People's Park/Tagaytay

This weekend we decided that we need to get out of Makati so we took the 1.5 - 2 hour car ride to People's Park and then to Sonya's Garden http://www.sonyasgarden.com/ in Tagaytay.    People's Park is basically a look out point with a picnic area.  From reading reviews on the place it seems as if the place was built by Former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imedla, for the purpose of receiving President Ronald Regan and the first Lady.  The visit was cancelled due to the problems that the Marcos faced at the time and the palace remains unfinished.  
The place is amazing but like most things in the Philippines - extremely run down.  All of the fixtures are falling apart and filled with rust.  It's a shame because it really is a beautiful look out point.  It was foggy on the day that we went but here are some photos:

Photo op by the giant pineapple

The View

It's so bizarre but people/kids really do want to take pictures with Max and his friends.

LADIES.......

Playing in the pineapple

I love Filipino children.  They are so gorgeous and always willing to pose for photos.  I can't wait to get out on my own and take some proper shots.

 After People's Park we headed over to Sonya's garden for a peek of the place and to have lunch.  Lunch was great.  It was quiet with SOFT music playing (no loud techno music for once).  It was outdoors but in a tent of sorts with lots of fresh flowers and fresh food.  I wish that I would of taken a photo of the food.  It was family style/no menu and they brought out salad with fresh fruit/veggies/toppings.  Then for the main meal it was noodles with various toppings and salmon.  Very nice!  It was a nice relaxing lunch.  Even with the children, we all enjoyed it.

My little man is growing up so quickly

On the way home we saw a crazy thing.  A truck full of children.  It was bizarre....it seemed to be a giant cage with about 15 children in it cruising down the highway.  I almost had a heart attack.  Notice how it seems a little lopsided??  Ugh.  We asked our driver about it and he said that they were most likely coming back from a field trip (there is a zoo close by).  Now stick me in a metal cage, drive me down a heavily polluted highway, and top it all of by seeing a white woman taking pictures of me,  I would of screamed.  These children, once they noticed that I was taking a photo of them, got really (really) excited.  They waived to us the whole time we were behind them.  Click on the photo to get the full effect.

Meanial Labor

At school last week Max's group had to clean a wall that they were going to paint.   Max's first experience with meanial labor.  I personally think that it's good for him.  It looked like he enjoyed cleaning the wall and cleaning one of the other children as well!

I was at the school waiting for Max when I overheard a teacher saying to an older group "Okay children, there are no yayas (nannies) in school.  You have two hands so pick up your own shoes".    Love it!

Bitten

So - since we are missing the outdoors we have chosen to play in Ayala Triangle Park.  It's really the only piece of real greenery by our temporary housing.  I let Max run around and have fun....in the grass.  BIG mistake.  When we came home I gave him a bath and he started screaming.

For Max screaming is not uncommon.  As an example: our driver Sammy calls Max an actor because he screams/cries and then a second later he is fine.  Well, this screaming did not stop.  I notice that he was hopping around a little and it looked like his um........penis was a bit red and the area around it was inflammed.  I wasn't really sure what to do so I decided to dry him off and go from there.  The poor little guy was in such a state.  You could tell that he was really in pain and his ummm.....penis seemed to be a little bigger than it was a moment ago.

I knew that there was a doctor in our apartment complex because she was seeing a friend of mine at 6pm (it's nice that the doctors do house calls here).  So, I called down to the front desk and asked them to send the doctor up immediately.  The doctor took a look at him and diagnosed it as a diaper rash.  Really???  A diaper rash.  I don't think so.  I told the doctor (or should I say quack) that she needed to leave so that I could take my son to the hospital.

Of course it took awhile for us to get there.  I had to call the driver and have him come to the apartment which walking distance is 10 min but to drive in traffic it takes 30.  Then we had to get to the hospital which took another 45 min.  My greatest fear here is that I will have to get to the hospital quickly.  I don't see how it would happen unless you were in a helicopter.

We arrive at St. Lukes.  The doctor on duty said to me that it appears that he has a blood clot at the top of his penis.  That there has been some sort of a trauma.  Trauma??  Blood clot???  What the hell is she talking about???  One lady (another doctor) was there and mentioned that it could be a bug bite.  The trauma/blood clot lady rolled her eyes and then started grilling me about his whereabouts that day.  Was I SURE that he didn't fall.  Lady, I said, I don't even have a yaya.  My son is with me 24/7  I would know if he had fallen and hurt himself.  The doctor called a specialist that said if Max didn't have any trouble urinating that we should go home and that we could come back in the morning.  We took off Max's diapers so that they could do a urine sample and we saw that his ummmm....penis was even bigger.  The poor thing...it was like a balloon.  So they called the specialist and insisted that he come in.  In the meantime trauma, blood clot lady was talking about possible blood diseases, etc, etc and I start to cry.    Luckily, the specialist arrives, shines a light on Max's penis, and confirms that he had indeed been bitten.  You could actually see the wound.

Long story short is that he was bitten but by what, we don't know.  So much for Max playing in the grass.  He had to stay for 2 nights at St. Lukes.  It took 2 days for the swelling to go down.
I wish that I would of taken some pictures of his um......penis but I really wouldn't been able to post them anywhere and it just didn't seem right for me to take pictures while he was in pain.  Of course I couldn't resist taking some pictures of him in his cute little hospital nightgown.

Max regressed a bit with the pacifier but honestly I didn't care.  I just wanted him to get better.

 We had to wrap him up so that he didn't pull out his IV

 A basic, standard room at St. Lukes.  Somehow I just didn't feel it was necessary for the delux suite.

 The Cage

 Max with one of the nurses

Max and Me in the Zen garden.  I needed some Zen that's for sure.

Some crazy Filipino art work on the walls.

St Lukes is a really nice hospital.  So nice that I felt like I was in Miami instead of Manila.  And can someone tell me why 90% of the doctors looked like models??  Gorgeous, amazingly dressed, Asian models.  It was bizarre. As I didn't feel frumpy enough after 2 nights at a hospital I had to ride in the elevator with models posing as doctors.  We had to pay the doctor fee in cash (another bizarre thing) which amounted to 16,000 pesos.  That is a whopping 355 chf/usd.    Our total bill came to be about 800 chf/usd  for 2 nights in the nicest hospital around, including the visits by the doctor and the pediatrician, and all of the medication.  Amazing.

I am happy to report that Max is now doing fine and his penis is back to normal!  ;)

Preschool

In Switzerland Max went to daycare twice a week for the WHOLE day.  He started when he was around 6 months old and it was wonderful and it also saved my sanity.  Here in Manila they don't have daycare, they have nannies.  While nannies are a wonderful thing the child is still in the house.  The beauty of day care is that the childre are out of the house and can focus on other things and interact with other children.  It's important to me that my child learns how to play, share, and is around other nationalities.  The only thing that I could find here are a few schools that will do 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours per day.  It's such a small amount of time but at least it is something.  Luckily the one that I liked is the longest at 2 1/2 hours.

It's a really nice school with some green to it!  Here in Manila you don't really get outside that much.  Most activites are indoors at the malls.  I suppose that it is because of the weather but I really need to be outside at times and I want Max to be outside as well.....and poor Callie. Let's not even get started on that!  The school is clean and well maintained and it has a lot of aspects to it that I really like.

There is a field in the middle of the school - with grass!  AND the children run around and play on it!!  There were even children out there today playing soccer.  Amazing!!

There is a large sandbox area with plenty of toys.

There is a garden (imagine that - an actual garden!!) where children sow seeds, water the seeds, and watch them grow.  It teaches them responsibility and allows them witness the fruits of their work.

They have small animals that each group feeds.  Again, teaching about responsibility and life.


Max really enjoyed himself.  It's just a shame that the class isn't longer.  He did however come home and have a nice 3 hour nap.   We are going to have him go three days a week and then maybe when the new year starts we'll do 5 days.