Inspirations

Our stories this week span a wide swath from Hawaii to Chicago to Leyte.

Emme Tomimbang, the popular TV personality from Honolulu, writes about her and her family's ordeal when her mother, her husband, her dog and herself got seriously ill almost at the same time. In "Caregiving Comes Full Circle -- A Personal Story," Emme shares her personal take on the challenges of caregiving especially when one needs care herself. 

From Chicago, Rey E. de la Cruz brings us a sumptuous Filipino breakfast treat from a restaurant right smack in the city's Ukrainian village run by a Ukrainian-Polish guy married to a Filipina. "Uncle Mike's Place" not only tells us the story behind this 23-year-old gastronomic institution, it also shares the recipe of its to-die-for lugaw (porridge) that draws visitors from far and near to its doors. 

Crossing the Pacific, we have a story of how a provincial governor was able to work around restrictive bureaucratic regulations to expand the provincial hospital and, more importantly, recruit and retain more doctors. Mar M. Galang's "How a Governor Slew a Bureaucratic Dragon with Common Sense" features former Leyte governor (now Secretary of Energy) Carlos Jericho L. Petilla proving that no matter how hackneyed the "if there's a will, there's a way" cliche is, it works sometimes. 

For folks in the San Francisco Bay Area, we'd like to encourage you to watch "The Guerrillas of Powell Street," the stage presentation of regular Positively Filipino contributor Ben Pimentel's award-winning novel of the same name. Bindlestiff Studio, the innovative Filipino American theater group, presents the show for a three-week run in its San Francisco stage. 

And here's my blog post for this week on the many meanings of personal freedom: Free At Last.