Christmas Stocking

I got a SWEET Christmas stocking this year. I got candies, an orange, some coffee and one heck of a surprise! :- ) All in all this year was wonderful!

Christmas 2008

This Christmas was a wonderful time! We had candle-light Christmas eve fun at the clinic. Played Christmas Bible quiz and laughed! Check out our Christmas palm tree!

Market experience...

On the way home from the beach, we passed through a small market. It is alive with motion and smells... Kids are begging at every stall. One kid was playing on top of the meat stand! People coming and going! oh... and the fish! Beautiful!

Christmas Beach Time!

A few girls from the house and I sneaked off to the beach last Saturday. It was so quiet and pleasant to be away for awhile... away from the computer, the clinic and any responsibility! We caught a boat late in the morning, took motor bikes across the island and landed in a quiet bay called Canibad! There were only a few beach combers and kids. It was warm and sunny as we ate lunch and laid out! Hard to believe, but this is what Christmas is like in the Philippines! I'm grateful... truly blessed! Merry Christmas everyone!

Ocapan Outreach

The following pictures are of my team traveling to the city of Ocapan on outreach. We had such fun on the motor bikes, playing with the kids and eating python! Yum! We did a health clinic, check-ups and prenatals for the pregnant women of the area. Some of them walked 2 hours to get checked by us! Impressive. On the first day we got there, we had a few hours down time so we taught the kids the game "Duck-duck-goose" but instead named it "fish-fish-Chicken"! We laughed so hard it hurt as these little ones got tapped on the head and started running in random directions! I don't think i've ever enjoyed the game more! We had quite a few spectators too! I'd guess about 50 or so just stood around us and cheered us on.

More ocapan pictures...

Below are a few more pictures of our time in Ocapan. As you can see, there is the python in the bowl getting read to be cook. The guy who caught him, said he only cut off half of him. The rest got stuck down in the hole. But he was a big one.. perhaps 6-7 cm in diameter! I'm posing with the traditional birth attendant that works in that area. The other girls around the dinner table are my team mates and the midwifes that took us out there. Their names are Mary Jane and Ghang-ghang. And as you can see, the circle of kids are playing 'fish! fish! chicken!'