Purchasing T-shirts for MI, Inc Medical Mission of Love III

Macrine and the 2011 Souvenir T-shirt at Chateau Du Mer

This a reprint from the article of Lito Quiazon from MI, Inc newsletter regarding the preparation for MI, Inc Medical Mission of Love III in 2004. It is an interesting vignet on the pains and joys of Medical mission work and preparation. Thanks Lito for the article.

Divisoria, as many of you remember, is the shopping center for folks hunting for good value at a reasonable price. Going to Divisoria, however, is fraught with risk -it's in a heavily congested area of Manila. Shoppers are advised to be very careful with their wallets and purses - the market is the permanent address of professional thieves, or mandurukots.

One day, inspired by the spirit of Marinduque International, the brave Jambalos sisters (Macrine Jambalos Katague and Fe Jambalos) decided that MI could save expenses for the T-shirts if they buy the merchandise in Divisoria. And off they drove in Fe's Toyota Revo to the shopping center for bargain hunters.

The parking lot was quite a distance from the marketplace. They walked to the market. They went from stall to stall hunting for the best bargain - after all this was MI, Inc's. hard-earned money that was being spent. Soon they found the merchant. They selected three models: Round neck, V-neck and Collared T-shirts. Price was about eighty-five pesos (P85) on average - a bargain indeed. They bought two-hundred shirts -enough for the two T-shirts allocated to each missioner. "Tawad naman ng isa,( Bargaining for noe more) Macrine requested the vendor. The vendor having made a good sale obliged. And so they ended up with 201 T-shirts.

The fun was just beginning. Not anticipating that the parking lot was quite a distance away, carrying the bulky merchandise to the van was out of the question - si Arnold Schwarzenegger ang kailangan nila,( A.S is the one they need) but he was last sighted in Sacramento, California. So they hired a local "padyak" tricycle (not motorized) operator to help them move the merchandise. To say that the ride from the market to the parking lot was an adventure, is quite an understatement. The sisters were astonished that the "payat" (lean) padyak operator was able to move the tricycle with the sisters and heavy merchandise on board.

A traffic island obstructed their crossing - the sisters got off the bike, the driver unloaded the merchandise, and the operator carried the tricyle over the island. You can imagine what happened at the other end of the traffic island.

They repeated the process at the next traffic island. Finally, they reached a point where there was no other choice but to unload everything, but this was still quite a distance from where the van was parked. So, Macrine stayed with the merchandise while Fe walked to get the van. The padyak operator is now quite exhausted, but anticipates a handsome tip for a job well done.

As luck (or misfortune) would have it, Macrine only had small change and large bills; three pesos in small change to be exact. By this time, Fe had arrived and saw the disgusted look of the driver who she overheard saying "tatlong piso?#%"( just three pesos?). Naawa naman(Fe was sorry) si Fe, but all she could find was five pesos change inside the van. Still not enough for the driver's labor (pasensya na lang) - you see, even padyak drivers have to make sacrifices for the mission.

(The T-shirts were distributed at the welcome breakfast on February 7th. We thank the missioners who willingly donated for the T-shirts. By the way, the T-shirts were in high demand that two more orders were made.)