Adventure Time with Keri!

Day 0.5 – 2

*Disclaimer: I go off on a lot of tangents….so I apologize in advance.*

Hopped on a plane at LAX….with my cohort and my cardigan. Hah. I’ll spare you from the cheesiness that is escaping from my fingers right now. 

So, where might I be off to this time, you ask? Well. Let me tell you. 

Actually, let me back up. I kind of left you hanging in the last post of my whereabouts.

For the last few months I have been hiding in Southern California pursuing my dream of getting a Masters in Public Health with an emphasis in Global Health. It has been a whirlwind of a journey that I definitely do not regret taking and am certain this is where God wanted me all along. I won’t bore you with details, so fast-forward to why I’m jet setting around the world…again.

Because my emphasis is Global Health, we are required (yes, required) to go out of the country for one of our classes, Integrated Community Development. Basically we had the choice between going to Peru or the Philippines for three weeks to work with an already-established partnership with an organization out there. As much as I would love to go to Peru someday, naturally, I picked the Philippines. Southeast Asia called my name once again. 

So what exactly are we doing out here? Good question. I’ll let you know when I figure that out.

Lol, just kidding. Ok, maybe only a little bit kidding, because I’m an awful student and haven’t read everything our awesome sponsor, Helen, sent us before we left. What I do know is that we are working in partnership with IIRR (International Institute for Rural Reconstruction – look it up if you’re inclined to do so) in assessing how climate change affects nutrition in the lowlands, highlands, and coastal areas in a certain province. And….that’s about as much as I can tell you.  *insert big cheesy smile*

Now that we’re done with the background stuff, on to the more exciting things!

Our group, 10 students and two faculty sponsors, headed out of LAX to traverse to the Philippines. 

Oh, I bumped into Grace right as I was heading towards my gate! Long story short, she was here for Christina’s wedding…we had dinner and said bye to her…and then she was still in the US the next day! Turns out she read her ticket wrong. Her flight back to Aussie-land was the next day. Lol. 

Anyway, I knocked out on our flight to Tokyo due to lack of sleep from the previous days leading up to departing. Pretty sure I woke up only once to eat. We arrived at 5am and lazed around the airport until things started opening up. Most of the group tried to go out to see some of the city, but got denied. Haha. Something about Japan not being their final destination and whatnot. Sad times for them. And yes, I didn’t go with them b/c I was tired and I’ve already been to Japan. What a snob, I know.

When the shops and restaurants started opening up (at 6am, might I add), we all decided to get something to eat. I was a fatty and got curry AND sushi. Monique made us play a rousing game of “Who would you rather date” which spawned many interesting discussions. And just as a side note, Monique likes her Italians. Hahaha. 

After perusing the souvenir shops like any good tourist, we finally boarded our flight to Manila where I knocked out for a good portion of that flight too. When we arrived at good ol’ Philippines, we were greeted by a wall of humidity. We hadn’t even walked to the van to load our stuff and we were already sweating buckets. I was also personally hit with nostalgia as I really feel that a good portion of Southeast Asia smells and feels the same. It’s not something I can really explain, but I know there are some of you out there that can relate. It’s a bit comforting, actually.

We stuffed ourselves into a van and made our way to IIRR with a stop to get our money exchanged. We trusted our fearless leaders to take us to the right spot…but sadly, we were dragged around in circles all over creation in the department store trying to find the right counter. It was in the front of the shop where we entered. =.= All the sales associates probably were wondering who these crazy Americans were that kept on running around aimlessly in circles in their store. 

After settling into our dorm-like rooms (which have AC!!!!), we all took a jeepney to a restaurant down the way. Jeepneys are the most common form of public transportation around these areas and if you don’t know what they look like, go be resourceful and look them up yourselves. =P They’re quite exciting. 

We were ushered into a cute little private bungalow-like room where we proceeded to order lots of yummy food. The most notable being the salmon that apparently tasted like chicken, according to Jonetta. Trust me, we had a good laugh over that. *insert more giggling*  

Saturday, the majority of us stuffed ourselves once again into a jeepney and then later into a van where we traveled to AUP’s campus. We arrived just in time for the sermon to start, no thanks to Kirk. So my friend Kirk, whom I went to undergrad with at Southern was going to meet me there at AUP for church. When I asked him what time it started, he said 11am. Naturally, I thought that’s when the church service started. Nope, that’s when the SERMON started. Face palm. Kirk, however, gave me his extra SIM card for my travel phone, which was put to good use a few hours later, which I will get to in a minute.

After church, we were escorted into the cafeteria, where we were then led to a private room in the back. The table was set up beautifully and we were served a hearty meal and fellowshipped with the Dean of Health and other Public Health students from AUP. You should ask Monique about the cassava cakes….she’s currently eating the rest of them as I type.

We then toured around the beautiful campus under the sweltering sun and took shelter under one of the buildings when it started raining. 

 Dr. Estrada was worried we didn’t know how to get back, so she sent three of her Public Health students with us in the jeepney until we got to the point where we had to switch over to tricycles. Tricycles are another common form of public transportation which is essentially a motorcycle attached to a cart. 

We stopped by the marketplace to walk around and see what was there.  We were happily walking around the open market when we realized that we were missing a member of our group *coughJonettacough*. Two people went to go look for her and after 10 mins, another went to go look. And that’s when we realized that we couldn’t find her – anywhere. Thus started an almost two hour search for this missing person. Prayers were submitted, people split up in groups, and we scoured the entire area. We asked sales person after sales person if they had seen her, even showing pictures of the lost girl to no avail. We tried different searching tactics and thankfully, a few of us had phones that worked here – going back to the fact that Kirk saved my butt by giving me a SIM card – so we could keep in touch with each other. We even had the driver from IIRR come out to help search. After searching up and down for a long time, Jesse finally asked the police department to help us. They called the guardhouse at IIRR and after a few mins, we got the call from the guardhouse that she had just arrived at IIRR. Flooded with relief, we headed back to IIRR and relaxed for a bit before heading to the mall to get food and other things. All’s well that ends well. We won’t delve more into that subject. Haha.

Notable quotes from today:

“They’re essentially all orphans.” – Richmond on flies and how Monique thinks they’re disrespectful and then proceeded to go all ninja on them.

“I will embrace nature from inside the room.” – Monique

“I will eat this [durian]. It’s a rite of passage.” *Two seconds later* “Ok, maybe not.” *Spits out durian* - Monique