Day Six

Ok the name of the game is speed blogging.
    So Day Six was our first day of clinic where we were going to go into the Aeta villages and provide medical care. We weren't sure what we were going to see when we got there - for all we knew - they may have all been naked (they weren't.... but we didn't know!) We were told that our first day - we would have no shade and it would be HOT. This had us worried after the little fainting spell that occurred on Day Five at the hospital - so we prepared with water, GATORADE, and sunscreen.
    We were very pleased at what we saw as we pulled up - and had to hike 100 meters (in Filipino distance... we were afraid it was a mile... but it turned out to be 100 meters)

SHELTER!

CHAIRS!

It was almost from a movie

I was hard at work :-D

... BTW - my scrubs... and my gatorade matched my eyes :)

    I was at the Triage table for our first day of Aeta clinic. So I got the person's name, age, and main complaints (which were: cough, cold, body pain, and UTI) It was crazy because there were a surprising amount of people who could not tell me their age. It also seemed like the mothers were guessing on their children's ages... like they mom would say "9 years old" - for someone that I would say 4... maybe 5 years old. I doubt that birth certificates exist with the Aetas.... it really did seem like another world. 

Cute little guy!

Passing out bags of rice to families

All the children getting lined to up receive lunch

Handing out lunch to all the kids

Cute little pup who was trying to cool off

Dr. Emmanuel seeing a patient

   We spent the morning doing clinic - we finished around noon and when we headed back to the Children's Home - we spent the afternoon cooling off, swimming, getting in our daily nap and playing with the kids (photos to come). We all had the opportunity to assist Dr. Emmanuel in a circumcision. It is tradition that all boys between 9 and 12 get circumcised so we were able to help the Dr. It was very different than procedures that you would see here... and the finished product was not what I expected. As Nate put it so gently... they went from a turtle neck to a V-neck. Thanks Nate. But that does give a very appropriate picture. Sadly... I had to leave before the end of my procedure... b/c I started to get a little faint. I didn't want to pass out and ruin the "sterile field"... since I was his assistant - so I told him I had better go - and yes, my face was white. It didn't help that the exam room was SUPER HOT!!!!!!!! He was basically done so it wasn't that big of a deal. The boy (who was 12) was content with his sucker (and yes - he was given lidocaine - they aren't animals!) and 3 other younger boys were watching through the glass door - not very much privacy.... oh well...

Day Six - Complete

Far right - Pastor Wilson - creator of "To God be the Glory" Ministries

Orange Shirt - Pastor _______ (it's a secret) - who was awesome and was a big help to us throughout the trip

Sorry for the Delay

Hello to all of my loyal readers.
  I know you all are holding your breath waiting for me to continue my posts about my trip to the Philippines. I tried posting last night - but blogger was down. Now I am at work for 3 days... so I will try again on Wednesday - and hopefully finish soon after that! Sorry it has taken so long!
-Jessica

Day Five

   SUNDAY!!! Yep, Sunday morning in the Philippines. We got up bright and early for church - which was on the same grounds as the Children's Home. We had breakfast at 630 and then had some spare time before the service started. We walked over at about 755 and got settled as we wait for church to start. 

   As the service started, more people began to file in (which happened for most of the service). We learned that in the Philippines, the louder, the better. The music was super loud - and they sang a few songs in English. Most of it was in Tagalog (pronounced taGAlog) so I just tried to keep up with the verses that kept coming up on the screen. (Before the service started, the pastor had us all mix up with the kids - so some of us were sharing chairs... and getting stared at a lot by the little kids. They were so funny trying to look at us without seeming like they weren't paying attention.

     As with most of the stuff we did while in the Philippines - I sweat SO MUCH during the church service - it was pretty embarrassing to have a giant sweat ring on my back when I left church. Oh well - I'm sure they just smile inside when they see the sweaty white people that can't handle the heat :-)

     When I left church - Colette was speaking with a woman - and she introduced her to me. She looked at me and said, "Oh - you look like a Barbie" :-D She also laughed when I told her I was 21. She guessed 15. awesome. It must have been the youthfulness in my eyes.

      Today held two tours to different hospitals for us. One was the nicer hospital in the area... and that's the only one we got to see. While we were in the med/surg ward - one of our party members had a fainting spell. It turns out super duper heat, being a hospital, and dehydration don't really mix.

Filipino nurses jumping into action

Taking the patient to the ER... Jason jinxed her

"What happens if one of us gets sick?"

    We ended our tour early - once she was forced to drink nearly 2 liters of gatorade... and we went bag to the Children's Home. We spent the rest of the afternoon staying cool and hydrating ourselves for our first day of Aeta clinics (which we were told would be the hottest day). 

We also met Dr. Emmanuel's little girl

She wasn't too fond of us at first - but Colette got her our of her shell by giving her stickers.

We also got to see the pets that they have at the home... (which at first I was afraid that might be for meat... but who could eat this little guy???)

And of course... where we ate while we were there...

And last but not least... Dreamy

 

This was their pet monkey

    That's all for Sunday - time to prepare for six clinics - not sure what to expect!!!!

Day Five - Complete

Day Four

    We completed our clinics that we planned to do in Manila - and today (Saturday) held a tour of the market, packing, and then heading out to the Aeta Children's home in Zambales, Philippines. 
    We were all up again at around 5 - so all took our turns getting cleaned up and ready for the day. At around 8 (after breakfast) we decided to go to the market so we could see where Vergi did her grocery shopping. She said it wasn't very far... but Filipino far and American far don't really seem to be the same. Most of us wore sandals.. bad idea... because it was SO DIRTY as we walked there. Just don't step in the puddles... and definitely don't slip in them!
    We walked down alleys which seemed to be almost little neighborhoods - and we started seeing a lot of vendors selling various items. Keep walking and we made it to the market. 

on our way to the market

At the meat market

city life/market... kinda both

     After walking around for a while - we decided that we needed something to cool us down... possibly a Coke Lite. So we went to.... MCDONALDS!!!!!!!!!!!

Where they serve the Chicken McDo (chicken and rice)

I'm Lovin It.

    We all decided to stick with the sodas... and steered clear of the Chicken McDo. We were all talkative and wondering what else we should do... maybe a nap... when we realized it was only 9 in the morning. wow.

    We checked out the local church while we were there - it was a catholic church and a lot of people were there praying and lighting candles. It was an interesting thing to see. The Filipino people seem to be a very religious culture.

     ***A quick note that I forgot to mention from Day Three was that we visited a local hospital while we were out during the afternoon. We were given a tour and got to see all of the various units and how they operate. It was such a humbling experience to see how their medical system works. People here complain b/c the halls are too loud or the beds aren't comfortable. But there - if you have no money, you don't get air conditioning - or you may not get the tests you need. The waiting room for the ER was PACKED and who knows what kind of services those people were going to receive. The hospitals won't just treat you if you can't pay. The technology was nothing like it is here. It literally is a 3rd world country and you only get the best if you are rich. Talk about bringing you down a few notches. It was humbling and rewarding for me to see - it has helped me keep things in perspective.***

     So after our little tour of the market, we had to get all of our stuff ready to leave for Zambales at 11. We ended up leaving around 12 - and we pilled into two "air conditioned" vans (only when the van was moving), said goodbye to Vergi and were on our way. We weren't sure how long it was supposed to take to get there... but when we got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic - we knew it was going to be a while. And we almost hit a boy. Yep... almost hit a boy... with our van. He was trying to cross the street and we were changing lanes. He jumped out of the way as the driver swerved that van - and completely ran into another vehicle. No we didn't stop. All the driver said was "It ok - we didn't hit the boy." and that was that. Talk about shocking.

      So 6 hours later (some driving... and some just sitting there) - we pull into the Aeta Children's Home... and this is what we see :-)

    We got there - they fed us - we got settled - they did an opening shpeal with a video (which put some of us to sleep) - then it was off to bed. But the welcome they gave us made us feel very welcome and excited about the week we would spend working along side these people and ministering to the needs of the Aeta people. Bed at 9 - church starts at 8 so breakfast is at 630... up and at 'em. :-)

Day Four - Complete

Sorry about how long it is... I'll try to condense it from now on

Day Three

      Friday began pretty early. We all start waking up around 4... 430ish. It just isn't the same when you don't: A. have a bed to yourself (sorry for pinning you against the wall Colette) B. have the room temperature controlled the way you want (warm when you fall asleep... freezing under a blanket when you wake up - thanks to the AC working through the night :-)  ) C. have to adjust to a 12 hour time difference.             All of this lends itself into making us closer and having a pretty good time though. So bright and early - it's time to shower and prepare to be clean for only about 20 minutes. You never actually get dry when you get out of the shower. It was so humid that you could stand there for a l.o.n.g. t.i.m.e. before you were ever dry (thank you for baby powder). Vergi was asleep in the living room - and couldn't figure out why we kept getting up so early - we weren't sure why either.

     Breakfast at 730... leave for clinic at some point after that. There were some people also staying with Vergi while we were there. There was this one girl who was doing an internship for her school for 2 months - and I think she was from Sweden. We only saw here a couple of times - but she was already comfortable being here - and her mom had even come to visit her. Sometimes they would talk in a different language - maybe Swedish... and hopefully they weren't talking about us!

      Anyway - while staying at Vergi's we got to have this instant coffee by Nestle that was surprisingly VERY good! It was called 3-in-1 and had coffee, cocoa... and something else -  maybe a lot of caffeine. I'm not sure... but I liked it! Breakfast usually consisted of an egg (fried), bread, mangoes :-) and peanut butter and jelly. 

      2nd day of clinic started off a little crazy. I was observing Jerilynn today and right when we walked up - this mom brought up her little son and he had a splint on his foot. She explained that the previous evening a rock had fallen and landed on his foot. They took him to a doctor where they cleaned it, put the tip of his toe back and sutured it up. The rock had basically chopped the tip of his toe off - and unless he was lucky - he was going to lose the tip of his toe. Jerilynn told me that I had to clean it. awesome. Filipinos hardly show pain - but I still wasn't excited about picking at his badly injured toe. And then... I wasn't drying it well enough. So thankfully she took over... and he cried. and screamed. One children's tylenol just wasn't cutting it. 

Some of what we saw at clinic.

Raindrop Psoriasis

(not cirrhosis)

pretty rare

It covered his entire body

Baby with Impetigo on her face

This is Vergi helping us (and translating) at clinic

       After we spent the morning depleting our fluid and sodium reserves (and doing clinic) - we went back to Vergi's, showered, napped, and then went on an adventure. We went to another mall and that is where Jason and Vergi went to try and find the American Express office. One little piece of advice - never try to find the American Express office in Manila. I don't think it actually exists. But besides them being gone for a few hours... we enjoyed some more Starbucks... bought a few little trinkets, turned the lights off in the bathroom (Colette), and soaked up the AC. Trying to get back to Vergi's was a different kind of adventure. We took a big bus (like a Greyhound) to the mall... but then thought we would take the train back. The train station was beyond crowded - rush hour... so we tried the bus station - with the same results. So Vergi said "Wait right here - I'll find a Jeepney" and she disappeared in the crowd. Oh my goodness. I bet she was tired of dealing with us by that point - and decided to leave us. We waited for about 20 minutes (and this is where Darcy became known as the "super sweater")

[just take a look at Colette's (middle) sweat lines... it was HOT.]

 to see her running and motioning for us to hurry after her. We had to run to catch our Jeepney. 

     Thankfully - we made it back to Vergi's without losing any of our party... and time to shower... again. :-)

    Birthday party for one of the worker's daughters and some interesting ice cream - cheese, rocky road, Ube, and vanilla. But the rice... rice noodles... soup... and mango - that was all good!!!!!!!!

Day Three - Complete

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

Day One

Ok So I am going to attempt to do this without the assistance of my journal from the trip - so I hope it goes well!


Day One:
    Our trip began on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 bright and early. We had to be at the Indy airport at 930 to meet the rest of our team. There was only a little hiccup at check-in where we found out that we all didn't have seats assigned (great). Except for the mean lady telling us where to stand (like we've never done this before) - we all got checked in and went through security. Time to wait for our flight to Minneapolis.
     No adventure on our way to Minneapolis - just some sleep and getting to our next gate. Time - approximately 1:30 pm. Our next flight was the doozy. Minneapolis, Minnesota to Tokyo, Japan. Oh. My. Goodness. Flight time - THIRTEEN HOURS. Yep - that's right. And it was not very comfortable. I know those in first class were pretty comfortable. Their chairs turned into beds and they were given slippers to wear. Oh well - it's more interesting this way. So we leave around 3:30 and got to Tokyo around 5ish. On Wednesday. We jumped forward 13 hours - how trippy is that?

    We just had a short layover in Japan before we got back on the plane to fly to Manila, Philippines. While we were in Japan - we had a good time finding out about the bathrooms. Envision taking a urinal - and laying it flat on the ground - and expect girls to pee in it. Yeah - that's what we thought. There was no way I was going to experiment with that when there were perfectly good toilets (with Bidets btw) available for my use. But Erin Carver didn't realize that she didn't have to use that :-) So she was the first one to experience that type of toileting while we were in a foreign land. Thank you Erin for bring us that joy.

     Our flight to Manila was short - only 4 hours. So once we got to the Philippines (10:10 pm on Wednesday) - we still had to go through immigration, get our bags, and then go through customs. Like we weren't drawing enough attention to ourselves - we were trying to get 23 LARGE checked bags through customs at the same time. Thankfully - the men working were tired - so they didn't even make us stop walking. nice. So we successfully got all of our meds in without any problems at all. 

     We step outside to be greeted by 95 degree weather with 90% humidity at 11:30 at night. awesome. Now we got nervous - it was pretty stinkin hot. But thankfully our host found us and we were able to get into our vehicles quickly. We only had to endure the Filipino style of driving for about 10 minutes and we were at Vergi's (our host) house.

                                      

Foreign country - dark alley - what's not to love?

No actually we got there perfectly safe and were able to get ready for bed - asleep in 20 minutes. 

Actually that isn't true - Prof. Spring, Katie, Traci, and I did not think clearly enough to put together that if we tried to fall asleep in the room that had no air conditioning - we would not sleep. Sitting awake at 4 in the morning - talking to each other while sitting on the floor - that was not restful at all. We would not spend another night in that room. Make room for the rest of us in that other room ladies! The more the merrier I say. 

Day One - Complete