The index to
the Jan-B-series, “Mission to Mindanao—2003”
The scramble
of the departure and shambles of connecting flights
from Washington from a missed flight in IAD, re-routed
through ORD to LAX, where I attempt to board PAL
103 via HLU to MNL without my passport, carryon
bag or laptop, until I make it onto a very unproductive
flight across the Pacific, losing the dateline
day, but without an overhead light, or working
earphones, and with a flat laptop battery preventing
my writing to you---but a rendezvous in Manila,
and even a successful procurement of the Dream
Weavers book I had sought for three consecutive
trips to the land of the Tboli people. 
Pre-dawn wake-up in the Tropicana Hotel
in Manila, and with most of the small team assembled
in late arrivals, fly from MNL to “GenSan” to
go by road to Edwards to TECH, for “destination
arrival” in the land of the Tboli people, our
first week’s patients, and a rendezvous with the
Philippine team who have driven overland from
Malaybalay at BBH in Bukidnon, the site of our
second week’s patients.
The arrival and
welcome ceremony at TECH, then examine pre-op
and follow-up patients,some with huge goiters,
and prepare for the surgical workday and workweek
which begins in the morning.
The next full
operating day in Edwards begins with the men with
hydroceles, and an unusual breast cancer in a
male, and continues for an ever-expanding pre-op
list.
The third day
of our operating at TECH, then our mid-week one
half-day excursion by my request to see by pre-arrangement
the Philippine National Treasure whose original
art work T’nalaks are home as souvenirs of the
real Tboli culture in the mountains around lake
Sebu.
A high volume
tumultuous OR day with large numbers of difficult,
yet successfully done, cases, and the generous
“Lechon” feast and farewell ceremony, before part
of our team from Bukidnon packs up some of the
heavy supplies and makes their way by road back
toward Malaybalay and BBH.
The final operating
day at TECH among the Tboli with a reduced staff
and equipment, yet larger cases, and, as always,
the add-ons at the last minute before completing
our surgical mission at Edwards, TECH, among the
grateful Tboli people.
Our final morning
at Edwards and TECH after post-op rounds on all
the patients who had not yet gone home to go to
Surallah, an airstrip closed to all but us, to
get the SIL Navajo light plane to fly over Central
Mindanao to arrive in Nasuli to begin the Jan-C-series
in Malaybalay, Bukidnon at BBH.