Manila...Post 2

So we just finished our second day of our experience in Pateros. We started the past 2 days off rather early…earlier than most clinical days, as it takes 1 hour by car to the borangay (village/municipality) of Pateros. We were met at one of the community clinics with song and dance... literally! As we entered the room filled with the diabetic clinical participants, we were met with such enthusiasm! I can honestly say I have never felt so welcome in my life as they made us feel that morning. One of the volunteers serenaded us with traditional Filipino music, and a few English classics, like 'happy birthday'. He called himself the Filipino Poverotti. Before we knew it we were all paired up with ladies from the group, dancing in the middle of the room. It was an amazing start to our day. The clinic was hosting its weekly diabetes clinic, run mostly by volunteers.

On our way to Pateros on Friday, we requested a stop at Starbucks, as we wanted to prevent our caffeine withdrawal headaches experienced the day prior…It was nice to step into a somewhat familiar environment, even for just a moment. The constant noise from the tricycle bikes, and jippni’s (public transportation jeeps made using leftover scraps from american occupation), and concentrations of people, has felt rather overwhelming at times, in addition to soaking up all the information possible about healthcare and the living standards here. We had the opportunity to do home visits with the Filipino nursing students in the borangay of Pateros. What an experience...seeing where the residents live, and the conditions that are their reality was a real eye opener...families of 5-6 living in an area about the size of our typical living rooms. Despite the conditions, the houses were tidy and spelled relatively clean. The children were clean and well taken care of. The houses are so close together...merging into one another between small alleyways,tarps and cement walls. No wonder the community is so close. The people were so eager to have us come into their homes, and incredibly hospitable...offering us coffee, even when you could see they cannot afford much. We were so impressed with the level of community involvement in the health centers and the locally run programming...the programming is run almost solely on volunteers (ex.diabetic clinic). We saw this in the hospital as well with what they call 'watchers' our Canadian equivelent of 'sitters' but watchers are family members, who are with the patient at all times, and trained by nursing staff to know what signs to look for if the patient needs help and to notify staff...a strategy to deal with high nurse patient ratios.
We have found that we have learned so much from the Filipino nursing students and the UP college in terms of community development and community nursing. Going into this practicum, I anticipated that we would be teaching them more than they would teach us...ethnocentric I know...but honest. They got it together in so many areas...school uniforms, rapport with community, and setting up programming in the community that prevents reliance on organizations and outside funding.. For example, the nursing students found 5 volunteers in the community who they trained to take blood pressures. These volunteers can now check community members BP's at no cost, and will serve as a sustainable intervention for the community once the college is no longer involved in the community.

We leave for San Jaun tomorrow morning for the next week...there will hopefully be less smog and more space...and hopefully still lots of coffee.

Thanks for reading...we are doing well and enjoying our time here...don't worry mom's and dad's...we are a-okay! The University here is treating us very well!

Morgan and the Philippines Nursing crew