Anna in the Philippines: A beach vacation, and back to the field

I'm in the Western Visayas Region (Region 6) this week and next, working on the same kind of monitoring/supervisory visits that we were doing in the Capitol Region and Central Luzon. It's amazing how many overlapping themes we see, and it's equally stunning how many differences there are between the regions. Western Visayas has been the epicenter of a major measles outbreak that started in 2010 and continued through most of last year. They saw several hundred cases in 2012, and even the midwives and Barangay Health Workers at the community level are quite attuned to the fact that there's an outbreak, and have their radars up for the disease. It's a big difference from parts of the rest of the country where the attitude of "we don't have that here anymore" can take over and get in the way of surveillance (I think that this is still a problem in the US as well...it's hard to keep your eyes open for diseases that haven't been around in a decade or more!). There are of course other challenges here in this region, and it still remains to be seen whether the measles transmission is done with for now, but it's been interesting to see the intense focus on a single disease here and to see how it has played out. I'm also enjoying hanging out with a team that has a ridiculous, bawdy sense of humor and that loves going on adventures after the hard work is done for the day (chocolate cake! photo shoot at a "mountain resort" with kitschy superhero statutes! visit to a historical site!). It's a fun group to be sure. Incredibly, I have just one more week of field work left, before heading to a national immunization meeting, and then spending a week in Manila wrapping things up and writing reports. This time has flown by, and at the same time, it has felt like a long while to be away from home, work, and my wonderful fiance. I would be lying to say that I wasn't excited about going home, but I've also savored this experience and am glad that I came.

During the Holy Week holiday last weekend, Chinyere (one of the other STOPers, a CDC fellow in my same program) and I went to Boracay, the famous party beach here. It felt like half of Manila was there, and it was incredible that the beach felt somehow both chaotic--swarming with people--and simultaneously incredibly peaceful and restful. We stayed at a sweet little family-owned hotel a couple of minute walk from the beach, and we had a fantastic weekend. Swam in the crystal blue water as many times as was feasible in 72 hours, got a year's worth of Vitamin D, went sunset sailing and on a hilariously boozy island hopping tour with a bunch of backpackers who seemed like spring breakers (we were not anticipating that!). I jumped off of a cliff into the dark turquoise water. Tried SCUBA diving for the first time (best. thing. ever.). Chinyere got two or three massages by the beachside. It was a lovely weekend, and felt like a vacation. How lucky am I to be here in the Philippines??

I'll leave it for now with a few pics.

It certainly wasn't a deserted island but it was still beautiful!

Sunset on the beach

Sail away

EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunization) Team in Region 6, at a mountain resort for a little R&R after a long day of monitoring visits at health centers