my first AIDS candlelight memorial.

The current DOH has managed to make great strides in important health issues: smoking and HIV/AIDS. Huzzah!

AIDS Candlelight Memorial March later, 4pm, from Remedios Circle to Rajah Sulayman Park.

Day 2 was island hopping day.

Visited Palawan. Coron, Palawan that is.
Place is so beautiful, my pictures fail to capture its full beauty. But I tried.

Tomorrow is election day.

I have not been such a responsible voter. I have no idea who to vote for our local government positions. I don't have a complete list of senators. I don't even have a final president yet. At least I have a party-list group already.

---
I feel like the candidate I despise will win tomorrow. I'll just have to hope for the best because I really can't stomach the fact that he will represent us in the international community. He will decide what laws will pass and who will head our executive departments. Heck! I'll even have to listen to his SONA for six years.

Part of me wishes he'll do a terrible job so at least the Filipinos will finally learn that voting for someone just because they can trust not to steal him isn't enough. Sure, you trust he won't still? But can you trust him to manage and lead our many offices? our nation's executive machinery? The president's job is not just preventing corruption. In fact, I don't even trust him to do that. Sure, HE might not be corrupt but what about the other members of the government? What about that auditor? that MMDA officer? that office clerk?

But I really hope he does well because I can't go serve the government if this system remains unchanged. I'll probably stick to newspaper and online articles though 'cause his voice and appearance make me cringe. I know I'm shallow like that.

So I have a bunch of reports and a couple of proposals messing my head.

How can I possibly have a vacation with me trying hard to be a researcher?

So much for a stress-free Palawan getaway.

But it is not so bad. I decide when to work and once you get over an issue, it is pretty smooth riding... uhm... er... writing.

I guess a career in research is a very plausible path.

Just attended the HIV/AIDS meeting hosted by the Philippine College of Physicians and Philippine Society of Infectious Diseases.

I learned new stuff regarding the pathophysiology of HIV/AIDS and the HIV/AIDS program of the health sector. I also met some people.

Someone told me that as a med student, HIV status doesn't matter since you chances are you won't be doing anything that would put a patient at risk of getting an infection. Disclosing it will only harm your career. Too bad cause we are supposed to be the lead fighters of stigma against HIV.

The only thing is I'd hope more people had attended and we hoped to have heard some views by religious groups. Ironically, many religious groups actually have hospices and clinics for HIV/AIDS patients but the top. Some religious health workers also encourage the use of condoms especially for sex workers. The problem is Top Management can't get through their silly hats the value of condoms. I guess obsession with the afterlife can do that to you. Unfortunately for them, living a good life doesn't seem to impede a person from getting to heaven. Well, I really don't know since I haven't died yet.

I've been very busy with sudden work both paying and non-paying. At least I get to practice photography again.

So I failed to write a recap of 1st year. Crap. I also failed to do very important org stuff, attend a summit on health financing and have a spontaneous dinner with college friends. O the things we do for our dreams.

I'm still going to write that recap. Promise!

Field work has been good but having minimal net access for five days is very hard. I realize how much I like community work but unfortunately, I also realize more and more how I'm too tied up to city life. Good thing I still have a few more years before I have to choose between the provinces or the city. Not that the city is lacking in people to help. Then again, maybe it is just the internet access that bothered me.

I'm going on immersion this afternoon.

First year is finally over. Second sem has been kinder than the first but I know that's just to make up for the B*tch goddess that is LU4. Still busy though and I have to finalize my summer schedule. Unfortunately, making money is not included.

I don't know why those people pushing for natural cures are so obsessed with poop. You don't even secrete your waste in poop. Poop is the part of food your body doesn't want. If you want wastes (toxins if you will) the body truly makes, look into urine, expired air and sweat.

And some people on Sunday 8-9pm AM radio are illegally practicing medicine. They examine, diagnose and treat people through their radio program.

studying for our comprehensive exam while worrying about our research projects.

and I read some of the questions of last year's compre and one question goes like this:

A patient is experiencing nausea and vomiting. What bone is affected?

oh sh*t
re-reading all that we've studied about the human body makes me wanna puke my brains out. the musculoskeletal, head and neck modules makes me want to quit med all together.

the worst part is when you try answering the sample exams and you see how much you forgot then you remember it took you days of re-reading to get that stuff in then you realize you have less than a week left.

so I could have composed that better but who cares, I still have compre to face.

been busy giving birth to writing our research paper and being such a med student.

anyway, we visited DAMAS which is a shelter/orphanage in Manila.

Benign days are not just suiting me. These "lazy" nights spent reading fiction, writing and editing papers and sleeping early is not right. Still, my mind is a jumble with all the things I plan to do this summer and I just realized that I might have to seek approval of an ethics board for a project.

And summer just sprang upon our unprepared bodies. Morning commute is hot, sticky and uncomfortable. Noontime travel is just hell. I still haven't saved enough to purchase a new lens.

so my friend didn't win a councilor seat.

Too bad, I was hoping the student body will finally unite and demand that the CHDP program be fixed (they have 2-3 years more in that place) and coordinated instead of initiating a separate immersion program.

and the red party, got the two top positions in the usc. blame it on uncharismatic opponents.

I should brace myself for a year of stupidity and jumps in reasoning such as private = bad, not talking to us = no consultations, accreditation = tuition fee increase, attending rallies = serving people, attending class = ignoring national issues.

Maybe, they'll prove me wrong. I hope so. I don't want a USC who doesn't know how to work with the administration.

On beliefs: We never had religious ethics in class. The question assumes you will act as ethically as possible following secular ethical principles. Passing responsibility to someone thus delaying care is not ethical. And we have a method to show that it is.

So yes, our teacher is correct. There is a (note: only one) right answer.

Don't even get me started on how selfish you sound...

If you trace the sudden boom in attention, you'd encounter the start on the day Gibo Teodoro visited UP Manila for the Make Health Count Presidentiable series (spearheaded by the UPM USC).

In that forum, I was in charge of filtering the questions the audience can ask to the presidentiable. The event started late and just after a few questions, the Gibo staff were telling us we have time for one last question. Flustered with the number of questions flooding in, we had to choose the "last" question. It was narrowed down to two: smoking and HIV/AIDS. We chose HIV/AIDS. And apparently the one who asked the question was an advocate of the infection in the Philippines. And now we have this. Which is good. The NEC and DOH has actually been trying hard and failing to capture the mass and media's attention on the disease and they have the surveillance data to back it up.

How funny that I unintentionally played a role in HIV/AIDS advocacy in the country. This is  something to tell my grandchildren or students or whatever when I'm old and moldy.

In much sadder news, January 2010 had the highest number of news cases of HIV diagnosed ever in the Philippines. The NEC points to needle-sharing among IV-drug users.

medgroove 2010

Is it my fault I was sitting in that location?

Medrhythmia 2010

Love love the stage lights.