Looking Back

It has now been three months since we arrived here in Davao City and it's kind of fun to look back and reflect on our time here.  I remember stepping out of the Davao airport and looking across the street at the security guards holding very large guns, and instinctively pulling the kids a little closer and trying to walk a little closer to Steve, not sure if I should make eye contact with the guards or not.  Now three months later, guards with guns are just a normal part of life anywhere we go, really not a big deal. 

I remember the drive from the airport to our friends' house and thinking how there was no way on earth that I was ever going to attempt driving here and really didn't know if I even wanted to leave the house and have to be in a vehicle even if I wasn't the one driving.  That one took a little longer, however now I'm the one behind the wheel, honking my horn, moving into oncoming traffic in order to get around another vehicle and not really giving it a second thought.

I remember my first time on a jeepney trying to figure out how it worked - how do you know which jeepney to take? where do you pay the fare?  how do you know where to get off? how do you let the driver know where you want to get off?  Now I know which jeepney I want to take, I know how to pay and make sure I get my change, I know where to get off  and I know how to let the drive know I need him to stop.

I remember hearing Visayan all around me and thinking it's going to take forever before I can actually understand and speak any little bit of this language.  Now I'm the one using (limited)Visayan in the birth room and clinic and the best part is that for the most part my Visayan is understood.  I'm still working on understanding the answers I get to my questions, but I know it will come.

I remember getting a tour of the prenatal room and seeing one of the interns casually get a tetanus injection to give to one of the buntis and thinking, wow I wonder how long it will take for me to feel that comfortable doing that, and now that's me, doing prenatal check ups on my own and giving injections.

It's amazing to look back and see how much I've learned in these last three months and knowing that there's a lot more to learn, but knowing that it too will come.

Kerri