Last days in the U.S., for now

Hello!

I have been packing and preparing for my trip to the Philippines non-stop for the last 1.5 weeks in earnest, and actually for quite a long time before that, even before I graduated from Duke. It is unbelievable that all my preparation, all of my daydreams about my trip are finally coming to fruition.

I fly out of JFK tomorrow afternoon, land in Hong Kong and then end up in Manila tomorrow night. If I have internet access at the hotel at which I am staying (which is actually supposed to be quite a nice one-- I got a "de luxe" room for a pretty good price!), then I will post about my trip and maybe some pictures of how tired and jet lagged I am.

Tom Palmeri, the director of Family to Family, the school at which I will be volunteering, sent me an e-mail today, saying that "we have a newborn baby on Camiguin that will probably come to our house within a day or two of arrival and there will be another one in Cagayan that we will get if it survives birth." This was absolutely amazing to me, to be able to save a human life just like that with your bare hands, and really got my juices pumping about the trip.

Right now I am still busy packing and saying my byes for now, so have to get back to that! But I hope to write soon!

Eugene