Davao Delight

Ever since I arrived in Manila, I've been hearing about this wonderful birthing clinic run by missionaries on the southern island city of Davao. I ran it by my supervisors and was given the green light to fly down for 2 weeks to learn and observe all I could before I begin at Shalom full-time in June.
I arrived last Wednesday and was bewildered. It looks a lot like Manila but there is NO traffic! (LA friends, you have no idea what traffic is until you've been to Manila, trust me!) And the people are definitely Filipino, but I don't understand what they're saying...it sounds like Tagalog but it isn't. It feels like my brain is one cog off the machine.
My first impression of Mercy Maternity is amazement. I have never seen such a well-run, organized, and efficient birthing clinic. It's beautiful, there's respect all around, it's open, and it's fun to watch all the teaching...from perinatal teaching to peer teaching among the foreign and national midwives (usually the nationals teaching the foreigners, which I love!).
Yesterday, I took a day-off from the clinic and joined some fellow Action missionaries, Will & Joanie Feuerstein, in their Face to Face ministry to prison inmates. What a FUN experience! Who knew that going to jail could be so much fun? These ladies are often separated from everyone they know, sent down to a faraway province where they try to live life in some semblance of normality....and yet they are so joyous and eager to be around us. We are a fun diversion from their monotony and we even come with some music, stories, and even comfort food, Jollibee (like McDonald's) fried chicken and rice. Because the order is so large, they send along their little mascot. I've never seen fully grown women act so silly around a giant bee. You would think they were a bunch of tweens meeting Rob Pattinson or Justin Bieber. It was highly entertaining to watch.
I wish I could post pictures of the beautiful, courageous women, but for their own protection and privacy I cannot. But please pray for these women as they face a life they never planned, trying to live with courage in spite of life's disappointments.

Some of the team members "behind bars"