Chilly Candoni

It was very chilly in Candoni since Monday and during our first local health board for the year, we were all huddling in the municipal lobby. They were all wearing sweaters and long sleeves and I forgot to wear mine. Even the Mayor was wearing his cowboy hat and black leather jacket. The day I arrived in Candoni this week, I was welcomed with the cold January breeze but the reception of my staff was as warm as ever. It didn't rain in Candoni for the last 3 days now but it was very very cloudy, very very windy and very very cold.

There were a lot of patients last Monday, quite a few yesterday and none for today considering that it is Immunization Day, plus our scheduled Local Health Board. The agenda was the same agenda we had during our emergency staff meeting last Monday: the upcoming Heart Month activities for February.

We will be kicking off the month-long celebration with a motorcade, following the same route last year. This will be on the 5th of February, a day before the first day of the municipality's week-long fiesta. Candoni will be celebrating its fiesta on the 11th of February with the birth of the first Dinagyaw sa Tablas (formerly known as Pabalhas) Streetdancing Competition.

On the 24th, we will be having our culminating activity for the Heart month. We will be having our 2nd Mountain Marathon, with a new route this time and with new rules. During the LHB meeting, the Mayor's Office promised to help out in the solicitation for the prizes for the Marathoners. This year, I have added a new activity for the Heart Month: an inter-barangay and inter-school HATAW aerobics dance showdown competition. The objective is to encourage exercise as a healthy lifestyle for the young and old and to produce new HATAW dance steps. The winners will demonstrate their dance steps and will be captured in video and reproduced and distributed to schools, offices and organizations as the new HATAW steps from Candoni.

I was told that the cold weather will last until the 15th of February. I remember last year when we had our Mountain Marathon, the runners were running through thick fog in the early morning. It was a beautiful sight. The marathon route was really covered with fog. I am expecting the same view for this year's Marathon and I am hoping to have more marathoners this year. Last year, we had around a little over than a hundred marathoners.

Next week will be reporting and workshop week for both the field health workers and the medical staff. Busy, busy, busy week next week.