Safety First

After a weekend of highly-compressed fun, I subjected myself to a hellish week of academic torture on occupational safety and industrial medicine. (O diba, slightly redundant and tangentially oxymoronic..)

Don't travel alone.

I arrived in Cagayan de Oro from Singapore at 8AM on the same morning we were to leave for an 8-day seminar in Davao City. The original plan was to commute via bus so I tried to sneak in as much sleep as possible during the flight home. Even bought one of those travel pillows at Changi just so my head wouldn't be bumping about as I attempted to catch some Zzzs. I was also already pre-packed for the Davao trip so really, I only had to go home, get changed, grab my stuff and leave. But when I got home and got the call from Vanessa to meet up at the bus terminal at 9:30AM, my entire being was just screaming at me, "You are not going on a seven-hour bus ride!" So I booked an afternoon flight and even arrived in Davao 2 hours earlier than my commuting companions! Sure, the fare was 3 times more expensive but I wouldn't have traded the expense for the stress-free journey, especially considering that the week ahead was bound to drain every ounce of energy and sanity I had.

Wear protective clothing.

Seating on the very first day of a seminar is very important as this will be your seat for every single day hence. Naturally, we sat somewhere strategically near the exit doors but still close enough to the front to be able to see the slide presentations. The thing was, we arrived too early and thus were instructed to please occupy the seats in front. Had we been of another age bracket, we probably would've ignored instructions and stayed put. But seeing as we were the youngest participants in the seminar and the one urging us to move was grandpa-looking (because we were brainwashed as kids to obey grandpas), we had no choice but to sit in front, where we were in between two large airconditioners. Now, I'm usually tolerant to cold temperatures but this was just too much. My nailbeds were turning blue and my ribs were shivering. And so began the search for an inexpensive sweater/jacket. It had to be cheap because I don't really wear jackets all that much anyway. However, when I was browsing through the sweaters and jackets area, I saw it. This pink polka dot thing that was just so adorable. *sigh* I am so gay. Forget that I looked like a 12 year old attending an adult conference. I was very happy with my pink Personal Protective Equipment.

Use safety shoes.

Speaking of PPEs, the 7th day of the seminar was set aside for a plant visit. Every 'effin day of the seminar, it was emphasized that the availability of protective equipment is non-negotiable and is basically mandatory. But then, prior to the plant visit, grandpa said that the company would be unable to provide us with safety shoes, hence leaving the burden on us to find ourselves some shoes. And take note, "any closed shoes will do." Now, I hate closed shoes. I never buy closed shoes. (Well, except for that one time when I graduated from medical school. Oh, and also for that time when I had to go on duty at Nestle during the height of the AH1N1 scare.) So now that I had to purchase yet another useless thing for the stupid seminar, my wai-meter was pointing dangerously towards I-need-to-smack-someone-in-the-mouth levels. And because I don't like being a bitch, I needed something to cheer me up. So naturally, I bought a pair of shoes with pink flowers. (Yes, they look like kindergarten shoes and yes, those are teddy bears on my bedsheets.) I'm sure the pretty floral pattern will deter any huge crates threatening to fall on my tiny toes.

Never accept rides from strangers.

Pink flowers or no, I still didn't enjoy the prospect of having to shop for closed shoes. So after the few minutes it took me to buy a pair, we went to dinner at some pizza place because I wanted to have the quickest dinner possible and then head back to the dorm to rest. But it seemed Davao was determined to piss me off. Super heavy rain for 20 minutes that led to a flash flood that had me stuck at the pizza place for two fucking hours. I was tired and wet and I wanted to go home. So when some strangers offered us a ride in their van to dry land, I didn't even consider that they could be kidnappers, hoping to sell us to some terrorist group or something. I was too tired to be paranoid. Thankfully, they were pretty ordinary guys who did not need hostages so they dropped us off near a school (I think), where we paid a tricycle driver six times the regular fare to get us home.

Stop, Look and Listen

STOP falling asleep.

LOOK at the boring lecturer.

LISTEN to the boring lecture by the boring lecturer.

Pretty simple instructions but it took several cups of coffee, a couple packs of super sour tamarind candy and incredibly out-of-this-world daydreaming to even comply with the first one. It's one thing to be bored and quite another to actually pay to be bored. It's not that they didn't know what they were talking about. The problem was that they didn't know how to talk about occupational safety without making me want to throw a book at them. The very same book they were reading off of. (You see, they basically just stood there, reading the manual out loud like goddamned drones.)

Stock sufficient stores of food.

Now you must understand that we paid for this seminar, food inclusive. Over the 8 days that we were there, the food was often way below par and something always ran out, whether it be the fish, or the vegetables, or the soup... Anyway, after another maddeningly boring morning lecture, I was excited to see the dessert... some banana thing with sugary syrup and sago. And like the good citizen that I am, I queued and waited for my turn but as I reached the dessert table, the bowl with the bananas was empty.

On that very same day, I cried like a crazy person.

But let me explain. It started with the bananas. Then it was followed with the news that I had to buy shoes. Then I was stuck in the flash flood. As I sat on the bed after getting out of my damp clothes, I couldn't stop the tears.

My friends kept mocking me for crying over bananas but you have to understand that it was an accumulation of wrongs! Also, I really did want to eat those bananas... *sobbing*

Keep out of reach of children.

Six of us shared a room. There was only one vanity table. As we were getting ready for another lecture, my left wrist grazed something hot and I immediately pulled back and saw that there was a hot flat iron on the table. So much for all that talk of "a place for everything and everything in its place." Although I was able to cool the burnt area of my skin (poured water on it and shoved it in front of the airconditioner), there is still a tiny seared portion on the dorsomedial aspect of my left wrist.

Abrasion in Singapore. Burn in Davao.

I wonder what sort of injury awaits me in Laoag...