For the past couple weeks, Tim and I have been in Manila, Philippines on a medical/dental/music mission trip with our church. It was a fantastic and stretching experience for both of us! He already posted about it on his blog, which you can see here:
I'll add some more of my thoughts too....
The plane ride over took 12.5 hours to Taipei, Taiwan, then another 2.5 hours to Manila. We left at 2am from Seattle. Thankfully we were both able to sleep a little on the plane. Thanks to melatonin. The airline serves meals/turns on lights at certain times to help you get acquainted with the time change. It's 15.5 hours ahead in Manila.
Once we got there, we headed to the place we were staying. Half the team at a missionary's house right outside the city and the other half at the clinic we were working with. After checking in, we went to Faith Academy. It's a school where missionary kids attend and 2 of our team members are planning to teach next year. It's a huge school! We ate dinner there and saw a play. It was good, but all of us were sleepy. We ended up leaving halfway through and getting some rest.
In the SeaTac airport about to leave, in the Taipei airport, on the plane and Faith Academy
Saturday we slept in a little, ate breakfast as a team, and had a meeting with the church we were partnering with, CTC. After this, the music team went up to church to practice with some CTC members for the following day. It was a great practice and we were able to gel together well. The other half of the team was able to explore some of the city.
A jeepney (like a taxi), the music team, Tim jammin with Pastor Norman, CTC (main campus)
Sunday morning, we had a great time of worship with CTC. We had a "pot bless" (instead of pot luck) after church. We spent several hours eating and chatting with members from the church. That evening we went to a local market and saw a cultural show. It was pretty cool. Lots of dancing and music. They even got myself and another girl up there to participate. Lots of fun!
At Starbucks, Worship service, everyone together after the service, dancing at the cultural show
Monday, we spent most of the day up at the church sorting medicines. We were using these medicines for the medical clinics that were happening the following 3 days.
Helping sort meds, with some of the church members, Brandon and Pastor Norman taking a tour of their homes, more sorting
Tuesday, we headed to CTC Antipolo in the morning to treat local families and in the afternoon to a warehouse to treat workers and their families in Binangonan. I was able to assist the nurses during these clinics by taking temps, writing down info, directing patients to the doctor, etc. It was hard to see, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
The medical clinics, Tamara (dental hygenist) explaining teeth health, a church woman's home
Twiggy (the missionary's puppy), another jeepney, their homes, one of the sweet girls we saw at the clinics
Wednesday, we headed to CTC Bulacan which was about 2.5 hours west of Manila. After the clinic, we were able to lead them in a couple of worship songs and share a bit of our testimonies.
The homes and me taking temperatures
Some of the families receiving their food packs, Sarah teaching the kids violin, Tim and Sarah with the kiddos (they led some kid songs while the rest of us helped with the clinics), dinner with some church members
Thursday, we had a clinic all day with the main CTC campus in Cainta. It was nonstop patients all day. My feet were killing me by the end of the day, but it was all worth it. After the all-day clinic, the church had a celebration dinner and service with us. Our music team shared some songs and members from our team and the church shared testimonies from the week. It was a great time of sharing together and celebrating the big God we serve.
The team, dental clinic, love this kids hair, patients waiting in line
Friday, was our "play" day. We traveled to Lake Taal to see a volcano. It was really cool. We took boats over to the volcano that has a lake inside of it. We had to hike up to the lake....I'm not a hiker so it was pretty far...but again, very well worth the view. We stopped and had dinner on the way home, had a team meeting and got a couple hours of sleep.
Views of Lake Taal
Saturday morning, we flew out of Manila and had an 8 hour layover in Taipei. Then we had a 10 hour flight home. (2 hours shorter than on the way there because of tail winds...or something like that)
I think we were sleepy!
It was such a good trip and I'd love to do it again. Our church is hoping to make this an annual (or every 2 year) trip. I'm hoping to go again soon.
While we were away, my parents, Gigi and Pops, we watching the babies. Both kids had viruses and Theo had croup. They still said they had a good time! Thankfully! Both kids seem better. Theo still has a little cough and congestion. We sure did miss our babies, but knew they were being well taken care of!
A couple things about Manila:
*Traffic is soo congested! We tried to take pictures of it, but it's not the same as being there. But everyone who drives over there is used to it and surprisingly there aren't many accidents.
*They use Jeepney's and trikes for people to get around (like taxi's)
*There is Starbucks...thankfully :). And they have coffee jellies you can put at the bottom..so yummy! (it's kind of like jellies from Pochi in Seattle)
*It's hot and really humid. Kind of like Arkansas, but worse. And there's no a/c indoors. Except for the malls...so we went there a couple times to cool off.
*The people are amazing. So kind and generous. It was a culture shock when we got back to the states.
*Filipino time is very different than our American time. If something starts at say 2pm, it really means about 2:30 or 3pm. It took us some getting used to. Especially on Sunday morning when we would normally practice at least an hour before service. We didn't get there until about 5 min. before the service. God still moved and blessed the time.
*You don't need moisturizer over there...your sweat does the trick! Don't need make-up either...you just sweat it off! ha!
*You have to take your own toilet paper to the restrooms (CR "Comfort Room")
The first comment I got from a student and staff member when getting to work this morning....."I thought you'd be tan", ha! It's hot, but cloudy. No tan for this white girl :)
-Megan
