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Rambling of the Philippines 1.

We left to go to DFW about 7:15am Saturday. When we landed in San Francisco we went to the transfer desk and got our boarding passes and as we ran to the gate the AA people said we needed. We ran almost 2 miles to the gate. They had almost finished boarding the flight. As we ran to board we found out it was a different flight so we checked our ticket and found we had 40 minutes to spare and proceeded to the correct gate. Then on to Hong Kong . Good flight-the guy sitting next to me spilled his full glass of gin and tonic on me. Oh well things happen. At Hong Kong we had 3 hours and another 2 mile walk. We met the other team traveling on the same flight. We arrived in Manila at midnight. We proceeded to travel north to Manaoag. We arrived and it was 6:30 am when I finally put my head on the pillow. The sun was shining bright, the roosters were crowing, the motorcycles were reving up. I got 1 ½ hours sleep. We spent the day sharing and meeting each other. There are 18 Americans from the US on the team plus 5 native people on the team. They had a welcoming party for us about 1 p.m.. The school children entertained us with skits and songs and dances. Clinic will begin tomorrow. We have 3 medical stations: 1 dental, 1 pharmacy, an eye clinic, and Bible school. It is 5 pm and I am writing this. We will have evening meal at 6 and then some much need sleep.

Ramblings 2

Clinic is extremely busy; so far we have done 11 surgeries. We have surgeries scheduled ahead to Saturday and are re-sterilizing the instruments. I let Laura and Katherine each do surgery with my guidance. They were surprised at how tough the skin is and how difficult tying the knots are compared to how easy it looks when I do it but I have done a few thousand. The dental is overwhelmed. It is outdoors and they spit the blood out on the ground. The eye clinic blesses many. The food is good and plentiful. Many men are attending the Christian conference. The male to female ratio is 2 ½ women per man so it is good to see so many men participating.

Strong, hard, cooling rains came last night. I'm up at 4:30 a.m. and the day is already bright. It is beautiful. We pray, eat 9the mangoes are delicious!), and head to the clinic. Most have families with 10 children in the rural areas.

Wednesday night church hosted over 70 smiling people. Over 125 new salvations so far!

Someone found out my birthday was today and they had a surprise birthday cake. The most impressive part of being here is the humility of the people and their servant mentality. They are always smiling and laughing. It almost indirectly embarrasses you with their attitude to try to please you all the time.

Ramblings 3

More heavy rain. Clinic continues to see people. The outdoor dental clinic has moved 3 times thus far to get out of the rain. More surgeries are scheduled for Friday. 16 successful surgeries so far. I have one syringe left and they said they would buy more last night. One refused surgery when I told him I do not use anesthetic for something that small since the shot hurts more then the clipping. He pulled his arm down and said no. Interesting. One nurse went to the hospital yesterday and toured in the ER. They use the same needle shot after shot after shot on different patients until the needle is dull. The equipment, like the hemostats, are clean in am and well used on many people by the end of the day. The gauze and band aids are used over too. ( A different standard of sterility than what we use.) However they have no money and they do what they can to help the people. The nurse said a 4 year old boy came into ER while she was there. He fractured his arm with the bone sticking out through the skin. She said they wrapped his arm in gauze and no antibiotics or surgery and sent him home. It breaks my heart to know so much more can be offered.

Saturday am we went to the beach of the China Seas and had a baptism for 3. The water was warm with nice waves. We have a professional video man with us who taking alot of footage. He has the horrible surgeries on video so I hope to get a copy to show everyone “to enjoy”.

Over 225 new salvations so far! In the last 4 days, clinic had over 1000 patients seen or "whittled" on. Many are receiving eye glasses in the other clinic and the dental clinic is the busiest.

Hopefully we can have a barbeque at our house with all those (7) that went with me and have the family there to share pics and stories. I saw one tough 25 year old young man who I felt led to share about salvation before cutting on his face. He started to cry as I shared on life and death and heaven and hell in question form not challenging him.. He just started cry. I asked why is was crying and he did not know but felt empty like inside. So I shared more and talked. He just wanted to know so much so we started by sharing on how to receive Jesus and make sure he did it with his heart and he did not just say it for him. He just kept shedding tears throughout the prayer. He plans to meet us again in church tomorrow am.

Rambling 4

It is now Sunday am and clinics are done. No rain today. Over 1163 were registered to be seen for the medical campaign. I did 22 surgeries and there were more than 230 new commitments for salvation. Church attendance was 167 with about 10 new people.

I saw one boy playing in church with something dark. I assumed it was a marble or something but when I went over to look, I was surprised to see a live beetle was moving in his hands. Then I noticed other children playing with the large beetles. Interesting play toy.

Returned to the compound at 1 but left for Baguoi at 2 to tour, shop, eat. This is a town where the president has a summer home. Our hosts, the Catos, are gracious to us. He is 81 and she is 53. They started the church here. We are scheduled to be up at 2 am to leave for Manila and the trip to Hong Kong.

Ramblings 5

Two vans and one Jeepney for the luggage for the long trip to Manila. On the way to Manila, the Jeepney blew the injection pump. We had already passed through the toll booth and were 1 ½ hours from the airport so they used cell phones to order another jeepney to get the luggage while we continued to the airport. When the luggage finally arrived we had about 2 hours to go and the long lines. That left us about 30 minutes extra before boarding.

Hong Kong is impressive and stately. Hong Kong is the second largest financial center in the world behind New York. Huge and tall ornate buildings that were awesome to behold. Architectural feats of design were amazing. A tram ride downtown took us to our hotel, the YMCA. Then off to the ferry where we crossed Victoria Bay. The Peak Tram took us up, up, up to Victoria Peak. What a view. We ate in the Sky Terrace that overlooks Hong Kong. I have many pics and videos. At 8 pm they have a show of lights. Impressive. To bed at 10:30 and exhausted. The next morning, we rode the ferry to Hong Kong island and shopped. Then we took a double decker bus to another shopping area-Stanley market. Did you know a dozen roses are $60 (Hong Kong money) or about $8.21(US funds)?

We head back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the dinner cruise. Most of our travel in Hong Kong was on foot. I assume we probably walked 5-7 miles per day compared to about 2 miles per day in the Philippines. Some of the team had muscle tremors from the muscle fatigue.

We took the MTR mass transit to our dinner location on a tri-level boat. The dinner was a buffet and extravagant with 45 tables set up to accomodate at about 400 people. It was not full; probably because it was a Tuesday night and not the weekend. I made 4 rounds in the two hours---oh my aching stomach! They had live music and many danced. Finally, we all went on top for the show of lights.

Hugs and goodbyes were said tonight since they will be up at 5 am to make their flight. I slept in to 8. Our flight is at 4:25 pm. We went to the science museum but it was closed until 1pm so we visited a Chinese arts and crafts place instead.

Bus to the train, train to the airport. Four hours early. Time for a cup of tea and computer work. See you soon.

Peace and Joy in Jesus Christ,

Joseph W. Nawrocki, MD

Administrator and Medical Director RMO