So our last morning/afternoon in Georgetown, we didn't have much time to sightsee. Mike, Adam, and Joe went to the beach, but they said it wasn't that great. We took the bus back to Kuala Lumpur and grabbed dinner and went to Chinatown to do some cheap last minute shopping. Derek, who works for Hope Worldwide, also stopped by and gave us some sweet shirts!
Monday morning, everyone split up :( Mike and Joe went off to Ko Samui [Thailand], Adam left for the Perhentian Islands, Dr. Gossman went back to Omaha, and all of us girls stayed in Kuala Lumpur one extra day. But we just got to Bangkok a couple hours ago. We decided to try to keep blogging in case anyone was still checking in on us.
So our extra day in Kuala Lumpur was spent at the elephant sanctuary...and it was AWESOME! We got to feed and ride the elephants, but we couldn't bathe them because the water level was too high and it wasn't safe for tourists to get in the river :( It was an hour and a half outside the city, so by the time we got back it was dinner time. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for burgers and to watch the Denmark vs. Netherlands game. If you didn't watch it, the Netherlands won 2-0, and the first goal was actually headed in by one of its own players.
Today was basically a travel day. We left our hotel at 11am to take all the different routes of public transportation to the airport. Our flight got in at 4:40pm, we took a shuttle bus to our hotel, and then ate dinner at a random restaurant on the street...which turned out to be delicious. We already love it here! The people are SO nice and the food is amazing :) We leave for Ko Chang tomorrow morning and won't get there until around 3pm, where we'll meet up with Dusty, Randy, Abby, and Geoff from the other SE Asia CURA group. We're so excited! We'll try to blog from the island :)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Georgetown
We just had our final day of clinic for the CURA trip, and I think it was extremely satisfying for everyone. I can't believe its already over! We saw 125 people by working out of HOPE Worldwide's mobile clinic--a painted-up van with all our tools and medicines inside. We went to two different sites and saw completely different populations of people at each place. Here, HOPE been very thorough with how they run things and they have even had paper charts in their KL clinic and electronic charts in the mobile clinic. So, we charted every patient that went through, detailing every complaint and prescription. It's nice that they try to keep tabs on everyone that goes through and encourage repeat visitors the next time that the clinic is open. By the end of the day we had nearly exhausted our supply of medicines and we wound up donating the rest to the local clinic. We're estimating that the total number of people we have seen and treated is around 2900!
Tomorrow we are going to see the sights of Georgetown. It's been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, because of it's special place in history, so we're going to tour the old buildings near our hotel. By 1:30 we'll be back on the bus to KL where we will have a final send-off dinner from the HOPE staff.
Tomorrow we are going to see the sights of Georgetown. It's been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, because of it's special place in history, so we're going to tour the old buildings near our hotel. By 1:30 we'll be back on the bus to KL where we will have a final send-off dinner from the HOPE staff.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Made it to Penang
We just arrived in Georgetown which is in the province of Penang. Had dinner at Louis Western Cafe, which after weeks of rice and noodles, was a nice reminder of American food. Tomorrow we will have our last day of clinic--a mobile clinic that will travel through several communities in the surrounding areas and should be lots of fun! More later.
Mike
Mike
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Pictures from Indonesia and Malaysia
FOUR BLOG POSTS IN ONE DAY!!
Here are a few random pictures for your enjoyment...
JAKARTA AND BANDUNG
Couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy who was carrying tons of boxes, all tied onto his motorcycle precariously... he barely fit on himself!
Traditional fishing boats on the Java Sea.
View from the train between Jakarta and Bandung. It was a beautiful and relaxing three hour ride.
The waterfalls at Maribaya (north of Bandung) taken at a slow shutter speed.
KUALA LUMPUR - Batu Caves
Here are a few random pictures for your enjoyment...
JAKARTA AND BANDUNG
Couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy who was carrying tons of boxes, all tied onto his motorcycle precariously... he barely fit on himself!
Traditional fishing boats on the Java Sea.
View from the train between Jakarta and Bandung. It was a beautiful and relaxing three hour ride.
The waterfalls at Maribaya (north of Bandung) taken at a slow shutter speed.
KUALA LUMPUR - Batu Caves
Kuala Lumpur Pictures
Waiting at the train station outside of Kuala Lumpur with all of our luggage (including medical supplies!)
Standing in the skywalk bridge of the Petronas Towers
Joe "painting the clinic" before actually running it on Tuesday and Thursday
View of both towers... the KL tower on the left and the Petronas on the right
Adam with a monkey at the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple outside of Kuala Lumpur
Kati with a couple pythons at the Batu Caves.... she's surprisingly very happy to be holding snakes!
View of the city from the Planetarium... look at the rain-clouds!
Missy standing in front of a hazy view of both towers at the orchid and hibiscus garden just before the rain hit
Kuala Lumpur
We have been in KL for a few days now and there is a marked difference between here and the other places we have been volunteering in Manila and Jakarta. First off the traffic, pollution, and public transportation is way better. In regards to our clinic, we are working in a nice air conditioned building used often for treating underprivileged patients. We see much fewer patients and have licensed nurses translating for us as well as a Malaysian doctor on hand.
The first day here we all spent the day painting the clinics waiting room. It was a tough job and took us a while to reach all the high places and put on two coats of paint but in the end it looked really nice.
The next day was a volunteer day and we saw about 30 patients with the doctor that often works here. The nurses were very helpful in translating and we were able to spend a lot of time with the patients. It was a nice change of pace. They have most of their own medicine and the exam rooms feel just like working in a clinic back in the States. At night most of our group went to Chinatown to check it out while a few of the girls went to have their feet munched on by fish (apparently this is some form of a pedicure but it sounds like fish torture to me). After wandering around for a bit we all returned home to our nice little condo for the night. We have 3 bedrooms as well as an entryway, living room, and three bathrooms. It is a very nice place.
The next morning we all got up at 6 am in order to make it to the Petronas Towers on time to get a ticket to go to the sky bridge. While in line an grumpy old German man got mad at us for having so many people but he was probably senile. We were able to get to the Skybridge at 9:15 am and there was a very beautiful view of downtown KL from there. We took a lot of photos. After that we all took a walk to the KL Tower but it was so expensive to go to the top of it that we passed on that. Then we took taxis to the Batu Caves which is a huge Hindu temple located up a lot of stairs and in large caves. It was very nice and there were monkeys everywhere. Some of them were mean but most sat around and tried stealing water bottles and things from you. It was a great leg workout to go up over 200 steps.
After that we stopped for lunch in some random restaurant and then went to a planetarium. It was a lot of walking and as we were leaving it started pouring rain. We took shelter under some little roof and hailed for a taxi. Half the group went home on the taxi while the mentally unstable ones (Joe, Mike, Dr. Gossman) decided to walk through the downpour.
Today we went to clinic again, saw some patients and now are on our lunch break!!! That is all. No bickering in the comments, lets keep it civil. :)
The first day here we all spent the day painting the clinics waiting room. It was a tough job and took us a while to reach all the high places and put on two coats of paint but in the end it looked really nice.
The next day was a volunteer day and we saw about 30 patients with the doctor that often works here. The nurses were very helpful in translating and we were able to spend a lot of time with the patients. It was a nice change of pace. They have most of their own medicine and the exam rooms feel just like working in a clinic back in the States. At night most of our group went to Chinatown to check it out while a few of the girls went to have their feet munched on by fish (apparently this is some form of a pedicure but it sounds like fish torture to me). After wandering around for a bit we all returned home to our nice little condo for the night. We have 3 bedrooms as well as an entryway, living room, and three bathrooms. It is a very nice place.
The next morning we all got up at 6 am in order to make it to the Petronas Towers on time to get a ticket to go to the sky bridge. While in line an grumpy old German man got mad at us for having so many people but he was probably senile. We were able to get to the Skybridge at 9:15 am and there was a very beautiful view of downtown KL from there. We took a lot of photos. After that we all took a walk to the KL Tower but it was so expensive to go to the top of it that we passed on that. Then we took taxis to the Batu Caves which is a huge Hindu temple located up a lot of stairs and in large caves. It was very nice and there were monkeys everywhere. Some of them were mean but most sat around and tried stealing water bottles and things from you. It was a great leg workout to go up over 200 steps.
After that we stopped for lunch in some random restaurant and then went to a planetarium. It was a lot of walking and as we were leaving it started pouring rain. We took shelter under some little roof and hailed for a taxi. Half the group went home on the taxi while the mentally unstable ones (Joe, Mike, Dr. Gossman) decided to walk through the downpour.
Today we went to clinic again, saw some patients and now are on our lunch break!!! That is all. No bickering in the comments, lets keep it civil. :)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Pictures from Jakarta and Bandung
First day in Jakarta visiting a clinic located outside of the city
Our favorite Korean restaurant with all-you-can meat and sides for ~$7 USD!
On a boat at Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa, the ironwood boat yard
After setting up clinic in a community situated along the Java Sea... Adam is MIA
Playing Indonesian instruments (angklungs) at a cultural show in Bandung
In front of one of the many waterfalls in Maribaya, just outside of Bandung
After trekking in the pouring rain to the volcano crater and sitting in sulfur-heated lakes....
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Kuala Lumpur
We made it to KL. We are staying in a great little place called Sarang Mas--got the whole house to ourselves! Just getting settled in, we'll post more tomorrow.
- Mike
- Mike
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Rest of Bandung
We're sitting at the airport, 4 hours early for our flight to Malaysia, and I got chosen to update the blog. I don't know the names of a lot of the things we went to, so don't be mad...
I think today is Sunday? I'm not really sure though. So that means we got to Bandung Friday...Friday night we went out for dinner and drinks at a sushi restaurant. And that's pretty much all that happened that night.
Okay I'm switching to bullet points because thats easier for me and I'm too lazy to write out complete sentences.
Saturday [in order]:
I think today is Sunday? I'm not really sure though. So that means we got to Bandung Friday...Friday night we went out for dinner and drinks at a sushi restaurant. And that's pretty much all that happened that night.
Okay I'm switching to bullet points because thats easier for me and I'm too lazy to write out complete sentences.
Saturday [in order]:
- Buddhist temple
- Picked strawberries (Adam got violent and threw strawberries at people)
- ate rabbit saute - which was actually REALLY good :)
- went to Maraibaya (thank you for the name of that Missy), a village with manmade waterfalls
- hiked through a downpour to go swim in a volcanic crater - definitely the best part of our whole trip so far!
- rented a hotel room for the sole purpose of showering
- drove back to Jakarta while watching Zombieland (thank you Joe for the awesome 70 cent movie buy!)
And that's it :)
Friday, June 4, 2010
Bandung
We just made it to our hotel in Bandung. We've had a pretty fun day so far... Scenic train ride through the mountains, new city to explore and a great music/dance performance at a local performing arts school here. We have a guide, Brata, who was recommended to us by Maybe and has been very helpful already in taking us around to see the sights. Tomorrow we are going to drive up into the mountains further to a place called Lembang which is kind of like a state park or nature reserve. There are a few waterfalls and a volcano to see there. Then we'll spend the day back in Bandung and head back to Jakarta late. We'll try to post pictures when we get back.
- Mike
- Mike
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
More Jakarta
Hi all! We will try to update the blog more frequently but our schedules vary and it gets difficult to post daily. But anyways...
Yesterday we setup a clinic in Jakarta much like the clinic we had during our second day in Laguna. The area we served had never had a medical mission before our arrival. We were actually situated on top of a landfill. With the heat and location, flies swarmed our clinic and made it difficult to work. However, we pushed through and treated over 150 patients in just a few hours.
The majority of our patients had complaints of arthritis, numbness, and cold/cough. With our experience in the Philippines, we have gained the knowledge to treat these complaints with confidence. It's especially nice to know which drugs to recommend and which treatment course to follow.
Last night we decided to visit a touristy district in Jakarta. The area we visited housed many restaurants and a few local shops. We chose a steakhouse for dinner and the majority of us had steak. Believe it or not but the steak dinner was less than $5 a person without drinks! Very cheap and very delicious! Unfortunately it started raining so our time after dinner was spent running from location-to-location to find a spot to hang out until it was time to go home.
Today we will be returning to the tuberculosis clinic to treat patients. We will only spend a few hours there as the patient population is much smaller than our previous clinics. Thursday we will setup a clinic again somewhere in Jakarta like the one we setup yesterday. Friday we take a train to Bandung to tour a mountainous area a few hours from here. We have plans to see a cultural show and hike to a waterfall. It should be a lot of fun and we are really excited about it!
Anyway, hope all is well with everyone at home. We miss you a lot!
Yesterday we setup a clinic in Jakarta much like the clinic we had during our second day in Laguna. The area we served had never had a medical mission before our arrival. We were actually situated on top of a landfill. With the heat and location, flies swarmed our clinic and made it difficult to work. However, we pushed through and treated over 150 patients in just a few hours.
The majority of our patients had complaints of arthritis, numbness, and cold/cough. With our experience in the Philippines, we have gained the knowledge to treat these complaints with confidence. It's especially nice to know which drugs to recommend and which treatment course to follow.
Last night we decided to visit a touristy district in Jakarta. The area we visited housed many restaurants and a few local shops. We chose a steakhouse for dinner and the majority of us had steak. Believe it or not but the steak dinner was less than $5 a person without drinks! Very cheap and very delicious! Unfortunately it started raining so our time after dinner was spent running from location-to-location to find a spot to hang out until it was time to go home.
Today we will be returning to the tuberculosis clinic to treat patients. We will only spend a few hours there as the patient population is much smaller than our previous clinics. Thursday we will setup a clinic again somewhere in Jakarta like the one we setup yesterday. Friday we take a train to Bandung to tour a mountainous area a few hours from here. We have plans to see a cultural show and hike to a waterfall. It should be a lot of fun and we are really excited about it!
Anyway, hope all is well with everyone at home. We miss you a lot!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Jakarta update
Early Saturday morning we met with Maybe, our Hope worldwide leader in Indonesia. We travelled about an hour outside Jakarta to Sentul, where Hope worldwide houses a clinic and orphanage. Once there we met with several local doctors and volunteers and set up a clinic at the local school. After clinic, we went back to the orphanage to take a tour and to see the babies.
For the evening, we went to a mall near our hotel. This mall is huge and has at least 8 different levels. Prices for American goods are ridiculously cheap too. For dinner we enjoyed a delicious all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ where we grilled our own meat. It was amazing and we will probably go back soon.
Sunday was our first full day on our own. We went to Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa, an ironwood boat yard. The boating cargo is mainly wood and water. We hired a local to give us a tour. He took us onto one of the boats and into the neighboring community.
After the boat yard, we headed to MONAS, the national monument. Our driver got lost and it took over 2 hours to reach our destination, which turned out to be within 15 minutes of our hotel. Otherwise the monument was touristy and enjoyable. Late Sunday, Dr. Gossman arrived to our hotel and he will be helping us in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Yesterday we visited Hope worldwide's tuberculosis clinic. We set up clinic and treated locals. We also learned how to do a lab test for tuberculosis, which we later used to diagnose patients. Wednesday we will return to this clinic.
We are leaving shortly for our next clinic so more updates soon. We miss you all!
-Missy
For the evening, we went to a mall near our hotel. This mall is huge and has at least 8 different levels. Prices for American goods are ridiculously cheap too. For dinner we enjoyed a delicious all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ where we grilled our own meat. It was amazing and we will probably go back soon.
Sunday was our first full day on our own. We went to Pelabuhan Sunda Kelapa, an ironwood boat yard. The boating cargo is mainly wood and water. We hired a local to give us a tour. He took us onto one of the boats and into the neighboring community.
After the boat yard, we headed to MONAS, the national monument. Our driver got lost and it took over 2 hours to reach our destination, which turned out to be within 15 minutes of our hotel. Otherwise the monument was touristy and enjoyable. Late Sunday, Dr. Gossman arrived to our hotel and he will be helping us in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Yesterday we visited Hope worldwide's tuberculosis clinic. We set up clinic and treated locals. We also learned how to do a lab test for tuberculosis, which we later used to diagnose patients. Wednesday we will return to this clinic.
We are leaving shortly for our next clinic so more updates soon. We miss you all!
-Missy
Friday, May 28, 2010
In Jakarta
We just arrived in Jakarta last night at about 1:30 AM and we're already up and moving so we can leave for the clinic by 8. Needless to say, we're a bit tired but pushing on for now. We'll have a day off tomorrow to catch up on sleep and meet Dr. Gossman when he arrives.
More updates soon!
-Mike
More updates soon!
-Mike
Pictures!
In no specific order...
The crater at Taal Volcano
Laguna Clinic (Day 1) - This outdoor space was the "waiting room" to get into the clinic. Inside we had 6 different spots set up to take patients one at a time for examinations of their complaints.
All six guys posing on a wall around Intramuros, the old Spanish fort in the heart of the city.
Laguna (Day 2) - Migs (in the center with the white hat) was fantastic with the kids. If there was ever any down time he would just jump right in and get them signing and dancing. Abby and Missy got in the middle of it all this time.
Baseco Clinic - This room served as a wound or skin disease center for two days. Missy is helping patch this little guy up while Emily, Adam and Kati look on.
Team picture in front of the volcano!
Laguna (Day 1) - The wife of the Vice Mayor bought us all lunch and here we are taking a much needed break and chowing down on some mangos.
The view from Tagaytay out over Taal lake and the mountains.
Sunset at Intramuros
- Mike
The crater at Taal Volcano
Laguna Clinic (Day 1) - This outdoor space was the "waiting room" to get into the clinic. Inside we had 6 different spots set up to take patients one at a time for examinations of their complaints.
All six guys posing on a wall around Intramuros, the old Spanish fort in the heart of the city.
Laguna (Day 2) - Migs (in the center with the white hat) was fantastic with the kids. If there was ever any down time he would just jump right in and get them signing and dancing. Abby and Missy got in the middle of it all this time.
Baseco Clinic - This room served as a wound or skin disease center for two days. Missy is helping patch this little guy up while Emily, Adam and Kati look on.
Team picture in front of the volcano!
Laguna (Day 1) - The wife of the Vice Mayor bought us all lunch and here we are taking a much needed break and chowing down on some mangos.
The view from Tagaytay out over Taal lake and the mountains.
Sunset at Intramuros- Mike
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tagatay, Philippines
I still can't figure out how to upload my photos onto the blog so I'll just give a recap and then add photos later...
Anyway, after hiking the volcano, our group headed to a resort situated along Taal Lake called Club Balai Isabel. It was breathtaking with the lake and mountains as our primary view in the background. After checking into our rooms and eating a locally made Filipino meal (chicken adobo with fresh stir-fry vegetables), we all scrubbed off the pounds of dirt caked on us from the hike and then headed to the pool for a much needed swim.
The water felt amazing! It was exactly what we needed after 6 days of clinic and the volcano hike. The best part was that the pool had a slide that we each took turns going down. A few times we teamed up and went down in groups "banana-boat" style. Adam was the biggest fan of the slide and probably went down it 30 times Wednesday and 20 more on Thursday. To say the least, it was entertaining to watch his excitement for the slide!
A few hours into our swim it started raining so most of the group headed back to the rooms to relax. A few of us--Dusty, Emily, Kati, Adam, Abby, and myself--headed out to take a swim in the Taal lake. The water was really warm, almost comparable to a bath. But with the cold rain coming down on us, it made the water feel amazing! The biggest shock factor of the Lake was the amount of seaweed along the bank. There was so much of it! It felt like we were walking through some sort of netting. Either way, it was fun swimming in the lake with the cool rain coming down.
For the evening we had another locally made dinner of grilled fish and stir-fry vegetables with mangoes for dessert. It may have been the best meal we've had since being in the Philippines. It was absolutely delicious! After dinner, our group decided to stay by the resort and so we spent our evening sitting on the dock looking at the stars. Some of the more adventurous ones (Anu, Abby, Emily, and Adam) decided to jump off the dock into the lake and take an evening swim.
Friday was a relatively chill day. We woke up and lounged around the resort until checkout. The boys played basketball and swam while the girls laid out to watch. We then traveled to a park in Tagatay known as "People's Park of the Sky" to see the entire area in panoramic view. We could see all of Tagatay including the Taal Volcano from a higher elevation. It was beautiful from the top!
After a long jeepney ride back to Manila, we decided to spend our last night doing karaoke. We went to Music 21, a karaoke restaurant, and rented our own room to sing some tunes. Also during this time, Hope Worldwide rewarded our group with certificates thanking us for our service in the Philippines. The final count of patients treated was 2,160 patients.... in 6 days!
Well today is our last day in Manila and the other group has already departed for Kuala Lumpur. We leave in 12 hours for Jakarta on Cebu Pacific. If you'd like to follow our flight, we are on flight number 5J-759. The link is:
Anyway, we miss everyone at home and can't wait to update you with more stories from our trip. We hope you are doing well and please note that the comments are loved and much appreciated.
Anyway, after hiking the volcano, our group headed to a resort situated along Taal Lake called Club Balai Isabel. It was breathtaking with the lake and mountains as our primary view in the background. After checking into our rooms and eating a locally made Filipino meal (chicken adobo with fresh stir-fry vegetables), we all scrubbed off the pounds of dirt caked on us from the hike and then headed to the pool for a much needed swim.
The water felt amazing! It was exactly what we needed after 6 days of clinic and the volcano hike. The best part was that the pool had a slide that we each took turns going down. A few times we teamed up and went down in groups "banana-boat" style. Adam was the biggest fan of the slide and probably went down it 30 times Wednesday and 20 more on Thursday. To say the least, it was entertaining to watch his excitement for the slide!
A few hours into our swim it started raining so most of the group headed back to the rooms to relax. A few of us--Dusty, Emily, Kati, Adam, Abby, and myself--headed out to take a swim in the Taal lake. The water was really warm, almost comparable to a bath. But with the cold rain coming down on us, it made the water feel amazing! The biggest shock factor of the Lake was the amount of seaweed along the bank. There was so much of it! It felt like we were walking through some sort of netting. Either way, it was fun swimming in the lake with the cool rain coming down.
For the evening we had another locally made dinner of grilled fish and stir-fry vegetables with mangoes for dessert. It may have been the best meal we've had since being in the Philippines. It was absolutely delicious! After dinner, our group decided to stay by the resort and so we spent our evening sitting on the dock looking at the stars. Some of the more adventurous ones (Anu, Abby, Emily, and Adam) decided to jump off the dock into the lake and take an evening swim.
Friday was a relatively chill day. We woke up and lounged around the resort until checkout. The boys played basketball and swam while the girls laid out to watch. We then traveled to a park in Tagatay known as "People's Park of the Sky" to see the entire area in panoramic view. We could see all of Tagatay including the Taal Volcano from a higher elevation. It was beautiful from the top!
After a long jeepney ride back to Manila, we decided to spend our last night doing karaoke. We went to Music 21, a karaoke restaurant, and rented our own room to sing some tunes. Also during this time, Hope Worldwide rewarded our group with certificates thanking us for our service in the Philippines. The final count of patients treated was 2,160 patients.... in 6 days!
Well today is our last day in Manila and the other group has already departed for Kuala Lumpur. We leave in 12 hours for Jakarta on Cebu Pacific. If you'd like to follow our flight, we are on flight number 5J-759. The link is:
Anyway, we miss everyone at home and can't wait to update you with more stories from our trip. We hope you are doing well and please note that the comments are loved and much appreciated.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
From the summit of Taal volcano
Longest 45 minute hike of our lives... but we loved every minute of it! The picture below is from the top of Taal Volcano. Hopefully we will figure out how to post the better quality pictures we have been taking along the way soon, but this is just a quick snapshot from the peak. It seemed like every bend in the path was another scenic vantage point so between all of us there are literally hundreds of pictures of the day and the hike.
Everything has been going great with our little R&R trip. Nobody seems to be having too much trouble unwinding after such a stressful week as evidenced by the enthusiasm with which we hiked up this steep trail with the temperature near 95 or 98 degrees and the humidity hovering around 100%. The locals followed us with their horses, convinced that we would never be able to make it to the top without taking a break and riding one of their trusty animals. We managed to do it though and collected a lot of great pictures in the process, which we can hopefully share soon!
When we get back to Manila tomorrow night we are planning on catching you all up with pictures and stories from the trip so far. So check in here in the next 24 hours or so and hopefully we'll be bringing a bunch more updates your way!
As always, thanks for the comments and words of encourgement. Although we don't always have the time to respond to everyone, we always love to read them and hear from all of you who are keeping track of our adventure.
- Mike
Everything has been going great with our little R&R trip. Nobody seems to be having too much trouble unwinding after such a stressful week as evidenced by the enthusiasm with which we hiked up this steep trail with the temperature near 95 or 98 degrees and the humidity hovering around 100%. The locals followed us with their horses, convinced that we would never be able to make it to the top without taking a break and riding one of their trusty animals. We managed to do it though and collected a lot of great pictures in the process, which we can hopefully share soon!
When we get back to Manila tomorrow night we are planning on catching you all up with pictures and stories from the trip so far. So check in here in the next 24 hours or so and hopefully we'll be bringing a bunch more updates your way!
As always, thanks for the comments and words of encourgement. Although we don't always have the time to respond to everyone, we always love to read them and hear from all of you who are keeping track of our adventure.
- Mike
Monday, May 24, 2010
Pictures from Laguna
Our makeshift pharmacy at Laguna. The same structure was usually used for illegal gambling according to the locals.
It's a difficult job to sort through all the medicines we bring with us and even more difficult to make sure our patients understand the dosages and importance of taking what was prescribed.
This was right after the rainstorm that Joe described. The sun (and heat) returned in no time at all.
Here's the scene after a long day in the clinic. Every day has sent us limping back to the jeepney tired and sweaty for the long bumpy ride home. While it isn't the most comfortable ride in the world, it's probably among the nicest of all the jeepneys simply because it has air conditioning.
- Mike
Clinic Update (sorry no pictures)
Hello everyone,
Mike really wants everyone to share their experiences, aka doesn't want to be the only one blogging and thus I am sharing this grueling job of writing to all of you :-)
The action has continued non stop from the last post. The itinerary posted had 2 days of clinic followed by 2 days of rest with a visit to the Taal Volcano. We learned upon our arrival, however, that this was not to be. Our new schedule is 6 days of clinic with a relaxing ending.
So Mike left off with our first clinic in Baseco and to pick up this story I am going to start with our next two clinics: Laguna and Payatas. However, I want to mention that after our second and last day in Baseco we fit in a stop in Intramuros. This was a Spanish fort that held the national hero Rizal (a writer among many other talents that expressed his dislike of spanish rule and promoted peaceful rebellion). He was locked up and executed in the fort turned modern museum in 1819 (I think this is the right date, I am sure someone can wikipedia this and prove me wrong so dont quote me... it just sounds better to include the tentative year) Unfortunately, the visit was slightly tarnished by our exhaustion and the heat, but it was a richly cultural experience that we are all glad we made especially since we may never do it again. Again sorry for the lack of pictures (on the bright side you have even more to look forward to from the more skilled blogging members or our arrival home :-)
The usual pick up is around 7:30 am in the lobby of our hotel/hostel, and the mood among the group is surprisingly pretty energetic despite the hour. More surprising is that the wonderfully placed starbucks directly ourside our hotel doesn't open until 10am... I am a coffee person so enough said :-( The ride to Baseco was pretty short, but these last 4 days have been 2 hour drives in affore mentioned jeepney down highways in traffic and through the winding streets of the villages/towns (usually more than one 3 point turn is required in these areas) . When we arrive in Laguna on the first day we stop in at the Center of Hope for abused children. It is a very well taken care of and managed facility for physically or sexually abused kids. We are given a tour and give exams and medications / skin care to the 9 kids and handful of mentors at the center. One of the kids has polydactyly on all four appendages!! The kids themselves are adorable and very enthusiastic about our arrival. I think one of them may even grow up to be a future doctor as he went around with my stethoscope listening to our heart beats. From there we are taken to a small clinic by jeepney at which there are already huge lines of people waiting to be seen. We unload and quickly set up a make shift clinic of exam stations and a pharmacy. They placed Adam and I in charge of the pharmacy, so I don't have as much to offer from the front lines. However, seeing as every patient was sent to the pharmacy, I can tell you that after the 300 some patients we saw it was a different situation from the first clinic. Here there are lots more cough and cold cases, for which multivitamins were worth their weight in gold. We did still have some skin care and wound cases, but much less before and we quickly exhausted the medical supplies that we had. Lunch was local made food of stewed meat over rice accompanied by the ripest, juciest mango's we have ever eaten. During the break we toured the little town a bit. Dusty, Randy (both from the other group) and Mike played basketball with some of the locals and were quick celebrities for their size and capacity to dunk!
The second day in Laguna was even more of a treat. After the 2 hour ride, we arrived a a wide open space in a different part of the village with a single tent erected to house all 14 of us plus the 22 nurses also volunteering. It was going to be a long day... After setting up the pharmacy and having the locals set up more tarps to sit under we got started and it was fast paced. Nurses checking people in and doing vitals and then sending them to us and a translator for more in depth exams. Again it was much the same with lots of coughs and some skin cases with a few developmental disorders and some patients in need of more advanced medical attention or eye exams. Lunch was again locally produced and similar to the day before and we were very tired after the morning. It begain to rain as we headed back to the "clinic" and before we were able to see another patient it started to pour! The kids thought this was the greatest thing with the tarps set up collecting water and we spent a lot of time trying to keep our shelter upright and spilling water all over the kids for their enjoyment. It was a much slower afternoon and we left a little earlier and got home around 5... short day clocking in at around 9 hours :-) better than the 12 hour days previous!
Well it is getting late, but to wrap up the days have been long and exhausting yet very rewarding. In total over the last 4 days we have seen over 1100 patients! While our efforts are not a long term fix the smiles and thanks from the people we have seen have made this trip something special for all of us! Hopefully the next post will talk about the future clinic in Payatas as well as the Taal volcano. I also hope it includes some pictures as my words do not do justice to the things we have seen.
We miss you all back home and love reading your comments and emails. Thank you so much for all your support and love. Stay well and know we keep you in our thoughts everyday!
Yours truly,
-Joe
Mike really wants everyone to share their experiences, aka doesn't want to be the only one blogging and thus I am sharing this grueling job of writing to all of you :-)
The action has continued non stop from the last post. The itinerary posted had 2 days of clinic followed by 2 days of rest with a visit to the Taal Volcano. We learned upon our arrival, however, that this was not to be. Our new schedule is 6 days of clinic with a relaxing ending.
So Mike left off with our first clinic in Baseco and to pick up this story I am going to start with our next two clinics: Laguna and Payatas. However, I want to mention that after our second and last day in Baseco we fit in a stop in Intramuros. This was a Spanish fort that held the national hero Rizal (a writer among many other talents that expressed his dislike of spanish rule and promoted peaceful rebellion). He was locked up and executed in the fort turned modern museum in 1819 (I think this is the right date, I am sure someone can wikipedia this and prove me wrong so dont quote me... it just sounds better to include the tentative year) Unfortunately, the visit was slightly tarnished by our exhaustion and the heat, but it was a richly cultural experience that we are all glad we made especially since we may never do it again. Again sorry for the lack of pictures (on the bright side you have even more to look forward to from the more skilled blogging members or our arrival home :-)
The usual pick up is around 7:30 am in the lobby of our hotel/hostel, and the mood among the group is surprisingly pretty energetic despite the hour. More surprising is that the wonderfully placed starbucks directly ourside our hotel doesn't open until 10am... I am a coffee person so enough said :-( The ride to Baseco was pretty short, but these last 4 days have been 2 hour drives in affore mentioned jeepney down highways in traffic and through the winding streets of the villages/towns (usually more than one 3 point turn is required in these areas) . When we arrive in Laguna on the first day we stop in at the Center of Hope for abused children. It is a very well taken care of and managed facility for physically or sexually abused kids. We are given a tour and give exams and medications / skin care to the 9 kids and handful of mentors at the center. One of the kids has polydactyly on all four appendages!! The kids themselves are adorable and very enthusiastic about our arrival. I think one of them may even grow up to be a future doctor as he went around with my stethoscope listening to our heart beats. From there we are taken to a small clinic by jeepney at which there are already huge lines of people waiting to be seen. We unload and quickly set up a make shift clinic of exam stations and a pharmacy. They placed Adam and I in charge of the pharmacy, so I don't have as much to offer from the front lines. However, seeing as every patient was sent to the pharmacy, I can tell you that after the 300 some patients we saw it was a different situation from the first clinic. Here there are lots more cough and cold cases, for which multivitamins were worth their weight in gold. We did still have some skin care and wound cases, but much less before and we quickly exhausted the medical supplies that we had. Lunch was local made food of stewed meat over rice accompanied by the ripest, juciest mango's we have ever eaten. During the break we toured the little town a bit. Dusty, Randy (both from the other group) and Mike played basketball with some of the locals and were quick celebrities for their size and capacity to dunk!
The second day in Laguna was even more of a treat. After the 2 hour ride, we arrived a a wide open space in a different part of the village with a single tent erected to house all 14 of us plus the 22 nurses also volunteering. It was going to be a long day... After setting up the pharmacy and having the locals set up more tarps to sit under we got started and it was fast paced. Nurses checking people in and doing vitals and then sending them to us and a translator for more in depth exams. Again it was much the same with lots of coughs and some skin cases with a few developmental disorders and some patients in need of more advanced medical attention or eye exams. Lunch was again locally produced and similar to the day before and we were very tired after the morning. It begain to rain as we headed back to the "clinic" and before we were able to see another patient it started to pour! The kids thought this was the greatest thing with the tarps set up collecting water and we spent a lot of time trying to keep our shelter upright and spilling water all over the kids for their enjoyment. It was a much slower afternoon and we left a little earlier and got home around 5... short day clocking in at around 9 hours :-) better than the 12 hour days previous!
Well it is getting late, but to wrap up the days have been long and exhausting yet very rewarding. In total over the last 4 days we have seen over 1100 patients! While our efforts are not a long term fix the smiles and thanks from the people we have seen have made this trip something special for all of us! Hopefully the next post will talk about the future clinic in Payatas as well as the Taal volcano. I also hope it includes some pictures as my words do not do justice to the things we have seen.
We miss you all back home and love reading your comments and emails. Thank you so much for all your support and love. Stay well and know we keep you in our thoughts everyday!
Yours truly,
-Joe
Friday, May 21, 2010
Hello from Manila!
Sorry for not posting sooner, but it's taken a couple of days to get our bearings set and get into a routine. It's just been nonstop action since the plane touched down. We had a big traditional Filipino meal on our first night and crashed early (there were some tired people around the table by 8 o'clock). On our first day of the clinic we took a 'scenic' boat ride that took us through the slum area that all of our patients were living in. 200,000 people are living in 5 hectares of rickety houses built on top of a decades-old land fill. It was shocking, to say the least. I know I speak for everyone when I say that I was very happy we got to really emerse ourselves in their community. Unfortunately it isn't easy to post the pictures we got of that trip, we will try soon.
That first day of clinic got started late and even after only beginning at 10:30, we saw 186 patients (mostly children) before 3 pm. Just this morning we saw an additional 300. It's already been a wild ride-- the sights, the sounds, the -smells-, have all been a completely new experience for the vast majority of us.
The medical experience has largely been a crash course in diagnosing bacterial or fungal skin infections and handing out huge amounts of antibiotics. Our huge stock of med supplies is already looking noticably smaller and we have been trying to buy more supplies (especially things like the antibiotics and hydrocortisone cream) from government officials that sell at cost. It's been a wonderful experimce already to treat these adorable kids and hopefully we are making their lives a little bit better.
- At the airport right when we landed, already feeling the mid-day heat
- Our hired ride, called a "jeepney." Most are left over WWII transport vehicles with elaborate color schemes. Ours is a deluxe version with air conditioning (a welcomed luxury after spending the day sweating profusely)
- Dr. Dave, with Geoff (from the other group) looking on.
- These kids are tough as nails. This poor little guy had a huge abcess on his forehead that had to be drained and packed with antibiotics and gauze.
More to come,
Mike
That first day of clinic got started late and even after only beginning at 10:30, we saw 186 patients (mostly children) before 3 pm. Just this morning we saw an additional 300. It's already been a wild ride-- the sights, the sounds, the -smells-, have all been a completely new experience for the vast majority of us.
The medical experience has largely been a crash course in diagnosing bacterial or fungal skin infections and handing out huge amounts of antibiotics. Our huge stock of med supplies is already looking noticably smaller and we have been trying to buy more supplies (especially things like the antibiotics and hydrocortisone cream) from government officials that sell at cost. It's been a wonderful experimce already to treat these adorable kids and hopefully we are making their lives a little bit better.
- At the airport right when we landed, already feeling the mid-day heat
- Our hired ride, called a "jeepney." Most are left over WWII transport vehicles with elaborate color schemes. Ours is a deluxe version with air conditioning (a welcomed luxury after spending the day sweating profusely)
- Dr. Dave, with Geoff (from the other group) looking on.
- These kids are tough as nails. This poor little guy had a huge abcess on his forehead that had to be drained and packed with antibiotics and gauze.
More to come,
Mike
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Made it to Korea
We all made it to Korea! Hard to believe we pulled it off, but the first big flight is behind us. Updates coming soon.
- Mike
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The countdown begins!
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking in on the CURA SE Asia blog. We are all making our final preparations for the big trip and getting ready for one seriously long travel day across the Pacific. I just thought I'd let you all know that we will do our best to keep you on top of the latest information whenever we have access to a WiFi connection. This will largely be hit-or-miss at hotels and Internet Cafés but we should be able to use a handy iPhone app to make the process quick and easy whenever there is an opportunity. So in no time at all we should be beaming pictures and comments back from halfway around the world! If you would like to add comments to any of our posts, which is certainly welcomed, use the link in the upper right corner of this page to Sign In and you'll have a few options as a new or returning user.
In case you missed my note about the contact information before -- just follow the link to "comments" found right under the Trip Itinerary post to find more information about our hotels during the trip.
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Trip Itinerary
MANILLA, PHILIPPINES
May 18 – 19 Travel Day(s), aka the long trip across the Pacific Ocean:
Flights: Asiana 203 LAX [12:20 AM] to Seoul (ICN) [5:20 AM] + Asiana 701 ICN [8:40 AM] to Manilla (MNL) [11:50 AM]
May 19 – Orientation at HOPE in the afternoon
May 20 – Laguna Clinic
May 21 – Laguna Clinic
May 22 – Sight seeing – Intramuros (an old Spanish fort in Manila)
May 23 – Sight seeing– Taal Volcano
May 24 – Baseco Clinic
May 25 – Baseco Clinic
May 26 – Payatas Clinic
May 27 – Payatas Clinic
May 28 – Final evaluation with HOPEww
JAKARTA, INDONESIA
May 28 – Travel Day
Flight: Cebu 5J 759 MNL [8:55 PM] to Jakarta (CGK) [11:45 PM]
May 29 – Health care checkups at a Jakarta orphanage
May 30 – Jakarta sight-seeing
May 31 – TB Clinic - Jakarta Utara
June 1 – Cakung Clinic
June 2 – Cakung Clinic
June 3 – TB Clinic - Jakarta Utara
June 4 – Sight seeing/overnight – Bandung, Indonesia
June 5 – Sight seeing – Maribaya and Lembang, Indonesia
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
June 6 – Travel Day
Flight: AirAsia QZ 7692 CGK [12:30 PM] to KUL [3:25 PM]
June 7 – Painting the center and visit the community
June 8 – Sentul Clinic
June 9 – Sight seeing – Batu Caves and around KL
June 11 – Travel to Penang (5 hour drive) to conduct pediatric clinic
June 12 – Sight seeing in Penang/ Children's reading program in the afternoon
June 13 – Return to KL
June 14 – Travel Day - everyone will be going their separate ways, and most will reunite later in Bangkok for the flight back.
June 24 – The long trip back home, via Seoul
Flight: Asiana 744 BKK [1:15 AM] to ICN [8:30 AM]
Asiana 202 ICN [4:30 PM] to LAX [11:30 AM]
Trip Summary:
28 days for CURA (38 days total)
13 days in the clinic
3 days of general volunteering
7 sight seeing days (plus 10 days after CURA has concluded)
4 travel days
I have a list of more detailed addresses and contact information from individual sites that I will attach in the comments section of this post soon.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Savor the Flavor cooking
With only 19 days left until we board a plane to Manila we are all getting very excited. We are all very busy studying for the end of our Neuro course and getting prepared to take our neuro shelf exam. On top of that our leader, Mike, is taking care of last minute details such as medical supply donations and the final itinerary. We will have that up in a few days time so that you will be able to know where we are each hour of each day!
In order to raise money for our CURA group as well as the other CURA groups going to different countries than us, Creighton University hosted a "Savor the Flavor" event. Each group made food from where they will be headed and there was a silent auction as well. We Southeast Asia people decided to make a large batch of curry flavored dumplings. This involved cooking a mix of potatoes, chicken, curry, onion, and an assortment of other spices and individually fill each pie crust circle. Fortunately we were able to receive a donation from WalMart to buy the supplies for this and we were very grateful for that.
(Large pots of boiling potatoes)
(Working hard to cut up a dozen chicken breasts and half a dozen onions)
(Kati and Missy dicing up those chickens)
(Joe and Adam sauteing a LOT of onions)
(Mike, Kati, and Joe filling up our dumplings)
Also in case anyone has noticed Anu is not around, that is because she was in the living room making a sign to display to those in attendance. Here she is in all her artistic glory:
(All the men cleaning up while the women lazily sat around)
(Mike and Joe taking a well earned rest while Kati and Anu clean up)
We got together a few days later to finish stuffing the dumplings and we needed three extra large size foil trays in order to carry them. We made over 300 individual dumplings! It was an extremely laborious process but in the end it was worth it because they were a hit at the silent auction. We received compliments all night about how great they were. In the end we were all pretty tired of the taste of curry since we had been snacking on them for a week.
Also we were left with a broken counter top for all our hard work since we put so much effort into the kitchen! In the end it was fixed but here is a photo after the granite people came by to glue the corner back on:
In order to raise money for our CURA group as well as the other CURA groups going to different countries than us, Creighton University hosted a "Savor the Flavor" event. Each group made food from where they will be headed and there was a silent auction as well. We Southeast Asia people decided to make a large batch of curry flavored dumplings. This involved cooking a mix of potatoes, chicken, curry, onion, and an assortment of other spices and individually fill each pie crust circle. Fortunately we were able to receive a donation from WalMart to buy the supplies for this and we were very grateful for that.
(Large pots of boiling potatoes)
(Working hard to cut up a dozen chicken breasts and half a dozen onions)
(Kati and Missy dicing up those chickens)
(Joe and Adam sauteing a LOT of onions)
(Mike, Kati, and Joe filling up our dumplings)
Also in case anyone has noticed Anu is not around, that is because she was in the living room making a sign to display to those in attendance. Here she is in all her artistic glory:
(All the men cleaning up while the women lazily sat around)
(Mike and Joe taking a well earned rest while Kati and Anu clean up)
We got together a few days later to finish stuffing the dumplings and we needed three extra large size foil trays in order to carry them. We made over 300 individual dumplings! It was an extremely laborious process but in the end it was worth it because they were a hit at the silent auction. We received compliments all night about how great they were. In the end we were all pretty tired of the taste of curry since we had been snacking on them for a week.
Also we were left with a broken counter top for all our hard work since we put so much effort into the kitchen! In the end it was fixed but here is a photo after the granite people came by to glue the corner back on:
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