Around Town

Just a picture of a street nearby...one of the busiest ones. It's close to one of the malls where I regularly by groceries and internet cards. Notice from the sky, it's about to pour.




And this is the street that the clinic is off of. I walk it almost every day, sometimes 5 times in a day. The picture's kinda dark, sorry. This road can also get quite heavy traffic, but for the most part it's alright. A lot of jeepneys and motorbikes come racing through, which is handy for when we need to drive somewhere.

Mercy Maternity Center

This is the clinic...where I sleep, eat, and spend a few 12-hour shifts each week.

Just Tiny

This little baby was born yesterday (the day of the picture). A baby girl - 4 pounds 10 ounces! Her cry was hardly a cry...more of a soft squeal. I'm just holding her while her dad is helping her mom wash up.

Jeepney

This is a Jeepney, the main method of transportation. If YOU owned a jeepney, what would YOU paint on it? Something to think about....

Out by the Water

On the way down from Eljoy's place, we crossed the main road and worked our way through the maze of markets and small houses to the water front. Gorgeous!

Eljoy and her home

Visiting the Tay Family

On Monday morning, Susan, Erin and I went to visit the Tay family. Baby James Benedict (affectionately known as JB) was my first delivery. Eljoy and Jackson Tay live about 40 minutes out of the city, in a community called Tibungco. In order to find their house, we did a lot of asking and wandering. But when we found them, they were so happy to see us. Normally, women and their babies come back to the clinic 5 times for baby checkups. But Eljoy told us she didn't have the money to come back and forth that often, but was planning on coming for the 3-week checkup. Which means I get to see her and JB again next week. I did the checkup, and everything was fine and normal, except that JB is quite jaundiced, but a few sunbaths and he'll be alright. We had a great morning with them!

Fishing Boats

These are a couple shots from Samal. The fishing boats and little fishing communities are super cool.

Hey...where did my eyebrows go?

Outland Adventure

A couple weeks ago, we went to Outland Adventure, a team building and high ropes course. We went in two groups, half of the staff and half of the students went one day, the rest went the next. We had a great time. Some of the stunts were almost impossible, for example, getting all 12 of us over a 12 foot wall, getting six of us to shimmy up a 15 foot bamboo pole, etc. There were a lot of awkward postitions, and a lot of bruises and scrapes to brag about the next day.

The high ropes stuff was in the afternoon, so here I am on top of
pomper pole (aka. Leap of Death). I've done this before, but I
swear this one was higher. Great fun though. My favorite stunt was
called the Heebie Jeebie...where you had to walk across a wire
with only slack ropes to hold on to. I'm glad I had to do this
before going to Isla Verde -- it gave me some confidence!

Bamboo

Here I am in a bamboo forest. Renee and I took a day off a while back and went to Eden Garden Nature Park. It was lovely up there on the mountainside. We had a really nice day. That is also where I took the pictures of the cocoa plants and "mickey mouse plants" you see below. I took tons more, but those are my favorites. Maybe I should become a botanist.

Cool Plants...no explanation needed.

More Isla Verde

Renee and I had quite a hard time making our way through the community. At least at this spot there were walls to hold on to! In some places we had to walk on single planks or bamboo poles with no hand-holds. I realized it's much better to go quickly across and get to the next platform...because the longer you take, the shakier your legs get!






Here are some of the 15 people living in this house. As you can see, they are believers! The mother has 11 children, the youngest two are twins and are in the malnourished children's program run by Jenn's church. The grandparents also live with them (you can see Grandma in the picture).

Isla Verde

This is Isla Verde, a small Muslim community right on the sea. The people mostly live in little shacks up on stilts, with an incredible labyrinth of bamboo poles for "streets". Under the houses is the black mucky filth you can see in the picture. These people just live in their garbage, and seem to be piled one on top of another. So many people in such small houses. Renee and I went with Jenn, one of the missionaries here, to do some baby checkups and postpartum checkups on new mothers. Jenn goes regularily and has developed some great relationships. It was a real blessing to go with her.

Pearl Farm

Here's just another picture of Pearl Farm.... I'm standing out on a dock to take this picture of our little bungalows. This was actually one of the nicest places I've ever stayed in. Immaculately clean and well taken care of.

Pearl Farm Beach Resort

My friend Katie came to visit for the weekend. We met while teaching in Korea. I took her to Samal, an island off the coast of Davao. We stayed at a beautiful resort called Pearl Farm. We mostly just chatted and got caught up, but also swam, went kayaking, and went on a motorbike through the island communities to a waterfall. It was a great time. We ate like rockstars. Do rockstars eat a lot? Anyhow, then I also got a chance to show her around the clinic and we saw a bit in Davao city. Good times. I'm glad she could come.

BABIES

This is a picture of just a perfect little sleeping baby.

Here I am with Jackson Tay, giving his baby his first bath. The baby is James, my first delivery. I did all the labour watching for his mom, Inday, and then the delivery, and then all the postpartum. I even had to give little James his first injection. That was the only part I didn't like. I will be going to their house to visit them on Monday. Looking foward to it.

At the Clinic

This is right after my first delivery. From left to right: Erin, Elai, myself, Elsa and Ermie. Wonderful ladies. We are sitting in the birth room. To the right of Ermie is where the beds are.