Currently, several hundred miles east of this island
is Typhoon In-Fa. It is presently a
Category 4 typhoon with sustained winds of 126.5 mph and gusts up to 155 mph
with swells upwards of 38 feet. Although
it is headed toward the Philippines, forecasters are saying that it will be
making a sharp right turn to the northeast within a couple of days. This has been the track with most of the
typhoons in the Western Pacific this year, but I am not complaining. Besides, those weather systems draw in the
moisture laden clouds from either the SW or NE monsoonal flows and they always
seem to pass over this island and bless us with copious amounts of
precipitation. Rain without the destructive
winds, I can live with that quite easily.
Within the past year, our house has been blessed with
two childhood diseases. The first one
was Chickenpox. Interestingly, the boys were
the ones to suffer that temporary malady, but neither of the girls were afflicted. I recall when my children in the states were
young, they all went through their rite of passage with that youthful ailment. They were always itching and, as with every
other small child, had to pick at the scabs leaving tiny blemishes which would
last a lifetime. No matter how hard we
tried to keep them from scratching, it never always worked. Of course, a couple of months ago, our house
was stricken with a case of pink eye (it is called “sore eyes” here). This time it was the girls and me who endured
the inconvenience of teary as well as puss filled eyes while the boys were
spared from the infection. I found it
interesting that the two boys would be the only ones to suffer chickenpox while
the girls would be the only ones to contract pink eye. Now, Dengue Fever was not so
discriminating. All of the children,
including me, had to endure at one time or another this rampant and potentially
fatal disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
One of the major problems with the virus was the victims would not drink
enough liquid, become dehydrated, and thus ended up in the hospital with IV’s…..if they could afford it. For the many poor, it could mean a bleak
future if not treated in time especially for the very young as well as the very
old. I always made sure that everyone in
this house drank plenty of fluids. For my children, it was a case of high fever
with resulting body rash afterward; whereas for me it also caused the knee
joints to swell up, leaving me almost completely debilitated. I could barely walk without assistance for
over a month, and then the knees still pained me for months after that. And yes, you can be re-infected over and over….fortunately,
the subsequent infections are not as severe as the original.
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| Carolyn Basoy (l) & Clarisse Baguio (r) |
Clarisse has had a classmate stay at our house for the
past couple of nights. Carolyn is
sixteen years old and has been tutoring Clarisse in math for the two weeks. Clarisse gets good grades in all of her other
subjects, but struggles with math. The
cost of having this classmate tutor her will be somewhere around ten dollars a
month, plus a filling meal when she is here.
I am very proud of the grades my kids have been receiving this past
school year. Thankfully they have come to realize the educational opportunities
they are being given because of me. Conversely,
I do remember when my son Brad was in eighth grade and getting a D- in Social
Studies. When I informed him that he
would not be able to succeed in life or even get into a decent college with
those grades….his only retort to that was, “Why are you so upset, I’m not
flunking!” I am just thankful his
demeanor changed by the time he began college.
We have several people who aimlessly wander the
streets in our town. They are not necessarily
mentally retarded, but are afflicted with whatever mental illness which causes
such conditions. One, we call (within
our house) the plaza lady, is always singing quite loudly when walking and if there
is music playing, she will wildly dance to the beat of whatever is coming out
of the speakers. One day, she had a toy
gun as she was walking down the street.
I was playing Frisbee at the time when I suddenly heard her yell “Bang!
You’re dead!”……followed by, “Maybe not”.
Basically, I observed that when a trike or motor vehicle passed, she
shot would aim her plastic weapon at it.
Most adults ignore her as well as the other hapless souls in town, but
the students are the ones who are the cruelest with her and them. They taunt and tease them mercilessly. We have had discussions at the dinner table
about those with mental conditions, how we should show empathy toward them
instead of ridicule and be glad that
we are not in their situation. And before we get on our high horse and claim
that we Americans are above that type of attitude toward those of like condition,
I have also witnessed their mistreatment at the hands of youth and adult
alike. Unfortunately, humanity can be
cruel in that regard and as for me, I consider it a sad situation indeed.
Daryl Cleveland a.k.a.
bounder
November 21, 2015
Hope the storm misses you.
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