Going Home

As I write this we are awaiting the departure of flight PR116 from Manila to Vancouver. It is now 4:40pm and our flight leaves at 7:00pm. We had a sweet flight from Davao to Manila. We were the last ones to check in, and since our plane was so full we got bumped to first class! I have never been in first class before, and it was pretty sweet. It would have been nicer for our 14 hour flight instead of a 1.5 hour flight, but I cannot complain. Our flight this afternoon is only 32% full, so that will mean that we should have lots of empty seats to lay down on and hopefully get some sleep.

It was hard to say goodbye to Jenna. Although I am looking forward to going home again, it was still sad to leave. We had such an amazing time, and I think that I will go back to where my last blog left off and try to catch you up on the last 2 weeks.

As you read before, as soon as we arrived back in Davao, we quickly did our laundry, got an x-ray for Blake's foot and headed out to paradise island, somehow managing to catch the last boat across. It was Friday night and Angela had come across with us to stay for a couple nights.

Paradise Island is actually just the name of a resort located on Samal Island, just a 5 minute boat ride from Davao. We had a beautiful little cottage all to ourselves with a little lawn and garden and deck. Soon after we arrived we got straight to business. Eating. We ordered room service and had an amazing seafood meal with no rice at all. While in the bukid we had eaten rice for breakfast, lunch and supper, and although I like rice I was looking forward to a few rice-free days.

After supper we decided to go to the reception desk and get a movie, since we were allowed to borrow one movie a day. We picked out "Transformers 2" and were going to bring it back to our room when they informed us that we had to go to the pavilion to watch it. We didn't really feel like leaving the comfort and relaxation of our own room so we decided not to watch it that night. By the time Angela and I had returned to the room the phone was ringing. Blake picked it up and handed it to me, it was reception calling to say that they would be bringing in a dvd player for us. I tried to say no, but she just wouldn't have it. 5 minutes later our room was full of 4 people carrying a TV, dvd player and a stand for it all to go on. It took them a half hour to set it all up. It was 9:00 before they left us to watch our burned movie which stopped 3/4 of the way through.

The next day we slept in and didn't really do anything all morning. After lunch we decided to go rent some motorbikes to cruise the island with. It ended up being more than we thought and they wouldn't let us go all three on one bike. We decided to leave the bike trip for Sunday when Jenna was with us. When we got to the beach we noticed that you could rent jet skis. It looked like lots of fun and they had room on them for 3 people so we went for it. We went out to the dock and were about to all get on when they informed us that we could only go 2 at a time. Although we were a little disappointed it ended up working out just fine, we all got turns and it was so much fun. An hour is actually a long time and we all felt like we got a good turn on it. After the jet skiing adventure we went to our massage on the beach that we had booked. The massages were $10 an hour for a full body massage. So amazing. I had never got a massage before and it was lovely. Blake and I actually ended up getting one every day while we were at Paradise.

Supper, bed, and another sleep in the next day. Jenna and Nikki (a girl from the US doing a 6 week internship at the clinic) came at 9:00 the next day. We went from breakfast back to our room where we hung out for a bit before heading back up the hill to try to get some motorbikes. Blake had talked to the jet ski guy (from hereon known as "Mr. Short"...he will come up again in a week or so!) and found out that instead of paying 300 pesos an hour for a bike, we could get them for 500 a day. We went and talked them down and made it to 750 pesos a day, the equivalent of about $18. Since there were now 5 of us, we got two bikes we drove ourselves and one with a driver to show us around. Angela drove one, with Jenna on the back, Blake drove with me, and Nikki went with our guide. It was a very fun day, starting with the largest colony of fruit bats in the world, then pizza in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful swim on a small private beach, and then the waterfalls. We got home after dark exhausted, but having had a good time.

Jenna and Angela left the next day and Blake and I spent the next 2 days lounging around reading our books, eating and getting massages every night. I felt like a queen.

On Wednesday we left Paradise and went back to Davao. I don't remember what we did that day, besides settle in to our hotel again and just hang out. Thursday Jenna had swing shift (2:00pm to 10:00pm) and I got to see my very first birth! I was watching Jenna stitching up one poor girl when we realized that through the curtain next to us a birth was happening! CAUTION: if you are reading this and do not want details please skip to the next paragraph. I walked through the curtain just as she was starting to push and was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of feces. I know that women often to go to the bathroom while pushing, but the smell got to me, along with her cries of pain and there was more than a usual amount of blood. I watched for about a minute before I left to go to the other room. I sat down for a minute, had a drink of water and went back in. A few more pushes and out came the baby! It came out with the cord wrapped around it's neck and was very blue and didn't cry for a while which was very mildly stressful for a minute. But then he gave a few good cries and all was well. I made it (almost) through!

Other than that it was a fairly quite shift. Blake came at 10:00 to walk me home and I was up the next morning by 6:00 to go to day shift with Jenna (6:00am-2:00pm). This shift was a good one, there was a women who had been there since the night before, Jenna had actually admitted her, and she went into labor soon after I got there. Michaela was on our shift and I got to see her catch it which was really cool. Jenna caught the next baby, I went and woke Angela up and we both got to see it, and then Michaela's good friend Jacquelyn caught the third baby that shift. 3 beautiful little boys! It was a very exciting morning and definitely worth getting up for. I got to help Jenna by giving her little boy a bath, he loved the water and it was so fun to be able to hold him and clean him all up...dress him up in his first clothes and everything.

Okay, I think I have written enough for one post. I am now up to Friday afternoon. That is pretty good. Just 4 more days left!! They were exciting days though, I willl try to write again soon!!