Showdown At Leper's Refuge - Oct 2004

When the next time I returned to Cebu again it was near the end of September 2004. Chu has been away from Singapore for 5 months now. During these periods of absence we have established a line of communication which is bearable to the hearts and also is light to the pocket. We worked out that by using the internet and a program called Chikka.com, I can SMS her on my office computer to her mobile phone at a cheaper rate of 2.5 peso(7.8 cents) per outgoing text instead of 4 peso(12.5 cents) otherwise. At night when there is no access to the computer I would rely on the trusted Phoenix card which charges at 26 cents per minute international call. At the end of each week I would make a trip to Lucky Plaza and joined the large domestic worker population there to hassle for discount to buy stacks of Phoenix cards. Sometimes these cards would cost me spending for the month making oversea calls of up to S$200.00. If the rate for installing internet broadband at her home is any cheaper, I would have pushed for it and use internet telephony for the purpose.
Anyway it was good to be backed home again. And what do have? We have two new additions to the family.

‘Surprise!’ she said, ‘I wanted to surprise you Ling. I know you love dogs (remembering Rover and Free Free back in Kim Keat Link) and I have bought two puppies for you. This is Richie, the male Pinoy dog and this is Lucky, the female mongrel English sheep dog’.
‘Ooi so cute, barely 2 months old and yapping away like an excited friend has visited. Where you get them and how much you pay for them’ I asked.
‘From the faith healer and it’s very cheap, only 1000 peso each, how much in Singapore – thirty two dollars only’ she exclaimed.
She then went on to explain that she has been visiting the faith healer to get rid of her back pains and headaches. I knew about it, we have talked about it. At that time she has asked for a new mattress and got it and yet the sleep has not been that good and each morning would end up with headaches and backaches. She did not mention about the puppies issue at all. During one of her visits, she has noticed that the dog, a mongrel called Sheila, belonging to the faith healer has given birth to five adorable puppies. She said something about for good luck people has asked to be given the puppies and this time is no exception. But for her good timing she was there first and immediately put up a deposit to reserve two puppies. She has intended to give the girl to Uncle Toto’s wife whose birthday is approaching. But with Uncle Toto’s passing, the girl ended up in Paknaan to keep company to the other puppy.
It must have been the two new additions to the family that has kept her busy each day for in no time her back pains and headaches were gone. Maybe it could also have been the therapeutic value of animals that improves her health. I really do not know.
‘Ling, I want to bring you to see the faith healer, for good luck and good health bah’ she insisted. I did not object as I wanted to see ‘the wolf in her lair’.
So on that Friday we drove using the multi cab to Liloan, in the morning to visit some new divisions of residential development, in the afternoon for the showdown. The entrance from the Highway into the road was marked by a big signboard supported by two tall erections, the type you would find at the entrance to temples except that here there are no stone lion statues to stand guard in front. The signboard said something about a government project endorsed by some past mayor. It was quiet on the way in; we passed many winding paths, with multiple intersections of mud road leading to small huts at the end. As we approached what appears to be a central hospital building, Chu asked me not to stare at the people lingering at the entrance. These people were pitiful to the look, were listless as if impatient to finish what they were there for. They were the Lepers of Cebu and they were living in the one and only leprosy refuge where people who have contracted the dreaded body wasting disease were left there isolated from the outside world. The huts were their homes and they were now at the hospital to get medical attention. It was later that this eerie feeling of the place belied itself. Come to think of it I have never seen such a horrid place; so run down and wasted – a government project? A neglected one I should think just like the people within.
The faith healer house was at the end of another 10 minutes drive inland. It was a reasonably big stone house with a nice tiled roof surrounded by a low fencing bordering a small stream. The access to the house was by a metal gate. It was kept locked to keep the visitors at the waiting area and the only way to get in was a small door at the side. We took a number from the minder and mingled with the crowd outside which was swelling by the passing minute. Chu again told me to avoid the people as some of them were sick and was here to get treatment. After passing the Leper’s refuge, I heeded her advice without a question.
When the clock strikes one, the door swung open, and the waiting crowd surged forward. The healer appears drabbed in flowing robes with her black hair running the length of her short body. She was powdered modestly with rose red lips and wearing a pair of low slung spectacles. Immediately the image of Whoopi Goldberg comes to my mind. ‘Doesn’t she look like her’, I said to Chu.
We waited our turn and finally got to see her. She was familiar with Chu and they exchanged small talk about the puppies, I supposed.
‘Oh’ she said, ‘so this is your bana, looks like a hapon – Japanese’.
‘Thank you’ I said, not knowing what to reply.
‘Manang, blessed my husband with good luck and good health’ Chu said, ‘and his family with good fortune’. ‘Blessed also that we will have a child and for that a boy child to his name’. It was in the Visayan language though I got the translation later.
The healer then began to rub some oily liquid on my hand cleansing it and then moving on to my face. As she worked her way she was chanting some well rehearsed verses again in the language they used in the south. After that she used a fresh tooth pick and started to prick me on the finger tips from one finger to the other and then back again several times, each time with a new vigor as if to seal in the blessings she was paid to deliver. When the pricking was becoming too painful to bear, it suddenly was all over. With a ribbon tight round my bicep, I was sent off with an instruction to come in 3 days time for the last ritual.
We set off from the ‘wolf lair’ when the sky was about to get dark and headed for the way out, the way we came in, quietly passing through each hut knowing that from each hut we were been watched by sad and lonely eyes. Three days later at midnight (the plane was leaving at 1.45 am) we made that journey back again to have the ribbon untied, final blessings and then rushed to the airport to catch the flight back.
It was a memorable trip for me as the suspicion on the healer was finally broken and the thought of black magic and all those things were then forgotten. The faith healer was just a healer of the people, those who will have strong faith in her will recover.
It was also with wonderful feelings that we have strengthened our trust for each other and renewed our relationship to a higher level.