So I have had EXTREME writers block these past few day. Finally I am making myself add on to the story I started.
So once we got to HomonHon Island we were kindly greeted by lots of locals who helped us haul all of our supplies halfway up a small mountain to the church.
(the whole crew + the military men who escorted us from Tacloban to Guiuan.)
The 3 of us that went the first night got there late that night, so we basically put our stuff down and… started doing medical work. I gave tetanus vaccines while Doctora cleaned wounds and assessed other needs.
The associate pastor could barely move because one of his legs was limp. He said that a huge piece of ruble had fallen on him during the typhoon. The doctors were able to get him referred out to a hospital where they did x-rays and found out he had a broken femur. He lived with a broken femur from November 8 until December 12 with no medical care at all. This is unheard of. He was in high spirits though.
Finally after we had assessed and vaccinated most of the church staff, we went to sleep on the church floor, also known as Star Plaza (name given by doctor) because when we were laying on our back, we had a perfect view of the stars due to no roof. 🙂
Inside the church, the pastors family had made themselves a small shelter they could sleep in to avoid the rain that so often comes at night. Here is their shelter:
here are the beautiful kids that live in it.
When we woke up that next morning we started setting up for a clinic. There was a registration, a doctor station, a pharmacy and a place where I could give vaccinations. Each day we would run this clinic and tons of people would walk see a doctor.
There were no doctors on this island, and the small hospital that was there had been abandoned. We were the first medical people they had seen since Yolanda hit.
We stayed at that first town for 2 days where we had a medical clinic, did roof repairs, gave relief goods (food and clothing) and also set up a place where the women could make little handbags.
After they finished the handbags, our group would buy them to bring back to the city to sell. This would help with immediate livelihood. There were also 4 pastors from Cebu (another island) to assess how to help with their livelihood long term.
After being in that first barangay for 2 days, we traveled by boat to another part of the island that hadn’t received much relief either.
This barangay was extremely difficult due to rough waves which made it hard to get to. Also there were no roads, unless they looked like the one below…. which meant we couldn’t pass with all of our clinic and relief stuff.
We prayed that the Lord would calm the sea that day so we could make it safely and He did. We arrived there and were able to park the boat about 25 yards out and walk to shore. Then men had an assembly line from the boat to the shore to bring all the relief goods to dry land.
(This used to be a beautiful white sand beach with lots of houses made of coconut trees, but as you can see there are hardly any houses standing.)
That day we also set up a clinic on the beach. The men helped build tables and benches out of ruble so the clinic could run. It was super cool and also very humbling to see how creative the locals were at making things out of literal ruble.
Here is the table they made out of huge pieces of concrete ruble.
And the bench they made as well:
After a long hot day of clinic we made it for a swim before dinner and bed.
Bed that night for most people looked like sleeping under a tarp on the beach. For others of us, it looked like sleeping under a tarp in a 4 foot high wooden loft or on a wooden bed in the little house. Either way, we had food to eat and a place to lay our head so we were thankful.
The next day we woke up early to travel by boat to another part of the island where we did similar relief.
By the end of our trip, the doctors had seen over 300 patients (I would guess… I never got exacts) and I gave over 500 tetanus vaccinations.
Anyways, it all sounds great and joyous and it was, because it was so full of God, but it was also one of the hardest and most challenging trips of my life. My heart broke daily as I looked around into the ruble and I was extremely humbled that the Lord would use my hands and feet to help.
Also, the Filipino people there are so welcoming and loving, but I was still met with many cultural and language barriers while there. I will blog about all of that soon, but for now, I hope this blog and the pictures can show you how to best pray for the Philippines and its people.
