Back To Samar (Again)

[Bruce]

Income tax refund time! So I can squeeze in another trip back to Samar. Should be there at the end of the month for my 59 days....A good friend of mine died last week. It was 3 weeks from diagnoses to death. He had the flu and was not getting any better. So off to the doc he goes. Blood test says swine flu! BUT, he also had a large hard belly. So the doc sends him off for a CAT scan.Bad liver caused leaking fluid from the portal vein which caused the swollen belly. And then there were the three tumors in his colon. He walked into the hospital and the docs (4) played around, no decisons were made and he got sicker each day. When the surgeon FINALLY made a decision about the colon, my friend was no longer a candidate for surgery. So in a week he was so far gone they discharged him to hospice care at home. Lasted 5 days.His dying advice me was to continue with my efforts on Samar as it was something I liked doing and many times we are unaware that death is stalking us... Of course if he had a colonoscopy 5 years ago, the outcome might have been delayed!I helped clean out his house (he has 2) as this house will be sold. I ended up with enough stuff for 5 balikbayan boxes to ship out to Samar. Medical things and kitchen things and some Kano food and jackets, handbags and odds and ends to fill up the boxes to bulging.After 40 years of living in that house, he had accumulated a lot of stuff. All the furniture and electronics were donated to the Salvation Army and I took what I wanted. All the machine shop stuff went to his son in law. In the end, quite a lot of stuff will be given to the poor on Samar. I had to stop at 5 boxes as the shipping costs for those 5 total $600 USD.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Bruce

[JJReyes]

Hi Bruce,If you are planning an overnight stopover in Manila, let me know. My schedule is to be there from April 22nd to 29th. I can get you a room on my tab at Saint Illians Inn in Makati, which is owned by my first cousin. He gives me a terrific rate for booking direct and paying in cash rather than using a credit card. One balikbayan box was shipped to Samar several weeks ago. I will try to fill the second one and ship before my Manila departure. My schedule includes meeting a very entrepreneurial doctor who own clinics and nursing homes. I am bringing about two inches of printed materials on Medicare. His group is interested in offering medical insurance in the Philippines that will replicate what Americans can get from Medicare A, B, C & D. It will be something like a high quality private version of Philhealth. About 200,000 Fil-Ams have expressed a desire to go home to the Phiilppines in retirement, but they are waiting for Medicare to become portable. The medical tourism hospitals in the Philippines will try to match sevices based on the present Medicare co-pay system. In addition to 200,000 Fil-Ams, there are 300,000 residents in the Philippines who are US citizens. Less than 50,000 veterans of the 300,000 are eligible for Tri-Care. JJR

[Curley]

Hi Bruce,If you are planning an overnight stopover in Manila, let me know. My schedule is to be there from April 22nd to 29th. I can get you a room on my tab at Saint Illians Inn in Makati, which is owned by my first cousin. He gives me a terrific rate for booking direct and paying in cash rather than using a credit card.JJR

Are those special room rates open to anyone?

[JJReyes]

Are those special room rates open to anyone?

I checked the Saint Illians Inn website. Their rates are Php 1,990 for a queen (2 pax), Php 2,190 for two singles (2 pax), and Php 2,290 for family (3 pax). The prices include service charges and VAT, but not breakfast. For Php 560 (car) or Php 700 (van), someone will meet you at the airport. This avoids the hassel of negotiating rates with the taxi dispatchers, who then loudly hint for a tip while they make you wait. Most of their guests are repeat customers. Check out the positive comments on TripAdvisor. The owner diligently replies to every comment. The hotel will give you a card for a 20% discount for a future visit provided you make direct reservations. I have someone flying in from Iloilo City, from South Korea, and possibly from Thailand to meet with me. The hotel will extend the discounted rate to all of us. Since I am paying in cash rather than a credit card, he will include free breakfast for me. I am interested in meeting with Bruce to discuss a future charitable project in Samar. This is the reason for the invitation.

[Bruce]

Hi Bruce,If you are planning an overnight stopover in Manila, let me know. My schedule is to be there from April 22nd to 29th. I can get you a room on my tab at Saint Illians Inn in Makati, which is owned by my first cousin. He gives me a terrific rate for booking direct and paying in cash rather than using a credit card. One balikbayan box was shipped to Samar several weeks ago. I will try to fill the second one and ship before my Manila departure.My schedule includes meeting a very entrepreneurial doctor who own clinics and nursing homes. I am bringing about two inches of printed materials on Medicare. His group is interested in offering medical insurance in the Philippines that will replicate what Americans can get from Medicare A, B, C & D. It will be something like a high quality private version of Philhealth. About 200,000 Fil-Ams have expressed a desire to go home to the Phiilppines in retirement, but they are waiting for Medicare to become portable. The medical tourism hospitals in the Philippines will try to match sevices based on the present Medicare co-pay system. In addition to 200,000 Fil-Ams, there are 300,000 residents in the Philippines who are US citizens. Less than 50,000 veterans of the 300,000 are eligible for Tri-Care.JJR

Thanks for the offer. I sent you a PM.

[i am bob]

Bruce, it's good to see you're back! More than a few of us were wondering if everything was ok til Tom told us you were busy at home! Please accept my condolences for your friend - he sounds like he was a good man like you are!

[Mike S]

Hey guy good to see you back ..... hope you are all cured from you Evil Knievel daredevil interpretation ...... looking forward to your posts and great pictures .... also you knowledge of medicine (and just about everything else...... :hystery: :hystery: ) ...... we need the third eye view here IMHO ...... :mocking: