The day after my fiasco hunting down the dermatologist, I actually got to meet her - in the typical way of the Philippines: the previous afternoon, they told me to come in at 9:30am for the clinic. I arrived at 10:30am to no doctors - the staff told me they were in Manila!! I explained that I had been told to come in at 9:30am ... someone called on their cellphone and said if I wanted to wait awhile, the doctors would come in. Fine - I sat down, and within 5 minutes, in walked two doctors. As in Oz, "My people come and go so quickly here!"
Dr. Maria Isabel Ferrer-Divinagracia was as beautiful as her name - and full of the divine grace acclaimed. Her laugh tinkled when I told her what I thought I had - "We don't have that on Palawan; no, these are just nik-nik bites - and you will get them every time you go to this place. They bite through clothing, through suntan lotion and Off ointment...and they are water lovers." (well, this did explain all the bites on my scalp, which is why I thought I had some dreaded disease - who would think that sand fleas were amphibious?). She gave me 4 different pills and salves and charged me the enormous fee of Php 1,300 ($30). I told her that I had a party to attend that night (my friend and fellow oldster - a PCV who first served in 1964, was returning home after his 6 month stint here) -- and that I didn't want people to shrink away from me...so I was going to the ukay-ukay (2nd hand) shops to find a muslin kind of thin, long sleeved blouse to hide the now-scabbing blisters. And, off I set.
Mabel's (pronounced Ma-Bell) is my favorite ukay-ukay - and there are several of them around town - my favorite one is close to the post office, just after Mr. Donut. I found some great blouses and jackets in a pile for Php 10 each, but one was extravagant (Php 35). So for about $1.50, I got 4 blouses. I happily trekked to the new department store (remember, the one with the only escalator on Palawan?), Unitop....checked my ukay-ukay purchases at the door and rode the escalator to the 2nd floor:
In Pesos (PhP)
19.50 (9.75 x 2) My clothespins keep breaking (can't find the wooden kind) and I had to replace them
 |
| They buy huge quantities and then laborers clip 12 onto small pieces of cardboard |
10.00 I always spill water filling up bottles for the fridge and needed a funnel
25.00 6 colored plastic scrubbers for dishes, laundry, etc.
15.00 Brush to launder things like towels - people in America use it to scrub floors
18.00 3 Air fresheners - between the cat and the toilet which sometimes regurgitate well, the "fresh apple"smell beats the alternatives
135.00 A 250v/1000w electrical extension cord - don't understand the differences here - all of the extension
cords - big cable or small wire - are 250volt/1000watt...oh well, I got the big one.
There is a 12% VAT here, so all this cost me Php 222.50 ($5.50)
I stood in line and purchased all of those goodies, and then went down to the first floor, where I checked this new bag with a different clerk, so that I could do my grocery shopping, which is on the first floor.Will Shields was coming on Saturday to go to the party and spend the night, so I bought some treats in addition to the staples:
Presto Creams - Vanilla 10.75
Cream-Os vanilla 17.75
10 Nestle coffee sticks (just in case someone drops by) 23.75
700 g Alaska Powdered Milk 190.75
300 g Milo Chocolate malted 67.75
2 cans Century Tuna in Water @ 36.5 ea 73.00
1 can carnation condensed milk 37.50
1 can Jolly garbanzos (hummus on lumpia wrappers) 29.00
1 jar Guava Jelly 55.50
1 bottle HOT sauce what a deal - couldn't believe how cheap! 10.00
2-100g California raisins @25.25 - shipped from CA and repacked
into tiny boxes - crazy 50.50
1 Schick shaver for sensitive skin (I hadn't shaved in days because of the
nik-niks, but really needed to before the party!!) 18.25
Nestle Iced Tea Mix (mainly sugar, so think I'll just brew my own) 54.50
Wings Laundry Powder 45.45
and something: 1 Co......Frsh Confi Gr... 50ML - their
receipts here are very impermanent and it has faded or washed away 38.50
And, again the 12% VAT had the total to Php 753.50!!! ($18.69)
Paid this bill, retrieved the bag inside the store (#86 check ticket) and then passed through the guard, who checked off my receipt without looking at it, and waited at the outside checkpoint (#53) to retrieve my ukay-ukay purchases.
Must say, I did stop at Divine Sweets on Valencia Street just across from Mendoza Park to buy bread - bread as I know it - omg is it good. Got 4 mango tarts, a loaf of carrot walnut bread (incredible with the guava jelly), 4 panini rolls and 4 amazing cookies - the peanut butter were so good!!! I climbed into a pretty full multicab with all my plastic bags and could hardly position them. At least it was a short trip to the Shell station in San Pedro, where I hopped (hah, rather stumbled) out and went to my trike stand. They watch me coming and say, "Here's Bountiful." Crammed into a trike with 4 others after putting my bags in the back and holding onto them with a tie. Bounced into my lane (wish there was a name - Block 11, Lot 1 is so weird - and so unidentifiable) and cheerfully gave the driver a 2 peso tip.
Was going to make rice pudding, but forgot that my rice cooker had pooped out. Still haven't got gas for the cooker top, but think that's moving up in priority! Had a tuna sandwich for dinner tonight, so, maybe not!!
Arrived home, checked email, put stuff away and started the laundry.. It was a gorgeous day and the clothes dried in the sun.
Will arrived, we had dinner at Beans and Pages and moseyed to Rich's goodbye party. Lovely, lovely...I'll miss him. Leaving at 12:30, we heard a crash! 3 motorcycles had crashed out in front - motorcycles and bodies strewn on the street...one woman had not been wearing a helmet and we think was the cause of the crash...reaffirmed the Peace Corps policy of not allowing us to drive here - craziness here. We helped pick up the folks and once the police arrived, we exited, finally getting to bed after 2am, after philosophizing about 9/11 - which, at 2am, it was.
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