Palawan Trip Day One

I got an email the day before my flight that due to a Philippine Airlines strike, our flight had been bumped up from 8am (nice) to 6am (horrid). This meant that I had to wake up 3:15am to get to the airport on time. BUT, I was so excited to go to Palawan (an island in the Philippines, NOT Hawaii!), that I didn't care...well, maybe not too much!

But let me back up a bit. Last June, I shared in my church about the building project at Shalom (blog here). A week later, an American approached me who had newly arrived in the PI and was looking for opportunities to get involved in local missions. He was excited that I could speak the language because his church back home in Hawaii, First Presbyterian of Honolulu, was sending a huge medical and pastoral team out in October and could he pay my way for me to join them. He thought that only good could come out of having an American nurse who could speak Tagalog on the team. I got the appropriate approval from my agency and purchased tickets.

When I arrived at the airport, I was surprised at the size of the group - TWO tour buses full of mostly haoles. It turns out there were folks from First Pres, Aloha Medical Mission (non-faith based), an Arizona dental office crew, and a few odd balls who heard of the trip and joined...like me. I sat by a dermatologist and nurse on the plane and just got so excited about their stories. The nurse was an 80+y/o retired nursing instructor! Talk about gumption and guts!

When we arrived in Puerto Princessa, the capital of the island, we were greeted by a tiny airport with one baggage claim thingy, a shell necklace, and the beautiful smiles of our "buddies," selected youth from the partner church who would act as our tour guides, liaisons, and friends for our week. We were piled into 15 passenger vans (think NO leg room!!!) and brought to our beautiful hotel for a buffet breakfast and orientation. After, we were given the option of attending church or resting. Let me tell you, after the 3:15am wake-up call and knowing the grueling week before us, the message on "dreams and visions" at Bedside Baptist was amazing! ;)

The afternoon consisted of unpacking and sorting meds, a mandatory souvenir trip, followed by a major outreach event that evening. As much as I love Filipinos, I have never understood their need to rupture ear drums at big events. Being the honored guests, we were of course placed right up front and center, just by the speakers. I'm not sure how well our hands over our ears were received, but we DID have to listen through stethoscopes the following day!

We all fell into bed that night, warned of our 6am call-time for our first day of medical clinics. Sweet dreams!