Back in the States

I arrived back in the States on Friday. My trip home was pretty uneventful until I got to the Twin Cities--my plane had a flat tire. After arriving my parents and I headed to Doon for my friends Monica and Jeremy's wedding. Saturday I spent the day resting in Edgerton. Sunday night after church in Sioux Falls I arrived in Orange City.

It feels really good to be back at school. Now I am in a period of transition. I am processing what I learned and saw in the Philippines while preparing to lead seven freshmen in the Boundary Waters. I am so thankful I went on the trip to the Philippines. I was able to learn many things--about nursing, life in a third world country, life away from the comforts of home, thing about myself.

Highlights from my trip!

• Two weeks in Manila with the Kleyns and Smits
• Delivering babies
• Getting an IV in on a 3 month old
• gaining confidence in my assessment skills (its a nursing thing but you want your nurse to have good assessment skills
• Snorkeling in Boracay
• Learning about new foods
• Mangos
• Working in the Public Health (I saw another part of nursing)

Update from my trip

Its been awhile since I have posted and my father kindly reminded me that not everyone has facebook. Sorry to those of you looking for an update. I will give it backwards starting with today August 1

August 1 Today I attended the First Reformed Church in Bulacan. Rev. Kleyn preaches here the first Sunday of every month. He preached two services back to back and then we had lunch. After lunch Sharon and I visited with the ladies but this was difficult because the people only speak English when talking directly to us. After a while we had a class on the Church Order. This was led by Rev. Kleyn. It was the first lesson on the subject. The saints at First Reformed wish to learn and study the Church Order so that some day they can have stronger ties with the BPRCP.
July 31-- Saturday was a lazy day. I spent a lot of time on the computer working on homework for school. I know crazy its not even started and I have homework. In the afternoon Tricia, Irene, Carl, Sharon and I went shopping in Antipolo. Shopping is always an experience because things are some what different than in the States. Items that I would think go together are not. Also everything is in smaller packages.
July 30-- The Smit children came over to the Kleyns for awhile to entertain me. That evening we had the Smit family over for supper and then I showed my pictures of my trip to them.
July 29--The Kleyns, Smits, and I went to the Ocean Manila for an outing. this is an aquarium which is right next to Manila Bay. There was a tunnel that we could walk through and the fish swam right over us. We spend a lot of time just sitting there looking at the fish. This was very nice for the kids and all of us had a good time. We also had breakfast/lunch at the pancake out. At night Rev. Smit, John, Rebekah, Rev. Kleyn, Sharon and I went to SM Tay Tay for some Dairy Queen ice cream.

July 28--I spent most of the day at the Smit's home today. Tricia, the kids, and I went to Faith Academy to look at the children's new classrooms and to swim. Back that their house I played chess with John, read books, and played on the computer