Back to Manila

Well, we spent the last few weeks in Tabuk working with a village called Dananao. In this village we spent the entire month of March hosting a health fair (as I talked about in the March update). Everything went really well. We did all sorts of health teachings on things like dehydration, sanitation, community awareness, breastfeeding, nutrition, etc. It was a ton of fun. We also did bible activities with the kids and at the end of the month we ran a VBS with the kids. That went really well. We had over 200 kids come. We all had a ton of fun.

The month of April is supposed to be spent in Tinglayan. This is in the mountains and the medics will be reaching out to different tribes and villages that rarely receive health care because of their remote location. Getting into these villages requires a lot of strenuous hiking. Unfortunately, Jack and I will not be joining the medics on their outreach. If you could pray for them it would be awesome. Because of my pregnancy the leadership and Jack and I all felt that it was in the best interest of me and the baby to stay back and go to Manila. So that is where we are now. It has actually worked out very well because Jack has been really sick. He was in bed with an IV for almost 10 days. The doctors believe he is either suffering from Malaria or an amoeba, or both. So he is on medication for both and he is on the up and up. Since we've been in Manila he has been feeling much better and is able to get up and go places. So continued prayer for his health would be wonderful. I am feeling much better. As many of you know I have been really sick with my pregnancy and have lost quite a bit of weight. I am finally getting out of that mode, which is very exciting, and am able to eat much better. Thank you all for your prayers. I am now 17 weeks along and very excited! So while we are in Manila we will be working with the maternity clinic that Mercy in Action has here. I will be helping the midwives and doing prenatals. Jack will be out and about making relationships with the people here and working with the street kids. He will also spend some of his time in Welfaresville, which is a very impoverished area here in Manila. At the beginning of May the rest of the medics will join us here in Manila and we will do more medical outreaches here. We are having a lot of fun, despite all the illness between the two of us. Thanks again for all of your prayers!

South China Sea

So the beach was great! Jack and I both love the ocean so it was awesome to be there. We rented this little boat and a fisherman took us to this little cove that has a reef!!! For about an hour we got to snorkel around and look at all the beautiful corals and fish! It was so cool, especially since we are salt water aquarium enthusiasts. It was neat to see all these fish and corals that we have had in our fishtanks in the ocean. The beach was white sand made from all the dead corals. I must have picked up a ton of sea shells while I was there. We both could have spent forever there! We loved it. We will post some pictures on our website of our time there!!!!

March Update

Here's an update on what we've been doing for the last few weeks. We spent two weeks in a city called Baguio. While we were there we took a course called Integrated Management of Childhood Illness. It is a class that was developed by WHO and UNICEF. The program is recognized globally and it teaches health workers to assess and classify children under the age of five for health problems. It's main focus is to treat the main causes that are killing children under the age of five. For example pneumonia and diarrhea. It is really a cool way to assess, classify, and treat children. The WHO has determined the correct drugs to use for certain situations, so it really has streamlined what to use on the children and when to refer the kids to the hospital if their illness is serious. It also gives you an opportunity to counsel the mothers on proper feeding habits and simple things she can do at home for a child with a cough and cold. The countries that utilize the IMCI program have worked with the WHO and UNICEF to make it specific to their country. So the diseases we assess for and the medicines we use are specific to what is killing children in the Philippines, but it is something that we can use worldwide. It's really cool. For the entire month of March we are working with a village called Dananao. It is a resettlement village (sort of like the reservations for the Indians in America). We spent the first week going through the village and weighing all the children. Then for the next three weeks of March we spend each day (mon-fri) giving health teachings and doing bible activities to the kids under 5. We have split the village into three sections so we have completed our first week with the first section and then next week and the following week we will do the same thing for the other sections. The health teachings are on things like nutrition, dehydration, safety, cleanliness, and community discussions. We also provide a healthy marienda (which in the philippines is a snack you have between breakfast and lunch, and then also between lunch and dinner). We just provide the first marienda since we are there in the mornings. We make the marienda and then also have the mothers of the children that are low or very low weight help us prepare the meals so they can learn different things they can use to cook healthy meals for their families. Then on Saturday we use our IMCI training that I told you about and do health checkups and treatments on the children under five. Towards the end of March we will also do more health checkups that will include the children over five and the adults. Also, the last week of March we are putting on a small VBS for the village and doing a village clean up day where we'll go around and clean up the village. It has gone really well so far and it has been a lot of fun. In addition to that we are doing rotations at the hospitals and rural health units with some doctors that we know. In the hospitals we spend our time with the patients praying for them and just sitting and talking to them. At the rural health units and doctors offices we do some IMCI assessments and then shadow the doctors. That has been really cool. The rotations at the hospitals have been a little tough because we have seen some pretty bad cases and there was one little boy that we saw this week that just died from pneumonia. There is another little girl there that had a high fever, had convulsions, and does not speak now and the hospital is still not sure what the high fever is from. Sometimes it is frustrating, but we try and give that to God and pray for the patients and healthworkers. So that has been what is going on this month. Next month we will go into the mountains but I'm not sure what that will look like so I'll have to give you an update on that when we get more info. Thanks for your prayers!!!

Baguio City

Hey everyone! So we've been in Baguio City for the last two weeks taking a course on integrated management of childhood illness. The course is sponsored by WHO and UNICEF. We just finished today. We learned a lot of great information about the treatment and prevention of childhood illnesses specific to the Philippines. Baguio city is a beautiful place to stay. It is nestled in the mountains and the views are gorgeous. The weather is very similar to San Diego. It is also much drier here so that has been a nice change of pace from the hot humid weather of the other places we've been. We are leaving on Sunday to go back to Tabuk but tomorrow we are going to visit the beach of the South China Sea. We're all pretty excited about going to the beach. It is about 2 hours away from here but well worth it. I'll give an update on what the beach was like! We miss you all and thanks for your prayers! Love, the Fairweathers :)

We're in Manila!!!

Here's a little rundown on what we've been doing the last few weeks. We arrived in Manila and stayed there about two days. Manila is really hot and has a ton of people. So we spent those days going to the mall, exchanging our money, etc. After those 2 days we went down to a place called Laguna. It's about an hour south of Manila. There we spent a week at IFL. We learned how to take a 10x10 meter plot of land (with a house) and grow a garden that would hopefully provide food year round. It's called FAITH gardening which means food always in the home. I was pretty sick that week and had a really tough time eating. In addition to learning the gardening, it is an orphanage and school so we got to hang out with really great kids all week. A lot of the kids have really crazy stories, like being found in a dog cage with human bite marks and sores all over them, but despite all that they have great hearts and a huge love for Jesus. It was really a great thing to see. So after that week we went back to Manila for a day and a half and then got on a bus to take us up to Tabuk. The bus ride was 10 hours, but it was way more comfortable than the airplane (except they kept the air con on all night so it was freezing cold). So then we spent a day in Tabuk where we went to the market, internet cafe, etc. Then we went into the resettlement village (pakok) where we did our homestay for a week. That was a pretty big challenge for a lot of us. I was dealing with some depression, home sickness, and culture shock, but I've received a lot of prayer and feel a lot better now. Jack and I stayed in a really nice home that was made out of cement. The family was the son of the pastor and he and his wife are both 24 years old. They have two children. It was pretty hard because so far most places we went the people can speak English really well, but in the village most people don't. The family we stayed with did speak a little English, but it was hard to communicate. Jack and I got to plant rice fields for half a day (which we found out we were horrible at). It was actually pretty comical, we were really slow and had a hard time planting straight rows . After that day, Jack was invited by Johnny (the husband we stayed with) to plow the fields. Jack ended up being really good at that and enjoyed it. So he did that for a few days. Loida (the wife we stayed with) wouldn't let me help her do anything so I did a lot of just wandering around and sleeping. We ate rice every meal and had a lot of fish. They butured a chicken and a duck while we were there and we also ate some caribou. It was pretty interesting. So we just got back from our homestay Tuesday night. Yesterday it rained all day and Jack and I went to the market and today we are here at the internet cafe doing email and updating our website. We go on our first medical outreach tomorrow and then over the next week or week and a half we do 4 or 5 medical outreaches at some villages that are pretty close to Tabuk. Then we go to another school for two weeks to learn Child development and some primary health care in the Philippines. After that I'm not exactly sure of the plan.