Tagaytay Highlands

The top picture is Marty, Zeb and me with some of Susan's family while visiting the Tagaytay Highlands. 

Puerto Galeria

Since the clinic temp. closed we decided to go to Puerto Galeria. It is an island about 4 hours from Manila. We had a great, relaxing time and stayed at a nice beach cabin for about 3 dollars a night. In this picture we are walking around the island looking for the Sisters of Charity. We heard they have some medical equipment they didnt know how to use and we wanted to talk with them and find out what they do. We found them and they were napping so we werent able to talk with them, but we will try again the next time. A couple in our school, Shianna and her husband Brad are moving there to start a free maternity clinic with a local Dr. Francis. They is a lot of prostitution near we stayed and there is a lot to do there. I wouldn't mind working there.


This is Stairway (www.stairwayfoundation.org) a home for street kids from Manila. It was right across the street from where we stayed. We were invited to a production of theirs bringing attention to child sexual abuse. They are working on taking their act around and actually making a cartoon of it. It was incredible. We were able to talk with the director and they said they have a lot of lung illnesses so we did a teaching of postural drainage positions and percussion. This they can do for each other to help prevent bronchitis and pneumonia.


 

Blood Donations

Cecilla is a midwife at our clinic and her dad has TB and needed a blood transfusion because he was throwing up blood. We went to visit him at the TB hospital and learned more about the complexity of health care here in Manila. To receive blood in any hospital here you need to have donors to replace the blood. So we went to the hospital and they had no blood and couldn’t take ours. We spent 2 days traveling to different places trying to get the right blood for her dad. 7 of us made it to a hospital that had the blood that he needed and only one of us, Shianna, was able to give blood. 2 of the Filipinas were ruled out for being to small, 3 of us were ruled out for having too low blood pressure and 1 was out for having a runny nose. Only one of the 7 was able to give, so we weren’t able to get all the blood needed. The next day they were able to get the last bag of blood for her dad. The needle used on Shianna is huge, probably a 14 gauge, and they take about 500 ml of blood. I don’t know if that is normal but it really seemed like a lot. To us when a woman bleeds 500 ml it is considered hemorrhage. I was trying to comfort her in the picture but I was really just talking about how big the needle was. 

Baptism

My first baptism service here in Manila. In mass men were walking over to us and taking our picture. It is really embarrassing to me, I try really hard to smile and not let it get to me. Afterwards we went to their house and ate tons of food along with all the neighbors, and then we were forced into video karaoke (I sang an ABBA song). Video karaoke is one of the most popular, if not the most popular past times here. Most people take it quiet seriously. 

Clean Up

Mopping up during a rain. The streets flood and water comes in. It is interesting what comes in with the water.

 

Rainy Streets of Manila

Almost every afternoon we have heavy rains. All the neighborhood kids come out and play in the streets. Probably not very safe, but they sure have a good time.