Another Season Has End

                                Our last week in the community was filled with mixture of excitement, triumph and heartbreak. Excitement as we finally go home for good, triumph for we have survived six-weeks of intense community immersion and heartbreak as we bid farewell to the homes that temporarily sheltered us. Turning back on the days we spent in the community, I mused on the significance of my stay and what I have learned thus far. During our block evaluation, this question was also raised and it seemed as though each and everyone has their own views and explanations about this immersion.

                While others may find the past six-weeks futile and a waste of time, I find it fruitful and an eye-opener. Witnessing people in dire need of health services is nothing new to us but exploring deep down into the roots---psychosocial and even political causes is what community immersion has taught me. If the entire internship is a movie, this rotation is the “behind the scenes”. It made me understand why an old man who is a TB suspect with atheromatous aorta had to wait a month after consultation to go to the laboratory and have his sputum examined and his chest x-rayed. Because he has to wait a month to adequately fatten his pig in order to sell it at a reasonable amount that will cover his medical expenses. It made me understand why an entire family came in with impetigo contagiosa which apparently started from the mother who had prior check up at the same health center and was given meds but still the skin infection persisted and even spread to her younger children. Because there is shortage of Cloxacillin at the health center and since she cannot afford to buy the said antibiotic to cover the entire regimen, she took the meds one capsule daily instead of taking it 4 times daily for a week. It made me understand why a three-year old boy who came in due to cough and colds can be mistaken for a 2-year old. Because he is the youngest in the brood of six to a 30-year old housewife mother and a fisherman father who earns at most P200 a day. Ultimately, it made me understand clearly the bitterness of social hierarchy. Those who gets better education can acquire power and wealth and most often than not, such assets are used as weapon against those who fail to acquire such. The latter are being displaced and ripped off from their own lands with a little compensation by the former that will be benefited for the rest of his life. Sounds more like the Hispanic era in the land of the Indios, eh? Indeed, history never fails to repeat itself.

                A colleague mentioned that we might as well leave these people alone and allow them to continue believing that a boy who seizes is “nasapian” or a girl who has cerebral palsy is a result of “karma” to his parents or a woman who had anaphylactic shock is “nabarang”. Accordingly, what we are doing in the community is just complicating matters to them and the aftermath is piles of debts from medical expenses. In simpler terms, we are ruining the peaceful life in the community. I beg to disagree. We are not heroes to change lives (we can’t even change ourselves, much more others). We are not here to turn the lives of community people into another direction we perceive as the better one. We are not here to change their beliefs and tell them not to seek the traditional healers. We are here to implement primary health care defined as equal distribution of health care for all people regardless of culture, race, religion, and social and political status. We are here to give them the options and show them that there is another path aside from traditional healing. What is education for if not being shared and applied in a manner beneficial for all? 

                We may never return to San Juan, Batangas for community medicine (we may go back for the beautiful beaches though) but the impact of the entire experience will forever be with us. For every patient we see in the ER or at the OPD or even those haggard-looking patient-watchers we ran into the hospital hallways, picture of where they came from will always flash in our minds so we can have a better understanding of them. We may have miniscule role in the empowerment of the community, but it is undeniable that the community itself has a major role not only in our medical career but as human beings per se. Therefore, our six-weeks were never put to waste. Others may not have realized it yet, but I know they will.