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!