Waiting for my bus along the National Highway in Maasim, Sarangani

After my shift at Maasim Municipal Hospital, where I attended to all sorts of patients and functioned as a community doctor—as an obstetrician, pediatrician, surgeon, and internist, all in one—it was time to go home. My patients were fishermen and farmers who lived in distant barrios. Most of them belonged to the indigenous people (IP) groups, and I had to have the nurses beside me to translate their complaints to Bisaya. My bus arrived an hour after this was taken, and I slept through the entire ride, tired and fulfilled.

The last time I'd been here was in 2014, a fresh graduate, and I had just finished my pre-residency in Internal Medicine. The hospital staff's reaction when I came back three years later: "Tambok na ka!" (You've gotten fat!). They said I looked better, too.