A further installment :
Again, I have no recollection of eating on that second evening - perhaps we were still too tired? Alone again, we continued the process of getting to know each other and slept soundly again. The following morning, Tuesday, Ruby was due to work, but first she had to visit her boarding house to fetch her work clothes. Ruby said that she would go alone, and return to the hotel - perhaps she was ashamed to let me see the conditions in which she was living? I had a reasonable idea of what to expect and persuaded her to allow me to come along.
We took a motor tricycle and went past the Mall where Ruby worked, down a narrow street. We stopped outside a faceless concrete building - in the driveway was a Jeepney being rebuilt. We went up the side and round to the back of the building. Here, there were some outbuildings, a couple of old cars rotting away, and an entrance to the main building. We went in - there was a corridor, the side walls of which were made from hardboard, with five or six doors? There was a table in the corridor and a number of plastic garden chairs. This was the main day area ... where they cooked, ate etc. I was greeted and made very welcome by Ruby's 'boardmates', some of whom I'd already met online. Everywhere, the hosts are very eager to offer the guest the best chair. I sat and exchanged a few words, while Ruby went into her room and changed. I was given some fruit to try - a redish/greenish skin with soft spikes, a little like a conker. However, splitting this skin revealed a soft, sweet, centre around a large seed.
When Ruby had dressed, we set off in search of breakfast - we went to Jollibee and ordered spaghetti and coke! I remember this, because Ruby managed to splash some of the tomato sauce on the front of her white uniform! On subsequent days we breakfasted in the hotel room, dining on mango, bread, jam etc.
When we had finished eating we still had time to spare so we took a tricycle back to the boarding house. This time I managed to sneak a look into Ruby's room. The conditions were within my expectations, but at the lower end! The room was not very big, it was dark, the exterior walls were damp. The interior walls were just the exposed timber members which supported the hardboard which was visible in the corridor. There was one chest of drawers, a makeshift hanging rail across one corner, some open shelves and a double bunk bed roughly constructed from plain timber, with a plain plywood base on which to lie. Ruby shared this room with another girl - hers was the top bunk. There was no mattress, simply a thin reed mat - the sort of thing we would take to the beach.
It was now time to go to work .. three of Ruby's male boardmates and a girlfriend, none of whom were working that morning, accompanied us on the walk back to the Mall. While Ruby went inside, the boardmates acted as my hosts and guardians. We waited outside until the mall opened to the public and then went upstairs to see where Ruby worked. She had responsibility for one display rack, filled with ladies accessories - combs, hair bands, etc. We were able to chat for a while, and I met with her colleagues. Again, I'd previously seen some of them online. They all seemed to be very excited to meet me - everyone was certainly aware of the white stranger. Then my hosts showed me around the rest of the mall. After a little while, Ruby's big sister (Joedy) arrived - she was to be my host for the majority of the day. We looked around the mall some more, popping back to see Ruby and her colleagues from time to time. I was persuaded to buy a souvenir shirt, and managed to find one which said 'Tagum' rather than 'Davao'.
We ate lunch downstairs in the mall - Ruby was able to join us. After lunch Joedy took me ten pin bowling .. neither of us had done this before, but we had a great time. I emerged the winner by a narrow margin but, more importantly, Ruby's sister and I got to know each other a lot better. It felt important that I should develop a rapport with the whole family, and this was a great start! Bowling was energetic, and there was little fresh air in the hall. By the end of the couple of hours I was sweating freely and my t-shirt was soaking. We headed back to the mall where I made use of the restroom to dry myself and change into that new shirt I had bought earlier.
We waited for Ruby to finish work, then met up with her and a couple of her workmates for some refreshments. Joedy went home, Ruby and I went shopping for some fruit, bread, drinks etc, so that we could manage our own breakfast in the hotel room. It was on this evening that I learned the consequences of Ruby taking the day off work on Sunday - her supervisor at the mall required Ruby's employer (based in Manila) to supply an 'excuse' letter. Despite my efforts to persuade Ruby to chase this over the rest of my stay, there were various problems - Ruby sent sms which never received a response, there were reports of a fax machine being out of service, but the outcome was that no letter ever arrived and, later in the week, I wrote out a resignation letter for Ruby to submit. It transpired that all was not well in the job and Joedy had been attempting to persuade Ruby to leave the job for a little while. Ruby's major concern about giving up the job was that she would be unable to repay all her utang. Fortunately I was able to solve that problem later in the week - I didn't want to leave Ruby with financial commitments and no income. That evening, we met up with Honey, Jhie and Ayong for a meal. Arriving back at the hotel later we progressed further with the 'getting to know each other'!
The following morning, because Ruby was not required to report for work, we didn't leap out of bed at the crack of dawn but, when we did stir, Ruby found that she had received an sms to tell her that her brother had 'broken' his shoulder and was in hospital in Tagum - I had visions of a broken collar bone. We breakfasted, showered and dressed and went to the hospital. Here, we found Jonathan hunched up in a wheelchair and mum trying to keep him comfortable. It transpired that he had sneezed the previous evening and dislocated his shoulder - a repetition of an old injury sustained in a motorcycle accident - and had sat like this all night waiting for the transport system to restart in the morning. He was taken for X-ray and while he was in the radiology department Ruby and I sat together in the corridor. We noticed that we were getting a few curious glances, and thought that this was probably because the appearance of a white face in this hospital was rather a rare occurence. It was only after some minutes that we realised that we were sitting opposite the ultrasound room, adn wondered whether the looks we were getting was due to this. I joked that an ultrasound scan just 12 hours after the event was probably a little premature!
I learned a lot about healthcare in the Philippines - it was advised that the retraction of the shoulder should be be carried out under general anesthetic. While 'PhilHealth' would pay for the procedure itself, it would not meet the cost of any of the medication or other medical supplies. Jonathan was prepared to go through the procedure without the anesthetic, but I argued that the doctors would be able to perform the task much more easily and much better if he was anethetised. I collected a prescription from the nurses station - visited the pharmacy where I obtained an invoice for the supplies. This had to be taken to the accounts desk for payment (cash was the only option - no card facilities here), and take the receipt back to the pharmacy for the medication to be released. I then took the supplies back to the nurses' station, where it was 'logged' in to a register. That was the first of three trips I made to the pharmacy, all following the same pattern - subsequent requirements were for strapping plaster and a sling. I also learned that care in the ward was minimal - families camp out in the ward with the patient, sharing the bed and providing all the food and non-medical care (bathing the patient etc).
In the evening we ate out again with Honey, Jhie and Ayong, before going in to the main square of the town, where we watched youngsters playing in the fountains, watched dance troops and generally stood/sat around chatting. Towards the end of the evening I was introduced to the strange delicacy - balut. When told what it was, I have to admit that I refused, but the other four devoured the half-formed chicks with relish!
