Day Two

    This is our group that went to the Philippines. (From Left to Right): Front - Allie, Traci, Jerilynn (Prof. Spring), Sarah, Tiffany. Back - Cassie, Erin, Brie, Me, Colette, Katie, Jason, Darcy. 

     We had such a good time on our trip and it is now time for me to tell you about DAY TWO.

    So it is now Thursday and we had our first medical clinic today. The clinic was on a half basketball court and seemed to be a park of some kind for them. 

  

 So as you can see - the buildings and the lifestyle are completely different from anything we have here in America.

     For our first day of clinic - I was working at the pharmacy and filling everyone's prescriptions as Jerilynn wrote them. It was pretty crazy since all of the kids would crowd around you to watch what you were doing and the adults would get in there pretty close too. The Filipino idea of personal space doesn't seem to exist - so you just had to be ok with people touching almost 100% of the time. Except when you were in the shower - it was ok for people to not touch you then :-) 

Working hard at the pharmacy

      We saw some interesting things at our clinic - people with various skin infections from lack of clean water and the ability to keep their wounds clean - and a lot of colds. Which was crazy considering it was around 108 degrees that day. Let's just say - I have never sweat so much in my life. EVER.

     We finished clinic at noon and headed back to Vergi's house for lunch and then a much needed nap... in AIR CONDITIONING!!!!! That was such a blessing - I still don't think I can put it into words how important that was :-) 

 This was our bedroom - and we fit 12 girls in here... oh yeah.

    After we got all rested - we decided to go to the mall. We had no idea what to expect since we were staying in the slums... but we definitely didn't expect to see this - 

Yes - you're eyes don't deceive you. That is a Starbucks. :-D That was something we were VERY excited about when we got to the mall. We didn't do any shopping but we did switch our money from Dollars to Pesos while we were there. The exchange rate is $1 = 46.15 pesos. It was pretty interesting trying to look at prices and figure out how much we were actually paying - and it was crazy getting a 20 peso bill and it being worth about 50 cents. 

 

This bad boy is called a Jeepney and this is how we got around the city while we were there. It can hold 16 Filipinos... but 14 Americans was a bit difficult - I will explain more about this later. But they stop and you just run and jump into the back - pay 7 pesos and then jump off when they get to where you want to get off. And no - they don't really stop at a bus stop... just in the middle of the road - so look both ways! Thankfully Vergi was there to tell us where to go - b/c these Jeepneys were going all over the place and you had to get on the right one. Oh my... it was always an adventure!

   When we got back to the house - it was time to line up for showers. Thankfully there were 2 showers - but the water pressure wasn't that good.... we had a little less water than what comes out of your sink... but with not as much pressure - so it took some time to get the shampoo and conditioner out of your hair! And it was cold... but it felt so good b/c it was so hot there. Anyway - as long as you don't flush the toilet paper and don't use the water to brush your teeth - it was all good. 

Day Two - Complete