Friday, January 4, 2008
An East Meets West Story
We lived in Gingoog City for 12 years. Our work was primarily among the poor in that city. A friend of ours, Bert, needed to have surgery for a hernia. His livelihood was buying and carrying a couple buckets of fish up into the mountains everyday, and selling them there. The hernia had become a problem. At this time, the Committee of German Doctors was doing clinics and immunizations in our city, so we encouraged Bert to go to them for his surgery. All went well and he was admitted to the Provincial hospital.
Three days later we were contacted by Bert. He could not leave the hospital! There was a huge bill to pay, and until it was paid by the German Doctors, he could not leave! My husband went to the hospital to find out what was going on. When he talked to the lady in the billing department, she showed him the bill. Every cotton ball was listed and charged, and the cost was way over what it should have been! When he asked her why it was so high, she shook her head and said, “It is because of doctor Matilda. They will not let Bert out until the German Doctors pay all this bill. Doctor Matilda really came here and made a problem!”
Oh dear, who is this doctor Matilda, and what could she have done to upset the whole hospital? We pictured a large, Brunhilda, bossy and aggressive… American Lolo went to the place where the German doctors were staying. We knew the place because whenever we could, we invited the visiting doctors to go snorkeling and have breakfast with us during their stay. He explained our problem with getting Bert out of the hospital, and we met doctor Matilda.
Doctor Matilda turned out to be a petite, delightful, fun, friendly and wonderful person! We ended up becoming good friends, and she has visited us several times since, and we plan to be in her home in Germany this coming summer. She was horrified to find that she had caused a problem at the hospital, but here is what had happened.
She and her companions were doing immunizations and clinics way up in the mountains above Gingoog. In the course of the clinics, she saw a man with a very bad skin condition. She and her fellow German doctors had given a supply of medicines to the Provincial hospital (part of the good things they do) and so she knew that the medicine this man needed was there. She told him to go there and get the medicine. She wrote a note saying it should be given to him. Two weeks later, when she was back in the same place, here came the same man with no improvement of his skin condition. She asked if he had applied the medicine she had told him to get. He replied that he had paid to go down to Gingoog and had gone to the provincial hospital, only to be told there was no stock for that medicine. She couldn’t believe it! She KNEW the medicine was there! She felt terrible that this man was not only still suffering, but that he had wasted what little money he had to run a fools errand upon which she had sent him!
When she got back to town, she went to the Provincial hospital and told them what had happened, and how upset she was! She looked them all in the eye, especially the director and the head of the pharmacy. She pointed and shook her finger as she talked. She caused the dignitaries of the local Provincial hospital to lose face. Now they would make the German Doctors pay for their humiliation, and would show them who had the upper hand! Bert was the only patient in the hospital under the German Doctors program, so he became the tool for their getting back at them. “They said they would pay? Well! We will make them pay, alright!”
When my husband explained to Doctor Matilda what had happen, and the cultural implications of how she had handled the problems at the hospital and its consequences, she felt terrible! She had not been given any significant cultural orientation before coming, and had not realized how her lecture would be received. She and her director went to the heads of the Gingoog Provincial Hospital, and Doctor Matilda offered a very humble apology to all concerned. It was accepted, and Bert was released from the hospital with no further charges. Doctor Matilda continues to come to the Philippines
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# 1 Bob (HI) said:
I wished we had more people like you in the Philippines. You and your husband are to be commended for the work that you do. I think this doctor learned a valuable lesson, and the best part was… there was a happy ending for everyone involved. Keep up the good work!
# 2 AmericanLola said:
Thanks Bob! We love what we do! And yes, it was great for her (and the organization) to learn these lessons and have a happy ending too!
# 3 Klaus said:
Hi American Lola. I only can agree with Bob (HI). God rewards you.
# 4 Jim said:
Hi AmericanLola- Its not always the visible things that you do that have the most impact on someones life.
Keep up the good work and I hope your husbands dental problems have all gone.
# 5 John in Austria said:
Now, if someone cannot understand what “losing face” means, this story is a perfect example and should be referred to often. Thanks.
# 6 jj said:
wow… sounds just like the provincial hospital here in my hometown… the admin dips their fingers into the stocks donated by the foreign aid doctors… in our case, our annual visiting Irish doctors donated ceiling fans to our ward (’cause it’s hot and no electric fans). they gave it to the admin for installation only to find out it was mis-appropriate to other wards. the airconditioner they donated went to the engineer’s office for some corrupt reason…. working in a provincial hospital exposes you to all corrupt practices…
# 7 jj said:
i bet the pharmacist sold most of the donated meds….same goes with our pharmacist (who has a drugstore near her home)…
# 8 AmericanLola said:
Yes, I didn’t get into the corruption of the Provincial hospital… it was disgraceful. The director was later dismissed, and it has to be really bad for that to happen! And they never explained what happened to that medicine or apologized to her.
But I think that the point to be taken here is that we foreigners need to understand the right way to deal with problems, and realize that we are not going to fix the problems that exist by making a lot of noise. Maybe she could have gotten the medicine for the man, if she had appealed to them in the right way. She could have suggested a misspelling, or a mislabeling that made it difficult to find, thus giving them a way to produce the meds without losing face.
She could have said that she herself was so embarrassed when she saw the man again and found out she had sent him for nothing. She could express her compassion and sympathy for the man, and in this subtle way shame them for not having the same sympathy for their own countryman. She could have talked about the partnership they have, and their shared goals of helping the sick and needy, and how upset they too must be when something like this happens… Asking, “What can we do for you to make it easier for people to get what they need in this kind of situation in the future?”
There is more than one way to skin a cat. Taking this much more subtle approach (which uses the shame culture without anyone losing face) is much more likely to get them to help you in the future.
# 9 Frank Fealey said:
Hi lola . You are correct on how to handle this situation. But the problem still remains corruption.This can only be resloved from the top down. But when you have the main peanuts at the top being the first ones with there hands in the cookie jar . Ithink amovie was made staring Tom Cruise on how to correst this situation it was called mission imppossible.It is my main frusration with Phil.
# 10 Bob said:
Hi AmericanLola - I really enjoyed the article from the standpoint that it is very educational for people to help them understand different way of approaching a problem. I think that this is a lesson that each of us foreigners have to learn here first hand. While a story like this helps us along our way to learning, I think that almost all of us have to go through a situation like this once (or more) to really get the impact!
# 11 AmericanLola said:
Hi Frank, yes it is frustrating, not only to us but to people who have lived here all their lives, like JJ who commented above. As foreigners, we need a ‘work with it’ mentality, rather than a ‘fix it’ mentality. Because as you say, we are not going to be the ones to solve it.
Thanks Bob, I think that’s true. I am hoping that maybe this will help people get some insight that will help them get a handle on what is/might be going on when things seem to have gone all wrong!
# 12 jj said:
i think the best way is you can only bring hell and brimstone if you have exhausted all diplomatic means of resolving the problem. in our case, it’s the nurses and doctors who are raising hell for the admin who are still clinging to their corrupt ways…. (e.g. delaying the release of salaries so they can skim off the interest)
# 13 Atty. Carol Cruz Sabio said:
Im shocked to hear the story that happened in Gingoog City. I am from that place. I grew up in that city. When I worked with a congressman uncle, my memoray still serves me fresh that hospital was given the best support.
I think the hospital staff needs moral value orientation.
# 14 AmericanLola said:
Hello, Attorney Carol, Thank you for reading this and making a comment! I think that in the last 5 years much improvement has taken place at the Gingoog Provincial hospital, and I hope there have been improvements in the values of the people who are in charge there. I could tell a lot of stories about that place from the time we lived in Gingoog, but I am hoping it is a lot better now!
We love Gingoog, by the way, and have many friends and ‘family’ there!
# 15 phil r said:
gingoog city is a great place to live i have a home just east of the city in talisay and me and my wife enjoy going to gingoog to do our shopping ..i even went there wearing my lounge pants one day ..boy did i look funny …