Children Are a Heritage From The Lord: The Bukid

On June 20th, Mary, Christina, Sarah, & myself began our travels to Ate Mary’s village. From there we would visit 2 other villages & do health teaching, prenatals, immunizations, & be available to help with whatever needed done. I was really excited – I was going to the bush!

Mary had gone to Ate Mary’s a few times, so was our leader. i enjoyed my time with her! She always has a smile!

As a side note: Ate means “big sister”.

The bus is a fairly comfortable ride compared to many other modes of travel.

Before we switched to Jeepney, we enjoyed some Filipino food. Rice & chicken.

The Jeepney. Any personal space that we normally enjoy is not part of this transportation!

Shell in the Philippines?

A new kind of fruit? :)

Arrived at our first destination – Ate Mary’s house.

These nets are great! They keep out most unwanted insects!

Best friends!

Maribelle & Mary

Genevive is an amazing person! She spent 2 years at Mercy & is now taking her skills to faraway villages…though she normally doesn’t deliver the babies.

I think that this is my favorite mode of transportation!!!!

Motor 1 – myself, Ronie, Christina, Sarah

Motor 2 – driver, Genevive, & her 3 month old daughter

Motor 3 – driver, Mary, Ate Mary & the luggage

I don’t know much about motorcycle regulations, but I doubt that we would be allowed to pack people or luggage on like this in the states – am I right?

Preparing all the documentations for the upcoming prenatal & immunization patients.

It sure was interesting doing a prenatal in the village square!

These guys wanted their picture taken, then later some of them had us take their b/p.

Pretending to be buntis – pregnant – in order to do some health teaching! Mary is teaching about fevers.

Christina is teaching about anemia.

This mother was having lots of fun playing with her son & also trying to get him used to white people so I could hold him.

Homemade hammock for the babies!

Sarah standing before a typical village house.

Isn’t this a neat way to carry luggage? I wish we could reproduce it in the states!

I sure enjoyed the rich green foilage!

Getting ready to move on to the next village……

Toilets out in the village are super low & don’t have any way of being flushed, except by dumping a bucket of water into it.

It was clear to see that Ronie enjoyed his baby daughter. Side note: Ronie & Genevive are married.

The group of midwives & health workers that we worked with in one village.

The 2nd village…..

The guys helped a lot with cooking! It was so nice to get done with our work & not have to worry about making food!

We slept on these bamboo mats one night. We found bones & muscles we didn’t know we had! :)

The kids are so cute & loved posing for the camera!

Rice fields! We had rice 3X a day, but almost never doubled on a topping the whole time we were gone! We had dried fish, chicken adobo, pancit, young bamboo shoots, boiled eggplant, omelet, etc.

Ate Mary’s village…

Almost dinner time!

Christina & I had a great time getting to know each other better!

Bananas….

…piles of them…

….truck load of them……

On the way to Ate Mary’s, we drove up this, or at least the drivers did. The passengers walked. On the way out of the Bukid – mountains – we got to coast down this strip!