Vaccines for the Philippines Humanitarian Trip 2008

First of all, I have to say a HUGE thank you to my husband for the hundreds of hours he spent preparing for this trip-it was, in my opinion, the best trip so far-and I also want to thank the amazing volunteers we had this year. We had around 30 volunteers come over with the organization. We ran into some cultural glitches along the way, but those things that could have been a big problem made the trip more memorable and seemed to give us some incredible opportunities that we never could have planned. The work was more difficult and labor intensive than we have done in previous years, but everyone worked so hard and didn't complain about the difficult conditions. We started work on 5 houses and provided 3 free medical clinics in different towns on the island of Bohol. We also made sure that we did a lot of fun things-going to the beach, jumping off waterfalls, playing with monkeys and island hopping to name a few- to balance out the work. It was the first year that I wasn't ready to leave when it was time to go home.

The whole group right before we headed into the jungle to haul our wood out for the houses


In the middle of the jungle getting the wood for the houses-this was the COOLEST day! Later we found out their was a huge cobra nest right next to where we were getting our wood.


My friend Katie and I throwing candy out to the kids


Showing off the chocolate chip starfish


Hanging with the darling filipino kids
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Mixing the cement for the foundations


At the beautiful Bohol Beach Club


My cousin Nate and I with the famous transvestite at the giant python cage-yes that is a man-it did two lip syncing performances shortly after this picture


Pete helping the dentists at one of the medical clinics


The special forces army invited us to their camp and let us shoot their huge guns. I was horrible and they told me I needed a lot more practice.


In front of one of the houses we started


This was our beautiful backdrop for where we built the majority of the houses-the town was called "Behind the Clouds"

Aaahhhh....It's so nice (and a little sad) to be home!

It is so great to finally be home! Ryan remembered who we were and seemed to learn TONS of new words while we were gone-but he won't let us leave him for a second-he even comes with us into the bathroom. We got back last Thursday from the Philippines and then a couple days later headed to Lake Powell for a Reichman family reunion. This summer has been so crazy and has flown by-literally going from trip to trip with just enough time in between to get caught up on laundry and pack for the next trip...

And while I am not complaining in anyway about being gone-it is still great to be back in my own house and in my own bed! I have so much to get caught up on and can't wait to read what everyone else has been up to.

Reality check-I go back to work tomorrow which is always a little sad but I am more sad to realize that summer is ending and Pete will be going back to school to start his Master's program in a week and a half-oh well life has to go on right?. I am going to post pictures from our trip to the Philippines so check back-it was amazing! With the last of our trips over for the summer, I keep trying to think up little weekend outings to have something to look forward to so if anyone is up for anything fun just let me know...