O Christmas Tree!

To top off our busy weekend, we decorated our Christmas tree on Sunday. It was fun to be able to do that with my parents. The kids showed off every one of their ornaments like Mimi and Pop hadn’t ever seen our tree before. A third of their ornaments have even been given to them by Mimi and Pop over the years. In the late afternoon, The Brewer kids came over and Mimi made Christmas ornaments with the kids (Pop and I joined in too) She brought ornament kits from the states for the kids to do.

One of Em's favorite ornaments

It's Will's year to put the angel on top of the tree

Mimi explains how to make ornaments

Em and I work hard

The Finished Product!

Manila American Military Cemetery

After Spending last Saturday evening at Intramuros, Sunday we attended our normal early service at church. Since this begins at 8 that means we are finished by about 9:40. No one had any real desire to go to the mall and it was too early for lunch out, so my dad asked if it was far to the American Military Cemetery and Memorial here in Manila. Traffic on Sunday's is usually a breeze so we headed off to Makati and the business district. If you are ever in Manila, we highly reccomend visiting this memorial. As my mom said, it was very moving. It is a gorgeous plot of 152 acres with acacia trees through out. A little tidbit of trivia that my dad and I found intereesting is that the grass on this 152 acres was all grown from 2 square yards of Zoysia sod that was brought in from Maryland in 1951. The sheer number of graves here is sobering and this only represnts 40% of graves of Americans buried in Asia who died in the Pacific region during WWII.

According to the American Battle Monuments Commission "It contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II, a total of 17,202, most of whom gave their lives in the operations in New Guinea and the Philippines. The headstones are aligned in 11 plots forming a generally circular pattern, set among masses of a wide variety of tropical trees and shrubbery. Twenty-five large mosaic maps recall the achievements of the American Armed Forces in the Pacific, China, India and Burma." There is a chapel and an open air building "inscribed with the names of 36,285 of the missing who gave their lives in the service of America and who rest in unknown graves. Carved in the floors are the seals of the American states and its territories. "

The only disappointment to this trip was that we didn't have our cameras. I found the above picture on the web. Below are a few more pictures from our trip to Intramuros. For some reason blogger wouldn't upload the pics before. I added some to the previous post about Intramuros also.

Will at Fort Santiago

Will, Mimi, Pop, and Emily on the plaza

at Fort Santiago

Overlooking the Pasig River

Christmas Parols

Theater in the round

Intramuros

It is sad that we have to have guests to see some of the historic and commercial sights in our own city. We really wanted to show my parents some things in Manila. After reading a tour guide, my dad suggested we go see the old colonial walled city. So, Saturday afternoon, we took my parents down to Intramuros- which means "within the walls". Intramuros is one of the oldest districts in Manila. It was the colonial city set up by the Spanish after conquering Maynilad in 1571. Intramuros became the political, cultural and religious center of Spain's "Empire in the East" until the Treaty of Paris gave the Philippines to the US in 1898. Intramuros was also occupied by US armed forces and then the Japanese during World War II. Much of it was bombed and destroyed during the liberation of Manila. In the 80's, former first Imelda Marcos directed a revitalization project and many of the ruins were restored somewhat.

We were excited to be able to go and visit Intramuros at this time. On Friday and Saturday nights in Nov and Dec, they are having "A Walk Back in Time" with a theater in the round play about the colonial history of Intramuros. We arrived early and walked around the old city. We didn't have nearly enough time to see things though. We spent so much time at Fort Santiago. Will especially loved climbing all over and through the old canons and barracks. He was disappointed that the dungeons were gated and he couldn’t go into them. We saw the cell where the Filipino national hero, Rizal was held before his execution. We also saw a memorial cross marking a mass grave of 600 Filipino and American prisoners of war who died at the end of WWII.



After walking through parts of the city and tromping around the fort for a while, we went to the ruins of the old San Ingelsia church. The streets were lit up with a Filipino Christmas lights called Parols. The evening was cool and breezy and we sat under some festive tents and lights to eat dinner. We had our choice from 4 restaurants from the countries that were influential during the colonial time-Spanish, Filipino, Chinese, and Indian. Allan and my dad decided to go with Spanish food. They had shrimp and sausage paella, calamari, and flan. Mimi, the kids and I decided to have a shawarma which is an India wrap similar to a Greek gyro. It was yummy! For dessert, we had Puto Bongbong--a Filipino sticky rice available only at Christmas. We were entertained during dinner by a group singing a kundiman which is a style of old traditional Tagalog love songs.

After dinner it was time for the theater presentation. The cast of the play came in a procession down the road to begin the play before moving us into the ruins of the church. It was a great presentation of the early history of the Philippines and gave us a new insight into the culture. It was very well done and we all enjoyed it. We also enjoyed seeing all the Christmas lights down by Manila Bay.

Happy Thanksgiving—belated!

We have been having such a good time with my parents that I haven’t wanted to sit down at the computer and blog. We have also been busy in the last week. Last Wednesday we celebrated the 2nd annual Gilmer Thanksgiving lunch with the clinic staff. Last year I wanted to show our Filipino staff and students what the American holiday, Thanksgiving was all about so, I decide to have a thanksgiving lunch the day before Thanksgiving. Since turkey is really expensive, we had rotisserie chicken, but otherwise the meal was similar to what we would eat in the states—we just added rice. It was a big hit last year so we decided to do it again. A couple of the dishes our Filipino friends enjoyed were cranberry sauce and carrot soufflé. One of the dishes they don’t quite get is dressing. The common question being-“What is it?” I don’t really have a good answer for that one, so if you have a good definition of “what” dressing is, pass it along.

Thursday, the kids went to school because, of course, Thanksgiving is not a Filipino holiday. Mom and I spent some time in the kitchen preparing for dinner. It was a very relaxed preparation since our meal wasn’t until evening. By 3:00pm the kitchen was filled with the homey, fall scents of turkey and pumpkin pie. It was cozy and warm and really knocked the chill off our 89 degree humid weather. We were joined for Thanksgiving dinner by our neighbors, the Brewers. The adults enjoyed talking and visiting late into the evening, while the kids ran around inside and out and had a great time being kids! Will’s new puppy, Maggie, loved the scrappy turkey leftovers. We had such a good time that the only picture we took was of the "kiddie" table. All in all it was a near perfect day! Much better than Thanksgiving last year when it was just the 4 of us and I got teary eyed at the table because we were away from family.

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

In the last few months, I have been terrible at uploading pictures to our website. Part of the problem is that Allan and I are notorious for leaving our camera at home. Since my parents are here though, they (and we) have been taking pictures everywhere we go. If you are interested in seeing some you can check them out at our website at :
http://www.philippinemission.com/FamilyFun.html
New pictures are under Mimi and Pop Visit and Faith Academy. Soon to follow will be Sights around Manila. Check back again for more pics on Mimi and Pop's visit because I will be adding more soon.

The Adventure Continues!

Well the first week of Mimi and Pop’s 4 week visit is over. The week has just flown by. It has been so great to spend lots of time with my parents and show them around our new town. Pop even got to see Allan in action. Last Tuesday he went to the clinic with Allan to watch him do minor hand surgery. He didn’t seem to be grossed out and even took a few pictures.

One thing Pop has had a hard time adjusting to is the driving. Traffic in the PI is crazy and it can also be a little nerve racking. After a few rides in the front seat, Pop decided he would just sit in the back, that is until just he and I went to school on Thursday to pick up the kids and saw a trike carrying a small refrigerator. We discussed how we wish we had the camera to catch occurrences like that. Pop decided then and there he was going to be the official front seat photographer. I hope we see some more interesting things on our drives and we can share the pictures with you.

Friday we went to school to see the Elementary school International Parade with music provided by the 6th grade band. Emily was excited to play in her first marching band parade. It was great fun! We also stayed and went to the Elementary chapel. Each grade gave a presentation about the continent they have spent the last month studying and then they prayed for that continent.

Friday night, the middle school bands and choir put on their Christmas concert. It was great to see how much the 6th grade band had improved since last year when they were the 5th grade beginner band. Emily enjoyed performing and showing off just a little for her grandparents.

Mimi and Pop are now of with Allan at the clinic. I wish I was there with them, but Will is home with a fever and vomiting. Hope he is better soon. I hate for him to feel so bad when he has Mimi and Pop here to play with.

Mimi and Pop are here!

After months of eager anticipation, my parents finally arrived Sunday! We are so excited to have them here. I am impressed with how well they are dealing with jet lag. They haven’t gone to bed too early or woken up in the middle of the night yet. Of course with grandchildren around to entertain you, it is hard to fall asleep too early.

Monday was a busy day for Mimi and Pop. They began their day with a trip to Faith Academy. It is International Week at the Elementary School and they began the week with an invocation and a parade of nations. This year there are students and teachers from 14 different nations. There are 65 students from the US followed closely by South Korea with 55 students. Will enjoyed waving to his grandparents as he marched with the other American students behind the American flag to the national anthem.

After leaving Faith, I took Mimi and Pop to the grocery store. We went to pick up just a couple items and look around. We had a good time exploring the fruit and veggie section. I bought a pomelo for Pop to try. It is a fruit similar to a grapefruit, but sweeter. I think he will really like it. We also bought some guava and chayote for them to try. In the freezer section, I let Pop pick out some ice cream for dinner. I told him he could try any of the uniquely Filipino flavors like corn, queso, corn and cheese, ube, or buco fruit salad, but he chose Vanilla Marble—good choice!

In the afternoon, Allan called from the clinic to invite Mimi and Pop to accompany him on a house call in a nearby squatter settlement. So on their first day in country, they went with Allan and Ling Ling into one of the poor areas near our home. Mimi enjoyed taking pictures of the kids they saw. The kids had fun showing off for Mimi’s camera and showing her some of the street games they play. They gave Mimi a high sign of respect by blessing her. This is where a Filipino child takes your hand and touches it to their bowed forehead.

Monday was also Pop’s 69th birthday. It was great to be able to celebrate that day with him. We invited our neighbors over after dinner for a “party” of cake and ice cream out on the lanai. It was a great way to end their first day here in the Philippines!

Flying over!

Tonight, while you are tucked up in your warm beds, Mimi and Pop (my Mom and Dad) are flying to see us. They will be here in the morning...hopefully. While they are flying a catagory 3 typhoon is passing just north of here. It should be gone before they are close enough to affect their flight. Welcome to the PI Mimi and Pop!! We can hardly wait!

Maggie!

Those of you who have been reading our blog for a while know that last March Will got his first dog. He had been waiting since he was about 2 for a dog of his own to love. We had put him off all through med school and residency. We told him when we arrived on the mission field we would get him a dog. So last March a beautiful golden retriever puppy named WAGs joined our family. We couldn't have asked for a better pup and our family be came a little obsessed with Will's new companion. Unfortunately, I don't think WAGs came to us very healthy. In the 8 months since March, he has been pretty sick 3 different times. Over a week ago, he became ill again and this time he didn't pull through. It was a sad day for all of us when WAGs died. Allan and I also hurt for our little boy. He was crushed. There were many tears as we buried WAGs with his favorite yellow ball in the backyard near where he played with the kids. Will told us that day that he didn't want another dog because no dog could replace WAGs. He is right, no dog could ever replace WAGs in our hearts and lives, Will did change his mind about wanting another dog. He decided he wanted another golden and quickly.

Shortly after letting his feelings be known, we knew of a puppy looking for a home. So we now have a 2 month old girl golden retriever that has come to live with us. Will has named her Maggie and she is precious. We are loving and hating the puppy stage. WAGs was 4 months old when we adopted him, so we missed this stage. Maggie is cute, funny, and trouble! It's like having a toddler again. As much as we love her, we miss WAGs alot. Her mannerisms remind us so much of him. We had been told that Goldens were similar in temperment and mannerisms and it is true. One thing is she has already taken to "WAGs pool" (you can see the little fountain from our front yard in the picture below). She loves the water just like he did!

Will and Maggie!

Happy Halloween!

Today is one of the biggest holidays of the year in the Philippines--All Saints Day. If you would like to read what it is all about you can read a blog I wrote this time last year -http://thegilmers.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_thegilmers_archive.html You will have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to Nov. 1.

Last night though was the American holiday of Halloween. This day is not really celebrated here, although the checkers at the grocery store were all dressed like pirates yesterday. I guess that shows some of the American influence. Since the kids were out of school today, we decided to have dinner with our neighbors last night and let the kids stay up late. For dinner, we had a great meal that is a common love between the 2 families--tacos. I had made a cake shaped like a pumpkin complete with orange frosting. After dinner, Emily and Will and the other kids watched a movie and then played with legos. Mary, the mom next door, happened to find some candy to bag up so at about 9:30 the kids dressed up and ran next door to "trick-or-treat". Since the door bell is out side the gates and wall that surrounds the 2 houses, the 4 of them just chimed "ding dong". It was really cute. They also took the dogs along for treats. I was surprised that Will didn't try to dress WAGs up too. It was a good night and a fun time.

The next American holiday we celebrate, Thanksgiving, my parents will be here-- less than 2 weeks until their visit!

On a humorous side note, just before we sat down to dinner last night, the dad from next door commented to Will that he had dressed in a costume for our Halloween meal. Will looked down in confusion at his camo shirt and pants and commented-"These are just my clothes. I wear them everyday." He's right. Will is still the same. If you came to see us in the PI, you would find him wearing some type of army get up in the yard every afternoon.

Super Typhoon

The month of October has been tough weather-wise for the Philippines. This morning a super typhoon (similar to a catagory 5 hurricane) moved inland about 200 miles north of us on our island of Luzon. While we are fine and are just experiencing heavy rains and cool breezes, the northern part of the island is suffering the effects of another typhoon.

Nurses Training

One of the most common questions I get from other missionaries is "Are you a nurse?" My response is usually the same--only by my husband's training. I have gotten pretty proficient at taking vital signs and checking urine-analysis strips. Having not been a nurse in the US or had any formal training, I often have to see and deal with things that are new. I actually make a terrible nurse when I observe and help take care of wounds. I always cringe and hurt myself whenever I have to clean wounds. I have decided that I really don't like puss. Allan and Ling must understand this because I am not asked to do this often. I have gotten good at pricking fingers to check blood sugar and hematocrit. I used to be really timid and wince when ever I pricked someone. I learned this only makes things worse when you have to stick them again because you didn't get enough blood.

There is one thing I am not sure even training could have prepared me for--watching someone physically deteriorate. In May just before Scott left, one of our patients came to clinic. Allan and Scott were suspicious that he had cancer. After a few tests and a chest x-ray the docs were almost certain it was lung cancer. Most of our patients can't afford treatment for cancer and the patient and his family chose not to have a biopsy to confirm this diagnosis. As I took his vitals the next time he came in, I thought he looked strong and healthy. Surely he wasn't as sick as Allan thought. He continued to come to clinic every few weeks over the summer. Each time his weight dropping more and more. If you read one of our our recent newsletters, you will know that in the Filipino culture it is not appropriate to directly tell someone they are dying. So while his family knew that he likely had cancer, I am not really sure how much he knew or even how much the family understood or believed.

Towards the end of August, while I was weighing him, he was distressed at his drop in weight. This quote is from an email sent to Scott in August: "Since you left he has dropped 4 kilos-about 1k a month. He was most distressed at this today. His pulse has also risen from about 80-88 back in April and May to 115 the last 2 months. He also doesn't look very good and his voice is weak and raspy. I of course have no idea if these things mean anything to you, but I thought I would let you know that he is visibly deteriorating." It was at that time that the family also accepted the fact that their father was dying.

Yesterday, his son and son-in-laws carried him in for a check up. I have never watched anyone visibly decline before my eyes over such a short period of time (5 months). He cannot stand without assistance. His breathing has become increasingly labored and Allan says the mass in the chest is obviously pressing on both trachea and heart. He is also in more pain now than before. Allan thinks he will not see Christmas. He gave him some medicine to help with the pain. It was so heart wrenching to see him struggle to even breathe. He was our last patient of the day and instead of our daily devotions, Ling, Allan and I just spent time in prayer for him and his family. I am not sure I could have been prepared for this even with training and experience as Allan and Ling were just as touched and upset over the situation.

Today Allan and I went to visit him in his home. Allan wanted to see how he was feeling and bring him the wheelchair from the clinic so that his family can push him around the house or out into the sunshine. The medicine had helped him to feel a little better and I think the family was comforted by our visit, especially his wife. While it was by no means a happy or pleasant visit, it was good for Allan and I to make a "house call". I think we sometimes forget exactly how our patients live.

Typhoon, flooding and now....

Earthquakes! Last night Allan and I experienced another phenomenon of living in the Philippines. We had just gotten into bed and turned out the lights when the bed began to jiggle. We both had the same thought—“what is he (she) doing over there?” Allan though noticed the windows were also rattling. After our bed quit doing a jig, he asked me; “did you do that or was that an earthquake?” Once we established that both of us had been lying still, we concluded that it had been an earthquake. Our deduction was helped by the fact that this wasn’t the first one of the evening. Earlier, we had been at a concert and afterwards our friends asked us if we felt the quake. Crazy us, we thought it was just vibrations from the music. The Philippines is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire; a place where volcanic and earthquake activity are great. The epicenter of these quakes (there have now been 5) is an island just south of here called Marinduque where the quakes have been registering just above 5 on the Richter scale. They have been felt at about intensity 4 in Manila. So far there has been no damage reported. I am not sure how many miles or kilometers it is from here to Marinduque, but you can see the island on the map below. We are close to the big star by Manila and the red arrow points to the small island just south of our big island of Luzon. There have been other quakes in our time here, but they have only happened at night and we slept through them.

More Typhoon Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the Typhoon taken by our new neighbors:

Picture taken from the Nelsen's balcony during the storm

Trees and Bamboo blowing during the wind

A billboard fallen on a building

Signs and trees on the road to school

How sweet it is

Ahh, we have water. Well we have had water since Tuesday actually, but we now have full water pressure. Yesterday, I had a warm shower for the first time in over 2 weeks. Since we had been off swimming with the kids and it was overcast and cool, I was a little cold...well ok so cold isn't really the right word, but it's all relative. I was cooler than normal I guess. It was so refreshing! In hot season there were times I never even turned the hot water on in the shower, but usually I like to at least start with a little warmth. When it is completely cold, it is a shock to my system. Allan had actually gotten a hot shower earlier in the week, but everytime I headed off to the shower the water pressure was not enough to get the water hot. We have a different hot water system than we were familiar with. Our water heater is gas, but instead of having a big tank filled with water and kept hot, our heater passes the water through coils and heats it as it's used, similar to a radiator. While the down side is that you have to have enough water pressure to trigger the heater and keep it heating, the good news is that as long as we have propane in our tank, no one can use all the hot water! This is important since Emily really enjoys nice long showers and baths. You will have to forgive the fact that I don't have a picture of my shower to go along with this blog. Since I love to attach pictures, here's two of Emily taken by some friends recently at lunch after church.

Just a couple pictures:

Here are a couple pictures we took yesterday while out driving. I still hope to get the ones our neighbor took during the typhoon and just after. The clinic now has power, but we are still without water. Hopefully it will be restored by tomorrow.

So many houses have had roofs blown off.

Manila loves huge steel Billboards. Unfortunately, these caused tremendous damage. The winds toppled them onto houses, cars and people. It was particularly damaging to the many Squatter areas the are built beneath them. Fortunately this one fell into an empty field. So much devastation was caused by these, that the President is calling for a limiting or ban of these type of billboards.

Pray for our city

Please continue to pray for our area. Just days after a category 4 Typhoon caused significant damage around our island, torrential rains from another tropical depression have produced severe flooding. This past Monday, strong rains produced rapid and deadly flooding around Antipolo (the city where our clinic and houses are located). Six people drowned in these floods and the already damaged houses took another beating from the flood water. One of the national volunteers in our clinic had neck high flooding in her home. This dear friend is not a wealthy Filipino. Most families here live day to day and paycheck to paycheck, so there is not much money to replace the things that were lost.

After Monday night's heavy downpour and flooding, things look worse than they did over the weekend. Many trees, concrete power poles, signs, roofs, sheet metal, and other debris litter the roads and ground as well as thick layers of mud. Often the air is filled with smoke as people try to burn the leaves, sticks and debris swept from homes, yards, and roads. Many of our friends and fellow missionaries are still with out power, water, and phone. Some of them had their utilities restored, only to lose them again on Monday night.

Our family is doing well. We currently have power but no water service. The clinic remains without power or water. We continue to see patients but some services are limited without power. (Reading a x-ray by holding it up to the sun-lit window is not the ideal method taught to physicians). Many of our lab tests are also limited by lack of power.

Below are a few pictures we took on our street today. These pictures do not show too much destruction, but they give you an idea of what things look like here.

Mud and downed power lines in front of the clinic

Downed Cement power pole and trees

Xangsane

Well, we have survived our second typhoon. Last Thursday, the strongest typhoon in 11 years passed over us. It entered our island of Luzon as a catagory 4 typhoon. I am not sure what strength it was when it finally got to our location since we were out of communication by that time. It was actually a little surreal. After days of rain last week, we woke up Thursday morning to a cold breeze blowing through our windows and temps around 73. It was actually really nice. At 9 am the power was shut off as the rains began and by 10:30 we were in the midst of heavy rains and high winds. It's kind of funny that in the US we would have evacuated, but here, being an island, there is not really any place to evacuate. So we sat as a family on our screen porch and watched the weather rage. Since the storm was coming from the front of our house, we were safe sitting in the back. Thankfully the storm moved through quickly and after about 4 hours it was all over. Since we had no power or lines of communication, we kept thinking we must be in the eye, but by nightfall we realized things were over. We were without power and water from Thursday until Saturday, but if you read our blog this summer, you will remember that we have dealt with this before. Allan did manage to get our generator running for a few hours and that held the stuff in the refridgerator. As for personal damage, we had some minor flooding in our kitchen. With the gusting winds, all the seals around our kitchen windows and doors leaked, but since we have marble floors and cement walls there was no damage inside. The trees in the yard and across the ravine are somewhat stripped, but no real damage to the 2 houses or the clinic. Unfortunately, this was not the case in other places. Over 100 people are currently reported as having died, most from flooding and landslides. This number will probably continue to rise in coming days. Also many areas are still with out power or water. Our neighbor has taken some pictures of the damage around our area and I hope to post them here in the next few days.
The kids have enjoyed their time off from school. They had just gone to bed Wednesday night when we got the word that school was canceled for Thursday. I guess it was kind of like having a snow day. They asked if they could please get up and stay up late. Emily had wanted to stay up and watch her first Nascar race. She has been interested in racing since watching "Herbie, Fully Loaded" and "Cars". She stayed up until 11 watching a replay of the race in Delaware, cheering on the Nelsen's cousin who is a Nascar driver. It was very exciting as he was in the lead most of the race, but lost in the last lap when he ran out of gas. The rest of their 4 day holiday was spent playing board games and outside games like Capture the Flag with the 3 kids next door. When power was finally restored, I had to do a couple loads of wet, stinky, muddy clothes from all their days of hard play. They headed off to school this morning. Power had yet to be restored, but the school has generators to provide a limited amount of lights for the day. I am not sure the kids were ready to return to school this morning. I think they would have liked a few more days to goof off. They will get them though beginning Thursday when they start October break. School closes down in Oct. and April for a week and a half to allow boarders to return home and visit their families.

A picture is worth a thousand words

This big seller in Taiwan has come to the Philippines. Most of the "tray cover" is written in English, however, note down in the left bottom corner is the Taglish (Tagolog + English) version of McDonald's slogan "I'm loving it"

Do I have 2 heads?

When I look in the mirror, I don't see a particularly odd looking person looking back at me. I consider myself about as average as average gets. However, to Filipino children who are being seen at our clinic, I must appear equivalent to someone with 2 heads. While all gawk at me, I've found they do so in very different ways.

The highly timid and shy ones will just grab onto their parent and stare with wide-eyes locked onto my every move ( I pray for them: that their eyes won't actually pop out of their heads as they appear to be on the verge of doing). The braver sort will venture a touch of the strange being in front of them. The most common touch is to sneak a hand down to my leg (usually as I am examining their other family members) and graze the hairs on my leg. I guess they think that I can't feel that. I can understand the fascination here. Filipinos don't have alot of body hair and certainly not blonde hair so sneaking a feel of this strange stuff is completely understandable. The most aggressive ones have developed a new tactic - to poke at me as if taunting a wild animal pinned in a cage. I had to draw the line at this one because I found it disrepectful (although I must admit that this interpretation is highly influenced by my "American-ness").

So when you visit the clinic (and you are welcome anytime) be prepared for some inquisitive probes, rubs, and maybe even a poke.

Ginger said that I had to clearly state that it was me who wrote this so everyone would not think she is the one with the hairy legs --because she shaves her legs (most of the time).

"It's the Holiday Season..."

Do you ever notice that a lot of my blog titles and blogs have parts of songs in them? I always seem to have some song running through my head and often these are triggered by events around me. My best friend, Amy, doesn't realize that when she has called or we talk about her, either Allan or myself break into the song..."Amy, what you wanna do?..." by Pure Prairie League(now there's a blast from the 70's). Well this weekend there are other songs running around in my brain and I wish they would get out. In case you aren't aware, it's a -ber month. No, that doesn't mean things are turning colder here in the Philippines. It means that the months ending in -ber are official Christmas months. So September is the kick off to Christmas. Friday afternoon after picking the kids up from school, we ran by the grocery store to get 2 things. We walked in the store to the sounds of "The most wonderful time of the year" followed by "Feliz Navidad". Emily groaned and asked, "Already?" Our tv stations are playing the annual Christmas movies. At the Antipolo, Civic Center the Christmas Carnival has begun setting up. The malls have begun decorating and by October everything will be in full swing. I guess it's fitting then that I did some of my Christmas shopping online this week. It's not that I am already in the Christmas frame of mind, but my parents are coming at the beginning of November and the kids want a few things that are either only found in the US or much cheaper there. So let me be the first to greet you with a "Merry Christmas!"

Clinic Tour; part 2

This is a continuation of a blog from a couple of weeks ago that is taking you on a tour of our clinic. In the first part I showed the waiting room and the first stop along the way to seeing the doctor--the nurses station, where we take vital signs. After one of our staff takes your vital signs, (hopefully if you are ever a patient, school will be out and you will be taken care of by the great nursing team of Ginger and Emily) our patients return to the waiting room and wait for the doctor. In our clinic we don't stand on ceremony so most often the dr. calls his own patient. It is then that our patients go to the exam room. It is in the other half of the room where we take vital signs and consists of a 10 foot long table and a lot of chairs.

Seeing the doctor

Dr. Allan explains how to take the medicine

Getting a second opinion

Stats

For the past year, Ginger and I have been trying to write about our everyday experiences in missionary service (OK, I admit it, Ginger does most of the writing but those who know us well already predicted that would be the case). Writing these takes a good bit of time and effort so when we first started I decided to put a site meter on our website that would keep certain statistics on who visits. Would you have guessed a former electrical engineer would be interested in the statistics?

After 1 year, here are some of our stats from the blog (not including Philippine Mission website):

1514 total visits to our blog
57 visitors this past week
8 visitors per day average
2 minutes 25 seconds average time each visitor spends on site
1.5 page views per visitor
2350 total page views
Not surprisingly, most visitors are from the U.S.

Here are the stats from the Philippine Mission website:
1856 Total page views
Other than the main index page, most people visited our photos with 190 views of "Family Fun" and 109 views of "New Tribes"

We appreciate those who take enough interest in our lives and our ministry to read our stories. Thanks so much for your encouragement to us that these numbers represent.

---> Add on: Thinking of numbers, reminded me that:
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Funny, huh? (or maybe, not)

Jomar

I received an email this weekend that asked if we were without phones once again. I realize my blogging and emailing has been sparse recently, but it is not due to phone or power related issues. I have been in charge of a bazaar at the kids' school and it has taken up a lot of my computer time in recent weeks contacting vendors and making preparations. The bazaar- called "Shoppers' Day" is a bi-annual event for the missionary community. All the soccer teams play a game against our biggest rival- the International School of Manila. Outside, there is food and fun put on by the Student Council, similar to a school carnival. In the gym is the bazaar with 70-80 vendors coming to sell Filipino Handicrafts(this is the part I was responsible for). It is a big event and a great time of fellowship for the missionary community. Since the event was this past Saturday, things are returning to normal for me this morning.

I also returned to the clinic this morning for the first time in many weeks. We have had two 4th year nursing students here from the States and so I was replaced in my job at the clinic by them. This left me free to take care of Shoppers' Day, but it was great to be back working with Allan and Ling and seeing patients. We saw lots of kids this morning and they are always my favorites. There was one 3 or 4 year old boy who came with his baby sister. He really wanted to be the patient though. He wanted me to check all of his vital signs and everytime I went out to the waiting room to call a patient he said "Hey, ako, ako", which means me, me. He also kept wanting to pat me on the back. He was so cute and had a great big smile, but as you can see, when I tried to take his picture he refused to smile. (pardon the blurriness, but I was having camera problems this morning)

As cute as that little boy is, he isn't the one that stole my heart this morning though. Jomar is a 9 year old boy who began coming to the clinic in July for epilepsy. I could tell when he climbed on the scale this morning that something wasn't right with his mannerisms and his eyes. As I took his vital signs, I began to wonder if he was mentally retarded. Some of the things he did reminded me so much of my cousin Jenny who is MR. He seemed a little shy at first, but he soon warmed up. When Allan shined the light into his eyes he got so tickled that he giggled through out the rest of the exam. As Allan went to fill his meds, Jomar and I began making goofy eyes at each other. After a few minutes, he began saying "Rain, Rain go away, sa (tagalog word) another day" in perfect English over and over. He was such a delight. What his dad then told Ling and I, broke my heart. Jomar had been perfectly normal until he was 7 years old. He was a bright boy and in school, but one day he hit his head and he has been having seizures ever since. His seizures became so frequent that his parents began schooling him at home. He is now very developmentally delayed. For the last 2 months, he has been on some medicine that was part of the donation from that US hospital that closed. His seizures have dropped from 1 or more a day to only 1 a week. I really wanted to take a good picture of him this morning, but my camera still wouldn't cooperate. He gave some great poses, but unfortunately they were blurry. So this is the best shot I have of him and his dad. We see so many single mother families here, that it is great to see a dad care so much for his son. Would you join us in praying for Jomar and his family? We only have about 7 weeks worth of seizure meds left for him and are hoping the med is available here for us to purchase more.


Allan's two cents: For the past few months the clinic has been well stocked with just about any medicine a primary care doctor could ask for. This abundance was due to the closure of a hospital in the U.S. and the medicines that were given from its stock. These are top-of-line type drugs that I was trained to use during residency in the States. It has been good to be able to provide some of the best medications (that I am familiar with) for certain problems. However, we are now starting to deplete some of the most heavily needed medications, such as those for chronic lung problems, which requires us to switch to second-line or even "distinctly alternative" choices. Please pray for us as I am learning and adapting to using medicines that may not even be available in the U.S.

The Clinic

For those of you who haven't had the priviledge of visiting our clinic (Ok so that is most of you) I thought I would post a few pictures so you can get an idea of what things look like. This will probably be a series of blogs over the next few weeks. Some of these pictures were taken the first time we were here and have some of the members of last years Village Health Training class.

The outside of the clinic

a patient, Pastor Buddy, Cindy, and Will in the waiting room

Taking vitals

Nurse Emily gets ready for a patient.
She can now weigh patients, take their temp, and heart rate
all that's left is blood pressure

Next time....seeing the doc

Oops--did I say that!

I remember when the kids were preschoolers we used to sing a song that went.."Oh be careful little mouth what you say. Oh be careful little mouth what you say. For the Father up above is looking down in love. Oh be careful little mouth what you say." This song is especially true when living in a different culture and learning a foreign language. Since Cindy returned to the States for furlough, I have been leading a Bible Study she has on Saturday mornings with 5 girls from the neighborhood. I have really enjoyed it and will be sad to let it go when she comes back. Recently, one of the girls had to bring her brother with her. He was about Will's age and had a great time exploring the yard and playing with Will's Lightsaber. As we were having merianda (which is a Tagalog word for a snack that is the equivalent of British Tea, or Kenyan Chai Time), I asked him a question. I started by calling his name. "Baboy..." Now to understand this you need to know that in the Philippines most people do not go by their given name, they go by nicknames. His name is David, but I didn't call him David. I called his nickname. Elena, the Nelsen's helper, who is there to help cross the language barrier if needed, asked me "What did you call him?" "Uuuhhh, the same thing you've been calling him. Isn't that his nickname?" Well, it's not exactly. His name is Boboy. Baboy is a pig. I was really embarassed and I apologized a lot. He was a good sport and took it in stride. He started oinking around the kitchen. His sister Diane says he gets called that on purpose sometimes and he never minds. I felt really bad though. Allan and I did laugh about it later. Ah the culturally sensitive missionary--that's me!
Blunders aside, our Tagalog has come far in a year, but obviously not quite far enough. Allan is able to get by in the clinic now because he asks the same questions over and over and the responses are similar. We can speak and understand very basic conversation, but often it seems so fast and we sound like 2 year olds. We keep pushing on. We have a new tool to help us. Rosetta Stone is a great computer language program used by the military, peace corps, homeschoolers and others to teach 40 or so languages by immersion. They just recently added Level 1 Tagalog so we have decided to review from the beginning with that. It is good so far.

On another language funny note, Filipinos think our dog has a really strange name. They pronounce WAGs -"Waug". This sounds the same as the contraction for the word Huwag which means "Don't". I actually think it is kind of fitting and we have taken to sometimes saying to him Huwag Waug. When delivery men or others who don't know us, stop by the house, they often ask our helper, Dhel, why our dog is named don't. They also usually think the Nelsen's dog, Bonnie, is named Bunny.

Happy Anniversary and Welcome back to School!

I have been so remiss in my blogging since we have returned to the land of communication. I think I just got out of the habit. Also it has been a busy couple of weeks. It is now official---as of July 30th, we have been here one year! It is weird to think we haven't stepped on American soil or seen our family in over 365 days. With the vonage phone it doesn't seem that long. Our anniversary passed almost unnoticed amid the breaking of the hot water heater and a major computer problem. I think after the month of July, the house could fall down and we wouldn't be too shocked.

Just 3 days after our anniversary, Emily started middle school. She was very anxious about this event. She kept telling me she thought she was coming down with something and couldn't start school. Our drive to school that morning was a little tense for Em. We parked and I walked Will to his class. As I headed back across the campus, there sat all the new 6th graders on a stone wall looking a little intimidated and scared. This same group of kids would come running out much more relaxed at the end of the school day. Emily's first words--"It was awesome!" She loves middle school. She likes having a locker and changing classes and having different kids in her classes. While she is not a big fan of PE, she loves going to the locker room to change into her PE uniform and the things that go along with that. Twice a week in middle school PE, they strap on a pulse monitor and run a mile. Emily likes this because they can bring a portable Cd player or MP3 player to listen to while they run. I thought they would run around the soccer field 5 times, but no, they run the campus which is quite steep and hilly.

Will is enjoying 4th grade and was glad his best friend from last year is once again in his class. Most of his other friends are in the other class though. He has made friends with a new boy in his class that he really likes. I think he misses seeing Emily at lunch and on the playground. Since we homeschooled in the states, this is the first time they have not been in the same school. After only missing one day of school last year to go to immigration, he has already missed a day this year. We had flash backs to July as he once again ran a fever yesterday and had to stay home. This was very distressing to him and he was glad to go back this morning. I am glad he likes school. I have no idea what time he got up this morning, but he came be-bopping into my room at 5:45 when the alarm went off and he was already dressed and fed. He was quite peppy and kept singing and being silly. This drove his sister nuts. She is not a morning person. It looks to be a good school year!

Nasaan sila Gilmers? or Where are the Gilmer's?

For those of you who are faithful to read our blog, you probably wonder if we have fallen off the island during the last month. Well at times it has seemed like it. The last month has been crazy for us. July is the official beginning of rainy season and it has begun with a vengeance. We started the month with 2 typhoons, followed by a 3rd one this last week. Since the rains began the first week of the month, it has rained every day. Most days it has rained all day. The first typhoon knocked out the phone lines, which were then stolen, and we were without phone service for over 2 weeks. One Saturday morning though, the lines were replaced and we had phone and internet again...for less than 24 hours. The phone lines were cut and stolen again that night, so we were once again phoneless until today. Beside no phone we have also spent the last 3 days without power. Thankfully everything seems to be up and running now, but who knows when the weather will knock it out again.

When the phone lines are down, we can get out and check our email at internet cafes. Unfortunately during the first week of no phone service, a virus with a high fever swept through the family beginning with Will and ending with Allan. Each of us was really sick for 10 days to 2 weeks. So we haven't gotten out much, Emily and I still have some residual cough and congestion.

Besides illness to fill our dreary, rainy days, we have launched a war against a platoon of rats that invade our home each night. In the states we one time had a little mouse in the house. We have never had rats--yuck! The rats have eaten holes in the screens and come inside. At first it was just in the kitchen windows, but when we started leaving those closed they came in through any window, including our bedroom--eeeewww! For 2 weeks each night before bed, Allan would set up his poisons and traps. We soon caught our first rat in a trap. Will arrived in our bed one morning about 6 to tell us there was the biggest rat we had ever seen dead on the kitchen floor. He was right! It was bigger than a guinea pig--double yuck! I was thankful Allan saw it as a man's job to clean it up. The Nelsen's dachsund Bonnie has killed one in the yard. Their dog Shila killed one behind our dryer. And not to be out done, WAGs killed one in the kitchen last week. Hopefully the others (if there are any) are dying off in their nest somewhere after they have eaten the poison packets left around the house. Along with the rats we have also had problems with ticks in the house and our usual collection of lizards. The lizard population has been diminished though with the sticky traps set out for the rats. Ah the joys of living overseas! I am sure my mother is really looking forward to being here with us this fall. She doesn't like lizards in the house and I can only imagine what she thinks of rats.

We are glad to see July winding down and hope August is a better month for us. School begins next Wednesday and Will is ready to go. Emily is a little apprehensive about starting middle school. On another good note, the missionaries, who are renting the Nelsen's house while they are on furlough, arrived this week. They have 3 kids. The younger 2 are close to our kids ages. One is a girl Will's age and a boy a year older than Em. The 4 of them have lived in the yard, running and playing with WAGs and their dog. It has been wonderful for Emily and Will to have kids right here. Emily and Megan have enjoyed doing girly things. While, Will and Mark have played Monopoly this morning and are now playing Stratego. We are enjoying having neighbors again after 2 months of the house next door being empty.

The great thing about the rainy weather has been that our temps have been cooler. Our highs have been between 80 and 82 with the nights getting down as low as 74. While to some of you that may still seem like summer, after living with summer for 365 days, we like the lower 80s and upper 70s. The kids have been wearing their long pants pjs to bed at night. We didn't even miss our fans when the power was out.

So here is the final count

rats killed-4
days with rain--24 and counting
days without phone-23
days without power-3
days with cooler weather-priceless!

Will's new Swimsuit

Ok for those of you who don't want to enjoy another of my shopping experiences here in the PI then this isn't the blog for you. First a little background info--About 3 summers ago, Will began wearing rash guards when he went swimming. My cousin Susan introduced them to me when we were at Gulf Shores. Will was so skinny that he had a hard time staying warm in the water and my cousin said this might help. Apparently rash guards are pretty popluar in New England where the water is a lot cooler. It really helped, Will loved it and we quickly learned the added benefit of protecting his pale white skin from the sun.

Yesterday, I went to our local grocery store which is kind of like a mini-Walmart (emphasis on mini). I was buying a few groceries and some toiletry items for the kids to take to a summer camp for MKs next week. While there I decided to see if they had anything that Will could wear for pjs since his are all getting a little too small. As I walked toward the back of the kids clothing section, I was stopped by an outfit hanging there that I knew I had seen before. It was a shirt, bathing suit trunks, and flip flops all packaged together. The brand name--Sun 'n' Sand. I knew this was a Walmart brand. I also knew these were not Filipino swim trunks because they had a liner inside and boy's bathing suits here are made just like shorts. There was a whole rack of boys swimsuits and tees that were made in the Philippines for Walmart, along with some Op suits that came with rash guards. I was so excited. I of course bought Will a new suit and shirt. Later that afternoon we went to the pool where I saw 2 other families who had also discovered my find. Allan thinks we all seem a little too excited about finding American bathing suits, but it is more than that. It is like finding a piece of home. I am sure he would feel the same way if we were driving down the street and stumbled across a Guthries or a Zaxby's.

Here is the outfit that stopped me at Shopwise. It is listed for sale at the Walmart website.

Here is Will in his new suit.
The bottoms are a little big (surprise),

but he already had 2 others that match the shirt