Leaving Unexpectedly

by: Neil Ryan Marcos

It was an ordinary night. The smell of coffee and sound flipping papers enveloped the house. It was getting late. We were tallying our survey sheets as fatigue and sleepiness were weighing down upon us. Then amidst this array of tedious workload, the sound of a ringing phone suddenly broke in. It was from our classmate, who was having her community exposure in the same municipality. She informed us about the impending security crisis at hand, and advised us to start packing to be prepared for the worst. Upon hearing such news, I can’t help but leap for joy. The thought of going home filled my mind and awoke the exhausted spirit in me. But to make things even more brilliant, it was decided later on that we would leave tomorrow, as early as possible. I immediately went to our room and started packing and fixing my things. The thought of home with its chore-free life and clean toilet bowl made me ecstatic! As a result of my excitement, I was the first one to finish packing. After doing so, I sat down and started staring at everyone and at everything. The air was filled with noises of packing tape, stuff being put in boxes and people asking about all the stuff we had to leave behind and stuff we had to bring back to Zamboanga. It was then that I realized how self-absorbed I was. I forgot that I have responsibilities to my group mates as well. Hence, I started helping out by cleaning the living room. I was amazed at how much stuff we had lying around. It was very natural for us to build clutter everywhere. But even though our living room can be such a mess sometimes, we would spend most of our time there. It is where we shared some of our hardest laughter and funniest memories together.

Luggage strewn all over our living room.

Doing some last minute checking.

After the kitchen, I headed back and saw our calendar of activities on our wall. We placed our schedule in a big Manila paper and taped it in the middle of our house for everyone to see. We would mark each day as it passes. We would carefully weigh our tasks and plan them accordingly. The decreasing number of days would tantalize our dreams of being home again. But after thinking about it, I realized something: Throughout our survey adventures and buying sprees, we would always say at the end of the day, “uwi na tayo.” Then we would journey home to our little bungalow. This was the place we yearn to go home to after a tiring day of work. This was our solace. In a span of a few weeks, this place became a home for us. Then it hit me: I am really going to miss my friends and our home.

After a few hours, we had a meeting about the implications of leaving early. But more importantly we discussed how we would break the news to the people who were so kind and hospitable to us. We felt really bad that we would leave like this, after everything they did for us. We decided to make a letter for them. We made one in English, and another one in Bisaya.


The morning of our departure came. We barely had a few hours of sleep and everyone was in low spirits. We made our last arrangements and started saying goodbye to our neighbours. We went to our Barangay Captain and told him what had happened. His face grew sad as we told him about our predicament. But he also affirmed that it might be for the best given the situation. He also said he would be happy to drive us to the bus terminal with his truck.

Leaving with a heavy heart.

Getting off at the Regional Health Unit to wait for the bus. 

After a few minutes, the truck was ready. We loaded our luggage to the truck and boarded at the back. As the engine starts to rumble and the vehicle started to wobble, we stared at our little bungalow – how humble and sweet she is. All the memories started to build up tears in our eyes. Shortly, after traveling a few meters away, our neighbor saw us from his window. He quickly ran towards the road. I thought we might have forgotten something, or maybe something was up. But as he reached the road, he quickly raised his arms and waved us a big good bye. Upon seeing this, I can’t help but smile and be proud of myself. Surely, I may have done something genuinely good for this man to go out of his way just to see us off. But it wasn’t just that! As we pass along the neighborhood, people would stop just to wave us goodbye. It was simply an overwhelming feeling. I was happy that somehow I know I was able to touch their lives, but I was also sad to leave them. As our vehicle reached the national road and left the paradise we fell in love with, one thought kept residing in my mind – I WILL BE BACK, I’LL SURELY BE BACK.

MD - Mirangan Doctors

by: Felimon Mailig, Jr. 

MEDICAL STUDENT: the very idea of my own name attached with these two words gives me a rush of adrenaline. It is the road to my childhood dream and the mere fact that I have started my first step to the bridge of that dream makes me anxious and excited at the same time. Nervous, in the sense, that the bridge may not be strong enough, it may not be steady at some point and eventually, I might fall. I’m excited even when the bridge may be moving back and forth, I could still see great view both sides. But the BEST VIEW, which I could not see yet, is the one waiting for me on the other side. The thoughts of being ALMOST A DOCTOR make me ecstatic, and yet, the fears of the unknown as well as the weight of the responsibilities that lie ahead, pull me back.

But nothing is as easy as it seems. I’m back to being a student again. After 12 years of schooling, I decided to take up medicine, not knowing that things are not the same as the previous 12 years in school. Studying medicine is far more difficult than I have expected. There are a lot of things that I need to familiarize myself with and to be accustomed to for the rest of my years in medical school and beyond.

Getting the weight of children below 5 years old. 

First is the problem-based learning (PBL) type of curriculum. Since elementary until college, I was familiar with the traditional chalk and blackboard and the lecture type of teaching. But with PBL, I learned to look for answers on my own. After sometime, I learned to be a scavenger. I hunt for my food and learned not to wait for someone else to feed it to me. Not only was the type of learning hard, but the lessons and topics as well. The topics in each module became more difficult as days passed. This is one reality that I must accept and I must overcome these struggles instead of complaining. I must always have this idea written in my mind: “Being a doctor is tough, but you’ll never see what lies ahead if you’ll stop moving forward.”

We had our first community exposure in Barangay Mirangan, in Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay, on October 2011. I needed to prepare myself to become a community student doctor for 1 month. The immersion gave me a lot to think about and had me realizing certain aspects of my life. Being away from our families mean that we need to depend on ourselves, that we need to move on our own. For instance, we are accustomed to waking up and our meals are already served on the table. In the community, you need to wake up earlier than usual so that you could prepare your own meal.

Student doctors at work.

As a student doctor, our mission to the community we are in is not focused on treating the health problems of the individuals there but to take also into consideration and provide solutions the different aspects that affect the health of the people in the community. For us to do this, we need to adapt ourselves to the community, as well as to the group (student doctors) so that we could come up with solutions for the betterment of our community.

As I got to know the people, I have realized that I could be a catalyst of change. In my own ways, I know I have changed them. At the same time, they have also changed me. I was amazed of how simple their life is and still they are very happy and contented.

Even though I was away from my family, I never felt alone. I found an extension, my new family: Mirangan family a.k.a. Baldemorts family. I am not a student doctor and I could not call myself a student doctor without them, my Mirangan family and the rest of the Mirangan community. Hopefully, with them, not only will I become the best doctor in the future but a better person as well.

Uncovering the Problems

by: Peter James Vitug

When we first set our feet on Mirangan, a sense of pride dawned upon me. Though I was a bit nervous during our first day of community exposure, I know that I’m one step closer in my desire to help transform not only an individual's life, but an entire community.

As we were trudging our way, we have come to a conclusion that indeed, this hidden paradise is faced with different problems that can surely affect the health status of its members.

First and foremost, through our tedious survey, we have found out that the people living in the barangay have poor health-seeking behavior. For them, being sick is just a normal episode in their lives. Majority of them believe that by self-medication, by drinking herbal decoctions, and employing the services of a hilot, their ailments will simply be cured. A small percentage of the population visit the health center for certain reasons like distance, time and the perceived necessity to go for a check-up. We also found out that they have this certain notion that sickness can’t pull them down and that they need to stress themselves to work hard even if they are still sick just to have income for their families.

Next, the environmental sanitation poses a health threat to its constituents too. Based on the exhausted data, we have found out that there is no garbage collecting scheme within their vicinity. The people also have a little knowledge on waste segregation. Toilet facilities were determined to be unsanitary too. Almost 70% of the population are still using *buho* and some of them throw their “waste” anywhere. It is somehow alarming for the spread of diseases are very certain because of these practices.

A squat-type toilet made of planks of wood.

Water potability and accessibility, I for one, would like to raise it as a top problem that this Barangay is currently facing. At first, I was really shocked that this community is getting water from a shallow well popularly called “Tabay” and at times, if luck comes their way, rain would pour just to feed their needs. Almost all of the population is practicing filtration as their method in making the water “potable” for them to use in their daily needs. Plus the accessibility of the tabay is another problem since they have to traverse difficult routes making them more susceptible to accidents.

The people of Mirangan get water for their daily needs in this shallow well,
known to the locals as tabay.

Last, but not the least, the community’s problem on malnutrition. After doing the initial height and weight recording of children below 5 years old, we have found out that 50% of them are undernourished. And only 24% of the family perceived lack of food as a health hazard. We also found out from a RHU data, Mirangan ranked 5th in terms of Malnutrition. With these alarming data, it poses the danger to paralyze the future of Mirangan.

Accordingly, he is seven years old. His weight is that of a five year old.

With these problems identified, we hope that we can come up with an appropriate comprehensive health plan to solve them. We are hoping to hear from the residents on what might be the contributing factors of these problems. Hopefully, the people will cooperate and share their ideas in solving these problems. I believe that a solid partnership with the community would be a good starting point for this.

Our goal to have a healthy community is indeed a challenge. But I still believe that the passion and cooperation of both our group and the members of the community, with the guidance of our Almighty Father, we can truly achieve a Mauswagong Mirangan by 2015 and beyond!