A birthday to remember!

Hey everybody! This week I, Tommy, will be updating the blog! A lot’s happened since our last post, sorry it’s taken so long. But the good news is that I have a warm cup of Talabunga tea and Oreos sitting next to me that I’ll be enjoying throughout writing this post! In the past two weeks we have done two Mobile Clinic runs and celebrated my 22nd birthday! There’s been more than that that has happened, but I’m going to focus on those because they’re the most exciting. The first Mobile Clinic run was really busy. We traveled to a town further inland than usual, and there were plenty of people there for us to help. A few weeks ago when we did our very first Mobile Clinic, Kim assisted in circumcisions while I helped with dentistry work, but this time, I assisted with the circumcisions while Kim helped our supervisor with taking blood pressures and other vitals. While I was getting all geared up for the circumcisions, I really didn’t know what to think. I mean, here are kids from ages four to eighteen all excited waiting for their circumcision, while I’m on the inside of the clinic thinking to myself, “Thank God my parents decided to have me circumcised early!” Their excitement soon changed to agony as they realized exactly what needed to happen. Needless to say, during the first patient I got a little nauseous (it didn’t help that the kid on the other side of the table also getting circumcised was screaming in pain), but after that, I was completely fine with the next ten we worked on. Meanwhile, Kim was trying to deal with the crowd of people. Every person kept trying to push in front of each other while in line. Somehow, the circle around her kept getting closer and closer. By the end of the day, she couldn’t turn left or right without hitting someone. After we finished, it was hard for Kim to turn people away, but we had to get going before it got dark. To quickly wrap up on Mobile Clinic stuff, the next week we only had one circumcision but a lot of dentistry work. Nothing too special happened that day, but it always seems like a lot of work and energy to do a Mobile Clinic. However, the awesome thing is that people really get to see that we care about them. Last week, we were invited to a birthday party for our landlord’s son. The tradition here in the Philippines is that the person celebrating puts on a party for their friends. The food there was definitely interesting and included spaghetti, macaroni salad, chicken soup, and rice. The big surprise was the “litchon” or the whole roasted pig that was sitting on a platter. Josephine, our landlord, kept handing us things to eat. She had us break off pieces of the pig skin and dip it in ketchup. She also cut up the pork meat for us. Honestly, it was really good! The meat was so tender and delicious, although the fat was still dripping off. The roasted pig skin was a little weird but not too bad. After that birthday experience, when it came to celebrating my birthday, Kim decided to invite people over and we had spaghetti, “pansit” which is like flavored noodles with vegetables, chicken soup from a chicken that we (Noel) killed that morning, and chicken adobo. For dessert, Kim made a delicious chocolate cake, and the team helped prepare what they call a “Mango Float.” Though the party was a lot of fun, Kim mentioned something about us going somewhere on Monday, our day off. She wouldn’t tell me anything more, but come Monday morning, Kim, Noel, and I took off on two motorcycles to an unknown destination. We soon pulled into a barge port and boarded the boat with our motorcycles. We crossed the bay to the other side, about a twenty-five minute trip, and continued on our way following a random guy that Noel had met on the boat. Supposedly he was going in the same direction we needed to go. Once we were on the right road, we continued on and found the signs for a place called “Dolphin Island.” I still really didn’t know what to expect, but we soon got on another boat and rode another fifteen minutes to a small, sandy, man-made property. When we got off the boat, we saw four dolphins swimming in a very big but enclosed area. We were going to go swimming with the dolphins! We all got our swim suits on and, with our snorkel equipment, swam for about a half hour with a guide helping us learn how to feed the dolphins. It was so cool seeing them come right up next to you and snatch the fish out of your hand! We even got to feed them while underwater, and heard their “sonar” noises. After that, we made our way out to the open ocean and the tour guide began to show us around the coral reef area. The water was a little murky, but we could still see the bottom of the ocean. We saw big red snapper fish, little “Nemo” clown fish sticking their heads out of their homes, and we even saw a man-eating clam the size of the ones in Mario! That thing was over three feet in diameter and the guide even went down to it and touched the shell, but the clam closed up tight pretty quickly. I’ve never seen one that big! Lastly, we got to feed some of the tropical fish as they came up and nibbled at the dead fish we held in our hands. We finished up the day by eating grilled shrimp and a special treat: rice! We headed back to the barge, across the bay, and back home pretty tired and just as burnt. Amazing day though!

Celebrating Tommy's Birthday with our Filipino friends!

The barge we crossed the beautiful bay on

Feeding the dolphins

All geared up after snorkeling