Oh, the deception

The other day we held a medical missions, in which a team of doctors volunteered their Saturday afternoon and services for our friends and their families. Few countries have as awesome health care as Canada does, and the Philippines is no exception. Over 200 people decided to forgo paying for some dental, pediatric, optometric, pharmaceutical and general health services.

A bunch of drugs

Partway through I rendered myself somewhat useful by assisting the dentists with cleaning and sterilizing their tools.The crazy hair in the photo is from the fan on the highest setting, pointed straight at the dental tools to hasten the drying process.

Utensils used for pulling teeth

We had drawn such a large crowd that it warranted our own personal mobile ice cream/snack stall.

Snacks: bringing families together since 2010

Many adorable children came.

Getting an eye exam

Beautiful little girl

The other night we handed out some of the glasses to our friends, and some of them recognized us from the medical mission. I was even asked if I was one of the dentists. Masks and gloves: giving the appearance of something you're not, since 2010.

Home coming

In the last two and a half months, I have been to all the countries I have considered home. Canada: internship training. Philippines: internship. Cambodia: research for the internship and visiting parents. Malaysia: layover to and from Cambodia.

The following is my attempt to summarize the two weeks to, from and in Cambodia, in a nutshell. It's a pretty big nut, but I'll try my best.

KL: Best 5 RM Spent

5 RM (~2 buck) well spent

Somewhere between the city and the airport

The duplicate fortresses

Batu caves

I met up with Apryl, a high school friend from Penang, miraculously during my 12-hour layover

Phnom Penh: Best Photo (sh)Op  

Workin' it with team Cambodia, brought to you by 2 inches of makeup and excessive photoshop

 My cousin Jon and his wife Alicia came from Edmonton on a tour... we saw them in two cities in Cambodia!

This place probably has the best beef in Cambodia

"Don't fall into the water! *chuckle*" - my mom

A beautiful, but confusing drama

Battambang: Most Scenery Viewed on a Train Ride

Train made from panda's favourite food

Battambang countryside

Our ride on the mountain

Self-timer, balanced precariously on an ancient rock lion

Sihanoukville: Most Delicious Food Stuffed in Food

Chicken stuffed squid

Sokha Beach

My immediate ascendants and Jon & Alicia

Dinner

In conclusion, I am too lazy to write very much, but these people aren't (Cambodia interns):

http://willyougo.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/gloria-jeans-and-friends/
http://naomicambodia.blogspot.com/2010/07/ok-fine.html
http://jeffseaman.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/dengue-fever-asian-jokes-and-awkwardness-read-on/

Firsts

Being of Chinese ethnicity and having grown up in Asia, you would think that I have had my fair share of eating and doing weird/interesting things. This is an assumption based on fact, but I have also had my fair share of firsts during this trip. As an attempt to make up for my serious delay in posting, this post will have photos galore.


Any past experience I have had with balut was when my family lived in the Philippines, and my dad would order it when people came over, for the shock factor. On top of convincing visitors that my dad was legit, it grossed my brothers and I out tremendously, which was probably part of the entertainment. 15 years later, I had gathered enough courage to face this abomination.

A veiny, crunchy, fertilized duck egg

Traces of duck fetus on my murderous lips

D and I went to Cambodia to do some research for a week, and I took my vacation the following week to chill with my parents. As an initiation by Steve, Jodi and the water interns in Cambodia, we had tarantulas. They were deep fried, and tasted like oil. Mostly crunchy and a little bit squishy, the mental torture was probably enough to kill a baby seahorse.

Big, hairy, arachnids

On a slightly different note, I rode an elephant for the first time in Phnom Penh. Sambo is an adorable old elephant who dons slippers while taking walks. 

Yeehaw

On a completely different note, a few weeks ago, one of the Ates we live with brought us home to her province. It was a privilege to see the beautiful place she grew up in, meet her lovely family, and breath the cool mountainous air.

Green and blue, like Captain Planet

A flower so pretty it looks fake

A view from the Sariaya Church bell tower

That's it for now, a more extensive look at Cambodia is on its way.

Places, words, animals, and laundry

We had language/culture training for the past two weeks, which I probably don't need because I was born and raised here until I was 7, right? Nope, it turns out all I remember is how to count from 1-10. Which is helpful sometimes, but most of the time people just use English numbers because Tagalog numbers are too long. Yep.

We went on a pretty awesome field trip to become cultured, or learn about culture, or something. First stop, Quiapo Church, which dates back when Spain was the boss in the 1500s. Interestingly, just around the corner, people sell all sorts of charms, amulets, fetishes, and talismans, and they burn magic/curse/spell candles.

Next stop, Light and Sound Museum in Intramuros, which a) taught us some of the historic background of the Philippines, and b) slightly scared the little children. No flash photography was allowed in the inside exhibits, but we managed to take a photo with José Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines. He's seen better days, but feet and fingers are sometimes overrated anyways. Here's a photo of Jenny, Danielle, Sarah, Pepe, and me having a nice chat.

Lastly: Fort Santiago, where the aforementioned José was imprisoned before his execution. Apparently, Dr. José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda's nickname was - you guessed it!- Pepe. That was blatantly obvious. As is my ineptitude in balancing. Sarah and Danielle are pretty great at it.

I also learned some crucial words, like:

CR = comfort room = washroom. Yep, it's a washroom, y'all.
mainit: hot
mangga: mango
saklolo: help!
itaas ang bubong: raise the roof

I got to use my broken and heavily accent laden Tagalog with the women we met the other night on outreach, which made a huge difference in connecting with them. Even though I seem like a Filipina who's just a little slow on the uptake, it means a lot to them that we're at least trying to communicate in their native language. Also, we sang and danced at a makeshift "bar" (aka. market stall by day) with a few women from the street, including a pregnant lady. She wants to name her child Polkadot. 

The other day while I was out and about, someone slashed my bag, but good thing it has two layers, so the wannabe thief only got through the outer layer. Thwarted! I got it fixed today at the seamster (or whatever the proper male version of seamstress is), for free. And now it looks brand spankin' new. Double thwarted.

Last week we were visited by a rat, which left the following collateral damages: 4 cute, innocent, bug-eating, little geckos got stuck in the sticky trap. It was a sad moment.

In other news, we have decided to forgo the semi-automatic washing machine that takes a day to finish, and instead paid someone to wash it. Two days with clothes scraps was definitely worth the 10 buck.

Warm, ironed, folded, clean clothes

The important questions in life

First of all, I just wanted to say that the other intern at Samaritana that I mentioned in my previous post does, in fact, have a name. She is Ziwei (Zeeway), or Zaywee (as the women call her), or Zedway (as Danielle and I affectionately call her). She's back to the states for law school (look out, world!), so I would like to just pause and post this photo in rememberance of you, Zed.Now that we've set things straight, on to the important questions in life.

For starters, why don't all KFCs serve rice and/or chicken on a stick?

And it was FLG, colonel, it sure was...

Secondly, How did we ever miss out on these ingenious flavors?
Enough of the product placement and deep questions (blogs are for shallow chatter, not great philisophical ponderings and musings, after all). Now for something completely different:

I washed my clothes after one week in dusty Manila, which is a whole ordeal in and of itself. It's a semi-automatic, and the whole filling it up with water and draining it is not the automatic portion. Here's a photo of the byproduct... On a more serious note though, this photo reminds me of the darkness that I saw on Friday night when we hit up the local bar scene. It was both physically and metaphorically dirty and dark. It was a rainy day, turning the dirt roads on which the bars reside, into a muddy mess. The bars themselves are marketplaces during the day, not exactly in the nicest area of town.

We made friendly conversation with pimps, prostituted women, and their children. Yes, their children, who should have been safely home, tucked in bed, dreaming about rainbows and unicorns and fairies, instead of staying up late and seeing things they shouldn't be.

I can see how easy it would be to feel overwhelmed by all that's wrong in the world, but I think that it should give us all the more reason to fight for what's good, right, and just. Dear friends, please don't ever let me become cold, apathetic, bitter, or jaded. Kthxbai.

Crustasia

We went to our hosts' church on Sunday. The songs were awesome and in English, and the sermon was in Tagalish, with an emphasis on the Tagalog. The powerpoint was in English, so I suppose we had a good outline of what was going on. We met some of our hosts' friendly friends afterwards.

An intern with our partner organization brought us to the mall after, where we discovered Crustasia. Both witty and delicious. It's Asian seafood... get it? Also, they have a buffet, and they have bibs. I apologize for the overexuberance in the photo, but I was quite happy to learn that I don't have to give up seafood for 5 months.

Also... I was really hungry... But anyway, below is the display of what I got for ~ $12 CAD. I honestly didn't eat dinner.

Yes, I realize that my food exhibition skills are next to non-existent, but this only means improvement over the next 5 months, right? Anyway... next I spotted a Coffee Bean. Again, a bit of overexcitement may have occured. But with the perfect blend (sorry...) of nostaligia and yummy, can you really blame me?

The only downer of the day was when some jerk sliced open our friend's bag and took her wallet :( All important items were eventually recovered, and things could have been much worse, but the fact that chumps and injustice exist left a bad taste in our mouths.

Nevertheless, Danielle and I navigated our way home on public transit all by ourselves with no further incidents. Yay!

Halo halo

After nearly 24 hours from airport to airport, we arrived in Manila at 4 in the morning. We were promptly greeted by a wall of humid heat (apparantly it's been record-breaking hot lately), followed by a crazy drive to our home for the next while. I honestly believe driving here can shave a few years off your life.


I definitely scored in the country/partner/home/host departments. I love that I'm coming back to my roots, and after a 15-year wait, that I am finally reunited the best mango in the world. My partner, Danielle, is a kindred spirit with an outrageous sense of humor. Our home is beautiful, our room has tie dye sarongs for curtains, and we have two puppies.

Our hosts are lovely, generous, and hilarious. They treated us to halo halo, which is basically ais cacang: pinoy styles

The jet lag and lethargy from 14 hours of lying around on the plane, coupled with the intense heat and the resulting slowing of brain function, made me thankful that resting was the main activity today. Hopefully tonight will bear a deep and uninterrupted sleep and we'll be well rested for tomorrow's festivities (whatever those may be).