Saturday, July 7th
Hello! I have finally had a few minutes to sit down and write. Our journey here has been quite eventful
so far. We arrived in Manilla,
Phillipines after spending 18 hours on two different airplanes. We spent the night in a nice hotel and
then caught a ride to the Marriott hotel where the bus picked us up. The Marriot was a gorgeous hotel with a
HUGE mall in it and a casino! It
was guarded really well. We met a
bunch of people from Project Hope while waiting for the bus. Most of them are physicians or nurses
that volunteer their own time to go on these missions. Many of them have participated in
missions on the MERCY before this trip.
The bus ride was great because we got to ride all through the city of
Manilla. It is a really big city
that was very populated. We then
got to see how the people lived outside of the city. We saw farmers working in the blazing sun and humidity. It really looked awful to be out
there. There were a bunch of little
shacks in the trees near the land they worked on, but I wasn’t sure if they
lived there or just retreated there when they needed rest. The views of the countryside were
really beautiful. After a little
while, the mountains in the distance began to get bigger and more beautiful. Unfortunately, our bus started billowing
clouds of smoke about 30 minutes before reaching our destination, Subic
Bay. We had to pull over and wait
for another bus to come get us.
Luckily the bus driver stopped at a great spot where we had awesome
views of the mountains. We arrived
at the ship a little while later, checked in, and got settled into our bunk, or
as the navy call it, our rack. It
took awhile to get our lockers set up so we spent the night getting settled in.
The ship was on liberty our first few
days so we were able to get off the ship yesterday and today to explore Subic
Bay with a few of the volunteers that are also with Project Hope. We went to a local mall and walked
around to little stands where the locals were selling their hand made items. I liked a lot of their stuff but a lot of
it was too big to bring back with us so I purchased a few small items. We walked along the shoreline and got
some great pictures of the ship and some palm trees. We then went to a mall area and ate our last meal off the
ship and then we headed back on to get ready to pull away from the dock and get
going on our mission to Vietnam.
It was amazing to watch the ship pull away. As the mountains became more distant and the fog set over
and the sun began to set, it was really an incredible sight to see.
We
had our first pharmacy meeting today, July 7th when we got back to
the ship. We were given a few
tours of the ship and the pharmacy so that we would be able to find places and
things when needed. I am still a
little confused as to how the pharmacy operates on the ship and the difference
between inpatient and outpatient.
We were given an orientation of the pharmacy personnel and what would
hopefully be going on in the next few days. Everything is uncertain right now because Vietnam is being
strict as to what we are allowed to do.
Apparently they have taken away a lot of the community events that were
scheduled and they won’t let us prepare the drugs prior to our arrival. They won’t even let us bring them on
the ship. So on Tuesday, July 10th
when we arrive, we will have to take a boat to the pier in order to sort the
medications on land. We are not
sure who will be going yet, but we will be getting our schedules tomorrow so we
will know then.
There
are phones on the ship so that we can call home but the Internet has only been
available for us in the coffee shops that are off the ship in Subic Bay. We are trying to get our accounts set
up so that we will have access on the ship now that we have left. I didn’t sleep great the first night
but that was mainly due to someone’s alarm going off at 3:45am and never
turning off. It’s a little bit
like summer camp in the berthing areas, we are in really close quarters. So far most of the people that have
been on the ship have been staying in hotels in Subic Bay. Tonight will be the first night where
everyone is back on the ship so it should be interesting to see how crowded it
is. I should probably go to bed
now, it has been a long day. Goodnight! (well, good morning for those back in
the states) =)
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