Baseco Medical Mission

So this morning I volunteered with this medical mission to one of the more impoverished areas of Manila called Baseco. As is the case with quite a few other places throughout the city, there are about 22,000 people living in this area, literally living on top of heaps of garbage. The extent of the poverty is staggering. The morning was spent giving kids medical care, lice treatments and just playing with them. This group started doing medical missions to this area after Typhoon Ondoy hit in September causing extensive flooding and damage to communities that already had so little.

The experience was great, but it definitely made me wish I had serious medical training to be able to more than just take their temperatures. It is great to help for a day, but there are some serious systemic issues at hand and it's frustrating to not be able to do more. Yet the people are so overjoyed with the little help they do receive, and actually, display so much joy in general, in spite of their seemingly squalid circumstances. This never ceases to amaze me. Filipinos are the most amazing people on earth, I'm seriously convinced of that. I honestly believe they warm God's heart in just a different way that no one else can, cause that's just how he made them to be.

Anyway, here are some pics from the day and I think they kinda speak for themselves. These kiddos absolutely love getting their picture taken, especially when you show them afterwards. It's great. A hilarious thing is that I was told by one of the gals that I look just like Mariah Carey. I think it's a pretty spot-on comparison. I can add that to my list of celebrity look-alikes that up to this point only included Meryl Streep. Bring it on.

On a random note, on my way home I saw a monkey chained up to a storefront, and he was just chillin eating a styrofoam cup. This country is so random and there are just so many odd sites to behold. Again, the reason for my noticing them and documenting them in this blog! Oh and one more thing, I made new friends from Wisconsin today! That's always exciting, especially when they're from the midwest. Gotta love it.

So last weekend I was coming back from Indonesia, filling out my immigration card to return to the Philippines, and had a small moment of shock when the card asked how long my intended length of stay in the Philippines was. I quickly calculated and realized we only have about four more months here. It was such a wake-up call as I've been completely aware that time flies here (in my opinion it's mostly because the seasons are limited to varying degrees of hot, humid and miserable--not a fave of this MN gal--, and sometimes with torrential rains sprinkled in there too. Most of the time I honestly have to stop and think what month it is cause the normal "markers" are just not there), but I guess I wasn't realizing that we were really down to the wire. It made me want to really make the most out of our last months here. And for me, I believe that is best accomplished by noticing details in your every day experience. Details are what make an experience great. I'm always much more aware of details when I'm recounting a story to someone else. Details make the story so much better. So I've decided that I'll be much more aware of the details of our remaining four months in the Philippines (and therefore treasuring them that much more) if I'm sharing them as a story with others. Thus the reason for starting a blog.

I know, it's a little wacky to start this endeavor now as we're so close to the end, but hey, I'm forever on a quest to more successfully live in the here and now. And as I just recounted, I think it will make the end of this journey so much more sweet! My plan is to just start blogging about stuff from here on out, and not to go back and rehash stuff from the past year and half. That's a bit of a daunting task, and although there'd no doubt be some interesting tales from Manila that I've likely forgotten to tell most of you, I just don't think it's gonna happen. Plus, this entry is already way to long and I'm sure people have already stopped reading anyway.

I must explain the title of my entry into this world of advanced technology and social media that I've rejected for so long. When I got inspired to start a blog, about fifteen minutes ago, my first thought was "oh shoot, then I'll need to have some clever name and if I wait to start a blog til I have a clever name, I'll just never end up starting it". So there ya go. Seize the day.