November 2002 Vol. 2 Issue 19
An Internet Newsletter publication of the American Society of CIM Alumni, Inc.
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November 2002 Vol. 2 Issue 19 |
An Internet Newsletter publication of the American Society of CIM Alumni, Inc. | |
| THE ASOCIMAI OFFICERS: Dominador Ong, M.D. Board Members: Horace Cabasares, M.D. CME Coordinator: Ways and Means Committee BRAIN WAVES STAFF: Editorial Board: Maida Antigua, M.D. Editor: Staff Correspondents: Guest Correspondents: Send news, articles, pictures, announcement, obituary, etc., to:clems3ra@adelphia.net
| Editor's Column"Tell them how we love all that was beautiful." - Anonymous American IndianBEAUTY(Part 2)Beauty and Gratitude When the father of one our friends died, we started doing some of our drinking in the cemetery over the grave of my friend's father especially when the moon was bright. After a couple of shots of Tanduay, my friend would start crying on his father's grave and we would leave him alone. I would then take the flashlight with me and busy myself reading the names of those in the graves. Some of them were young, some were my age, some were just a little older and some were old. The only thing common to all of them was that all their problems were gone because they were dead. Perhaps life was brutally hard for them, but still, it made me wonder whether these people, while they were still alive, had the time to appreciate the beauty of life, or they just gave up and succumbed to its brutal hardship. It was a moving experience, and an exercise of imagination. I was able to reconstruct a different world and give myself an occasion for gratitude. I occasionally stop by at the private cemetery here in Petersburg, Virginia, after a long ride with my bicycle and sit on one of the benches to rest. The place is neat and clean. Its grass is green and professionally manicured with trees, shrubs and flowers strategically placed to accentuate its beauty as if the dead or their spirits need not just peace and quiet, but a place to nourish their imagination. But for the living like me, the place gives me the serenity to reflect on how wonderful and beautiful life really is. Most of the ones buried in this cemetery are old and it leads me to believe that many of them must have lived their life to the fullest. Aging and Inner Beauty Aging is often thought of as an entirely negative process and experience. People often assume that when the body slows down, so does the mind. But just because aging can physically erode the body and slow one's pace doesn't mean that the mind is similarly eroded or one's determination and faith are fading. Indeed the body surface never stays the same. Wrinkles and gray hairs happen. Muscle tone changes; strength weakens; bags underneath the eyes develop; even manhood limps. But it's not what you look like but who you are that gives life its beauty, meaning and purpose. You can change the surface by plastic surgery, implantation, make-up, and even Viagra, etc., and re-acquire your macho, youth and beauty, but do they change your inside? Do they make your inner beauty more beautiful? James A. Garfield said: "If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon our heart. The spirit should not grow old."
Behold, the Beautiful The river runs wild... |
Unfortunately, many of us become trapped in the rapids. Our lives are full of turmoil, tension and frustration. We keep struggling with our circumstances. We hang on to our skepticism and prejudices. When our feelings are hurt, the damage is often irreparable. We cannot forgive, let alone forget, unable to realize that forgiveness is the key to understanding what it is to love and be loved. We cannot let go of our grudges, gripes, resentments and disappointments that render our spirit overburdened and malnourished. We often worry about tomorrow and our joy of living depends on what tomorrow may bring, rarely if ever considering that every time tomorrow comes, it is today. So caught up in the agitation and turbulence of the river, we have no more time to appreciate, let alone smell the beautiful flowers along the banks.
"Those were the days…." Indeed life was easy in the Philippines. We had more spare time than we knew what to do with it. I sometimes would spend my time wondering what Adam and Eve were doing alone in Paradise before they ate the fruit of the tree of life. I found it hard to imagine that they just looked at each other, unaware that they had something for each other's pleasure and desire. It led me to think that perhaps it was their restlessness, not the snake's temptation that made them eat the forbidden fruit. Somehow this reminds me of Boy Dajao's joke he told during our recent meeting in Philadelphia while we were riding in the van, about marriage in a certain religion in which the newlywed couple are not allowed to have sex until the fifth day after the wedding. During the first day, the restless husband pleaded for his wife to show him her breasts and the wife relented. The second day the husband asked to touch the wife's breasts and he was allowed. The husband was getting restless so that on the third day, he pleaded again to see his wife naked. After a relatively short deliberation, the wife took off all her clothes for her husband to see her naked body. On the fourth day, as the husband's restlessness became unbearable, all day long he begged and even kneeled down to be allowed to touch his wife's private parts. At the end of the day, the wife finally took pity on him. After gently caressing his wife's private parts, the husband brought his hand to his nose. Smelling it, he said: "Dili na ni kaugma-an, Day. Nanimaho na." Honestly, I was grateful that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. I just couldn't imagine what would have happened if they didn't. Would man and woman have discovered the pleasure of sex? More likely, sex would have become only as a means of procreation - not pleasure. Well, those were the days. In Search of Beauty So how do we find beauty? One way is to stop taking life for granted and start noticing things by living in the present and looking around. Natural beauty can be spectacular. There is the bright, full moon, glowing orange or ethereal white. We can see it reflected on shimmering waters of a lake or an ocean, like silver streaks on a cool, black mirror. We simply have to open our senses and take it in. In this Thanksgiving, learn to savor and cherish the sunshine and the wind, the moon and the stars, the falling leaves, the fragrance of flowers, and most of all, the love and friendship you have now. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU! Pssst!!.... Have pity on the turkey.
It was a whole lot different during our younger days in the Philippines. Life was sweet and simple, and problems were few and trivial. Oh, for the good old days! We had minutes, we had hours, and we had years. Our time was cheap; it had almost no value except as chronology. One of our biggest problems was how to convince our parents to send us more money or to increase our allowance. We did not consider cheating or lying to our parents as bad, but as justifiable. Among the boys, getting good grades was often less difficult than getting the girl we liked to like us. But as time passes, fortune smiles and frowns, here in the U.S., we still have so many things to do and so little time to do them. Lady Retirement who, not too long ago started flirting with many of us is gone, and the stock market keeps her away from us. So back to more plans to make, schedules to meet, and priorities to attend to, and we almost always allow all these activities to snatch the whip of hurry from the hands of time and dictate the rhythm of our lives. Thus our life is anything but balance.
Indeed if we are open to seeing beauty, we find it all around us, and time would just be there for us to take. We know how much the American Indians love the earth. To them, there is so much beauty in every tiny piece of nature. The rocks, the mountains, the wild flowers, the animals, the bark of the tree, the veins of a leaf, the murmuring brooks, etc., are beautiful to them. And all they have is the genuine desire to love many small things of beauty, and the simple ability to open up and let beauty in. Vincent Van Gogh said: "The best way to know God is to love many things."
More than one person has discovered all manner of beauty after coming close to death, from that vantage-point, everything is beautiful. Yes, beauty is life and life is beauty. So wake up, start living, step outside of your own private world and take time to see the beauty of it all!
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The Reunion Raffle
Have you ever dreamed of having driven a sports Mercedes Benz? Well, I had. It was a very pleasant dream, but it did not go far enough. Although I was driving in style, until now, it has remained as a dream. Kids and mortgages have been conspiring against turning any of my dreams into reality. But according to those who have driven one, driving a sports Mercedes Benz is like riding in an airplane on the runway just before take off. Only it's a lot smoother and you're behind the wheel where you have the command and control under your fingertips. As soon as the rubber meets the road, you immediately feel the thrill and the power. Then you can put on its stereo and listen to its digital music that sounds crisp and clear in the comfort of the cool air that circulates gently from its powerful air-conditioner with an automatic temperature control. You just let the car hugs the road and tackles the curves. As you continue to step on the gas pedal into an open stretch, your right foot seems to be commanding the wheels as to its speed and your hands seem to be gently touching the rubbers and the road to guide where the car is going. If you have to brake for any reason, it brakes in an instant without slipping or losing control.
But how would you be able to dream on a sports Mercedes Benz? Here's how. You can now write a check for $200 and send to: ASOCIMAI, 13 Garrity Terrace, Pinebrook, New Jersey 07058, for a pretty good chance of driving that Mercedes next July 2003. Your cancelled check will be your receipt and on it will be your lot or raffle ticket number. But make sure you don't lose your cancelled check so that you can legitimately claim your prize although we'll keep a copy of your check. Remember this is a first-come-first-served-basis raffle. The earlier you send your check, the more assured you're going to be in having that chance of winning that sports Mercedes Benz. It doesn't matter whether you are a member of our alumni or not, whether you are a physician or a magician, a politician or a mortician, a chef or a CEO. Your check, if it doesn't bounce, is as good as anyone's. The only thing this particular sports car will not brake for is a bouncing check. You can also send money order and we'll give you a copy of the money order with the ticket number. Please send no cash. Cash makes the hands that handle the mail hairy. Also, there is a good chance that if we are able to sell 500 tickets, the maximum number, we'll pay for the transport within the U.S. and Canada where you can pick up the car in the dealer near you. This has not been decided yet, but it's more likely if we sell the maximum number of tickets. Further, we'll have about five more elegant prizes in this raffle.
For ASOCIMAI members, please take a moment to reflect on contributing something for charity because the fund that we'll raise from this raffle is solely for our association's charitable functions and obligations. If you don't want to do that, then think of the lucky break winning the sports Mercedes Benz. But we know you have a big heart. It's just that you are often too busy to have the time to listen to your heartbeat. Please listen to it now. There, there…While you are opening your checkbook, could you also write another check - a hundred dollars for your membership fee, please…? Or you can go to our ASOCIMAI web site and pay your membership fee there. This fee is tax deductible. Believe me. Uncle Sam will love you for it. Finally, we also need your help in selling the raffle tickets. Please ask and encourage your friends, co-workers, relatives, and other people you know of to participate in our raffle fund raising event.
"Dream, when you're feeling blue…."
Many people give great significance to the dreams they could remember when they awoke. People with pleasant dreams often start their day with a smile. They're upbeat as if the day is going to be pleasant and sunny. No, not the wet dreams which are relatively common among teenage kids. Such dreams make many kids worried. But no, definitely not this kind of pleasant dreams. The kind that makes you feel good and makes you want to go back to sleep to have that dream again or its continuation. But you don't have to change your pajama in a hurry when you wake up. You don't want to have bad dreams or nightmares, do you? So if you prefer to have a pleasant dream like winning and driving the sports Mercedes Benz, you've got to enter the raffle so that it has a chance to dominate your thought when you go to sleep. Whatever dominates your thought when you go to sleep, you're likely to dream about it.
Dreams are almost always composed of images that are charged with emotions but they are lacking in logic. It is because when we're asleep, the prefrontal cortex or the "thinking brain" that plans, makes rational connections and draws conclusion lies dormant. Only the visual cortex of the brain, the part that creates pictures in the mind, is wide-awake. This has been demonstrated with the use of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. In this procedure, a small amount of radioactive glucose is injected into the blood and it shows which parts of the brain "lights up" or become active during a person's dream. So if you want to have a pleasant dream with that sports Mercedes Benz, start visualizing yourself in it before you go to sleep. Go ahead. Don't be shy. Nobody knows it but you. You deserve every such dream you want to have, unless of course you don't buy the ticket.
Pakna-an Donation It's hard to be human In everything we do, even if we do something for nothing, there are risks involved, like the risk of making mistakes. Mistakes no matter how small, have consequences like being penalized for them with criticisms, negative comments, insults, ridicule, and other forms of penalty like avoiding or shunning you. Somehow mistakes seem to be easily noticed by everyone while achievements are hardly recognized by anyone. And then there are those individuals who seem to be patiently waiting for you to make mistake so that they can have the opportunity to hand down their penalty. It makes you wonder whether it's just you, or these individuals are just plain mean. That's why it's hard for anyone to volunteer to take the initiative of doing something for nothing, for even if one has the guts to go against the grain, the risk is not worth the roll. Indeed it would take either genuine compassion, true kindness, personal desire, personal growth or development for someone to take the initiative of doing something for nothing. But as long as you have any one of these motivations in taking new endeavors even if these endeavors are for nothing, you would always be focused on achieving, and despite mistakes, you would go on and not allow others to have the pleasure of denying your values and desires. There is no question that it's hard to be human, but then again, simply accept the fact that you are, and learn to tolerate mistakes, shrug off their consequences, and move on. Ironically, most, if not all people, would readily profess that they are humans and therefore, not perfect. And yet.....and yet.....(Now think about this carefully) they would unwittingly demand perfection by not being able to tolerate their mistakes and those of others. They are God's creations of contradiction. Anyway, I just thought it would be a good idea to give you some of my philosophical thoughts in the light of the mistake I had made last week sending you what I thought was a virus warning that turned out to be only a virus hoax. November 22. 2002 Dear ASOCIMAI Officers and Members: Thanks again for the opportunity to meet many of you in your alumni reunion last July in Washington, D.C. and to offer our services. Three weeks ago, during the ASOCIMAI officers' meeting in Philadelphia, we met with your officers, board members and committee members and we talked about two distinct subjects: the CIM Foundation and the Physicians Financial Alliance. For those of you that have joined or are in the process of joining the Foundation, you may look forward to substantial benefits in the future. Please remember that the Physicians Financial Alliance is a great opportunity for you to better understand how investments are affected in the ups and downs of the market. And more importantly the PFA will give you the education and support you need to maintain your peace of mind in uncertain times. CIM Foundation recommends that you utilize the dedicated services offered by Joe Matson and his affiliates. Consider them as your in-house resources and feel free to call them with your questions. In the future you will receive a monthly Physicians Financial Alliance letter to help with your important retirement planning and asset protection. Sincerely, William R. Goan Medicine encompasses the whole universe of sanitation, hygiene, genetics, nutrition, behavior and therapeutics all in relationship to man in his natural , social, economic and political environment. Unfortunately, the present set-up in our health care system demonstrates a divorce between clinical medicine and public health. Clinical medicine is only a part of medicine , so is public health. Neither of these two branches can stand alone. Only when they are together and when activities in each field proceed simultaneously with joint and corresponding activities to bring about a degree of social , economic and political development and of community involvement can we ever hope to bring a degree of preventive , promotive, curative and rehabilitative health to our people. This dichotomy in clinical medicine and public health is aided by the fact that physicians receive training for clinical medicine in one hand and for public health practice on the other hand. This is true in the Philippines among many other countries, The various training programs for physicians and other health professionals are set for the two identified branches of medicine. This also holds true in the organizational arrangement for clinical medicine and public health. It has led to two distinct specialties which has perpetuated itself in the national health care system: one for public health and the other for medical care. Many efforts had been initiated to close this gap. The most recent was the Health For All with primary health care as the key approach. It is in essence a package of social medicine to all people, integrating preventive, curative, rehabilitative and promotive medicine and conceived as an integral part of any country's plan for socio-economic development, which would in turn improve the quality of life. Modern medicine, despite its many advances has failed to address itself to the larger and more important health problems of the time. It is therefore necessary to give greater meaning to social relevance and also to the management of of the ongoing problems in health care. When viewed in this light, we realize the enormous challenge it present to health training institutions that must assume responsibility, make the necessary changes and encourage the physicians to meet the challenge. It is therefore, a challenge to health manpower development. We have to open our eyes to the realities that even if clinical medicine and public health has its distinct role to play, together they constitute the whole practice of medicine. The Cebu Institute of Medicine as one of the leading medical schools in the country has a very strong community based medical education in their undergraduate medical curriculum and for their residents in training in the Department of Family & Community Medicine. The institution believed that to be a complete and caring physician, the practice of medicine should extend beyond the care of the patient and his family to answering the health needs of the community. It is in this light that the Department of Family & Community Medicine require their family medicine residents in training to pursue a Materal Course in Public Health as double track in the residency program with the following objectives: OBJECTIVE: THE PROGRAM: The Cebu Institute of Medicine, Department of Family & Community Medicine is the only one in the country having this kind of training for their residents as an Integrated Family Medicine MPH Course. The MPH course under the University of the Philippines-Open University is a three year course. We encouraged our residents to enroll in the first year of their residency training but it was found out that they have a difficult time adjusting to the demands of the first year residency in addition to the MPH course, notwithstanding the fact that they only have to go to class every first Saturday of the month. Now, the residents start their MPH course by the second year of their residency training. Since we started three years ago, one resident Dr. Dennis Esquivel, who has finished his residency and has established his practice in his hometown in Palo, Leyte, will be graduating in March 2003 from his MPH course and at the same time will be taking his Specialty Board Certification in Family Medicine by January 2003. We have one resident Dr. Aileen Riel Espina, who is in her second year, MPH, from Tacloban, Leyte, who likewise will be finishing her residency training at the end of this year. Two residents will be enrolling this coming schoolyear. One resident, Dr. Florentino Berdin who was sent by CIM to UP Manila for the one year MPH course, graduated last March 2000. He is currently with the department of Family & Community Medicine while establishing his private practice in Lapulapu City. These residents enrolled and who will be enrolled in the UP-Open University are personally supporting their Masteral studies from their salaries as residents. Almost all of our residents after training will be going home to their hometowns. And they are all CIM graduates. FUTURE PLANS: Funds can be sent directly to the fellow concerned or through the CIM Department of Family & Community Medicine and the accounting sent to the ASOCIMAI or the specific donor. "Nobody grows old by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." ---Samuel Ullman "Imagination has always had powers of resurrection that no science can match." -- Ingrid Bengis "Tomorrow doesn't matter for I have lived today." -- Horace "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." -- James D. Miles "The most vital test of a man’s character is not how he behaves after success, but how he sustains defeat." -- Raymond Moley "Character is the foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character." -- R.C. Samsel "In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways." -- Edith Wharton Shortly before her fourth marriage, a middle-aged woman went to see her doctor to ask for advice on sex, more particularly on how to do it. The doctor was amazed. He said: "You've been married three times before, surely you know what you have to do by now." A wife woke up in the middle of the night to hear her husband sobbing uncontrollably downstairs. She put on her gown and went to investigate. This guy walks up to the ticket counter at the airport wearing a long
trench coat. A wife told her husband that the cleaner was broken and ordered her husband to fix it. Perusing the aisles of the Asian store in our neighborhood one afternoon, I
did a double-take when I heard two women having what was unmistakably a
lively conversation. Overhearing a loud conversation among Filipinos is hardly
unusual in this area, where the biggest concentration of Filipino expatriates
live. In certain cities, in fact, (notably Daly City) one can sometimes be
lulled into thinking that one is in Manila, not California, because you hear our
native tongue spoken everywhere. But this was different; the women were speaking in Cebuano and, since I only know few Cebuanos here, hearing someone actually speaking it in public was
too good to pass up. I hurriedly went over and introduced myself as another
Cebuano, thus initiating a long, boisterous exchange that involved tracing our
family histories, establishing our hometowns, trying to determine who we knew
from each other's clans and a lot of other topics that can easily perplex
anyone who knows neither the language nor the kinship that pervades Filipino
culture. Nahinangop, we said of ourselves. There is no direct translation for that
word in English. It connotes eagerness and longing. It implies an absence and
subsequently, a sense of fulfillment. The linguists among us may question this
awkward attempt of mine to translate what is basically a feeling. It's like
the thrill and enthusiasm one feels when, after being stranded alone in an
island, one is finally back to the warm embrace of family. I don't know if this is true of those who speak other Filipino dialects but
I've noticed that when Cebuanos meet in casual situations, they never use any
other language to converse with each other except Cebuano. My high school
classmate, Celeste and I, for example, may be speaking Tagalog or English in a
gathering of friends, but when we address each other we switch to Cebuano,
complete with the proper accent and the Cebuano way of pronouncing certain
non-Cebuano words. It just comes naturally, this switch; we were not even
conscious of it until someone pointed it out. And we could not explain why we do
it except that it feels hilas (grossly pretentious) to do otherwise. I do find it strange and amusing sometimes, how I feel so strong a longing
for anything Cebuano now that I'm in America. I've always considered myself a
taga-Manila, or more specifically, a native of Quezon City where I've lived
since I was three. I retained my knowledge of Cebuano because my parents never
learned how to speak Tagalog, so it became for me a language for the home,
something I would immediately discard the moment I step out the door. I'm
sure, growing up, there was some embarassment involved because I remember being
very proud that I spoke Tagalog like a native even if I always did poorly in
my Pilipino classes. There is a big difference after all between reading and
writing in a language from actually speaking it, and my language brain cells,
straddling two tongues, never quite grasped the grammar of both. Aside from language, my knowledge of anything Cebuano was hardly something
to boast about when I was growing up. Those days, traveling even within the
country was not done except when absolutely necessary. The Manila-Cebu route
was serviced mostly by slow, overcrowded ships that took almost three days to
reach their destination. Propeller planes took more than two bumpy hours (as
opposed to the present-day 45 minutes by luxurious jets). Needless to say, it
took my parents a lot of years after we moved from Cebu to Quezon City to
return for a vacation. My connection to my Cebuano roots therefore was flimsy and occasional. I
would get a huge dose of it when relatives come to visit. Since we were the only
family on both sides to be actually Manila-based (our relatives never
distinguished between Manila and Quezon City), everyone who had business in
Manila stayed with us. There was never a time during my younger years when we did
not have cousins (sometimes as many as five) living with us while they were in
college. When graduation time came, that was when my aunts and uncles
descended upon us, bringing with them the delicacies, the fruits and the spices
that were uniquely Cebuano, regaling me with stories about enkanto and wakwak
(supernatural beings) while satiating my senses with the aroma and taste of
home-cooked Cebuano dishes. To this day I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, aching to taste once again the torta, inasal, pirdis, humba, mahareal, tagaktak, puso (pronounced differently from the Tagalog term for heart), ginamos, buwad, Mandaue bibingka, budbud-kabog, bu-ongon, Carcar ampao, sisi, suriso, puto maya, tinughong and other delicacies that populate my Cebuano memories. I am constantly in search of recipes for them, even if I know I can never hope to recapture the distinctive tastes that made all of them permanently imprinted in my mind. On my last visit to the province a few years ago, I felt a little sad that the city that I knew as being smaller and gentler than Metro Manila has transformed into a bustling metropolis, with the usual blights that accompany such progress. The quiet street where my parents' house used to be is now the route of jeepneys, Magellan Hotel is gone and the Ayala Mall has taken its place. The old trees that used to shade Gorordo Avenue and Mango Avenue have been uprooted to give way to commercial buildings. Despite all these signs of "progress," there was an energy and a comfort there that I did not feel in Metro Manila. It was as if Cebuanos, with their legendary stubbornness, have collectively determined that despite the high-rises, the malls and the urban traffic, they will remain what they always have been: small-town residents who know each other and care about each other's business. Some people may deride it as nosiness, I chose to look at it through rose-tinted glasses and call it home. Ten short days with my elderly parents in Argao were bliss. Nothing compares. I woke up at 4 every morning to the sound of my mother starting her day with her novenas. My father would be outside tending to his plants and vegetable garden, feeding his chickens, and at 90, doing his daily one-kilometer walking exercise. The house help would be in the kitchen preparing breakfast. The aroma of a freshly made "sikwate" (chocolate beverage) would pull me out of bed. Couple that with a hot pan de sal, and that would start my day, the rest of which were spent reading through old issues of newspapers and magazines to catch up with what’s going on in the Philippines. Nothing eventful, really, for me while I’m at my parents’ house. My father, on the other hand, has his hands very full with tasks, menial and/or otherwise. There has been continuing construction work in or around my parent’s home since the last four years. The construction got started with a gazebo made of bamboo at the back of the house when my father thought he needed a karaoke place for his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews and nieces to hang out. A few months later, the space got expanded to include a nipa-hut (bahay-kubo) because the gazebo was too small. Then he enlarged the concrete patio just off the dining room and kitchen because the gazebo and the bahay-kubo combined did not provide enough space for entertaining and hanging out. Last year, he thought the kitchen was too small a room that he decided to double its size so that my eldest brother and my youngest sister would not be in each other’s way while cooking. This past June, when all of my parents’ grandchildren, great-grandchildren, grand-nieces and grand-nephews (all 38 of them) gathered for a reunion, my father realized his house did not have enough bedrooms and bathrooms to accommodate everyone. So very predictably, he started construction again to add three more bedrooms and two more bathrooms to his already 3-bedroom, 2-bath house. Makes me wonder what he’s thinking – because on a daily basis, there’s only my mother, my father and two house helpers in that house. Everyone calls him Daddy – his children, grand children, great grandchildren, god-children, nephews, nieces, his children’s friends – just about everyone. I call him Dadz! Dadz celebrated his 90th birthday two weeks ago. With a wide smile beaming on his wrinkled face, he became teary-eyed as he blew the candles on his birthday cake, surrounded with family and friends who love him. For someone known to be a man of few words, he so eloquently did a 5-minute speech. Watching him from the veranda outside, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to the days of my youth. Memories of and with my father are countless, priceless. To people who barely know him, he is an ordinary mortal. He was a schoolteacher for the most part of his professional life (although, sometimes, I think that, maybe, he is a frustrated architect or a frustrated builder with the rate his house is constantly worked on). To his children, and to the many people whose lives he has touched, he is special. Discipline and education are two big words in his vocabulary. He would always say discipline would give one the roots to integrity, and education would give one the wings to soar and explore. There was a time when I hated my Dadz because I thought his ideals were too high to reach, his principles were too straight to be adhered to, his discipline was too debilitating and his standard for education was too high a mountain to climb. At one point in my life I thought, my father did not love me and I was just there as a trophy to his fatherhood. Then, I stumbled and I fell. While the rest of my little world crumbled and people thought the worst about me, my father was the first to pick me up, cradled me in his arms, and cried with me. He did not shelter me from the rain – instead, he made me dance in the rain and he made me spread my arms in the rain. He told me not to apologize for the mistakes I made, because the mistakes I make in life will be my instrument that will lead me through. If this is not unconditional love, I don’t know what is. He wrote a book on his 60th birthday entitled "Epitome of Fidelity and Courage" which he dedicated to me when my oldest son was born. It was only after reading that book did I fully understand the stuff my father is made of. Although his spirit about life is still very much the way it was, his brilliant mind is slowly failing. His aging physique has shown the wear and tear of time. He no longer has long term goals in life, and he now cruises through life on a day-to-day basis. I dread for that one day to come when I will speak about my father in the past tense. In the mean time, I take every opportunity to relish my time with him. We, children, can not choose our parents – but we, children, have the power and the capability to carve the quality of our relationship with them. To Visit the American Society of CIM, Inc., click on any of the ASOCIMAI below:
A couple of months ago, Dr. Thelma Fernandez was asking for a used EKG machine for Pakna-an. Many of you probably thought that we have forgotten about it. We didn't. One of our classmates of the class 1972, Vilma Camomot Witten, definitely did not forget about it. She updated me periodically of her promise to secure at least one EKG machine. She finally was able to persuade the Southside Community Hospital of Farmville, Virginia to give her an EKG machine for donation. Thelma's brother Edwin La Rosa of the CIM class 1978 has been very helpful during the process. He had the machine picked up already two weeks ago by UPS and he is taking care of shipping it to the Philippines. This is an excellent example of cooperation and coordination in achieving excellent result.
Many of us could have easily done what Vilma did. But on many occasions, an unassigned task is not done or carried on even if we have the intention of doing it ourselves, for one simple reason and that is - our tendency to take things like this for granted, assuming that someone else is going to do it. So why even bother? Well, at least in this case, Vilma did. However, the fact of the matter is, taking the initiative of doing something for almost absolutely nothing in return, is not an encouraging prospect. Who would want to take risk for nothing? "Someone who is crazy enough," is probably the answer of everyone. 
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A Letter To ASOCIMAI
Financial Consultant 1462 SW Troon Circle Palm Beach, Florida 34990 1-800-353-7923 pfajm@adelphia.net
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THE CEBU INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENCY TRAINING WITH MASTERS OF PUBLIC HEALTH
by Thelma Fernandez, M.D. Class 1966
The family medicine residents will undergo a structured primary care training through the integrated Family Medicine-MPH Program. The MPH component of the program will be through the Open University of the University of the Philippine System. With this program, we hope to train the future family physicians for population based clinical practice skills for them to have more holistic approach to health care and development, whether they be practicing in the urban or rural areas. In so doing, they will be prepared to collaborate and cooperate with other health related sectors, both government and non government in a more meaningful manner. Ultimately, they will be role models for others in the practice of clinical medicine and public health and as such provide a comprehensive and compassionate form of health care to fullfill CIM's mission /vision of producing physicians with a heart. And for their personal development, they will be provided with an additional option or career pathway.
The department had been trying to get funding for our residents for their MPH course. Each resident will be needing at least Php 15,000 for the first two years and Php 20,000 for the third year. The amount for the third year will include the expenses for the resident's fare in going to and from Cebu City every first Saturday of the month for their classes/exam as they would have been finished with their residency training by then. We believe that this is a worthy cause and we hope some generous and socially concerned alumni will see the ultimate benefit it will give to the Filipino people.***********************************
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"No, that's the point," said the woman, "I don't. My first husband was a gynecologist and all he wanted was to look at it; my second husband was a psychiatrist and all he wanted was to talk about it; my third husband worked for the Post Office and he couldn't find it. Now I'm getting married to a lawyer so I'm bound to be screwed sometime!"**************
"Honey, whatever's the matter?" she asked.
"Remember 20 years ago I got you pregnant, and your father threatened to have me thrown in jail if I didn't marry you?"
"Of course I do," she said.
"Well, I'd have been released tonight." ********************
The very pleasant ticket agent says to him, "May I see your ticket
please?"
He steps back and opens his trench coat and flashes her.
She looks at him standing there stark naked under the trench coat, and
with a smirk on her face, she says ever so sweetly, "I must see your ticket,
Sir, not just the stub."**********************************
"Do I look like the Hoover repairman?" the husband asked indignantly and carried on reading the newspaper.
The next day she told him that the washing machine had broken and ordered him to fix it.
"Do I look like the Maytag repairman?" he snapped and carried on reading the paper.
The day after, she told him that the computer was broken and ordered him to fix it.
"Do I look like the Dell Computer repairman?" he moaned and carried on reading the paper.
A few weeks later, the husband said: "I see you got everything fixed. How did you get it all done so cheap?"
"Well," said the wife, "you know Pete next door? He agreed to do the repairs for free if I'd sleep with him or sing him a song."
"What song did you sing?" asked the husband.
The wife replied: "Do I look like Tina Turner?"
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Craving Cebu
by Anny Misa-Hefti
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About A Father
by: marie belen c. flores-rosales, md mph - cim’70
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San Diego, California
San Diego, CaliforniaTop
