In clearing out all the jetsam and flotsam from my Blog I inadvertantly deleted the second to last entry leaving a huge gap between June and October of 2012. So, a recap...
On July 3rd Lovely, my lover at the time, suddenly convinced herself that I did not really love her and was only toying with her. Despite my best attempts at convincing her otherwise, she wouldn't let go of that idea and it quickly devolved into us breaking up. Lovely then disappeared and on the third day, July 6th, the stress precipitated a case of Sepsis, or Blood Poisoning. When I was 17, in the army and fighting in Southern Lebanon, I was wounded in a firefight. A 7.62MM shell from an AK47 round ricocheted off some concrete debris, entered below my chin and then ricocheted inside my head tearing up my jaw and my sinuses. Despite microsurgery I still have tiny, almost microscopic metal fragments throughout my jaw. Stress can cause fragments to migrate and voila...
I became very ill and was hospitalised in Butuan, the major population centre in my part of Mindanao. When I was fit for travel, though still quite ill, I flew to New York to receive better medical care. It was in New York, on July 26th that Lovely contacted me via email. Telling me she was sorry but she felt it was better to go our seperate ways because she could not believe that I truly loved her. I told her of course that the stress from our breaking up had almost killed me but despite her sadness, she sheld steadfastly to her idea.
We continued communicating and by the middle of August had come to an understanding that when I returned to Mindanao she and I would work on our relationship. Lovely made it clear that she was hoping I'd return by her 23rd birthday on September 3rd and with that dear reader, you are brought up to speed in order to appreciate the following entry...
With Lovely's birthday looming brightly in my mind I flew home for a brief visit on August 26th. My plan was to fly south from Manila on September 2nd in order to suprise Lovely. Well to do Bisaya have a custom where dozens of clan members will serenade an unmarried female on her birthday well before sunrise. I planned to join her family members and suprise her when she awoke to the others' singing under her window. Purchasing my ticket for Mindanao I then set about spending a few days seeing old friends in Makati and the rest of Metro Manila.
One old friend told me about his new girlfriend, a 22 year old RN and invited me to dine with them. Going to a Korean BBQ joint we had a pleasant evening and the girl, MJ, invited me to join them on a visit to her family home in Zambales Province, 5 hours north of Manila. The next afternoon they picked me up and drove north out of the city.
Arriving in the municipality of Iba I was shocked when my friend entered an INC compound. INC, or Iglesia ni Cristo, is a homegrown Christian cult famed for its strict discipline and atypical cultish behavior. Seeing my expression his girlfriend, MJ, giggled and told me that her father is a pastor. My jaw must have dropped because they both began laughing hard.
As luck would have it MJ's family was waiting for us to arrive so that we could all eat supper together. After being introduced to her parents MJ introduced me to her 3 younger sisters, Michelle, age 9, Mia, age 17 and Mariz Roca, age 20. Sitting down to eat Mariz made sure she sat across from me and peppered me with questions. Finishing her Masters in Surgical Nursing at a local university she was very intelligent. However, despite her intelligence and evident maturity, she was only 20 years old. I had a problem with Lovely being 22 so 20 was too much for me.
I will continue in a following entry...
On July 3rd Lovely, my lover at the time, suddenly convinced herself that I did not really love her and was only toying with her. Despite my best attempts at convincing her otherwise, she wouldn't let go of that idea and it quickly devolved into us breaking up. Lovely then disappeared and on the third day, July 6th, the stress precipitated a case of Sepsis, or Blood Poisoning. When I was 17, in the army and fighting in Southern Lebanon, I was wounded in a firefight. A 7.62MM shell from an AK47 round ricocheted off some concrete debris, entered below my chin and then ricocheted inside my head tearing up my jaw and my sinuses. Despite microsurgery I still have tiny, almost microscopic metal fragments throughout my jaw. Stress can cause fragments to migrate and voila...
I became very ill and was hospitalised in Butuan, the major population centre in my part of Mindanao. When I was fit for travel, though still quite ill, I flew to New York to receive better medical care. It was in New York, on July 26th that Lovely contacted me via email. Telling me she was sorry but she felt it was better to go our seperate ways because she could not believe that I truly loved her. I told her of course that the stress from our breaking up had almost killed me but despite her sadness, she sheld steadfastly to her idea.
We continued communicating and by the middle of August had come to an understanding that when I returned to Mindanao she and I would work on our relationship. Lovely made it clear that she was hoping I'd return by her 23rd birthday on September 3rd and with that dear reader, you are brought up to speed in order to appreciate the following entry...
With Lovely's birthday looming brightly in my mind I flew home for a brief visit on August 26th. My plan was to fly south from Manila on September 2nd in order to suprise Lovely. Well to do Bisaya have a custom where dozens of clan members will serenade an unmarried female on her birthday well before sunrise. I planned to join her family members and suprise her when she awoke to the others' singing under her window. Purchasing my ticket for Mindanao I then set about spending a few days seeing old friends in Makati and the rest of Metro Manila.
One old friend told me about his new girlfriend, a 22 year old RN and invited me to dine with them. Going to a Korean BBQ joint we had a pleasant evening and the girl, MJ, invited me to join them on a visit to her family home in Zambales Province, 5 hours north of Manila. The next afternoon they picked me up and drove north out of the city.
Arriving in the municipality of Iba I was shocked when my friend entered an INC compound. INC, or Iglesia ni Cristo, is a homegrown Christian cult famed for its strict discipline and atypical cultish behavior. Seeing my expression his girlfriend, MJ, giggled and told me that her father is a pastor. My jaw must have dropped because they both began laughing hard.
As luck would have it MJ's family was waiting for us to arrive so that we could all eat supper together. After being introduced to her parents MJ introduced me to her 3 younger sisters, Michelle, age 9, Mia, age 17 and Mariz Roca, age 20. Sitting down to eat Mariz made sure she sat across from me and peppered me with questions. Finishing her Masters in Surgical Nursing at a local university she was very intelligent. However, despite her intelligence and evident maturity, she was only 20 years old. I had a problem with Lovely being 22 so 20 was too much for me.
I will continue in a following entry...
