Okay, another Tuesday is in the books, and even more so than the other days in my week, there is not much worthy of note about it. I’m not complaining about that, I’m just glad to be still alive and kicking. I don’t know how much longer that will be the case, but life is a blessing, and even a boring day is better than the alternative of eternal darkness.

I’m not that comfortable talking about my various charity projects because it is supposed to be about helping others, not glorifying your own good deeds. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that the foundation of my giving is selfishness — helping a few takes away some of the guilt that comes with living rich in a poor country. So, I do what I can, and hopefully it makes a difference.

One of the people I’ve been assisting is barely an acquaintance. She used to be the take-out waitress from Sit-n-Bull a couple of years ago, and I’d see her around town making her deliveries. She always had a smile and a friendly greeting and seemed to genuinely enjoy her work. Then one day she was gone, and I was told she had moved home to the province. Several months later, a mutual friend contacted me and said Erica needed help. She had been diagnosed with cancer and required treatment. Well, my charity budget is insufficient to cover the cost of extensive medical procedures, but what Erica needed was a different kind of help. Cancer treatment wasn’t available in the public hospital near where she lived, so she needed to go to Manila for proper care, but didn’t have money for transport. That was within my ability to help, and so I wired the needed funds. For the last several months, she has shared with me the nightmare of medical care at public hospitals in the Philippines, but she wants to live and is continuing her battle to beat the cancer. I’ve been sending her money for food and lodging and hoping for the best, but my gut tells me her survival will require a miracle. She’s very religious, so maybe her faith will be rewarded.

Anyway, she sent me this message yesterday and it touched my heart:

I need to endure, I need to extend my patience, there’s nothing I can do, I wasn’t born rich. Nevertheless, you don’t neglect us when it comes to our daily expenses and our rent, so we don’t struggle here in Manila. Your support has been a tremendous help to us; it’s good that up to now you haven’t abandoned us with our daily expenses. I keep fighting because I know I have financial support, making our living and my treatment easier. If it weren’t for you, who genuinely cares for me, I wouldn’t know who to turn to for our expenses and rent. Thank you so much for your unwavering help and care for us. I truly wish you a long life and that you may continue to help many others like me.

The Lord has not abandoned me in this battle; He sent an angel to me, making it easy and without any worries about our expenses here in Manila. I will fight, and I know I will get better. That will be my payment for all the help you have given us. I will hold on to our Creator; I cannot give up, I still want to live. I know the Lord will give that to me; I just need to trust in Him.

Stay strong and keep fighting, Erica.

The rest of my day went like this:

Tuesday is our Baloy Beach day, and at the appointed hour, we headed out. I needed to replenish the cash in my wallet, so I stopped at the ATM in the 7-Eleven. The machine was out of service. We walked on down Baloy Road and tried the ATM at Harley’s. It was out of cash. So, on to Blue Rock. The ATM there was offline. The only other ATM I know of on Baloy is at the Viking Resort, so instead of toes in the sand time for Swan, we walked the pavement to Viking. Alas, that ATM was also unable to dispense cash. I have no idea what is going on with the ATMs, but welcome to the Philippines!

I had enough cash on me for our dinner at Treasure Island, which was practically across the street from us, so off we went.

Still needing to replenish the wallet, after dinner, we had our trike driver take us to It Doesn’t Matter. I was pleasantly surprised that the ATM there was functioning and dispensed the 10,000 pesos I had requested. After a couple of IDM beers, we moved on to the Wet Spot for our nightcap. I had planned to attend the final rendition of the SOB there on Friday, but manager Brett advised that it has once again been postponed, this time until Halloween. Alrighty then.

Ain’t life grand? Even a hollow Tuesday was worthy of enjoyment.

On now to May 2014 in the LTG archives. In this post, I recount an evening out in Itaewon with my good friend Dennis McPeters. Dennis retired and moved to Cambodia, and I visited him there a couple of times. And now he has disappeared. He didn’t do social media, so we stayed in touch via email, but he hasn’t responded for a couple of years now. I fear he has died (he is several years older than me) and wasn’t in the best of health the last time I saw him. My Google search for any news or an obituary was fruitless. Dennis is one of several good friends who no longer respond to my attempts to contact them. One of the sad realities that comes with ageing, I suppose.

From Facebook memories, eight years ago, I was still enjoying my first and only visit to Boracay Island here in the Philippines.

Today’s YouTube video is from a vlogger I’ve never seen before who tries to make the case that expats in the Philippines are losers. He convinced me that he is an expert loser, but his premise about the rest of us is as ignorant as he is. Yeah, it is far from perfect here, but most of us love it anyway.

And now for what passes as humor around here:

Another day, another post. Still glad to be here.

Today’s song was featured in a dream I had over eleven years ago. I even blogged about it.