Wednesday, 11/13/13 On your cell phone, please text RELIEF to UNICEF (864233) to automatically donate $10 to the Philippines relief efforts. 10am: Joe has assured me that my message made it to my mom. It may be a month before we get power restored. When I see the devastation of Tacloban that they show on CNN, it makes my heart ache for these poor beautiful people. The damage in Tacloban City is 1000 times what we suffered in Naval. We took a boat to Calubian on Monday where Daylines family lives in a plywood house near the top of a hill. I was so worried about them...thankfully, they are all ok. We had lunch with 15 of her relatives in her aunts small hut/house, and despite the obvious devastation they had just suffered, they welcomed me there for my first time in Calubian and we all had fun. We brought Daylines family back to Naval with us...her mom, dad, sister, brother and 2 nephews. We were planning to bring her dad to Naval soon anyway, because he has some sort of internal infection in his gut that is causing a constant pain and fever, and I had promised to get him to a doctor before it got worse. Hopefully he will get to see someone today; I cannot go with them, because there is a 100% chance that the doctor will charge more if he knows that a rich American is going to be paying for it. We already had that experience with Daylines dentist, who charged Dayline 500 pesos before for the same procedure that suddenly costs 2500 pesos when I payed for it. On top of that, last evening, her 8 year old nephew Justin suffered what appeared to be a mild seizure while napping on our couch after running a high fever of 103 for a few hours. Ronnie went to Calubian to try to bring back one of Daylines relatives who has some sort of medical background, despite my insistence that we go to the hospital. When in Rome, right? Justin is acting fine this morning, laughing and playing and being his normal gregarious self. No sign of Ronnie yet. Even though we made it thru the horrific hurricane with relatively little physical damage to our house , it looks like recovery (ie, power, clean water, food, etc...) could take weeks to reach us. International aid is being very generous, but there are many small coastal towns near Tacloban that have not been reached yet...the death toll in the Tacloban area alone is estimated to be more than 10,000...reports say that the stench from rotting bodies under the rubble is almost unbearable. So far we have been very lucky, but my heart is bleeding :-( 2pm: Ronnie got here about 11am with cousin Enak from Calubian to look at Justin. About 1:30pm Justins temp was 104 F. He was obviously feeling OK this morning...so well keep a close eye on his temp over the next couple hours and hope this was just a spike. Daylines family has an aunt in Tacloban that was in one of the hardest hit areas there, called San Jose. All we can do is wait. Im running short on cash...I have money in the bank, but the banks and ATMs here have no power or Internet access, just like everyone else. Ill have to make a trip to Cebu City in a few days to get some money, especially since we are helping 6 others and have some unexpected medical issues. 8pm: Justins temp has dropped to about 100, and has stayed there for several hours. If it doesnt improve tonight, hell go the ER first thing in the morning.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:17:23 +0000
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