Wow. Two months ago on this day, I was preparing to embark on my SM adventure. I had no idea it would be such a roller coaster of new experiences and emotions. I was talking to a friend on facebook the other day, who is also overseas for the year. He was saying what a great year he was having, and how it was hard and yet the "highs" were really high. I think this perfectly describes the emotions I've experience over here. The downs have been extremely down, and yet the ups have been very high. It's like everything is magnified or intensified.
We recently got back from one of our "highs"-a great trip to Mt. Palanza and Baguio. We were invited by the CVSH medical mission team, the ones who came and did medical clinic and circumcisions at our hospital earlier this fall. After weeks of anticipation, we finally left last wednesday on our 10 hour bus ride to Baguio. We were all excited to see Baguio, because it is in the mountains and is known for its cooler weather.
Our bus ride was an experience in itself. The bus companies like to let people on even after all the seats are filled. The bus was already full when we got on, and I don't think all the SMs had a seat until maybe three hours before we got there. It was fine, though, and the only tense moment was when I was still in a gas station and the bus started to pull away without me. I ran towards it yelling "wait for me!" (it is not my ideal wish to be stranded in a strange city in the Philippines...) Thankfully, my panicking was rewarded and they stopped to let me on.
We arrived in Baguio at night. It is beautiful there; most of the houses are on the hillsides and with all the lights it made for a pretty picture. We stayed at the SDA mission in town (spicket for a shower) and hung out at the mall in the evening. (They had a Starbucks, which made our stay that much more enjoyable...:))
The next day, we took another bus farther into the mountains to meet up with CVSH. Once we met up with them, we crammed into their van with our backpacks and blankets (none of us brought sleeping bags with us from the states) and started up the bumpy dirt road. Eventually, we switched to an open backed vegetable truck and that took us the rest of the way to the school where we were to do a med clinic. At the school, we were greeted with squat pots and boiled sweet potatoes (apparently in the mountains sweet potatoes are a staple, and they only have rice when they are celebrating something) The med clinic went fine; I helped the doctor's wife, Charlene, give out medicines to the patients. It was fun playing pharmacy. That night fog settled in and we slept on the cold hard floors of the classrooms in the school.
The next morning we took a vegetable truck to the top of the mountain we were on. The view was absolutely breathtaking, with the sun rising above the fog and the cabbage patches built into the hillsides. We reached the top and then started the 4 hour hike to Balete, the village where we were to do another clinic. It was about 7 miles of mountainous terrain, up to the top of another mountain and then down into the valley. I couldn't believe there was actually a village down there. The only way of getting there is by a very scary motor bike ride or walking.
When we finally reached the school (we got to cross an awesome and scary hanging bridge over a rushing river) we dropped off our stuff and me, Aaron, Kim, a guide, and McCoy and Victor (a couple of the guys who were part of the med mission group) decided we hadn't had enough hiking and decided we wanted to go to a waterfall that was supposed to be nearby. It turned out to be forever away, back up the mountain from where we had come and then down into another little valley--all downhill, so we knew we were going to have a fun time coming back up. Our guide had to bushwack his way through the brush and palms to get us to the waterfall. Apparently no one goes down there often. When we got there, though, we were rewarded with one of the most beautiful falls I had seen. They said I was the first American girl to ever be there, and I believe them--it was like this gorgeous little hidden corner of the earth that no one had seen before. It made me wonder how many more beautiful sites there are that no one has ever been to.
The next morning (after an interesting shower from buckets) we did a short medical clinic and I helped give out medicines again. One group started the hike back up to the school we had originally stayed at and it was decided that the rest of us would come on motorcycles later. After the clinic we decided that we would start hiking and meet the bikes on our way up. There were three SMs-Kim, Justin, and I, and then a bunch of the filipino group-Rineth, Elaine (who kindly gave me her arm warmers when it got cold), Charlene, Erwin, Lala, and a guide. We hiked and hiked and hiked. Finally the bikes came, but there weren't enough, so we just gave them our packs and continued hiking. It was getting dark out, we weren't even halfway up the mountain, and we'd already been hiking for four hours. We pressed on, though, each of us pairing up with someone who had a headlamp. Erwin and I were in front, and as soon as we got to the top of the mountain the fog cleared and everything was so clear and beautiful. The city lights were in the distance and the stars were the brightest and most vivid I'd ever seen them . On the way down, Erwin told me about the Philippine national anthem and how one of the lines was "The Philippines, the pearl of the Orient..." right then, it seemed very fitting.
Eventually, we got back to the school, spent the night there, and continued onto Baguio the next afternoon. We spent the next day in Baguio. Victor, one of the med techs from the trip, offered to show us around the city and had his friend Brian tote us around in the back of a pickup truck all day. It was SO much fun; and I got more souvenirs than should be legally allowed (4 T-shirts, 2 beanie hats, 5 keychains, 4 bracelets, and a pair of earrings-all for under $15). We went to the military academy, a Chinese temple, 2 botanical gardens, the weaving factory, a giant lion's head carved into rock, and the huge Baguio market (famous for its strawberries and honey) and topped off the day with dinner at Brian's and the boys eating Balut for the first time.
Balut is a chick fetus that's still inside the egg. Yum. I did not partake in this section of the meal.
And that's our trip. It was the most fun in the Philippines I have had so far, and we are all excited for our next trip with CVSH.
But that was over a week ago, and now we are back to the rhythm of things. I came back to Pagudpud to find that our internet worked again, but sadly my computer didn't. I was able to get it fixed and am hopefully going to pick it up tomorrow.
Oh, and remember how I lost that flip-flop the day the wave on the beach knocked me over and got my camera wet?
Well, Aaron happened to be walking on the beach last Sunday wearing the mate to the flip-flop he had also lost in the same wave. A fisherman who was on the beach noticed his flipflop and said he had the match to it. Aaron asked if he had a girl's one too, and turns out the man did. He had found the flipflops stuck in some rocks along the beach and had kept them, thinking he might find the owners someday. Now tell me, what are the odds of that? What are the odds of Aaron being at the beach, wearing his mateless flipflop, seeing the same fisherman, and the fisherman saving our flipflops? I have been the beach here many times; there is an abandoned flipflop about every ten feet. Why would he pick up ours?
I suppose if God cares for my flipflop, then he cares for everything else, as well.
