I have been touched by one of the comments posted in this blog. I realized, may nagbabasa pala sa blog na ito, hehehe. I am therefore encouraged to share more of my experiences. My succeeding posts will be titled 1) Joel; 2) Jenny, 3) Kanoy and 4) J-Island. People that will, probably, find it hard to forget me.
Joel
This event happened around two years ago in my City in the Visayas. After my first 9 month stint here in Saudi, I went home and spent 200T on various things such as inuman, beerhouse, barkada etc.
One day, I went to visit a friend and when I reach their house he was not there, except his two sons (13 and 14 years old) and Joel, the house help, who was 16 years old. The mother of the kids was not there also because she was in Australia studying. Anyway, I stayed for a minute in their house and I saw Joel carrying a plastic bag with his clothes on it about to get out of the house, when I asked, “what’s happening, why is he carrying a plastic bag with clothes?” and one of the boy’s answered me with “masakit daw ang tyan, uuwi sa kanila”.
Ako, palibhasa pakialamero paminsan minsan,hehehe, asked Joel, ano ba sakit mo? What part of you stomach is aching? He showed me his stomach, and pointed to his appendix region. And so I pressed it, and he shouted in pain. Somebody told me before, that in that region is the appendix, and once it erupts the person could get poisoned and die.
So, I asked Joel, why go home, since your home is 30 to 40 kilometers away from a hospital. His home is a barrio located in the interior part of the island. Why don’t you go to a hospital? His answer was, “ala akong pera eh”, and besides how would a 16 year old boy that did not finish elementary school and without money dare go to a hospital. And so I asked one of the boys, “where’s your father?” because I was planning to report the situation to him and urge him to bring Joel to the hospital, but they told me, they don’t know where their father was.
So, I told Joel not to go home, instead I brought him to the hospital, thinking that I will just dumped him there, and inform my friend about the situation later. Because if I let him go home, who knows what would happen…I might feel guilty afterwards, at ayokong dalhin ng konsensya ko, ano man yun. When we reach the hospital, I brought him to the emergency room, and the Doctor, after some test, told me that he will be operated on, right away. I shelled out the money for the tests thinking that I will ask my friend, the Boss of Joel, to reimburse me later.
The doctor gave me a list of various medicine/things to purchase for his operation, and I was becoming perplexed (lito) because my plan was just to dumped him in the hospital, and inform my friend about the situation. I told myself, what is this!!, hello….he is not my relative, he is not my brother or anything, he is the house help of my friend, why is it now, that I am the one spending the money, time and effort, to have him operated!
So I called my driver, gave him the money and the lists, and told him, bring me home, afterwards, purchase this list, watch him in the hospital, and tomorrow morning go to his village and inform his family.
And my driver asked me: Who is he?
I was actually tempted to reply, “I don’t know!” But I answered; he is the house help of my friend. I am just helping him.
Today, not a cent of my expenses was reimbursed. But I don’t care. It was not a big amount anyway….an amount equivalent to maybe three or four visits to the beerhouse.
Well…truth be told, that 200T was not entirely spent on inuman and beerhouse.
I wonder where he is now.
Joel
This event happened around two years ago in my City in the Visayas. After my first 9 month stint here in Saudi, I went home and spent 200T on various things such as inuman, beerhouse, barkada etc.
One day, I went to visit a friend and when I reach their house he was not there, except his two sons (13 and 14 years old) and Joel, the house help, who was 16 years old. The mother of the kids was not there also because she was in Australia studying. Anyway, I stayed for a minute in their house and I saw Joel carrying a plastic bag with his clothes on it about to get out of the house, when I asked, “what’s happening, why is he carrying a plastic bag with clothes?” and one of the boy’s answered me with “masakit daw ang tyan, uuwi sa kanila”.
Ako, palibhasa pakialamero paminsan minsan,hehehe, asked Joel, ano ba sakit mo? What part of you stomach is aching? He showed me his stomach, and pointed to his appendix region. And so I pressed it, and he shouted in pain. Somebody told me before, that in that region is the appendix, and once it erupts the person could get poisoned and die.
So, I asked Joel, why go home, since your home is 30 to 40 kilometers away from a hospital. His home is a barrio located in the interior part of the island. Why don’t you go to a hospital? His answer was, “ala akong pera eh”, and besides how would a 16 year old boy that did not finish elementary school and without money dare go to a hospital. And so I asked one of the boys, “where’s your father?” because I was planning to report the situation to him and urge him to bring Joel to the hospital, but they told me, they don’t know where their father was.
So, I told Joel not to go home, instead I brought him to the hospital, thinking that I will just dumped him there, and inform my friend about the situation later. Because if I let him go home, who knows what would happen…I might feel guilty afterwards, at ayokong dalhin ng konsensya ko, ano man yun. When we reach the hospital, I brought him to the emergency room, and the Doctor, after some test, told me that he will be operated on, right away. I shelled out the money for the tests thinking that I will ask my friend, the Boss of Joel, to reimburse me later.
The doctor gave me a list of various medicine/things to purchase for his operation, and I was becoming perplexed (lito) because my plan was just to dumped him in the hospital, and inform my friend about the situation. I told myself, what is this!!, hello….he is not my relative, he is not my brother or anything, he is the house help of my friend, why is it now, that I am the one spending the money, time and effort, to have him operated!
So I called my driver, gave him the money and the lists, and told him, bring me home, afterwards, purchase this list, watch him in the hospital, and tomorrow morning go to his village and inform his family.
And my driver asked me: Who is he?
I was actually tempted to reply, “I don’t know!” But I answered; he is the house help of my friend. I am just helping him.
Today, not a cent of my expenses was reimbursed. But I don’t care. It was not a big amount anyway….an amount equivalent to maybe three or four visits to the beerhouse.
Well…truth be told, that 200T was not entirely spent on inuman and beerhouse.
I wonder where he is now.
Masaya ako after I helped him. It was proud of myself - tao pala ako, hehehe, may puso, konsensya, at damdamin.
(itutuloy, next is Kanoy)