Karaoke

After blogging last night, Lindsay and I sauntered down to the pool with Penny, the cutest little mut/labor doodle ever. We had a great dinner of bbq'd veggies and chicken as well as green beans, potato salad and orange watermelon! At the dinner we chatted with Hilary's classmates about their family pastimes. One thing we have realized is that everyone in the Philippines LOVES karaoke. Any time of day, any place and any socio-economic class. Karaoke is to the Filipinos what watching TV is to Americans- something you learn early and do as a family, or alone, or with friends. The most interesting (and entertaining) part is that no one is embarrassed about their singing abilities. Even sitting in the Internet cafe right now there are children with head sets and microphones belting Beyonce "If I were a Boy" at the top of their lungs. It is truly hilarious.

After dinner and more swimming Hilary and David graciously invited us to spend the night in their amazing home! Lindsay and I tried not to act too excited and accept while secretly inside we were elated at just the thought of a real mattress, air conditioning and a quite rooster-free neighborhood. We both slept like rocks and enjoyed showers with water pressure this morning as well as cereal, milk and COFFEE in the morning. Hilary and David are honestly the most generous people I have ever met. They treat everyone with so much respect and really listen and attend to everyone's needs. At such a young age they have both amassed so much knowledge and commitment to such a depressing area.

This morning in the clinic we said hi to the babies born yesterday (boy and a girl) and helped do the newborn check up. We got to feel the little baby heart beat (really fast! 130's usually) and check on respitory rate and temp as well as blood pressure of the mother. One of the women we were talking to invited us to her beach house three hours away. We will get her phone number and see how she feels with a newborn baby in a few weeks...

This afternoon I will go to the Public Hospital with one of the midwives to visit a woman and baby who were transported due to a high risk labor that the clinic could not handle. I am told this will be a very interesting experience since the public hospital has no suppplies (you have to bring everything yourself) and often times has a major shortage of doctors to assist at all.

As for now, I am off to go eat my daily popsicle. It is a must in this kind of heat!

P.S. if anyone wants to g chat with me I am usually on at 4pm west coast time and would love to talk live!

The Art of Sweating

I have become a master sweat-er. Mostly because that is what I do about 20 hours a day- without fail. Other than trying to find way to combat the heat, Lindsay and I have been getting more comfortable around the clinic. This morning we just missed a birth and came into see the baby girl being cleaned off and the mom looked exhausted and wailing. We helped with the physical examination of the baby and chatted with some of the nurses. About an hour later (after having said our names in front of the new mom), we noticed the baby was named Lindsey. Interesting... 

After the delivery we got to learn all about gram stains for STD panels. This is essentially a pap smear where two swabs are put on a slide and sent to the lab for results. If the women have any STD's (don't worry mom, they have never had anyone HIV +) they are treated immediately and cannot give birth at GR until they are clear of their infections. 

Following this lesson Lindsay and I experienced our first, and definitely not last, couple hours of boredom and heat. We sat in the clinic while the nurses charted, read our books, played sudoku, cooled off in front of the fan and tested each others blood pressure. In the US both of us constantly have jam packed schedules. We run from one activity to the next without even thinking about it. Here in the Philippines- despite the constant noise, traffic and mayhem, there actually is a lot of down time. This is something that will definitely get some taking used to. 

This afternoon we took a taxi to Hilary and David's AC house and swam in their community pool. It has never felt so good to wade around in a murky pool with 10 tweens blasting Metallica. We are now going to have a BBQ with some of Hilary's classmates from her Filipino MCAT (equivalent exam) class and indulge in brownies and ice cream. Unless I started vomiting  soon, I will be coming home a lot chubbier!

Speaking of food- Lindsay and I are both experiencing the beginning of what will likely be a month of slight stomach pains/cramping and general discomfort in our guts. We didn't dare touch the chicken at lunch today and stuck with rice. I know (all too well) that food in developing countries can play a nasty trick on your intestines. We are slowly starting to feel some stomach aches but nothing too bad yet. I'll keep you posted. Speaking of which- time to go eat Kebabs! 

temporarily w/ AC! Must blog!

Wow, I have been a terrible blog author. I have been here for 2 days and no posts as of yet. This could be due to a few issues: 1) jet lag, 2) my sweat dripping all over the keyboards when I try to type at the Internet cafe or 3) the fact that I've been "catching babies" already. So, let me update all of you. We arrived Friday morning (where did Thursday go?) and were taken back to the clinic in a "jeepney" which is some version of a VW van with the back cut out and two bench chairs in its place. My first reaction was that Cebu was remarkably similar to El Salvador. The smell of fuel plus barbecue plus dirt and sweat all mixed in one. The sounds of roosters, loud music, roaring cars and constant honks. The graffiti on the concrete wall that guard off streets and the small shanty towns lining every block- sometimes tucked away down alleys and other times under bridges etc. 

The clinic is actually quite large although it appears to be a small apartment like building in the middle of a poor neighborhood with approximately 20 children running in the street at any given time. Lindsay and I are staying in an apartment adjacent to the clinic with a Canadian woman, Gina, who works as a secretary. She has been very helpful in answering questions for us and showing us around the hood. We each have our own rooms (which are stifling hot all hours of the day) and a shared bathroom which three kittens (that look like mice) also scamper in and out of occasionally. 

The clinic is run by Hilary, an amazing 27 year old Texan with blonde hair, blue eyes, a beaming smile and incredible amount of knowledge on third world obstetrics. Immediately upon arrival Hilary explained our duties (we will have real responsibilities such as cleaning babies, "catching" babies, taking vitals and even staying in the clinic overnight) and then ushered us up to the delivery/operating room to watch a woman give birth to baby number 5. The process was much different than what I had seen in the US or El Salvador. The woman was encouraged and assisted in doing exercises standing up and squatting until nearly 9 cm dilation. At this point she continued to squat or sit and had her lumbar spine rubbed to relieve pressure from the baby. It wasn't until 10 cm that she finally laid down and with 2-3 pushes out popped Margo- her first baby girl with 4 older brothers. It was pretty incredible- no pain killers, no husband in the room- no sutures. 

We are currently at the house of Hilary and her husband David. They live atop a foot hill looking over Cebu City as well as the shoreline. It is gorgeous up here and has safe roads (and hills) to run on. As an added bonus, they have AC! Lindsay and I took a walk through the hills with their labor-doodle and indulged in Filipino pizza followed by brownie and bananas. We are now using their fancy computers and heading home for bed, at 8 pm, and up early tomorrow to learn about gram stains and tetanus vaccinations. 

This is much cooler than I thought it would be! Wow. Ok tomorrow, I promise to have a more organized and concise entry. Goodnight Cebu, good morning Seattle/California/USA. 

Safety Precautions

Lindsay and I are going to be very safe and alert while in Cebu City. We will not:
1) take fake taxis
2) go anywhere alone
3) run or exercise in the streets
4) talk to strangers

We also just purchased these fancy protective glasses for when we are in the delivery room! Keeping any blood/placenta/urine/sweat etc out of our eyes!

Trekking Options

Kor and I have been scouring through the Lonely Planet Thailand book as well as youtube videos to try to find the best/most intense trekking trip in Northern Thailand. Our trekking options seem to split into two categories: 1) we can go on elephants nearer to cities and stay in huts or 2) we can do it without elephants and go deeper into the mountains and see more indigenous people.


So, this video is one of the options with elephants while we have options without. After talking with my mom (hi mom!) we decided we will take the safest most legitimate option so as to stay away from any dangers or stray needles that may be lingering in the jungle (or TB infected elephants).

Bamboo for Dinner

I have arrived in SF where I am staying with Koranin for a few days before heading out. We went straight from SFO to an Asian grocery store in south san fran. It was full of Hello Kitty candy, giant goldfish, rice candy (I ate two boxes) and bamboo. Kor, a native Thai, cooked us up a Thai dinner to 'prepare my gut' for the flavors to come. He sautted thinly sliced bamboo with eggs, bok choy, jalapenos, bell peppers and Chinese eggplant. It was delicious! I hope my stomach makes it through round one of training....

Packing List

Here is what we were told to bring:

Scrubs
Tennis Shoes for going to the dump
Dress for Church
Sunscreen
Swim Suit
Tampons

Any other suggestions?

Welcome to the Adventure

Welcome to the Blog; Tagalog and Thai! The name comes from the two languages I will (hopefully) learn in my journey to SE Asia. Tagalog is the Dialect of Filipino spoken in Cebu City and Thai, the native language of Thailand. Many of you may not know I am even taking this trip or know and still can't figure out why. Here's the long and short of it:

I graduated from Santa Clara last June (wow can't believe it's been so long) and moved back to Seattle and took an internship at a biotech company. I spent three months in a lab pipetting and decided I had no desire to do that ever again. I tossed and turned and the stock market continued to plummet and I decided, "what better time to study for the MCAT?." I studied for the MCAT for four months and volunteered at ASTAR, an Autism clinic in Seattle. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed working with the Autistic population and decided I really wanted to give this whole medicine thing a try. The MCAT came and went (painfully so) and I began to doubt my ability to succeed in medicine. I was in search of more confirmation.

I learned about Glory Reborn, the clinic in Cebu City, from Santa Clara friends, Austin and Sam. Austin and Sam had visited the clinic during their four month journey around the world researching micro-financing (see blog). After corresponding with the clinic directors, Lindsay and I decided to take the leap and head to Asia to dig a little deeper into ourselves and find out what it really means to serve others.

I am new to blogging so bear with me on this adventure!