Day 6
Within the city of Pulilan, we will be going to different barangays (villages) every two days with a different team. Since day 5, we were with team 1 from the Longos barangay and today was our last day working with the team before moving on to the next barangay. I really liked our schedule because we have a chance to explore different villages and a chance to meet so many people. From today’s work, we had a chance to do anthropometric measurements in various households. Although I haven’t taken pediatric nursing I had the chance to experience what it is like to assess children. From my nursing classes we learned to perform assessments from least to most invasive to build trust. For children, we would first take their weight, height, waist, hip, and blood pressure in that order. If the difference from the first and second measurement were too big, we would take a third measurement. I noticed it was a lot more difficult with kids because some of them would avoid taking their height and weight. If kids are refusing to stand on the scale, we would take the measurement of the mother and have the mother pick up the child on the scale to measure the weight of the child from the difference. I also learned from taking blood pressure that kids have a lot lower blood pressure than adults and it was often difficult to hear the systolic and diastolic. Afterwards, we were able to help with filling out the forms for surveys like copying down the zip codes, the name of the researchers and the name of the respondents. Throughout the day I noticed many Filipinos do not wear sunglasses even when the sun is scorching. After talking to the team, they told me most Filipinos don’t even wear sunscreen, which made me question their skin health. To protect themselves from the sun, Filipinos always use an umbrella. They also wear scarves over their heads or wear arm sleeves. Before dinner, I had the opportunity to try belut for the first time. Belut is a Filipino delicacy that is a fertilized egg with a 24-28 day old chick inside of it. It costs around 7 pesos ($0.15) and it is served hot. I was actually pretty excited to try it because I know many Filipinos like it. I remember cracking the top of the egg, sprinkled salt and drank the amniotic fluid. As you crack open the egg, you can see the eyes, beak, wings, and some feathers. To be honest, it tastes exactly like a hard-boiled egg with the texture of bone, hair, and cartilage. For dinner, we went to a buffet and in the Philippines, most buffets have a no leftover policy and a time limit. In the buffet we went to, the time limit was 1.5 hours and they would charge around 500 pesos ($10.76) per head for leftovers. If you go over the time limit, you just have to pay more. I thought the policies were a good way to avoid food being wasted and from people exploiting by staying at the buffet for a long period of time.
Day 7
Today we moved to a different barangay called Penabata and worked with team 2. I didn’t understand bathroom etiquettes in the Philippines until now. In the Philippines, many bathrooms are small and the toilets are small as well. I noticed most bathrooms in the Philippines do not have toilet papers and most of them do not flush. For the past 7 days I have used many bathrooms without flushing and I always brought my own toilet paper. I thought it was very strange because I wasn’t used to it. For flushing, you have to pour water in a bucket and pour that bucket in the toilet to flush it. Going to the bathroom in the Philippines takes a lot more work than the U.S. and I am very fortunate to have flushing toilets back home. Throughout the day, we went to various households to conduct interviews. Since I couldn’t speak fluent Tagalog, I observed the interviews and took note of some of the questions asked. Because many Filipinos are very poor, some of them cannot have a proper meal. Some households will skip meals, or eat less because food can be scarce for families with lower income. In poorer areas, families eat rice and water with salt for seasoning for every meal. We once interviewed a kid that only had coffee for dinner and another kid that drank soy sauce with oil. It was difficult knowing that so many people are not eating enough and most are not eating a nutritious diet. The types of questionnaire asked are total household food consumption, 24-hour food recall, health, income, and many more. Throughout the day I noticed that most of the vehicle we were in had a manual transmission and the Filipinos told me that men mostly drive manual transmission vehicles because it is considered more masculine in the Philippines. The heat that day was absolutely brutal and it’s probably one of the worst heats that I have ever experienced. To cool off, we had dirty ice cream, which is a name for street ice-cream. Popular ice-cream flavors in the Philippines are ube, cheese, and buko. Buko is coconut, and ube is a purple flavor ice cream that tastes very similar to taro. Cheese does not taste like cheese at all, but it tastes fantastic.
Day 8
Today we did the same thing we did yesterday with the interviews and anthropometric measurements. I learned a lot about the culture of health and work from interacting with the team. 8 out of 10 people have field health, which is like health insurance for impoverished families. It only costs them 200 pesos ($4.31) a month, making it very affordable. Recently the media in the U.S. are on fire about the problems with opioid abuse so I was curious to know what the drug culture is like and how people are treating pain in the Philippines. The main drug problem in the Philippines is methamphetamine and people take NSAIDS like Ibuprofen treat pain and opioids are mainly administered only in hospitals. From meeting many nurses in the Philippines, I noticed most of them were guys and I learned that there are more male nurses than female nurses. Nurses are not seen as feminine in the Philippines. In fact, around 7 out 10 nurses are male, which is very different from the U.S. Sadly, nurses do not make a lot of money in the Philippines. Nurses in the Philippines make on average 20,000 pesos ($430.71) a month if they work for the government and only 10,000 pesos ($215.35) a month for non-government nurses. Due to the low salary, most nurses leave the hospital setting and work as a nurse abroad or take different jobs like working for FNRI. Nurses are also understaffed in hospitals and some have to take care of 30 patients at the same time. This can affect health care in the hospital because the patient to nurse ratio is so small. The work culture is very different from the U.S. The minimum wage in the Philippines is around $7 (325 pesos) per day making it difficult for some people to make a living and provide for their family. The survey team at FNRI has a pretty crazy schedule. They work all 7 days a week and they work almost all day and night. I would say the survey team averages less than 6 hours of sleep a day and they don’t have a break until October. Filipinos work really hard and they hardly ever complain about their schedule even though it is very stressful and tiring. Another health problem in the Philippines is cigarette smoking. The way that the government would do to decrease smoking is increasing the tax, adding graphic labels, and warning signs to educate people on the harms and dangers of cigarettes. Tobacco companies and local shops would counter this by promoting cheaper cigarette brands and selling cigarettes one by one instead of the whole pack to make it more affordable.
Day 9
Every Sunday is our break and we decided to go to a place called the SandBox, which is like an adult playground with zip lining, rock climbing, wall rappelling, and giant swinging. On a side note, I have this phobia of roller coasters and heights so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get over my fear. To be honest, it was fun, but I don’t think roller coasters are for me. I don’t understand why people feel the joy and pleasure of the sensation of falling. It’s terrifying. The worst was the giant swing because you think you are high, but you keep on getting higher and higher and you have no idea when the swing is going to drop. The whole anticipation freaked me out.
Day 10
Today we moved to a new barangay called Tabon with team 3. We continued our work with more surveys and anthropometric measurements in various households. Compared to the different barangays, Longos was the most impoverished because some of the household did not have a roof and they were located next to a field of trash. People often would scavenge the trash field for materials and food. It strangely did not smell and apparently they put chemicals in the trash fields to prevent the nasty garbage smell from lurking. In the households we did a lot of food weighing. The survey team would go to each household before their meals to weigh the food that they were about to consume. Because all households eat at different times, the survey team must know each household’s mealtime to weigh the food. Some families would eat breakfast as early as 4am therefore; the survey team would have to go to the household at 3:30am just to weigh the food. Tabon had a lot more fields and grasslands than the other barangays and the view was absolutely beautiful. For break, we stayed at a bamboo hut called a kubo, which is very abundant in the Philippines. Kubos are super chill and it’s a great place to nap. Speaking of naps, Filipinos have a popular naptime from 1-3 where many Filipinos rest. During those times we wouldn’t go to any households because the respondents would be napping. One of the local Filipino taught me how to ride a motorcycle. I was so excited to learn, but I was terrible at it. The motorcycle I was trying to ride had a manual transmission therefore the use of a clutch was unfamiliar and I drove around 10 feet before I stalled the motorcycle. Later, I tried an egg called penoy that was given to me as a gift from one of the households. Penoy is a hard-boiled duck egg and it actually taste very different than a chicken egg. The texture is also a bit grainy and it is difficult to describe what it tastes like. After work we decided to swim at the resort, we were staying at and sang videoke, which is the Filipino word for karaoke. The Filipinos always have the best singing voices and it was sad that they knew more popular American songs than us.
Day 11
Today was a laid back day because we didn’t see as many household as we normally do. We didn’t do as much interviews, but we did the food weighing for lunch. We went to the same household we went yesterday and weighed the meals. During breaks, we sang more karaoke and took naps until our next weigh in. In the meantime, I decided to spend my free time learning more Tagalog and learned to form proper sentences and questions. When we went to our households we would either walk or take a tricycle depending on how intense the heat was. I forgot to mention this earlier, but basketball is the most popular sport in the Philippines and there are many NBA influences. Many people follow American basketball and in the Philippines, you will see an abundant of people wearing NBA jerseys from old as Larry Bird to Stephen Curry. Everywhere you go you will see basketball hoops in all shape and size and many kids would play with their school uniforms. From seeing so many people play basketball, I was motivated to do some exercise. With the other interns we did some body workouts and went on a run in the most intense heat.
Day 12
We moved to the next barangay called Santo Cristo with team 5. My main focus today was doing the 24-hour recall interviews and doing the anthropometric measurements. I finally got to do the interviewing in one of the household because they knew some English and I also had a translator in case the respondent did not understand me. In the 24-hour recall, we asked question like where they eat, how the food was obtained, the quantity, quality, and frequency of meals. We would also ask how often they would cook versus how often they would eat out. I mentioned that the food portion in the Philippines was small, but I also noticed that the plates and cups were tiny as well. From observing the Filipinos, many of them are a lot shorter compared to the U.S. Being a short person myself in the U.S. I find myself being average height in the Philippines. I mentioned earlier that the driving in the Philippines is absolutely crazy. I noticed stop signs and traffic lights are nonexistent as well. The best way I can describe the streets in the Philippines is to imagine a road with tricycles, motorcycles, pedestrians, bikes, cars ranging from sedans to semi-trucks, children, dogs, and cats all in the same road without cops, stop signs and street lights.
iwufreemanyoon 