Typhoon Damage to Schools

5/25/10
We have been working to rehabilitate schools that are still in need of repairs since the typhoon last fall. School will open in a few weeks and still there are many school that will open their door with unsafe conditions and significant damages. The pictures are of one such school we are working on. We supply the money for materials and volunteers do the work. There are so many schools in such disrepair that we can only scratch the surface. Our thinking is that it is better to help some then none at all. I have to control myself when I go into these schools, I get very angry that children are subjected to such conditions, in the USA these schools would be torn down. I have come to expect a "free and appropriate education" for all children, but I have to stop myself and remember I am in a third world country.

Carabao's and Wheelchairs

5/19/10

We were very excited to go to the Carabao Festival and Parade. I have included two pictures, one of the parade route and another of a carabao pulling a cart before the parade. We got there early and stationed ourselves by the church where the carabao decorated with flowers are trained to kneel for the priest to give them a blessing. Unfortunately it was not to be, while we were waiting in 105 degree temperature Dennis starting to have symptoms of a heat stroke, with headache, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, weakness. I was able to guide him to a courtyard in the church where he drank water and rested until he was able to go to the car and air conditioning. It was very scary for us because it came on so fast with no warning. Now we are being very careful with the sun and keep hydrated.

This week we are concentrating on wheelchairs. Our goal this year is to provide 2,000 for people who would not be able to afford wheelchairs. That is not as easy because you just can't plunk a person in any old chair. They need to be fitted, or it will not be as useful. About 50% of our children in need of chairs have cerebral palsy, and they need a specialized chair. I'll also include some wheelchair pictures. One is a 12 year old CP boy who we are measuring for a chair. He is really skinny but still big for his Mom to lug around all day. It makes me happy to be able to provide for these families, and they are so grateful. It is probably not so cheap in the US but here you can get a decent chair for just a little over $100, a really fancy one with all the braces and attachments to support a non mobile severely handicapped person is less than $300. Still these poor people will carry and struggle with their loved ones because $100 is way beyond their reach. It is so satisfying when you know you are helping individuals.

Election Day in the Philippines

5/7/10
Elections happen every six years in the Philippines. It is an exciting time with both local and national candidates all campaigning at the same time. The Filipino people like the personal touch so there are not as many T.V. adds as in the states, but instead huge rallies and parades more on the local level. The poor people have the same vote as the rich so candidates are down in the barangays courting constituents shaking hands and making promises. For once the poor get a lot of attention. It seems the most popular method of getting your message out is piling as many people as possible in a flat bed truck decorated with campaign banners and flags then having a long procession of cars similarly decorated, also accompanied by motorcycles, bicycles. From this procession catchy campaign songs are blasted from loud speakers. Travel in the Philippines is difficult at best, but every six years it is even crazier. The Philippine people are the nicest, friendliest, kindest people you would ever want to meet, but they take their elections very seriously. It can turn nasty. We are told an average of 120 people are killed each election time. We have been instructed to stay home on election day, and our travel has been curtailed the week before and after.
I can add Avocado to my list of weird ice cream flavors. I had a cone the other day that was three kinds of ice cream, mango, avocado and cheese. I felt like I needed a tortilla chip. Cheese ice cream actually has chunks of processed American cheese in it. It is bright orange/yellow the color of Cheddar cheese. There is a bright purple ice cream called Uve, it is made from a root vegetable. There are so many fruits and vegetables here that I have never seen or heard of, not to mention strange meat and fish.

Neonatal project

4/26/10

I have been negligent in my blogging duties. We have been very busy traveling, and I have been sick. I picked up a intestinal bug about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It got to the point where I was missing work so I finally relented and went to the doctor. He put me on a round of antibiotics and now I am better.
We had to travel north for an LDS Charities co-sponsored workshop for handicapped women and girls. Among other things they were taught to make handbags, baskets, boxes and many other things, even a casket, out of recycled plastic and paper. They cut the materials into strips and weave them into useful things after that they treat the surface with some time of acrylic or shellac. They turned out very nice.
Now our neonatal doctor and his wife are here from the USA and we are busy taking them around visiting hospitals, meeting doctors and planning for the training sessions in the fall for medical providers in neonatal resuscitation. We visited one maternity hospital called Fabella. It was in a very poor part of Manila serving woman with no means to pay for medical services. This visiting doctor had just come from Russia and said the Manila facility was below the Russian standard. The Fabella staff is incredible making do with what little they have. The building is old and in desperate need of repair. It is a 700 bed hospital but there are way more than 700 patients. They average around 108 births per day. There are huge wards with 6 rows of beds with 10 or 12 beds in each row. In each bed we saw there were 2 or 3 women, who layed with heads opposite and babies in between. The rooms were shabby, stifling hot but relatively clean. Low birth weight or babies who would need an incubator were held skin to skin kangaroo style against the mothers chest with an elastic tube top thing to keep them warm. Babies in the critical care unit were in a hot room with nurses monitoring them. They have only a few ventilators so nurses will use a manual ventilator squeezing a bag to keep the air going into babies lungs. We saw a nurse squeezing a bulb in each hand for two babies. They said they manually do this until the baby breathes on their own, dies, or a ventilator becomes available. It was so hard to see these tiny tiny babies knowing what a hard battle they have just to stay alive. There was a large open delivery room that contained about 15 delivery tables. When a woman is at 6 centimeters they let her into the hospital put her on a table and wait until she delivers. There is no privacy, no screens or curtains, the room is totally open, it is a teaching hospital so the walls are lined with chairs where students sit talking and watching. That room was like a nightmare to me, giving birth is such a personal thing, you don't want strangers looking on, or have a woman on each side of you in labor. Unless there is an emergency and a c section is needed there is no medication administered. If medication is needed the family must bring it into the hospital. Women are required to breast feed, and families are in charge of bringing in food for mom. With a normal delivery mom stays 24 hours. Family members must wait outside until the specific times for visiting. In the Philippines the majority of babies are born at home with use of a midwife, a traditional birth attendant with no formal training, or relative. If given the option of that hospital or the latter I would stay home. We took a few pictures and I am including these; a woman in the delivery room, two babies being ventilated, the intensive care unit, and a picture of a ward. If you are interested here is a link to more pictures from the internet. http://images.google.com.ph/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=fabella+hospital%2C+philippines&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

4/4/10

This was Holy Week in the Philippines. The kids are out of school for the summer, and most people have at least part of the week off. I understand that most of Manila clears out taking off to visit relatives or vacation spots. We really noticed a drop in traffic. Our office closed after lunch on Wednesday, and we were free until Monday. In the Philippines it is now officially the "hot season", this is relative because every season is hot, even during the "cold season" the highs are never lower that 79 degrees. Any way now the heat is oppressive and unbearable. After this long week-end I came to realize how hot it really is and I will not venture outside during the day until the next season, which is the rainy season officially starting in June. After that comes the typhoon season in September, and cold season in December.

Thursday because of his broken leg Dennis stayed back and worked, and I took a hike to Wawa Dam with other missionaries. It was interesting but super hot and packed with Philippine families. The heat, noise, crowds, skinny half dead diseased dogs, and cock fights were too much for me. I didn't see the cock fights, only alive chickens going up the trail and dead ones coming down. Fortunately the trail was mostly shady so while I baked, I did not burn. On the way home we passed a garbage dump that was actually a high mountain of trash, I was told that it's where Manila's trash ends up. Living at the dump was a large community of people who make their meager living by savaging. Recycling is taken to a whole new level here because it means survival. It starts with the trash I take down to the garbage can in the garage of our Condo, that is sorted through and stuff gleaned out before it goes to the trash man, it is gone through again as many as three or four times before it makes it to the dump site. I had read about people living in dumps but thought that was only in India. Amid the trash life goes on; there are small stands that sell food, and other stuff. Jeepneys have regular routes, I noticed a free clinic, and a school close by.

Friday Dennis decided since the traffic was so light that we would go out and drive the roads of Manila just to get our bearings. We ended up in the real slums of Manila. I thought outside our condo walls were the poorer parts of town, I realize now that is middle class! I have seen pictures of entire families sleeping on the sidewalks, but it didn't seem real to me until now. I think the hardest part is the little children and babies. Again life goes on: people cooking on little burners on the sidewalk, babies getting bathed in a dishpan of water, clothes being washed and hung out on a makeshift line. Some people tack up a piece of plastic tarp to a wall or fence to give shade from the heat.

Saturday we toured Corregidor. This is an island at the mouth of Manila Bay. It was a very important and strategic spot during World War ll. It was the last American and Philippine strong hold before the Japanese took over. It was where General MacArthur finally left his Philippine and American soldiers to fight the Japanese against impossible odds. When he left he said, " I shall return" and he did several years later to liberate the Philippines and reclaim Corregidor. Unfortunately hundreds upon hundreds died. So it while was interesting, it was mostly depressing. You know the song "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun" Our tour started at 8:30 and ended at 3:30, right in the heat of the day. Like the mad dogs by the end I was physically sick from the heat.

It is Sunday night now and I'm still not feeling well. Mostly it is the heat, or the flu, but also it is emotional. I am totally overwhelmed and grieved to my soul by the poverty. All in all it was a real downer of a break and I'll be glad to get back to business on Monday.

I'm going to post three pictures: Dennis and I in front of the, "I shall return" statue of MacArthur, the mile long bombed out barracks, and the Pacific War Memorial. This is interesting because the building is built like a WWll helmet with a hole in the center right over a round altar, and every May 6th at noon the light comes in and illuminates the entire altar. May 6th is the day Corregidor was surrendered to the Japanese. On the altar these words are written:

Sleep my sons your duty done

for freedoms light has come

Sleep in the silent depths of the sea

or in your bed of hallowed sod

Until you hear at dawn

the low clear reveille of God

Trip north to Tuguegarao

3-29-10

We traveled north to survey the drought caused by El Nino. It didn't look like a long journey on the map, but traveling in the Philippines is very different. The larger highways stop not too far outside of Manila, and it is narrow roads and small cities. What we thought we could accomplish in a day took two. Communities with irrigation were okay, but dry farmers were in bad shape. I am including a story of a typical farming family that we met. This is part of my report that I submit when requesting funds.

During our trip we met Brother Hector Calayan and his family and we took a few pictures. His story is typical of so many of the white corn farmers there. He gave us permission to share these pictures and his family's story. He is a strong member of the church, he serves on the high council, and his wife is a returned missionary. They have three children, Helaman who is 6, Elijah who is 4 and the baby Ruth is 3 months old. They live in a humble hut Brother Calayan built himself. Brother Calayan is a subsistence farmer, who provides for his family on about two and a half hectares of land that belonged to his father. One picture shows him indicating the height of the flood water that washed away his first crop this past fall. Shortly after the flood his father passed away and he took care of the funeral expenses, his wife then had complications with the birth of their baby and with that their financial resources were depleted. He had to borrow money to replant his corn crop. The drought has now decimated that crop, and the family has been left with no resources. (Picture of Brother Calayan standing by what is left of his corn crop) Brother Calayan is considering leaving his family and looking for work outside of the Philippines.

On the way home we visited the rice terraces of Banaue. This is called the 8th Wonder of the World. Here rice is grown on terraced mountain sides. Water from the high springs is used in a complicated method of aqua ducts to flood or withhold water from each terrace as needed down the mountain side. Some terraces are said to be 2,000 years old. It was beautiful and so peaceful. I enjoyed the one night we spent there.

The week in Manila

3-20-10

This week we stayed in Manila we have some emergency relief funds left from the Typhoons last fall and we wanted to see if there were any schools that needed repairs. We have visited several schools. The kids are always friendly, polite and very curious about these huge white people. They love to try their English on us, and it is always very formal, “Good morning Sir, how are you?” I always try my Tagalog on them which causes much laughter. We are definitely a disruption to the educational process. Yesterday we visited a school in Manila, one third grade teacher (who had been teaching at that school 30 years) had 68 students. That was not an unusual number. The school was neat as a pin. There were vegetable gardens in the front of the school, the school was painted cement blocks, and clean. (Its the custom even in the urban schools to plant vegetable gardens for the children to tend and use, also the children do the basic cleaning of the school) The school had received clean up funds from a large chain of fast food restaurants. The parents in the community got together and did the repairs, and they were major. We visited another school in the same area and it was so terrible tears filled my eyes just seeing the conditions those poor students had to endure. The school was flooded and after the water reseeded it looks like very little has been done. The ceilings were sagging or non existent, the walls were buckled, the outside walls made of cinder blocks were so badly cracked that you could stick your hand in the crack. If there was an earth quake, or even another typhoon the building would crumble. Needless to say we got a contractor out there the next day. But really the school should be torn down. What a blessing to live in the USA, we have so much and we don’t even realize how fortunate we are.

There are so many good people here in the Philippines, for example there are two that we (LDS Charities)partner with. First is, "Tahangny Walang Hagdanan" translated "house without stairs" here a catholic nun came from Belgium about 50 years ago and started a huge campus for people with handicaps. There are workshops, school, medical clinic, physical therapy. In addition to rehabilitation facilitates and dormitories, there are small factories where workers who make all kinds of stuff like, silk screened canvas bags, fishing flies, wood tables and chairs, packaging medical samples, educational toys, dental apparatus like dentures,crowns and wheelchairs. We will be ordering 1,000 wheelchairs from them. Here in the Philippines there not the rules against discrimination so these folks could not work on the outside. An example of the discrimination this was a help wanted sign we saw, "Wanted Waitress, must be attractive"

Another partner for our vision projects is Mabuhay Deseret. Dr. Jackson, a Utah Mormon Ex-Philippine mission president and eye doctor purchased the house as a place people and their caregiver from the poor rural areas could stay while preparing for and recovering from free eye surgery he performed at local hospitals. (Like a Ronald McDonald house) That was 30 years ago and now they also do cleft palates, club feet and burn constrictors. Doctors volunteer for up to a year at a time and there are 2 other houses and rural clinics in the Philippines and other similar facilities elsewhere in other developing countries.

Our left over emergency money from the typhoon can be used to ease suffering from the drought, so most of next week will be spent up north talking to people and making plans as how to best use the resources. We also will be taking up cases upon cases of sadrines (yuck) left over from the typhoon relief. Also we need to look at two potential water projects.