ISLAND OF BOHOL

Wow, we have been on the go. We have had two of Grant's assistants from home with us to help train the gals over here. Leslie Bain, who most of you know arrived the last week of January and then Pyper came the next week. They were here for one week together to make it do able for the office back home. Now we still have Pyper for the rest of this week. We have tried to do some fun things while they were here. We took a little trip to Bohol where we stayed at the Panglao Island Nature Resort and Spa. It was a very beautiful and restful resort. While there we saw the famous Chocolate Hills, the tarsier monkeys (smallest monkeys in the world), lots of dolphins and beautiful coral and tropical fish. The situation at the clinic has it's ups and downs. Grant is running into restrictions on being able to do IV sedation and that has really slowed things down and put a whole new light on what he will be able to do. I am not sure how things will turn out yet but things have been hard to get going. Grant is having to be patient and that is really hard for him. The other problem right now is that none of the x-ray equipment is working. So things move slowly here but we have really met some wonderful Filipino people as well as Americans. We have also enjoyed seeing the country. It has so many beautiful places once you get out of the crazy Manila traffic. We send you our love and wish you a wonderful Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is a big holiday over here. I tell you what the Filipino's really like to celebrate everything! Each little Baranguy (neighborhood) has all kinds of celebrations. We went to one friends area to see their Santa Nino (baby Jesus) celebration. It is something they look forward to all year. It might be bigger than Christmas and Christmas is very big. We are enjoying getting to know their culture better. They are a very friendly sweet people and yet they have their problems with killing off political opponents during elections and anyone who is an elected official has to have body guards. The judges and political system is all corrupt. The poorest people in America would probably be middle class here. We love this big mess though!