06-JAN-B-10

FROM THE MANILA BASE AT SHALOM CENTER, I GO EARLY TO NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL TO SEE OFF THE CANADIANS AND ALLEN MELLICOR AWAITING JOHN SUTTER’S ARRIVAL AND PLANNING THE POSSIBLE FUTURE EVENTS WITH JUAN MONTERO AND GEORGE GARCIA AT ASIAN HOSPITAL FOR HOPES OF PALOWAN VISIT BY SAR SHIP

January 29—30, 2006

I got up early—too early—to ride with the Canadians, Allen and Maria Smedes, general helpers form Kingston, Ontario (actually Dutch immigrants to the Niagara Peninsula) and Alison Froese and her anesthesiology resident Bihari-born Sumnet Sharan driven by our Shalom Center Buoy to the Airport, where, even at 5:30 AM Allen Mellicor was already driving a luggage cart toward us to have the international passengers checked in. He and I went to the PAL office as the farewells were said, and I typed up the headings for the events of this recent day as well as loaded the digital pictures into the laptop, before Allen came back an hour before his scheduled take off for Cagayan de Oro return and thirty minutes before the scheduled arrival of john Sutter who would be with me the rest of the day. I talked with Allen about the abstract I would like to submit to the IAES or the AAES for the report of our thyroidectomy experience in Mindanao, now over a thousand strong, and also a bit about the proposed schedule of events in the missions next year. Then John Sutter arrived, having already checked through all his bags except his carryon and holding his international boarding pass. He reported that either Allen or Blessie his wife had checked in on him each hour by text or phone to see that he was well taken care of. As he arrived here, I had plans for him since this was his first view of Manila and we did it well.

We went by taxi to the Makati Center and toured the Ayala Museum of art as well as the very instructive diorama series of exhibits on the history of the Philippines. It ended in the triumph of the EDSA (Edward Domingo Santa Avenida—a roadway blocked off by the yellow-wearing supporters of Corazon Aquino, widow of the returning from exile opposition leader whose assassination was the last straw of public support deterioration for the repressive dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos and his wife who lived like royalty as martial law was declared to suspend the habeas corpus and suppress opposition. They did not get into the fiasco of the current crisis in which the former elected president Estrada, a movie actor of a Robin Hood mythic legend, was ousted over corruption putting Gloria Macapagan Arroyo, daughter of a prior president elevated form vice president to president sworn in on the same January day as GW Bush at his first term. She is still had some rickety support for the office she now holds by default and can go through the terms as well as GW Bush, the other conservative of the same inaugural date.

We had coffee at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf—the same fruh fruh coffee service as a nearby Starbucks, and later stopped for some Cuban cuisine at the Havana Café. In between, I went to the Bhalikbayan native Crafts Store, a place where I had suggested to my medical students leaving earlier that they pick up a mahogany dining room table and six chairs for me as a light carryon package for Derwood. I bought a few authentic gift items, and will stock a few Christmas presents from the results.

We returned by taxi to the Shalom Center to drop off our bags and get into shorts and Tee shirts to make a special excursion to do the downtown Manila areas around the Robinson Center. I took John to see the Rizal statue in Rizal Park and watched the changing of the guard and then heard parade music. We watched the very lengthy and joyous celebration of the Santo Nino del Fuerte parade with floats and action groups throwing things to the crowd. I left after lots of photos filling up the smallest of my photo cards on the digital camera, and walked along the University of the Philippines to see the schools of medicine and radiotherapy and radiology, as well as the Supreme Court and appellate courts in this district. We staggered back to the Shalom Center hot and sweaty in time to have John take a shower so that he would be freshened up for the long flight home, and then I suggested we go to a special restaurant I had been to on my first visit here—the Zamboanga. There is a cultural show with the dances of the southern island of the Philippines and it was a good one when I had seen it before. But it would start a half hour after john was due to leave.

We walked out into the street at Pedro Gil, and of all the four people we might know in the Philippines, randomly walked into the four of them on the street. Ethel Moorhouse was going out for an ice cream and banana split with the two sons of Bing and Waneng (as medical students at University of Philippines) as she is scheduled to go to Canada tonight as the same departure time as John Sutter. I sent out the taxi with John aboard as he waved for an idea of what our next excursion would be—perhaps as he graduates from his Family Medicine program this June, one year ahead of Kevin Bergman whose Family Medicine Residency Program will have the Grand Rounds hosting me as I stop on my own way back through San Francisco.

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