Seeing the wonderful colors of nature in full shade with no obstruction or monochromatique fortification is what makes us feel alive. This is Life as we define.
Diverse. Intense. Colorful.
This is what I believe. Colors do not fade. Future do not fade. It keeps on developing and developing as what it is- A cycle.
I’m living a life craving for genuine wonders to own. And seeing those things is just an instrument. Our eyes are JUST an instrument. The principle I’m living is limited to what I can have and what should I have not considering the possession I already have and the circumstances I can meet along the road.
That principle last until I saw these people. They were CATARACT victims. They we’re the lucky beneficiaries of the Evangelista family to undergo free Cataract operation.
I was used to be a campus journo in one of the colleges in Davao. I was asked to cover their stay up to their pre-operation check-up. And so, I went to Mergrande Ocean Resort, the place where they were housed before their early check up the next day.
When I first saw them, I thought “Was this a home-for-the-aged resort?” that’s what I thought but little I know, the resort was owned by the Evangelista. There, I met sir Ernie Evangelista, the good Samaritan and the reason of the curing of these peoples ailing.
Iv’e got the chance to interview them one by one. There were just 6 of them so its easy to go through each one of them. Then learnings soaks through my guts.
All of them are victims of poverty. They were workers, laborers and self-employed. During their young days, they soar through the blazing sun, planting rice on the field, drying coconut meat on the roads, selling puto, bibingka while walking through the pan-heated road. These things are for the reason to fill their empty stomachs or go to school or feed their families.
Their hard works begot the complication they are now suffering.
Having cataract is not a having an easy life but having an obstruction to what you are able to see for your life. An impedement to bare to your coffin.
After the interview, Me and my team are off to road going home. As my teamates are jovial talking about their stuffs that can break them free from the heavy night, I was scanning through the papers where I noted my interview. A sudden realization, which always occurs to me, strucks my cognitive processes and even stops my brain from working (Not literally, Im still alive tho).
What If’s now fills me. What if I got Cataract when I get old? What If my mother will? What if my sibs will? What if everybody will have cataract at the same point of time?
What if? …
I can’t afford to answer my own question but it is still up to me if it happens, it happens. Lucky if not. Responsibility is always on my shoulder.
But for the patients, I think their being poor is enough reason why they’ve got that. Who’s to blame? They have to work hard for their own living. The point is they are the living truth of the disease infested the entire nation. Poverty is at massive state, even health care services are insatiable. Good thing to have the Evangelista family. But for legal reason, its the states responsibility to provide such services to its people.
For now, the patients are done with their pre-operation check up and are set for the operation. I was surprise, despite of their old age, they are not afraid to undergo risky operations.
Today, I left them with smiles on their faces, soliciting hope for a positive outcome of the operation.
Photo Credits: JP Chronicles