)

-did you know CCMC closes their hospital totally for a week each year while they debug it - not debug their computer software, literally get rid of the infestations of insects and lice, etc. yes, a hospital closes and EVERYONE has to find somewhere else to go. imagine the uproar if that happened in the US.

-did you know Hilary told us a mother high on drugs left her baby on the floor of their hut and a rat came (the rats here are the size of small beavers), and bit the finger of the baby, gave it tetanus and the baby died. here's the catch - or lack of one - there isn't an effective legal system to prosecute for abuse or neglect, so there were no repercussions for the mother. hilary and david have also tried reporting several cases or abuse and neglect of children and mothers they see at the clinic or who live nearby and nothing has come of it :(

-did you know that the city randomly decides to turn the power off in the middle of the day in certain neighborhoods. this happened the other day in the middle of our PNCs. when it happens there is no running water... no running wanter in a maternity clinic!! - grrreeaattt...

-did you know that if you need surgery of any kind, say a cesarean section, you must find and pay an anesthesiologist. you must also buy all of the supplies for the surgery (you are given a list and must purchase all drugs and instruments and bring them back to the hospital... however the hospital sometimes "loses" them - aka uses them - and you have to go out and buy everything again). Hilary had spent yesterday getting everything for one of the mothers we transported to have a c-section (this mother is from Kamagayon - the redlight district - and she is pretty mentally incompetent from all the drugs she has taken). after church hil got a call that they still needed the needle and anesthesia for the epidural so late last night we went walking around to the pharmacies - if you can even call them that - between food stands outside the hospital. finally got the last of the supplies but we still need someone to consent for the surgery since the mom is a little off her rocker - and the dad of the baby is m.i.a. the worst thing about it is that the hospital doesn't have the supplies on hand, not even for backup, so in an emergency the patient would die while their family is trying to find everything necessary for a surgery or whatever. once hil and david found three bags of blood for their patient (imagine what a task that must've been), and came to visit the patient later only to find the doctors had used the blood for another patient with a more serious problem. the hospital then wanted hilary and david to go buy more blood for their patient! can you believe it!?

-did you know that it is illegal to perform a tubal ligation on a mother under the age of 30. Hilary begged the doctor last night to do a tubal ligation on the crazy mom from Kamagayan (she's 27) but the Doctor simply cannot, it is the law. there was even once a 21 year old from Kamagayan who wrote out a document authorizing the procedure and they still refused, even though she was asking for it to be done. in an area with so much overpopulation and poverty you'd think they would offer that procedure free to anyone who wants it.

-did you know we found a fourth kitten last night in the streets, so naturally hilary brought her to the apt. i named her tweety and lo calls her tweety bird. she is a little white fluff ball and soo sweet, but the boys are all afraid of her and they do the halloween cat thing whenever they see her. hopefully they'll all start getting along soon :)

k, that's all for now, sorry if I've already mentioned some of those things in my previous blogs. it is a whole different world here!! more to come later!