Updates from the field

We are seven days in, feeling happy about what we have learned and the amazing people we have met. I didn't know I was interested in community health financing or microfinance until now! More thoughts on this later, but for now, some tidbits from the past few days.

1. There is a caged bird outside of our hotel room. He says good morning at 5 am, can bark like a dog, meow like a cat, and whistle at you like he's hitting on you. I don't usually want to hurt animals but this one is really asking for it. 

2. Aside from the bird, we are also dealing with some cockroaches, ants, and lizards. In our hotel room. I wouldn't be so irritated if we weren't paying beaucoup amounts of pesos for this place. 

3. Dumaguete was a lovely surprise, I sort of wish I lived there instead of Manila. We met an amazing family, the mom is a physician/community health financing pioneer in the area and has really devoted her life to helping the poor access health services. I was just really inspired by her enthusiasm, dedication, and wisdom. Her daughter is an attorney and started a program to offer HIV/AIDS education for prostitutes. We actually went with her to meet a young lady she has worked with, and it was a really startling experience. (First prostitute I've met in Asia, but Julie's second....you can ask her about that if you want). The young lady looked about 15, was pregnant with her second child, and had psychological challenges that resulted from being abused as a child. It was heartbreaking to see first hand what some people do to survive and what opportunities are lost for a child who is just trying to help her family. 

4. As always, we are still eating well here in the Philippines. The in-laws of our boss at WHO own a Japanese restaurant here in Bacolod so we hit up Inaka last night for some miso soup and sushi. It doesn't beat my favorite, Fins, but was still delicious and a nice break from our usual Filipino fare. And tonight we found an amazing cafe where I had a crabcake and mango salad, we never eat salad here so I gobbled down every vegetable on that plate.  But the main event was dessert, an inside out profiterole and mango cheese ice cream. Yes, you read that correctly, mango cheese! It's delicious, for serious. 

5. And speaking of food, I discovered today that Coolio has a cookbook and cooking show called The Ghetto Gourmet. Google it or youtube it. It's providing much needed laughs in this nasty prison like hotel room. If you act now, you could win a pepper with his autograph on it, sell it on ebay, then use it the money to buy dime bags to measure out your seasoning salt. Clearly, I am starved for entertainment here.