Cash Donations Update!

Cash Fund as of December 17: PhP 23,389.00
Add:December 22, 2008:
Donation by Tarcela Santander PhP 1,500.00

Total Funds as of December 27: PhP 24,889.00

Weekend Report!

Cash UpDate Report:

Cash Fund as of December 16: PhP 21,389.00
ADD: December 17: Anvil Publishing: P2,000
Total Funds as of December 17: PhP 23,389.00

Please note that the funds are now used for Joylin's anti-scoliosis brace, her dental needs and to construct a private space for Joylin and her mother in the compound where they are presently staying.


Other Special Helpers for Joylin:


Special thanks to Dr. Margarita Regudo of St. Luke's Hospital who is performing major work on Joylin's teeth and trained Joylin's mother on Joylin's teeth care. Dr. Regudo generously waived her professional fees for Joylin.


Special thanks to the Spirit Questors for their healing energies. Below is Olive Hernandez doing some natural healing techniques on Joylin taken last Sunday (December 14):

























Special thanks to Dr. Jen Tan and Mr. Jude Barrias who are helping with the anti-scoliosis brace of Joylin.


In the pictures at left and below, they are shown checking on Joylin and discussing a better brace design for her.






Hopefully, by next week, we can see Joylin with her brace!!!

























Joylin with her special gifts from special animals!!!

Last Sunday, the HoundsInHeaven pack (a family of dogs) and their friends at the DogsWithBlogs community who are praying for Joylin, sent a gift package of toys and food for Joylin and her nephews!

Cash Donations!

Cash Donations as of December 10: PhP 18,389.00

ADD:
December 15: The Polar Bears P3,000
December 16: The Cheshire Cat P1,000
SubTotal: P4,000

Cash Donations as of December 16: PhP 21,389.00

Cash Donations Update!

Funds Balance as of December 8, 2008: PhP 16,889.00

ADD: Donations:
December 10: Farrah Orosco - P 500.00
December 12: Marvin Laddaran - P 1,000
SubTotal: PhP 1,500

Fund Balance as of December 10: PhP 18,389.00

We now need only PhP 1,611.00 to be able to get the Anti-Scoliosis brace of Joylin which cost P20,000. Thank you for all your donations!!!

Book of Joylin: Looking Back . . .

Thursday, October 23, 2008:

My son Nelson's 36th birthday, had he not passed away after a second heart attack in 1998. I light the paraffin oil lamps and a rose-scented joss stick on our family altar, and say a prayer.

I ask my daughter-in-law, Ivy, to buy flowers today. For some reason, since his demise in 1998, we have always bought him red roses.

I kiss my granddaughter Angelique goodbye in the family room and call out goodbye to my granddaughter Aubrey, who is still taking a shower.

Cubao MRT Station. 6:00 AM train. I take a jeepney to Arquiza. I arrive at work 7:15 AM.

Martha Buckley, our Cultural Affairs Officer, and John McGuire, the Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer in charge of the U.S. Election Watch program, approve my decor concept and design for the lobby of Mall of Asia.

My co-worker Jomar Ascano gives me a pack of Marlboro Gold Lights this morning.

Lunch at Emerald Garden with Gwenn Galvez and Joyce Bersales of the Marketing Department of Anvil Publishing, Inc. and a feature writer of "Bulletin Today". The writer interviews me for an article she will write to promote my Halloween book-signing at Powerbooks Trinoma.

1:30 PM U.S. Election Watch staff meeting in the office Multipurpose Room.

After work, I ride with Agnes to the GMA Kamuning MRT Station. I take the 5:35 PM train.

I am anxious. My heart pounds within my chest. I search for the sick beggar girl whom I'd seen before on the staircase leading to Pinatubo Street. She is not there. I wend my way through the crowds of commuters and visit the other staircases.

She is not there.

I take a tricycle home. My son Chito has already gone for work. He is now on the evening shift as a licensed mortician at Sanctuarium.

I place the flowers that Ivy bought on the family altar. I light another rose-scented joss stick and say a prayer.

I kiss Aubrey good night in the family room; Angelique, in the computer room.

Ivy buys me a pack of Fortune cigarettes.

Lee Reyes, scriptwriter of "Trip Na Trip", text-messaged me, confirming our schedule to do a remote scanning of flashdrive photos on a LCD screen in Bayan Productions' conference room on Saturday morning. I text message a few Spirit Questors. Only Gerard Paul Elvina is available on Saturday morning. I decide to take him along and use him as a psychic battery.

Lara Sen, an executive producer of Bayan Productions, is leaving for India to visit relatives at the end of the month. I text-message her and request that she buy me a bronze statue of Kali.

I sleep 10:15 PM - 4:05 AM.

I can't recall my dreams, but I have vague images of one in which I was either in a house or traveling. My psyche makes it possible for me to not recall my dreams whenever I am mentally overstressed.

A cool dawn.



Friday, October 24, 2008

I kiss Angelique goodbye in the telephone room. She is all dressed up for school. I call outy goodbye to Aubrey, who is still taking a shower.

Cubao MRT Station. 5:47 AM train.

I take a jeepney to Arquiza. I am on the front seat with a female co-passenger. The jeepney driver tells us a depressing story about their neighbor, a PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone company) security guard who jumped off the 15th floor of the Makati PLDT building because he had been steeped in too many debts and because his wife is severely afflicted with cancer.

Linda Castro, the office jeweler, brings me four sterling-silver dip-pen ferrules today.

Fidel of Anvil Publishing text-messages me that I am Powerbooks Author of The Month.

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM U.S. Election watch meeting and walk-through with staff members at Mall of Asia.

I take a bus that drops me off on Taft/EDSA.

I take the 4:45 PM train at the Taft MRT Station.

I arrive at the Cubao MRT Station 5:15 PM.

The sick beggar is there. This time I approach her. I converse briefly with her mother, who holds her in her arms. The mother tells me that she has a son. Her husband abandoned them for eight years then came back to them, after which their little girl was born and was afflicted with high fever at the age of two. She was taken, too late, to a public hospital, because her elder brother was at work at the time. She was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy. This was followed by the onset of polio and epilepsy. The husband/father abandoned them again.

The little girl cannot speak and can only swallow soft foods and drink.

I kneel on the floor and touch the little girl's forehead with my right palm. I give her healing, first with my right hand and then with the all-purpose wand that I keep in my courier bag all the time. My right hand aches. I feel that I have taken off some of the little girl's negative energy. I push all of it into the concrete wall and metal railing.

I take a tricycle home.

I fit bird feathers and nibs into the sterling-silver ferrules.

Chito, Ivy, and the granddaughters tell me that they saw the "Trip Na Trip" teaser on TV, during the news program Channel 2's "TV Patrol".

I text-message Tina Lebron, a crystal healer, and invite her to "look like a fool with me" to heal the little beggar girl on the Cubao MRT staircase.

I text-message the same to Sam Tan, a Spirit Questor and pranic healer.

I text-message the same to Ramona Singian, a Spirit Questor.

I text-message the same to Riza P. Regis, a crystal healer.

Only Ramona and Riza respond. They are willing to do what I asked for.

I sleep 10:00 PM - 8:14 AM.

Lee Reyes sends out a text-message flyer promoting tonight's "Trip Na Trip" episode close to 11:00 PM.

"Trip Na Trip" airs after midnight. Only Ivy and my sister Alice are able to stay up and watch me and the Spirit Questors on TV.

Mau Alcazar, an old friend, text-messages me at 1:24:04: "I'm watching you on TV right now."

My dreams are of everyday situations, about things I have to do. I cannot recall the details, but the underlying motifs are responsibility and taking responsibility.

Donations: UpDate Report

As posted earlier, we are trying to raise funds for the Anti-Scoliosis brace needed by Joylin in the amount of PhP20,000 (Twenty Thousand Pesos or more than $400. Note: P48-P49:$1)

The funds raised per donations posted on the right (please click on link on donations for details) as of November 25 is PhP 10,389.00.

Today we received cash donations from the following:

Mr. Ryan Barrera P2,000
Dr. Benilda Santos P4,000
Ms. Ramona Singian P 500

If we add the total amount of PhP 6,500 received today to the funds of November 25 (PhP10,389) we have raised a total amount of PhP16,889!!! We still need PhP3,111!!! Thank you for helping us raise the funds for Joylin's brace. More updates in the next post . . .

Book of Joylin: Looking Back

Monday, October 20, 2008

5:52 AM train, Cubao MRT Station. I arrive at work 6:48 AM. No one mentions having seen me on Trip Na Trip last Friday; this is a good thing because it conserves my private life outside my workplace.

I file annual leave for October 30 and 31.

I leave work at 4:30 PM with Agnes Caballa, who swings me by an antique dealer’s house in Quezon City before dropping me off at GMA/Kamuning MRT Station.

I take the 5:50 PM and then a tricycle. Everyone is home: My son Chito, who works as a licensed mortician at Sanctuarium; my daughter-in-law Ivy; and their two children Angelique Pearl, 13, and Aubrey Rose, 9, who are grade-schoolers at Saint Paul Pasig. Aubrey attended a gift course earlier this afternoon and proudly tells me that she chose Dance.

At 7:00 PM, someone from Sanctuarium calls up Chito and asks him to come back to his office. It’s Sanctuarium’s second anniversary and the entire staff are celebrating. I send a text greeting to Eugene Cheng, Sanctuarium’s Vice-President for Operations.

I sleep from 9:35 PM - 4:00 AM, but I recall waking up briefly at 3:30 AM.

Nonon Padilla sends me a text message informing me that he has not yet cast my full-length play “Saan Ba Tayo Ihahatid Ng Disyembre?” which PETA is world-premiering in February 2009.

Ona Lara Unico of Bayan Productions’ “Trip na Trip” sends me a text message confirming our digital shoot on Saturday, when Gerard Elvina and I are scheduled to do a remote scanning of the Umalis’ ancestral house in Tiaong, Quezon via flashdrive photographs on their studio LCD.

I have a dream:

“A Gathering”

I am in a restaurant in Rome . I meet a Jesuit priest and two female classmates from the time I was enrolled in an M.A. degree course in Clinical Psychology. We order food and eat. There is not enough rice for me, and so I order more. Afterwards there is much discussion about how much each one of us must pay, including the tip for the waitress. My companions leave me. I move to the far end of the long table where two friends from another past episode in my life are seated. They, too, eventually leave me. I feel rejected.

I look at a trash can that has the word “TAZA” written on it. It stands in front of a tall fence beyond which there is a house. A crude sign reads: “NO TRESPASSING”. It is possible, I surmise, that tourists often attempt to climb over this fence.

A waitress brings me an ashtray and matches. I light up a cigarette. I think of Jessica Zafra and the manuscript of her novel set in Italy . She must have taken down voluminous notes to record all of her observations. I suddenly wonder if, were I a young boy, I would survive working here, perhaps as a grocer’s boy. Then I wonder whether I would also be unhappy.

Later, for some reason, I meet with my Psychology circle again. Everyone is distant except for Pat Fermin who tells me, “I defended you.” She then asks me about Halloween rituals. One of the female professors becomes interested and joins our conversation. I tell Pat, “Face the window that looks out to the east and light yellow incense the minute you see the sun rising.” I comment on how the October 17-18 debacle that someone predicted never actually happened and how disappointing that was.

Next, I am all alone again, walking through a forest on soft, damp grass. I begin dreaming lucidly. I am enjoying astrally traveling in Rome . I activate my shamanic senses. I pick up handfuls of grass and try to take in their scent. I can actually feel the grass in my hands, but I can’t smell it.

There are other people ahead of me, and two big, black men behind me. It is night time now, so that I cannot make out their faces. It occurs to me that they are stalking me and planning to mug me, but I am not afraid. I don’t feel threatened at all.

Commentary:

This is a precognitive, warning dream. My companions at the start of the dream personify both the many facets of my personality and the Spirit Questors. The main message of the dream is “NO TRESPASSING”. Elementals are involved here: the people people walking ahead of me in the forest and the two big, black men behind me.

The dream offers a resolution: “Face the window that looks out to the east and light yellow incense the minute you see the sun rising.”



Tuesday, October 21, 2008:

A cool dawn. Chito’s day off from work at Sanctuarium. After breakfast, I kiss my granddaughters goodbye.

5:50 AM train, Cubao MRT Station. Jeepney to Arquiza, where I drop by an antique dealer’s shop to check out a wooden-frame Chinese lantern that the owner, an old friend, has pledged to give me as a gift. Some of the hand-painted glass panes need to be replaced. The lantern has a red tassel. It is beautiful!

Arrive work 6:55 AM. Later in the morning some co-workers and I visit Mall of Asia, the venue for our upcoming U.S. Election Watch program. During lunch break in the staff room Chuck Loyola of HR tells me that he saw me on TV Sunday night at 10:00 PM—probably the Spirit Questors’ pre-Halloween episode on “Trip Na Trip” replayed on The Filipino Channel for global viewing.

I leave work at 4:30 PM with Agnes Caballa, who drops me off at GMA Kamuning MRT Station. I take the 5:50 PM. I halt at the staircase leading to the tricycle queue on Pinatubo Street. I am mortified.

Amidst the melee of commuters trudging up and down the staircase, my eyes zoom in on a little girl with emaciated limbs. She is lying down on a blanket on the lower landing of the staircase. She seems incapable of movement, but her brain and her eyes are very much alive. Her eyes follow with delight, a group of college students passing by, as though she is happy to see them and expects them to stop and talk to her. Only afterwards do I notice that the girl is lying on the lap of a woman. Another, elder, woman, stands beside them with a bag.

Something is wrong with this picture. The girl and the two women are modestly dressed and are impeccably clean. The first thought that crosses my mind is that a syndicate is using this disabled girl to solicit money from people. A plastic cup (TAZA) is on the concrete landing at the first woman’s knees. It gradually fills up with coins. Two or three charitable people hand the seated woman paper bills. I know that I must stop and do something, but I cannot. I am momentarily riveted, mostly out of denial. The girl looks exactly like my 13-year-old granddaughter Angelique, when she was younger. I tell myself, “Oh my God, it’s Angelique!” This is how she would have looked like had she been disabled in any way. I run away in denial and take a tricycle home.

Before bedtime I tell Chito, Ivy, Angelique, and Aubrey about the little girl on the staircase. No one believes me.

In bed, before sleeping, I pray to Father Fernando Suarez of Canada to heal the little girl . I telepathically reach out to him. I pray for her healing also to the orishas who are represented on the Santeria altar inside my bedroom.

I sleep 9:45 PM – 4:13 AM.

I have a dream:

“Medicine”:

I am naked inside my bedroom and start getting dressed for work. My youngest sister, Sylvia, saunters into the room and asks me for medicine, but I don’t have what she needs. She then places a bottle of healing balm and some other medicinal items inside my medicine cabinet. Sylvia then transforms into Angelique.

Moments later, my younger brother (I don’t have one in real life) also saunters into the room. He, too, asks for medicine. He sees Angelique eating up the last few pieces of a chocolate bar she has been nibbling on, and says that he wishes he had some too. I assure him that everything is all right; I bought chocolates for everyone.

Commentary:

In this dream, Sylvia is my anima. My Higher Self is clearly asking me to assist that little girl to heal, impossible as it may have seemed by her appearance that afternoon; I thought that she was dying. The little boy in my dream represents my Selfish Self—because, instead of stopping and giving alms, I ran away. My Selfish Self is need not only of healing but of affection (chocolate).



Wednesday, October 22, 2008

5:50 AM train, Cubao MRT Station. I take a jeepney to Arquiza. Arrive at work 7:23 AM.

I text the Spirit Questors about the girl on the Cubao MRT Station. I ask them to check her out. No one responds.

I call Joscephine Gomez this morning. She invites me to be one of the guests on her interview show "Creative Solutions" for her November 1 (All Saints Day) episode.

12:15 NN - 1:00 PM, I give a brown-bag presentation titled "Models of the Psyche and the Creative Writing Process" to six American Language Training officers, mostly from the Consular Section. I invite them to attend the National Book Awards, now sponsored by Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board (and henceforth to be held in November, National Book Month, rather than during the September International Book Fair as it used to be). The Awards will be held at Yuchengco Museum 6:00 PM November 15. I know that Volume 4 of my "The Collected Works of Tony Perez", "Tatlong Paglalakbay: Bombita, Biyaheng Timog, Sa North Diversion Road)" is a finalist for the Drama Category.

I arrive home 6:15 PM and reset the microwave clock in the kitchen. There must have been a brownout some time today.

Ivy tells me that she walked through the MRT Cubao Station from Farmers Market but found no such girl as the one I described on any of the staircases.

I kiss my granddaughters good night: Angelique in the family room, Aubrey in the kitchen.

I am in bed by 7:27 PM.

I sleep 9:40 PM - 4:15 AM.


I have a dream:

"Antique Furniture"

My workplace has been transported to or merged with my house. I have lots of antique furniture around me. A Chinese coromandel screen topples over and smashes; I will have to have it repaired later. Bruce Armstrong, both the former Cultural Affairs Officer and my former supervisor, comments on the amount of antique pieces I have managed to amass over the years, the most recent an armoire with many compartments.

The Ambassador's room is adjacent to mine. She is scolding one of her aides, a man whose name is Mark, and my co-workers and I dive off my bed to hide from her. Bruce laughs at us and informs us that someone was able to tip off that Mark is a communist Party member.

Later Bruce transforms into Rosie, a former locally-engaged Cultural Affairs Office secretary. She has her daughter, Leah, who is seven years old and wearing a gown in this dream, in tow. I approach her and ask her why she is wearing glasses, but I get no reply. I marvel at how time flies, at the fact that Leah used to be a baby and is now seven years old. I look inside another antique armoire and discover some candy that I stashed away last Christmas.

Commentary:

The armoire represents my Unconscious. The Ambassador is a female elemental of authority; Mark, a minion who has committed a grievous offense.

The motif of the little girl is present in this dream: Leah, Angelique, the sick girl on the staircase.

Once again there is candy, a craving for affection.