Although January 19, 2006 is the first official day of the commencement of my work in the State Hospital, January 23, 2006 was my first formal day in work. Since I only have a 32-hour work week, then my work is from Monday to Thursday 8am-3pm and Fridays 8am-2:30pm. Then I get to receive calls from the hospital for referrals. I am also scheduled for standby duties.
My first formal day in work constituted a courtesy call with the Director of Health Services. An orientation was done and we discussed my concerns. Then the Director assigned Bob Sigrah to take me around. First stop was the Social Security Office where I registered and got my number in no time. Then we proceeded to the Immigration office where I registered and got my Alien Registration card. Then we went back to the hospital where I went to the office of the health insurance and again registered there. After all of those registration things, I was off to the operating room for another surgical exercise.
I began to fully understand why the people in Kosrae are wondering what keeps us from being deployed the earliest time. Well take note of this:
1.) Getting a schedule at the US Embassy may take months to wait. Even if you apply for an early schedule, the most of the waiting time would be 2 weeks to one month. The release of your visa if approved takes about 2 to 7 days. What if your papers are placed under administrative processing? In my case, it took three months of waiting for that proverbial visa. One of the reasons for this really is the increased number of Filipinos applying for that famed U.S. Visa. One can just see the long line of people in front of the Embassy as early as 4AM.
Take the case of Micronesia, the schedule in Ponphei is from Tuesdays and Thursdays between 2pm to 4pm. Once a visa is approved for you, you are to wait for an hour for the release of the visa.
2.) I am also reminded when I have to register for my SSS number in the Philippines. I had to follow a long line of applicants and have to wait for quite a time. In Micronesia, it just took 10 minutes and off I went to the immigration where the issuance of my immigration took the same number of minutes just like the SSS card.
What made the difference? Well, those offices I have mentioned in the Philippines have to serve the needs of at least 80 Million Filipinos. And a big percentage of these people either want to go to the United States to immigrate or to visit. Compared this with Kosrae, it has only about 9000 population to date and not is everyone is in the working force. Well, talk about population control. My own municipality alone, the town of Aringay, La Union has around 35,000 people at that. It has 24 barangays. Kosrae has 4 municipalities and yet it has that much people only.
Kosrae in my mind is like the Bahamas. Hence, you could see the picture of Nassau, Bahamas in the picture. But basically Kosrae is an untouched island with its natural beauty emanating. Everything seems easy in Kosrae because of the simplicity of their system. Everyone seems knowledgeable about people because of their few numbers. The moment I landed and reported to the immigration , the person at the immigration already knew me and handed me my working permit. By the time I arrived from work, almost everyone knew me. By the time I conducted my outpatient clinic, they knew I am the new doctor. By the time I did my first surgical operation, the island knew that the new surgeon did an operation for a ruptured appendicitis. The island of Kosrae, being a State is not just a State, it a community in itself where people practically knows everyone. People almost have all blood relationship with one another. Kosrae connotes simple living. Kosrae connotes idyllic life. Kosrae connotes man’s simple living in relation to the bounties that nature can provide.
In contrast, the Philippines which is said to be lagging behind in the economic arena compared from its Asian neighbors is much far far ahead that Kosrae or say Micronesia. But here in Kosrae, there seem to be a general acceptance of the simple life that they have. In the Philippines, people aspire for more. People are caught in the web of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Why so? This is because of social injustice. There seem to be a feeling of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Add to this is the continuous political bickering that the country is constantly being barraged with. Furthermore, the pervading ineptness in the bureaucracy has constantly stifled economic progress in the country.
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