Random Assortment of "Facts" About the Philippines

This is a personal account of "facts" that I have learned (most through observation) while in Cebu. Some medical, some cultural and others just plain hilarious.

*Abortion is illegal

*The hilot (or witchdoctor) is perfectly legal and readily used by pregnant women. Some of the procedures performed by the hilot include: putting smoke up the vagina of a pregnant woman who has previously had a miscarriage to get rid of the bad spirits, breathing smoke into the mouth of a baby with pneumonia and shoving herbs up the butt of a constipated baby. Most of these procedures result in death or severe harm to the baby. Women continue to go.

*In order to receive a bag of blood for a necessary blood transfusion you must pay a fee AND donate a bag of your own blood or find someone on the street to donate for you (you must also pat for their blood to be screened).

*The beds in the hospital have no sheets.

* The Head of Public Health in Cebu called the local public hospital (CCMC) Cebu's version of population control. He also spends most of his budget for the hospitals sending his wife's rockette dance team to Vegas to compete.

*"Whitening" face cream is very popular here. It actually contains a fungus that causes your skin to develop white splotches. It is a best seller.

*Tampons are not used and rarely sold. Women here often have never heard of a tampon and if they have they prefer a pad.

*Onezies are not sold here and therefore are a hot commodity at the clinic from the donations bin. Newborn babies are generally put in a baby wife beater shirt.

*Their is one psych ward in the entire city of Cebu. The patients are kept in a cage outside of the hospital and they are all forced to remain naked and screaming at the walls of the cage.

(Now onto the non-medical facts)

*Rice is eaten everyday. At least three times.

*Men are allowed (and expected) to urinate freely in the streets at all times of the day and night.

*Rats are larger than kittens and run along the telephone polls in broad daylight.

*Roosters begin crowing to signal morning at 1:30 am. They don't stop until about noon the following day.

*The mall is the center of existence here. People line up for its opening every single day of the week.

*Not only are there cock fights, but also dog fights and horse fights.

*The Philippines is the worlds largest supplier of bananas.

*The Philippines is comprised of about 7,100 islands at low tide and 7,000 at high tide; the world's second largest archipelago.

*If a holiday falls on a weekend, the president moves it to a Monday or Friday so that workers always get a day off.

*Spaghetti sauce here is BRIGHT orange and is very sweet. People here eat it like I eat chocolate.

*Whenever it rains cockroaches fill the walls of the apartment and clinic. When we kill them they look like Bavarian cream coming out the sides.

*Their is an entire magazine dedicated to Nam vets who have moved to the Philippines and married women 40 years younger than them. It is tastefully called "ExPat"

*The dump site we visited 3 weeks ago caught on fire and burned for nearly five days. It was on the front page of the newspaper several times and never once mentioned that 2,500 people live there.

*If a person squats (builds cardboard shanty home) on land for two years it automatically becomes their land.

*There is a caged boa constrictor on our block. An old man takes a stick and pokes at it to make it hiss whenever we ask.

*If you are a woman over the size of American 4 you can't shop here. You are far too large.