dengue

The moment I realized my jacket pocket had blown inside out thereby expelling its contents incuding my cell phone and wallet on the roadside while driving the hog through the rain to Naval, was the same moment I realized I was running a fever. The wallet and cellphone thank God was turned in to the local radio station by a good Samaritan habal-habal driver, and for a second I basked in the warmth of fame and good fortune. The fever however turned out to be Dengue. I laid in bed for over a week exhasperated refusing my 5 mothers constant insistence that I eat or I won’t get better. I didn’t mind all the massages or even the rubbing of Nene’s hair all over my wretched body when the rashes appeared. Eventually though I forced myself to get on the boat to Cebu to receive proper treatment. The rash turned purple and spread all over, and I started to convince myself that I was joining the ranks of the undead. Who knows maybe it won’t be so bad...

Now that I’m better I feel like I have a new lease on life. The power in Kawayan was finally restored today, as well as the precious cell signal, just shy of two weeks after the last baguio (hurricane) hit which was the strongest one by far. Trees and bamboo houses were wiped out all over town but thankfully no one that I’m aware of was hurt. The church was given some relief aid and currently we’re destributing rice and dried fish to families that were hit hardest.