Healing People, Touching Lives

While I was walking around the God forsaken area of Pier III and Pier II, talking with the people who might be able to help me search for young people who are engage in the sex industry, I began to realize what I am against is not just a simple battle. I realized that it is not just STI or even HIV-AIDS that I am at war against with, I realized I am at war for the right of the poor people to have an equal access to the proper medical attention. I stood there in the corner of the ship deck watching the horizon as the kaleidoscopic reflection of the oil floating on seawater reflected the sun's ray, what I am doing now is not enough, I have to push myself further than this. I look from my left to my right and all I see are all these people living in poverty. So much pain and hunger, so much malady and sickness. I see a very thin boy coughing, and an old woman carrying her bag of cans and metals as she endured the heavy weight on her shoulder.

No, this is not the place I want my children to live in, sickly and malnourished. I went to the boy who keeps on coughing and as he stared to me with his judging eyes, he extended an open hand begging for food, I could not help but ask him, how long has he been coughing he said all his life, ever since his mother left him in Cebu. All I can offer is to buy him three pieces, just three pieces of expectorant and a piece of bread called "pan borikat"...that was all I can offer yet seeing the smile on his face filled me with so much happiness I can't deny that fact that it was one of the most happiest days of my life...

As I asked him where are the sex workers in Piers III where, although he replied to me he does not know where they hide, I can't forget what he said:"Salamat Doc...."(Thanks Doc) I laughed at his gratitute and said "Di man ko Doctor" (I'm not a doctor), he replied "Mira man gud ka doctor manutana" (you ask like a doctor)....That is where I realized I want to become a doctor, the same promise I told my mother when she was diagnosed with brain tumor when I was young, I promised her I will become a doctor...now I stated that promise again but this time not to my mother but to a young stranger I met at Pier III....I want to be a doctor....that boy rekindle my passion for healing...I will become a doctor, I want to be a doctor....and on that day my passion started...