Today is Thursday, July 8th, 2010 and it is now 927AM here in Makati, Luzon, Philippines.
Recap: Rizza and I having returned from Thailand and Cambodia, to Mindanao in late March, 2008...and how my relationship with Jackie began to change at that point.
2007 and 2008 were tough times on Mindanao, well, when is it not tough? The govt. was engaged in a very slow peace process with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberational Front), the largest Islamic insurgent force in the country. I arrived July 5th,2007 if I recall correctly, and on July 10th on Basilan Island (a province of Mindanao) a group of AFP Marines were going out for a snack and ended up killed and decapitated (14 killed, 10 decap.). This opened up a very bloody 2 years.
It was a great time to start a paramilitary in the Southern Philippines (sounds like a song).
By March of 2008 I was back in the family compound and meeting almost nightly over the force I was building. This of course meant a lot of frequent trips to Camp Evangelista, and Jackie.
Now the whole time, I had believed she was separated, had just had her 2nd daughter but was intent on making a life for herself. I honestly still had no inclinations beyond friendship and that is where it stayed until I got an EMail from a doctor friend of mine back in New York who told me about a treatment that was having phenomenal success with my genomic Hep-C.
Hepatitis-C, at that time, 2008, was only really thought to have 3 genomes (a "genome" being a "strain" of a particular virus). With this new treatment, trademarked, "Pegasys" (pegylated interferon 1 injection weekly coupled with 2 daily dosages of encapsulated Ribivarin), I was looking at an 87% cure rate, a "cure" being a negative blood test for the virus.
I began shopping for tickets to New York, trying to get my local affairs in order (I have a fertiliser manufacturing plant, majority share in our mills, I lease 200 hectatres of my own land and advise the family with a lot of other things. In addition to that I was about to stock my goat farm and of course, the paramilitary.
I really didn't want to leave but 87% was a really good chance...
So, next trip out to Camp Evangelista I mentioned it to my friend Jackie and I could see it affected her. I told her if she wanted we could EMail back and forth, and while she wanted to she still seemed down about the whole thing.
I left the 2nd week in April I believe, went to New York, which is pretty well recorded here except for my communication with Jackie. It wasn't long after I arrived in New York that Rizza flew the coop but the family wouldn't tell me.
After about 4 months they really couldn't hide it anymore and I found out. Stress is a big thing with inrerferon, a form of chemotherapy that has some wicked side effects. Many people on it end up on what Americans call SSI, a sort of dole for sick people.
I handled it quite well, even when I found out what Rizza had done, but the stress internalised. I tested at 110,000 units when I arrived for my viral load.
3 months into treatment I was at 10,000. Oh I was full of myself, "I have this shit whipped" I though, blah, blah and blah. 3 months later, my next test? 74,000...
The last 3 months were when I found out what really happened, and when she started playing with me. She would tell me, "I am going home tomorrow, I swear." I would then call up the family and they would weep with happiness, even I shed some tears, the first 2 or 3 times anyway. She would play some really nasty shit.
At the same time Jackie and I were EMailing and then she brought a PC. In the Philippines, a PC can cost half a year's salary. Her "ex," or whatever one would call him now that this clusterfuck is out in the open, makes a bit over 10,000 Pesos a month, a lot for the Philippines but about 200 to 230 US depending how weak the Dollar is.
For her to get it, it was quite a sacrifice, and I was impressed because I believed I was the only person she talked to (Who knows? Maybe I was?).
Things began to change. I am not into "online" whatever, but I thought at the time that she and I were in similar circumstances, with her story being that her "ex" had impregnated some other girl, she had found out accidentally, etc.
We began IMing daily (having begun to IM when she got her PC), and then IMing for long periods of time. Finally, after I discontinued my interferon, I began to consider taking a trip home to see her.
I stayed in NY because I felt that if I returned home in that state of flux things might get very "hairy." It was better for the family that people would constantly ask me (and them) why Rizza wasn't with me, etc.
I will continue...
(Edited for spelling)
Recap: Rizza and I having returned from Thailand and Cambodia, to Mindanao in late March, 2008...and how my relationship with Jackie began to change at that point.
2007 and 2008 were tough times on Mindanao, well, when is it not tough? The govt. was engaged in a very slow peace process with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberational Front), the largest Islamic insurgent force in the country. I arrived July 5th,2007 if I recall correctly, and on July 10th on Basilan Island (a province of Mindanao) a group of AFP Marines were going out for a snack and ended up killed and decapitated (14 killed, 10 decap.). This opened up a very bloody 2 years.
It was a great time to start a paramilitary in the Southern Philippines (sounds like a song).
By March of 2008 I was back in the family compound and meeting almost nightly over the force I was building. This of course meant a lot of frequent trips to Camp Evangelista, and Jackie.
Now the whole time, I had believed she was separated, had just had her 2nd daughter but was intent on making a life for herself. I honestly still had no inclinations beyond friendship and that is where it stayed until I got an EMail from a doctor friend of mine back in New York who told me about a treatment that was having phenomenal success with my genomic Hep-C.
Hepatitis-C, at that time, 2008, was only really thought to have 3 genomes (a "genome" being a "strain" of a particular virus). With this new treatment, trademarked, "Pegasys" (pegylated interferon 1 injection weekly coupled with 2 daily dosages of encapsulated Ribivarin), I was looking at an 87% cure rate, a "cure" being a negative blood test for the virus.
I began shopping for tickets to New York, trying to get my local affairs in order (I have a fertiliser manufacturing plant, majority share in our mills, I lease 200 hectatres of my own land and advise the family with a lot of other things. In addition to that I was about to stock my goat farm and of course, the paramilitary.
I really didn't want to leave but 87% was a really good chance...
So, next trip out to Camp Evangelista I mentioned it to my friend Jackie and I could see it affected her. I told her if she wanted we could EMail back and forth, and while she wanted to she still seemed down about the whole thing.
I left the 2nd week in April I believe, went to New York, which is pretty well recorded here except for my communication with Jackie. It wasn't long after I arrived in New York that Rizza flew the coop but the family wouldn't tell me.
After about 4 months they really couldn't hide it anymore and I found out. Stress is a big thing with inrerferon, a form of chemotherapy that has some wicked side effects. Many people on it end up on what Americans call SSI, a sort of dole for sick people.
I handled it quite well, even when I found out what Rizza had done, but the stress internalised. I tested at 110,000 units when I arrived for my viral load.
3 months into treatment I was at 10,000. Oh I was full of myself, "I have this shit whipped" I though, blah, blah and blah. 3 months later, my next test? 74,000...
The last 3 months were when I found out what really happened, and when she started playing with me. She would tell me, "I am going home tomorrow, I swear." I would then call up the family and they would weep with happiness, even I shed some tears, the first 2 or 3 times anyway. She would play some really nasty shit.
At the same time Jackie and I were EMailing and then she brought a PC. In the Philippines, a PC can cost half a year's salary. Her "ex," or whatever one would call him now that this clusterfuck is out in the open, makes a bit over 10,000 Pesos a month, a lot for the Philippines but about 200 to 230 US depending how weak the Dollar is.
For her to get it, it was quite a sacrifice, and I was impressed because I believed I was the only person she talked to (Who knows? Maybe I was?).
Things began to change. I am not into "online" whatever, but I thought at the time that she and I were in similar circumstances, with her story being that her "ex" had impregnated some other girl, she had found out accidentally, etc.
We began IMing daily (having begun to IM when she got her PC), and then IMing for long periods of time. Finally, after I discontinued my interferon, I began to consider taking a trip home to see her.
I stayed in NY because I felt that if I returned home in that state of flux things might get very "hairy." It was better for the family that people would constantly ask me (and them) why Rizza wasn't with me, etc.
I will continue...
(Edited for spelling)