The Competition

This morning, while I was by the side of the road, waiting for the ride to get to work, a childhood friend and his wife and kid slowed down to say hi. “Kiss, Tita,” he said to the tot. She looked weak, with droopy eyes, and looked slightly flushed, but she did give me the perfunctory kiss, and settled back into her mother’s arms. I asked, “How is she?” Her dad said, “Oh, she has a feverm we’re taking her to the manghililot...” “Oh,” I went, and followed up with, “Have you guys given her paracetamol yet?” His wife said, “Nah, we haven’t, it’s too soon.” And they drove off.

And just like that, they left.

:-p

Really, now, if I were a pediatrician who wanted to set up a good practice in a neighborhood, or a locality for that matter, I’d have to consider the local naturopathist a stiff competition. For some strange reason, he still is the one most people go to when they’re ill…

Now, I don’t mean to sound judgmental or anything, but then it just saddens me that what can be cured by a simple antibiotic (i.e. an infection) or a fever is relegated to the local “natural healer”, for lack of a better word.. Oh well… True, there are claims that these methods work, but I can’t help cringing when I hear of them trying to set a broken bone from a fracture… with just a hilot (massage).Yikes.