Adventures of Isabel

I’ve been horrendously sick the past several days. I was more or less bedridden beginning Friday, and though I’m definitely on the mend — and today have been able to go about most of my business — I’m still feeling a bit shaky.
I got a whole battery of blood-tests done to see if [...]

After 6 months, 6 countries, 2 conflict zones, 1 hand restitching, and who knows how many miles walked and rivers forded, I decided it was time for a new pair of sandals.I’m finding myself a bit sentimental though. The old pair and I have been through a lot together — from the floods of [...]

This is a woman named Lita Midrano, who I spoke to this June, on the day rice prices broke 50 pesos per kilo in Mindanao. Midrano complained the subsidized rice provided by the National Food Authority for p18.50 a kilo was very poor quality, but she still waited in line for hours, because she [...]

Back to California, after a long, parched, uncomfortable but uneventful flight. I’m worn out, but happy to be back in my room, watching desperate flight of the last (I hope) of the ants that had taken up residence in my computer.
Notes from Manila:
It’s been a brilliant exit from the Philippines.Absolutely torrential rains, and a [...]

It’s been a fairly grim week. So hot I miss the rain. 2 journalists have been shot, one fatally. The Dengue fever season is in force, and it’s seems to have even reached into my home — the friend who lives in the next room over has been prostrate this week, with [...]

View from my roof yesterday
It can be very, very difficult to get anything done when leaving the house involves wading.