Jan 2 Blog

Jan 2 Blog

By: Jessica Richart

Today we started off by leaving Mary Johnston and headed to a rural clinic owned by Dr.Opulencia. It was interesting to see what they considered a rural place because it was much different from ours. Although it was outside a big city, it was still a very busy place with lots of traffic. We also were very shocked to find out that his house was actually attached to the clinic. Not only was this unique, but his house was just like a museum! He had many different collections that were displayed all throughout his house. I am sure you will see some glimpses of them because we all took many pictures! 

Dr. Opulencia showed us his clinic and his routines with his patients. For this clinic you don't make any appointments, you just show up and it goes first come first serve. This clinic focuses on anything from the neck and up. The routine that Dr.Opulencia does involves checking all the way inside the nose, mouth/throat, and ears. He does this with instruments that allow him to take pictures of the inside. We could see all the way to their vocal chords! We were able to see Dr.Opulencia work with a few patients as well. One of the patients that some of us saw came in with a stage three tumor on their face. The treatment for this would involve surgery, chemo, and radiation. The problem was that this patient didn't have money to pay for all of that. The doctor was explaining to us how he would give the patient a referral to another place that has the means for governmental help to pay for the medical treatment. It was interesting for us to see how medical assistance can work in the Philippines and the different options patients have. When we were finished in the clinic, we went back into Dr.Opulencia's house where we had lunch. His cooks served us a beautiful meal with different kinds of food to try! I think we all agreed that the food was delicious!! One really cool thing we saw was a car converted into an outdoor grill! He put the grill in the front so when you popped the hatch, instead of seeing and engine you saw a grill! Dr.Opulencia was very open and welcoming. He was very talkative and wanted to take lots of pictures!! Some of us even got a selfie with him! It was an awesome opportunity to see this type of rural clinic and to experience such true hospitality.

Our next and last stop for the day was the resort! Our rooms were absolutely perfect. My favorite part was our balcony that overlooked the lake. You could see the beach and palm trees right up close and mountains and the volcano off in the distance! We were free to go swimming in the lake or pools, hit up the spa, rent bikes, or travel to the local wet market. Unfortunately it ended up a heavy downpour on us, but that didn't stop us from doing any of the activities. In the Philippines the storms come and go fairly quickly. Towards the end of the night, we all sat down and had dinner together. This was a very nice buffet style dinner with new food for us to try! It was a very beautiful day and we were all pretty tired, so we were off to relax and go to bed so that we would be all rested for our hiking trip tomorrow! Stay tuned to hear all about it! :)