| Monday was hectic at the Marinduque Provincial Hospital (MPH), the "command post" of the mission and where the surgeries, ophthalmology, ENT, and pediatric consultation clinics were located. Being the first day of the mission, the missioners were ready and excited until they saw the people when they arrived at the MPH. Approximately 200 people of all ages were at the hospital's vicinity first thing in the morning. People crowded in front of the mission's ophthalmology and ENT clinic and along the corridor at the nearby Financial & Administrative offices where the pediatric clinic was located. The "crowd managers" were overwhelmed with the influx of people trying to be in front of the line. As more patients came, added frustrations developed on the part of the patients and caused more head-aches for the missioners assigned to manage the crowd. "Crowd Control" is an important factor to the process in order to ease-up the congestion in front of the clinic and at other sites |
| for that matter. Walkie-talkies proved to be a necessity for "crowd mana-gers" when looking for somebody to make decisions on a particular pro-blem in case the president is not available. Dr. Hector Sulit for ins-tance, Steve Sosa and Ching Manalo who were at the MPH were always at hand when problems occur. The high humidity was so unbearable, at least for me, that I consumed three large bottled water (the water and not the bottle) to relieve me from dehy-dration. The same amount of people converged at the Boac covered court where President Dr. Rudy Jao were conducting their offsite clinic. With him were: Dr. Efren Leonida, Dr. Virgie Madla, Dr. Cely Roque, Dr. Michelle Jao, Dr. Gaily Gonzales, and quite a few nurses who really did a wonderful job. The hot and muggy weather made the patients, especially the kids, felt tired and uncomfortable but didn't prevent the missioners (who were not acclimated in this kind of climate anymore) from performing their tasks to serve the hundreds of patients with their respective medical |
| needs. Infants, toddlers and adults alike dared hunger and thirst due to the intense heat just to avail of the free medical services and medicines offered by the mission. A very sad scene to see because you can feel it in your heart that these people are really desperate to see a doctor. For them, everybody who was wearing the mission's T-Shirt were doctors. They approached us when they saw us out in the street or in the court-yard - in desperation because they were at the back of the line. Of course we advised them to fall in line in order to get their numbers called in accordance with the mission's procedure. At 5 pm, the clinical services were done for the day and the missioners went to the Katague residence at Amoingon, Boac for dinner. The newly built concrete building is set back at 100 feet from the main road and probably 300 feet from the beach with plenty of coconut trees and bushes within the property. /by Rey Muhi |
| |MARINDUQUE INTERNATIONAL, INC. |
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| Taken at Boac covered court Monday morning |
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| Mission of Love II |
| Volume 5.1 Fall 2001 |
| MARINDUQUENEWS International |
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