June 24th
Courtesy Call & Baguio City Tour: Spent the majority of the courtesy call on my phone so I could answer my emails and pay my bills! Went to Baguio City and visited the Art museum called Tam Awan village and I bought a t-shirt with the face of one of Philippine’s greatest treasures who is a 100-year-old tattoo artist who is the last member in her village to use a certain technique. We later went to a botanical garden and I got gipped by the old ladies! It was worth it though. Suddenly it started to rain and people kept insisting I use an umbrella! After we played dance dance revolution in the arcade at the mall some of the girls taught us the Dalagang Filipino challenge while we are strawberry shortcake and J. Co donuts! We ate at Grumpy Joe’s and at some delicious spicy pasta and pizza! Spending time with this team went by really fast and made me realize that time files in the Philippines!
June 25th
Rest Day: We had a late start but we began the day by trying to catch a Taxi to SM and it turns out that we are very bad at it. When we got to the mall I enjoyed my pita bread crabby cake and my winter melon boba Tea. Walked around the mall again which I am getting tired of. Finally got out of the mall and walked to Burnham Park and rented a row boat. It was weird when people kept looking at us and paddling towards us saying, “Welcome to the Philippines! and “Where are you from?” That caused kind of a havoc in our boat because people kept coming close to hitting our boat. However, I wasn’t worried, I would choose row boating over the mall any day. It was wild to realized that it only cost us 130 Pesos ($3) to get back from a 20-minute taxi ride.
June 26th
Early Morning, Courtesy Call, & Beach Day: Left for the next location at 5 AM towards Ilocos Norte with average temperatures reaching the 90s. Marcia and I were assigned to a location 5 minutes from the beach! (God is good) I was about 5-6 hours to Badoc (which is named after a plant) and is a center of worship for Catholics! Today we bought this dessert from this boy driving a trike which was like artificial flavored strawberry (or bubble gum) with powered milk and mini marshmallows sprinkled on top. My first impression of the powered milk was not all that bad (but I still miss the pasteurized milk). Another dessert they eat a lot is sticky rice with sugar. After finally arriving to headquarters my favorite part of the day was going to the beach! I did not imagine that I would be walking through a field of cows to get to the beach! Also, the sand was black (white beaches are more frequent on the east side of Luzon) and I have never experienced water that was so warm! It was like bath water! I had a blissful time!
June 27th
Locating Respondents & Rest Day: This morning Jersy, Jen, Cha, and I walked with the locals to locate the houses. While we were walking I noticed this yard full of small t-pee looking huts which turned out to to belong to our respondent’s. The respondent explained to us that the hut housed roosters for cock fighting! Learning that the man had raised these animals took me by surprise but may have been a reason why he had nicer home. The team had interviewed the respondents in Tagalog so I did my best to understand. Another house that we located we had to walk through a rice field and once we got there I tried a fruit called Camias also known as bilimby. The nice woman who let me try the fruit off her tree said that she liked dipping Camias into salt and vinegar to offset the sour taste. Now let me tell you, this was one of the sourest fruits I had ever tasted and I nearly cried! Even though I didn’t understand the local very well she was kind and happy to meet me. After we had located the respondents, we went back to take a ‘nap.’ At this time, I wish I was at the beach but we instead went downtown in a trike (these things are made for larger people) to pick up some groceries. Marcia and I had tried an empanada which is made of egg and papaya which was masarap (delicious)! The trike ride back was better because I didn’t hit my head this time and then ate the best homemade fried chicken for dinner!
June 28th
The highlight of my day today was spontaneously agreeing to go a respondent’s house to weigh food where we later found out that there was a party being thrown next door. It would be rude to deny the invitation to the party just about the whole barangay was invited to! This party gave another great opportunity to try some new foods! The family had flooded our table with food and I ate pancit, chop suey, veggies, menudo (masarap), heart of banana (it was shredded banana, noodles, and shrimp), fried chicken and meringue for dessert. I also appreciated that they served the beverages in glass bottles which is more expensive but more sustainable than plastic!
June 29th
Blood Pressures, Big Feasts, and Beautiful Beaches:
This morning I had gotten up and helped the team by taking blood pressure for the respondent families that were scheduled. I had learned in nursing school that we are supposed to alternate arms when taking blood pressure because the reading may be falsely too high or too low if measured on the same arm consecutively. Since I had to take the respondent’s blood pressure three times, I had noticed small fluctuations blood pressure. I enjoyed interacting with the families and taking blood pressure for random team members. One of the locals had asked if I had taken his blood pressure and his readings were considered hypertensive. The nurse had educated the local person in Tagalog about hypertension and harped especially on sodium consumption. Salty and fatty foods (pork & chicken) are eaten regularly are big contributors to hypertension and heart disease in this country. For lunch I was excited to eat like a local (with my hands) and feast on a wide spread of foods! I soon became nervous once I saw the different kinds of fish (catfish scared me) but I eventually build up the courage the foods and everything was delicious! Even the catfish! Trying to eat with my hands for this meal may have been awkward but it ultimately made me feel closer to Pilipino culture. Some of the researchers relayed this is how they ate with their families. I felt by putting in the effort of trying a basic cultural practice that surround big cultural values of food and family gave me a better understanding of how Filipinos live. We ended the day with taking Mimi and Kate to the beach and getting to the see the Philippine Sea which stirred me heart with excitement and content.
June 30th
Hard Goodbyes & back to Manila: Had to say goodbye to another great team. It is so easy to connect to the team members because they were a fun-loving group! Spent 10 hours traveling from Illocos Norte on a bus and watched 5 movies! On our travels back we drove through San Fernando City, a popular surfing location, where I hope stop on our next excursion to catch some waves!
The Art of Adventure 
