Homeward Bound

Only a few more weeks! Hope you enjoy this video I made it in respects to me arriving home soon. I had forgotten about this being Williams song. As Jen reminded me. This was sung by a good friend at his funeral.
I listened to the words closely and thought it would make a great missionary song too. I put my twist on it as I am herein the PI mostly for the humanitarian aspect. Let me know what you think.

Poor Monkey

I think I mentioned before that there are a couple of monkeys at the Trauma Center, Diane and Roger. Diane has been there for some time and is pretty much accustomed to all the people that come around to see her. About a few weeks ago another one came into the picture. I think the intentions were to have them mate. I don't know if that was successful or not but it may not be a viable thing now. Poor Roger went and bit a little girl on the face and ended up shot. He was fortunate not to get killed but it might have been better for him if he was dead he is in a miserable state. We had a good time going over and poking fun at him and getting him to flex his muscles so to speak, before this incident. Both monkeys are so cute you just want to let them climb on you and pet them. Roger is so bored now sitting in his cast not moving at all except for his one free hand and head. The orthopedic surgeon said he has a fractured femur. Yes his testies are about a hundred times the normal size. That is normal when you get shot in that area. I am surprised also that the father of the little girl that shot him didn't finish him off. Roger is very lucky...to be alive that is...his current condition not so lucky.

After visiting Roger; Greg and I played some badminton. We kick butt.

The New Candy Man

Here it is the long awaited candy bombing. This was taken at the Medcap a few weeks ago. We were done giving out meds and check-ups, got a little bored and gave out some candy. The kids had been hanging around just waiting for this to happen. Either they like the candy I had or they just like bald guys. It's probably because I look like such a push over (by the way I'm glad they didn't push me over). They swarmed around me like this was the last bag of candy on the planet and it just happened to be here in Jolo. I had a good time and it was worth the 100 P that I paid for the candy.

Greg had fun too. Notice the girls liked him. He is not as intimidating as I am.

So when all was said and done every piece of candy we handed out the wrapper ended up on the ground, and all the kids had left. Nothing would have led you to believe the U.S. was here except the abundance of candy wrappers left.

Refer to my post about the medcap by the Islamic school. You will be able to see these kids up close.

All in all this really made my day, besides finding the mall, so I could shop for Jen my sweetheart.

Happy Fathers Day!

The mail here is so mixed up and slow that I received the second box before the first box Jen sent. Fortunately the card and Fathers Day breakfast were in the box I received. I hope to get the other box today, but that may not happen cause we were attacked this morning. We scared them off though. All morning the helicopters have been flying over us so I didn't get to sleep in on Fathers Day either. So I was a good father to the guys here and made breakfast for them I can't believe how good they turned out. The pancakes were the best I ever made. They weren't rubbery, and so thick that you couldn't eat them. I ate four of them and was not as full as I usually am. So heres hopen that I get something today but is Sunday too.

To The Bat Cooler Robin

My friends over at the FISGA house found a little bat in the roof of their house. So they gave him a new home in a cooler. I went over to do my laundry and they said "check out our new mascot" I was very surprised to see a little bat in the cooler. I could get him to talk by making kissy noises to him. He was kind of cute he looked like our little Ricky (chihuahua), but with wings.

I you remember from an earlier post I tried to get some bats on video as you saw that didn't turn out very good. This is my interview with a fruit bat.

World War II and Jolo War II

We had a Medcap today to check out some of the WW II vets that are on the island and their families. Saw them and enjoyed a very hot day under a canopy. Stars and Strips was there as well. So look for us in the next coming months.

It was a pleasant day until...wouldn't you know it we had another fire fight. This time we lost more of our cohorts and were able to treat 9 injured. They are taking quite a beating but showing good spirit. All these guys are around us on a daily basis and we see them all the time here on camp. It is hard to see them come back this way.
We were also able to get into action; the surgeon and I did an exploratory laporotomy. One of the Marines was shot in the pelvic region still don't know if it was twice or not but he was bleeding pretty bad and rushed him to the OR as fast as we could. If you're squeamish don't look.

It is just the surgery not the other guys.

We were fortunate to save his life.

WOW! Candy Time in the PI

Wow is all I can say to the Chugach Stake Young Men and Young Women! Well a couple of weeks ago Sis. Marti Goldberg got all of her youngsters together for a combined activity and sent some sweets to the Soldiers here in the PI.

I received those packs today and distributed about twenty, of the forty they made. I was so very impressed and just as surprised at the reception these big guys gave to the letters that came with the sweets. Watch out for the snake!

Every one of them was very appreciative and happy to receive. It broke up the monotony of being stuck on the camp and not being able to do much more than run security, work out, eat, sleep and get eaten by mosquitoes. I must say they all got a chuckle out of them. Here are some of the results. Of course I had to get into the action.

I had to put this guy in here. Jing does not smile very often but I got one out of him. Thank you Marti!

Trauma Day From...

They are at it again. We had to go help at the trauma center here; there was a fire fight for which we did loose a couple but we got the better of them. Several other counter parts were hit, but not too badly. This one was shot in the ankle.

I remember once when I had to go on a call for a death note in Wasilla as the Alaska State Trooper Chaplain, and the guy's phone kept ringing. Fortunately we couldn't answer it, what would we say anyway? Sure enough all the Phils here have cells and they love to text each other. Needles to say these phones were "ringing off the hook" too.

This is a very sad thing to see. Even tougher are the guys that were out to battle with them, made it back in time to help bring them into the center.

Holy Flying Lizards Batman

Have you ever seen a flying lizard? This one didn't know who he was flying too close to. Greg picked him up after he flew in to a drainage ditch. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. He could be a baby dragon! OK maybe not, but he is really cool. And very colorful, his body was green and when his wings were open they looked like Monarch Butterflies.

MEDCAP #2 Part 2

These girls were are interpreters while seeing patients. They are recent nursing student graduates. They graduated from the local Nortre Dame Jolo. Unfortunately they have no real experience. But they are very eager and helpful. The one in the middle sitting is the one I asked to go get some candy for the kids. I gave her 100P and she and the girl she went with came back with a bag full of gum and candy. (still waiting for the pics)

This is Jim with a patient and his interpreter for the day. He tried getting her to listen to heart and lung sounds as much as he could.

Here is Greg with his interpreter and a forty five year old woman patient.

This is the window I was talking about yesterday. The window almost lines up with the one in the school and I was able to lean out and get these pics. This is what I originally saw out the window then when I leaned out I saw the next pic. I tried to haggle with the store owner by the window but she didn't speak english at all. She did speak money though.

She wanted 350P for the purse that is hanging on the right. I believe it was a knock off as the price is equivalent to $7. I am trying to get out to the market with one of the army guys but I am not allowed to go by myself.

This was the Mall. It was not very big but this is the biggest in Jolo.

MEDCAP #2

This was an early start to a long day we had to meet at 0645 to get to Jolo downtown and set up for a 0900 ceremony start; we did and stood around for two hours before it actually started. It was good to get out and see the kids and parts of town that we haven't seen before. Some of it though we could have done without.

This woman noticed me on the balcony after she was done breastfeeding her kid. She was so excited to see me up there she kept pointing and having her kids wave to me. So they were all to happy to pose for a picture. They love to have there pictures taken.

The sign is for an Elementary school I don't know why they had to point out what we would think to be obvious.

We were disappointed by what the water looked like and not one soul cared. While we were standing by the edge of what looked like a pool of human waste, we witnessed the trash from our medcap being dumped in to the water. The water is THE OCEAN front with tons of homes built right there. The burnt posts sticking out of the water is the remnants of the a house that burned in Mar of 08'. The owners now live in the house on the far left.

Here are some cuties that hung around me and posed for pics all morning. I became more popular when I bought a hundred pesos worth of candy and handed it out with a couple of my cohorts.

I think the kids liked looking at my braces too. They kept trying to get me to smile, which I love to do anyhow. I have the pics of the candy giving coming to me by one of the army guys that went with us. As soon as he sends them to me I will post them. They literally attacked me it was crazy to say the least. I kept looking down at my weapon to see if it was still there because they were bumping into me trying to get the candy I had. I think I will dub myself the new candy bomber like the one from WWII. Which by the way was LDS too. We had his grandson in our ward in California.

So we processed about 300 people today and gave away tons of meds and the ever popular tooth brushes. They like to get them but I'm afraid they don't know how to use them. We ended up having a good time and while doing some good. I can't wait till the next one.

The Fun is Over Again

Well it's not all fun and games here. This was yesterdays events, we have two guys with open abdomens fractured leg and chest tubes. We had our air medics come down and pick them up to take back to the 21st century. We did the work down in the Phil Trauma Center. I think they will make it.