Roundin' the bend

Well I've had a nice weekend and beggining of my second to last week here. It's been raining since saturday, but that's ok since we traded having last Thursday off for Thanksgiving for having class on saturday. But I'll get into that in a second.
On Friday, our outreach was to a place an hour and a half away from Calapan. There were a lot of Mangyan people there and I found them to be noticably dirtier than Mangyan people I've encountered on our previous outreaches. The Mangyans here were from a tribe called Tadyawan, which I made sure to write down so that I would remember to pray for these people. Dr. Ryan explained to me while we were assesing patients that it is characteristic specifically of their tribe that if a mother dies and she has a child that is still dependent on her (say, up to the age of 3), they will bury the still-living child with the mother. When Dr. Ryan finished telling me this, he looked up at my face and said, "You looked shocked!" I replied, "I AM!" To which he replied "I am too!" Needless to say, as far as we in "The West" think that humanity has progressed, there is still great need for simple, elementary education in many places in this great, big world of ours.
Anyway, the rest of the outreach went well. Dr. Pravine and I checked a woman for cancer, but it turned out she was just so malnourished that you could feel her lymph nodes under her armpit. Also, there were some of the worst skin conditions I've ever seen. Worms and fungus and Psoriasis, Oh my! We gave away a lot of the topical ointment that we made during our "Herbal remedies" lesson, and even referred some people to the hospital since their conditions were so severe.
As I previously said, on Saturday we had class. We went through a couple lectures, and then we actually got to practice suturing. Warren brought in a bag of pig skin which we nailed onto a board, cut open, and sutured up. The pig skin is very tough, so the suturing needles, created to cut through human skin and muscle, ended up bending and breaking for the most part, but there was much to be learned none the less. And plus, it was a pretty good way to spend a rainy saturday.

Sunday we went to church and then Jollibee, the popuar fast food chain here in the Philippines. I had the first burger I've had in at least a year, if not longer. It was called The Champ, and it was decent after I scraped off the whopping dallop of mayonnaise they ploped on the thing (seriously, it was a good 4 tablespoons worth.)
Last week sometime some of us were having a conversation about funny words, and Dr. Pravine brought up some word someone played in Scrabble, and I mentioned how much my family loves Scrabble. Warren then said that he had it, so since then I've been on him to bring in to the base so we could play. So, finally, on Sunday night Emily, Jen, Warren and I had a good, rousing round of Scrabble. I'm proud to report home that I won not only that game, but the game that Jen, Emily and I played the next night as well. Of course, it must be put into perspective that both Jen and Emily had never played the game before, and thus were no match for my Scrabble playing prowess. (haha!)
Other than that, home is just around the corner. I've found it funny that, well, usually when I travel it's usually only for two or three weeks, and by the end of that I just want to be home in my bed, but while I've been here, I've certainly missed home and friends and family, but I haven't felt "finished" with the country. That's sort of the only way I know how to describe the feeling. I guess God's just keeping me content where I am while I'm here so that I can focus where He needs me to. I just bring it up because I thought for sure I'd start to feel that way around week 3 or 4, but my spirit is marching on. I'm sure next week I'll truly start to long for home, as there is a time for everything, and next week is my time to return home. With that, I'll see you all soon.

Marleigh loves.