My sister's friend is in the Philippines studying innoculation issues for the World Health Organization and would like to meet some cool people. He will be spending time all over the Philippines, not just in Manila, so if you can help him out, please do so, his email is ou94@hotmail.com
Hello you all,
Sorry for the mass e-mail, but it's the fastest way for me to reach you.
It looks as if I will not be staying in Manila the entire time. I'll be here for the first two weeks, and then I'll be all over the Philippines. For people who are familiar with Philippines geography, my schedule is attached to this e-mail.
I hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew. The World Health Organization wants us to monitor and evaluate measle immunization programs at the region levels, provincial, and municipality levels. We need to go to the best and the worst at each level. I am here with a team of 2 other people who are experienced in epidemiology already. I'm trying to catch up, and I hope I can do a good job. We will see what happens, but it seems possible that our findings will affect the policy here.
So far, Manila has been interesting. It is very crowded here. I've been busy, so I haven't had much time to explore yet, and I'm just getting over jetlag. Well, I'll write more later. For the ones who know people where I will be going to, please let me know if anyone will be willing to show me around! Thanks.
Aloha,
Alan
ou94@hotmail.com
Friday, February 25, 2005
Monday, February 14, 2005
Old Skool Dreams and a VW Bus
Jovi bought Jeremy a pair of Old Skool Vans yesterday at the Vans store at the Citadel. He is really a shoe freak, and has quite the collection of shoes, mostly Vans, but a few other brands sprinkled in here and there, but no Nikes, thank god.
Anyway, all this Old Skool shopping caused me to have a dream last night. I was working at Huntington Surf and Sport and went to work with no shoes on, and the manager, pointed it out and told me, no shoes, no work, so I had to go back home and get a pair of shoes. but I didn't have a ride, so I asked Kevin Finney if could borrow his VW Bus, and he said sure, but it was parked about 3 miles from main street, so i had to hoof it, barefoot, to get to his car to drive home to get my shoes. However, on the way I stopped at a garage sale and my original Old Skools, from 7th grade were for sale at the garage sale, so I bought them and put them on.
They felt like a glove, but I was still in the house that was selling its junk (In Hawaii, I went to several "estate sales" which basically is what they call them, but unlike California, in hawaii, a lot of people have garage sales in inside their houses, where virtually everything in a designated room is tagged for sale, but that is for a different time), and it was being torn down. I was on the stairs when the walls came down, and I had to get out of there fast, All of a sudden, only the stairs were standing, but it was physically impossibe because they needed some sort of support, so I jumped off, and found myself crawling through a crawlspace just to get out. I finally made it out, I still ahd my Old Skools on but I didn't need Kevin Finney's VW Bus anymore. Then I woke up.
Anyway, all this Old Skool shopping caused me to have a dream last night. I was working at Huntington Surf and Sport and went to work with no shoes on, and the manager, pointed it out and told me, no shoes, no work, so I had to go back home and get a pair of shoes. but I didn't have a ride, so I asked Kevin Finney if could borrow his VW Bus, and he said sure, but it was parked about 3 miles from main street, so i had to hoof it, barefoot, to get to his car to drive home to get my shoes. However, on the way I stopped at a garage sale and my original Old Skools, from 7th grade were for sale at the garage sale, so I bought them and put them on.
They felt like a glove, but I was still in the house that was selling its junk (In Hawaii, I went to several "estate sales" which basically is what they call them, but unlike California, in hawaii, a lot of people have garage sales in inside their houses, where virtually everything in a designated room is tagged for sale, but that is for a different time), and it was being torn down. I was on the stairs when the walls came down, and I had to get out of there fast, All of a sudden, only the stairs were standing, but it was physically impossibe because they needed some sort of support, so I jumped off, and found myself crawling through a crawlspace just to get out. I finally made it out, I still ahd my Old Skools on but I didn't need Kevin Finney's VW Bus anymore. Then I woke up.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Girlfriend on the Side
I've not been feeling too well the week, not from being sick, but from a whole host of things that have culminated into my weirdness. The other day, my SO had asked me a question, specifically asking for the name of my ex SO, which I gave to her, and she had replied, I can't believe that you still remember her name. Well, I do remember her name and if it was already water under the bridge for me, or in the past, it was still in the past. Usually, things that had happened in the past, I like to leave in the past and not drudge things up, but for some reason, she wanted to bring it up, if for anything else, to remind me. So, I got to thinking over the last few days, is she trying to penalize me for who I was with in a past life or what? I sort of felt under the impression that maybe she was, but I then got to thinking, what did she (the ex) do to her (my SO)? the answer is nothing. She didn't do anything to her, she didn't really even no her, though they met briefly at one point. So perhaps she was just drudging it up to ding me that night. I have to say that it worked, it brought back a whole host of emotions that I had successfully put away all these years. But that only lasted a few days. I am still sore about it but still the same I love my wife, I really think that she was a gift from god when she picked me up on the side of a road that day, a long time ago. But anyway, enough of that drama.
My parents returned from a trip to the Philippines with all kind of story to tell. They go back every couple of years for the most part to just go back. This time they sold a bunch of land in Paranaque, a town just north of their home town. The whole buying and selling process has really taken several years, which is strange, but they sold the land to the city, so I can only imagine the red tape and all that they have to go through. At any rate, my mother came back with some stories to tell about her family. It appears that my lolo has just kicked one of his daughters out of the house because she is pregnant and unmarried, and apparently he doesn't like the guy who impregnanted her. Which I think is very hypocritical considering the number of children that he has. What kind of man would kick out his 20-year old daughter for being pregnant? And his 16 year old grandson just became a father and he can accept that? I think my lolo's priorities are for no better of a word, screwed.
His other daughter is engaged, but apparently he does not know it yet. Andeng, it appears is scared to tell him for fear of him not approving of her fiance. And on top of this all, my mother was invited to visit his new rest house in Tagaytay, and the only time they were able to go was late one night, and when my father and her went up there, Andeng's brother was there with one of his girlfriends. As my mother told me this, she called the Tagaytay house some sort of bad name, a place where the married men of her family take their girl friends for rendezvous, or sexual liasons or whatever, it appears they had outgrown Cherry Lodge or Victoria's, which are, or at least were (I haven't been to one in 15 years) hotels that you can rent by the evening or the hour for dilly dallying or what have you. AH you know what I am talking about. Anyway, this Tagaytay House got me and my wife into a big discussion about Philippine society, (actually it was about the Bautista family, but I tried to deflect it to society in the Philippines) me claiming that it is the norm for married men to have girlfriends on the side and she claiming the latter, that it is really an exception. She then went on to blast my mom's side of the family, where there is a penchant for the men to have girlfriends on the side when married. She took the high road and wondered how a woman can respect herself when her husband has a girlfriend on the side. I just said it was a fact of Philippine life, part of the whole macho male mentality that Filipinos possess. She called it sick, and started to talk about my cousins in such a light, and querida'd, er, queried if I were in the Philippines would I be like that, screwing around on her. I didn't have an answer, though my policy is, if the woman I am with screws around on me, I simply leave. It only has happened once, so would I be like my cousins if I lived there? Probably. Not. I love my wife too much to do something like that. It wouldn't be fair to her. It does though make me wonder how my cousin's wife feels that her husband has girlfriends on the side. She really must love her husband, or she sticks to the marriage because of all the children. Or perhaps she has a boyfriend on the side.
My parents returned from a trip to the Philippines with all kind of story to tell. They go back every couple of years for the most part to just go back. This time they sold a bunch of land in Paranaque, a town just north of their home town. The whole buying and selling process has really taken several years, which is strange, but they sold the land to the city, so I can only imagine the red tape and all that they have to go through. At any rate, my mother came back with some stories to tell about her family. It appears that my lolo has just kicked one of his daughters out of the house because she is pregnant and unmarried, and apparently he doesn't like the guy who impregnanted her. Which I think is very hypocritical considering the number of children that he has. What kind of man would kick out his 20-year old daughter for being pregnant? And his 16 year old grandson just became a father and he can accept that? I think my lolo's priorities are for no better of a word, screwed.
His other daughter is engaged, but apparently he does not know it yet. Andeng, it appears is scared to tell him for fear of him not approving of her fiance. And on top of this all, my mother was invited to visit his new rest house in Tagaytay, and the only time they were able to go was late one night, and when my father and her went up there, Andeng's brother was there with one of his girlfriends. As my mother told me this, she called the Tagaytay house some sort of bad name, a place where the married men of her family take their girl friends for rendezvous, or sexual liasons or whatever, it appears they had outgrown Cherry Lodge or Victoria's, which are, or at least were (I haven't been to one in 15 years) hotels that you can rent by the evening or the hour for dilly dallying or what have you. AH you know what I am talking about. Anyway, this Tagaytay House got me and my wife into a big discussion about Philippine society, (actually it was about the Bautista family, but I tried to deflect it to society in the Philippines) me claiming that it is the norm for married men to have girlfriends on the side and she claiming the latter, that it is really an exception. She then went on to blast my mom's side of the family, where there is a penchant for the men to have girlfriends on the side when married. She took the high road and wondered how a woman can respect herself when her husband has a girlfriend on the side. I just said it was a fact of Philippine life, part of the whole macho male mentality that Filipinos possess. She called it sick, and started to talk about my cousins in such a light, and querida'd, er, queried if I were in the Philippines would I be like that, screwing around on her. I didn't have an answer, though my policy is, if the woman I am with screws around on me, I simply leave. It only has happened once, so would I be like my cousins if I lived there? Probably. Not. I love my wife too much to do something like that. It wouldn't be fair to her. It does though make me wonder how my cousin's wife feels that her husband has girlfriends on the side. She really must love her husband, or she sticks to the marriage because of all the children. Or perhaps she has a boyfriend on the side.
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