Karl Nelson was a Peace Corps volunteer and during his assignment here in the Philippines, met Luz, a teacher from Ilihan in northern Cebu
Echaves: Counting our blessings
By LELANI P. ECHAVES
The Nelsons were one of the nicest Fil-Am couples I’ve known. Husband Karl was a Peace Corps volunteer and during his assignment here in the Philippines, met Luz, a teacher from Ilihan in northern Cebu. After marriage and four children later, they came back to Cebu where Karl took up assignment as director of the United States Information Service.
He looked as American as he could get. But he embraced Pinoy culture and folkways like no other American I’ve met. He spoke fluent Cebuano, and the family was raised loving and eating Pinoy food. While they lived in the USIS staff house in Beverly Hills during workdays, weekends always saw them hurrying to Ilihan. There, daughter Rima whose beauty won her the Miss Utah title, sat around with the local folks and smoked the local “tustos.” And youngest child Dodong enjoyed his bath in the native bathroom some meters away from the house, complete with the bamboo walls and the shower hovering from up, always looking unfinished.
USIS assignments were usually for a two-year term. But Karl loved being “home” in Cebu, and so asked for an extension. After four years, however, they had to pack up their things, and Karl went back to Washington, D.C. to train for the next assignment. Prior to his retirement last year, Karl’s tours of duty included Burma and then Ethiopia. They’ve since retired in Utah.
But every chance they get, the Nelsons are here in Cebu, which averages three to four times a year. And so in this recent visit, Luz and some of her media friends got together to catch up on each other’s lives. As before, the vivacious and good storyteller that Luz is, always makes for a very fine evening. Equally, each of us goes home feeling less frustrated about the Philippines, if not more grateful that we’re here instead of Ethiopia.
“Be thankful you have food on the table; children in Ethiopia are starving.” How many mothers have repeated this ad nauseum to their picky young ones! And how many classroom teachers have snapped, “Stop complaining about the heat! Not many of your counterparts in Ethiopia have even been in a classroom!”
And they’re right! While the Philippines boasts of a 94.6 % literacy rate, meaning people aged 15 and above who can read and write, Ethiopia has only 35.5 %. Its adult literacy rate is 28.9 %, with female literacy rate at 18.5 % very much smaller than the male literacy rate of 39.6 %. Yet, Ethiopia is not as populous as the Philippines, with theirs at 67 million to our 84 million.
Poverty has so dogged Ethiopia that its gross national income per capita is US $98.63, government spending for education is only 2.7 %, and it is listed as the 15th poorest country in the world.
Government budget for health is only 7 %, and health expenditure per capita is US$1. Doctor-to-population ratio is 1:36,000. Today, there are over 1 million women living with HIV, and cumulative HIV-Aids-caused deaths have totaled 1.7 million. That old song’s disclaimer of life beginning at 40 is no consolation to Ethiopians who are not expected to live beyond 45 years old.
In the rural areas, improved water source is accessible only to 13 %; for improved sanitation facilities, to only 6 %. Luz says that many Ethiopians had infected anuses, mostly caused by the use of stones for sanitation after excretion. Addis Ababa where the Nelsons resided is very cold, and so Ethiopian women often don’t take a shower; they simply put on additional clothes. Surfing through these can be a problem for doctors and nurses.
Despite what the travel websites say, Ethiopian cuisine will have to stay an acquired taste. Luz says that beef is served raw. After the slaughter, the cow is hung upside down, and the Ethiopian merely points to the part he wants to eat. Then he dips this in a hot and spicy sauce, or serves it first on the “injera” which is a large sourdough flatbread. This, too, is used to scoop up the side dishes; no eating utensils are available.
Seen that weekly TV show of freakiest incidents in the world? It says, “You think you’ve seen it all? Now see this.” Ethiopia, too.
(Let me hear from you at lelani88@yahoo.com)
