Last Days in Manila

The girls with our ya-ya, Dolce

So I will most likely edit this quite a bit but do want to get the thoughts out before they meld into simply a memory versus the experience of our last week or so. I have a record of experiencing physical drama usually in the form of physical trauma when in major transitions and this time was a good one. A week prior to our departure date I was walking to a dinner event and managed to connect my scalp with a low hanging sign on the side walk. As with any scalp wound lots of bleeding ensued which needed attending before continuing on the the event. Fortunately, there was a convenient store right across from where I wanged my head and my friend went into the establishment and purchased a pack of wipes and a wad of paper towels. I managed to wipe down most of the blood and got it under control to the point where we could continue on to our dinner event. At dinner, I went into the bathroom and gave it a good scrub and applied lots of medicinal alcohol which the maitre d proffered after seeing my predicament. We all agreed it could most likely need some medical attention but it seemed relatively under control and I certainly did not want to leave the event to go to the hospital so we carried on. The next day, I went to the school doctor and after being reprimanded by all the staff in the clinic for not going to the hospital the evening before, she advised that I go to the hospital and get the shots for tetanus a good cleaning and see if they would still stitch it up. I had last period off from school so headed off to Global Hospital down the street from school. Fortunately, this was the only trip to the doctor our family had while in the Philippines and this one was relatively tame. After being reprimanded for not coming in the previous evening by the five various people who tended to me, the doctor decided it was too late for stitches so I would just have to tend to it a lot more and allow it to heal on its own - which it did just fine. Ada ended up being the primary care giver and seems to have a knack and genuine interest in injuries and such.

Last night in Manila.

After this, the final week was a whirlwind of good byes and emotions and packing and repacking and then packing again followed by unpacking everything after finding more stuff and then reconfiguring and reconsidering and then repacking .... and repeat. The challenge was getting all our bags 50 lbs or below. We ended up getting it down to the allotted 8 bags but had one ginormous, 85 pounder that we were just going to pay overweight for. We opted to leave our apartment in Rockwell a few days early to stay in a hotel just to force ourselves to get everything in order without any last minute scrambles. So our last few nights in Manila were spent at the Fairmont which was excellent. We managed to get all our luggage in two Grab Taxis and made it to the airport in plenty of time.