neXtDRAFT 61. Dengue

Published: Sat, 07/20/19

Welcome new subscribers. If this is your first neXtDRAFT you'll find poems, stories and pics about my life as an adopted mum (and freelance writer) living between Australia and the Philippines. Each edition I share my best tips for creating a writing business and working as a professional writer serving clients from all over the world.

Here in the Philippines I support about 20 kids from a rural municipality with food, books, uniforms and love -- it's my way of encouraging them to go to school and maybe one day out of poverty. You'll read their stories here too.

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Melinda J. Irvine

https://melirvine.com.au/

Good Sunday friends, and welcome to neXtDRAFT 61.

Dengue.

On Friday afternoon Jerry’s classroom was fogged for dengue mosquitos. The entire Province of Iloilo is currently in a dengue emergency which includes both Estancia (where Jerry’s family, all our friends and sponsored kids live) plus Iloilo City itself.

All hospitals across the region are overloaded, and patients are now spilling out into makeshift care facilities setup in public gymnasiums and plazas. The local hospital that serves the municipality of Estancia is currently overloaded 1,073% -– and no, that figure is not a typo.

I’m happy to report that none of our sponsored families currently have Dengue — but the classmates of our little kindergarten boy Jyn, died 2 weeks ago from severe Dengue. It’s just devastating when kids in kindergarten, Grade 2 and Grade 4 are dying after being bitten by mosquitos.

The Dengue illness exists in two forms — Dengue and Severe Dengue — and is transmitted through mosquito bites. It begins with a very high fever (I know this because I suffered Dengue myself back in 2016) as well as headache, pain behind the eyes, and joint pain. You also get a bright red rash all over your body — I certainly did.

The danger period is about 5 days in when the fever begins to drop. Internal bleeding can occur and patients will suffer severe abdominal pain and vomiting. This is known as Severe Dengue and even with proper medical care, can be fatal.

The schools in the region (including Jerry’s) began issuing Dengue alerts 2 weeks ago, requiring students to wear long pants (or long socks for girls), arm bands or long sleeved shirts — plus mosquito repellant. We were lucky because mum left me a big tube of Bushman’s 40% DEET when she visited in April, and I’ve been using this on Jerry every morning before he goes to school.

giving kids clothes for dengue protection

Some of our sponsored kids show their new ‘dengue clothes’ — long sleeved shirts and pants to wear to school, bed, or during the most active feeding times of the mosquitos.

Once the Dengue Alert had been issued, I immediately called my friends in Estancia and told them I would buy repellant in the city and bring to them the following weekend. But when I went to a leading pharmacy to buy mosquito repellant, I was told that the entire city had sold out and I wouldn’t find it in any pharmacy, supermarket, or department store.

I went from store to store and was told the same story — that pharmaceutical suppliers were also out of stock and there was no estimated delivery date. With no way of buying lotion, back in Australia mum went to the shops and bought a heap of Bushman’s and put it in the post. Naturally it hasn’t arrived yet, but Dengue will be a problem here until at least December, so it won’t go to waste.

Nicky, Nonoy, and Jylyn modelling their new clothes in Estancia last week.

With no repellant available, the next best thing (and probably more practical anyway) was to buy the kids long sleeved shirts and pants to wear while the mosquitos are in their active feeding times. Or wear to school — as the public schools have removed the uniform requirement, and are encouraging kids to wear anything that covers them. Again, mum helped out with this too.

Of course Jerry felt a little bit put out not to be getting any new clothes, but I did explain that he already had long pants and shirts to sleep in. And that Jylyn, Nicky, and Nonoy were his best friends and it was important to keep them (and their families) safe. He agreed, though he stayed in school in the city when I made the 4 hour bus trip to Estancia to deliver the clothes (and packs of mosquito coils).

So all across the city yesterday, people were having a massive community cleanup — removing rubbish, dead leaves, branches, and stagnant water. As well as cutting grass, and pruning trees. In the afternoons people burned big leafy fires that pour thick smoke.

The local plaza can look simply beautiful after rain.

All this dengue activity (plus school being cancelled two days this week due to monsoonal rain and flooding) tends to overshadow my thinking, and dominates my writing content. I hope at least I've been able to capture what life can be like in a country where medical care is not at the same standards we've come to expect and enjoy in the west.

My heart goes out to the families of children affected by Dengue, who struggle to feed their families and then have to spend 1-2 month's salary on treatment and hospital care.

Till next week.

Mel xx

PS: I'll be sharing some exciting news next week about some upcoming projects at some of the schools back in Estancia. I'm working to keep this updated on the blog in between neXtDRAFT issues.

Jerry and Tita Mel on vacation last month

Sincerely,

Melinda J. Irvine

[email protected]

Jerry pretending to be the statue of a Philippine hero at the plaza near our home. In the soft morning reflections (and under the damp dewed trees) you could be in paradise or stinking sewerage mud and breeding grounds of dengue mosquitos. It's all about perspective.

vending pineapples from a motorbike seat

vending
pineapples
with urgency

money.
exchange.
quick. before
the street guard surge

Walking out of the money exchange kiosk I found my path blocked by a tricycle stretched with pineapples. A young man was urgently slicing his wares into plastic shopping bags. My 50 peso order was interrupted by a huge jeepney driver (who pulled up alongside) and commanded 2 bags full from the driver’s seat of his open passenger vehicle — but drove off when the street guard surged out of the crowd. Somehow the young vendor slipped that plastic bag of sweet fruit into my hand and secured the 50 peso note before disappearing into the traffic.

I’m a professional writer making my way in the world of business. The WritingBiz section is for anyone wanting to make writing a career (or at the very least make some money writing). Each week I share a few ideas on how to find writing jobs, work from a home office space, as well as how to setup your writing business and run it profitably.

Freelancing facts they don't mention

in the brochures

Now don’t take me the wrong way here, I love my freelance writing life. But I’ve seen more than one marketing blog that seriously overstates the benefits of freelancing (probably for the purposes of recruiting students/trainees into their freelance learning store).

Sure freelancing is fabulous, but I want to set the record straight about a few things — because a freelance writing career isn’t for everyone.

#freelancelife #WritingBizRealities

WRITINGBIZ TIP #24

Keep client data secure

Keeping client documents secure is an important responsibility of freelance writers. Some clients require their documents returned (or deleted) when the job finishes, but all clients will expect you to protect their data as if it were your own.

Clients often give me their login details to member websites and social media channels, in the case of one-off projects these details should be deleted once the project has been finalised.

You should always follow instructions from your client as many digital documents (like Australian Standards or peer reviewed journal papers) are licensed to the client’s organisation (eg, they can be read online but may not be downloaded or printed to hard copy). Not following their requests can compromise the relationship your client has with other organisations.

While working on a project you should make sure that your computer’s hard drive and cloud storage is secure, Use strong passwords. How about if your laptop was lost or stolen, could the integrity of your client’s data be compromised?

And while backups aren’t necessarily a part of client confidentiality, make sure the project you are working on is regularly backed up. It would be really embarrassing to miss a deadline (or have to ask your client to send all the resource files again) because your computer crashed and the whole project was lost.

Content Writing Q&A

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Back Issues of neXtDRAFT

https://melirvine.com.au/nextdraft-back-issues/

Use the password: luvdapeepsumeet

From the vault: July 2016

Paperbark Wetlands

barefoot forest, steps
find sun-stained river grass
windless and silent

paperbarks in the wetlands behind the house

I wrote this little poem when I was home in Australia for mum and dad's 50th wedding anniversary in 2016. Paperbark Wetlands is featured in my book of multimedia poetry Paperbark Wetlands: 10 Little Multimedia Poems Lyricing the Australian Landscape.