CEBU - A WONDERFUL PLACE FOR WHEELCHAIR TRAINING

  We were excited to go to Cebu, about 1 and 1/2 hours flight to the south. It is a beautiful area and known for Mango's. Now how can you top that, unless it's their famous Lechon (Barbecued Pork).
  We were each able to take a wheelchair with us as one of our pieces of luggage on the flight for free. This gives us a better training if we can have them with us to give to disabled people as we assess them.

 

We arrived on Thursday for a Friday and Saturday training. We were accompanied by RJ Tan and his mother. They have become our tour directors as we travel to new areas. They took us about 2 hours to the south to visit a Catholic Monastery. RJ's mom has made a commitment to go there whenever she goes to Cebu and pray to Mary. It is a beautiful place for them to worship.

 

 

We had several professional people in our group including Physical and Occupational Therapists. They proved invaluable in helping to assess 6 children for intermediate wheelchairs.

 

 

 

We had time to visit downtown Cebu on Friday night after training and saw the Cross that Magellan placed when he arrived in the Philippines. It is actually encased in the cross that you see above. Magellan died here during a mutiny by his crew. The crew wanted to go home, but Magellan had married a local girl and wanted to stay.

 

 

We then drove across town to the Cebu Temple and had a chance to show our friends our beautiful place of worship. We were able to share many things of importance in our faith, including the appearance of Christ in the America's after his resurrection.

 

 

There is always the 'One' that changes your life at each training that we do. Mark was brought in by his mother to be assessed for an intermediate wheelchair. He has brittle bone disease and is very fragile. Even the slightest movement causes him pain. He is 6 years old and very small. You call see the badly formed arms and legs. Bones break and heal very strangely. Becky made a new friend and spent a lot of valuable time with him in helping to comfort him during a painful measuring process. But he went home with a wheelchair that will be a great help in caring for him. His mother now can do part time work to help the family. She will take him to work with her.

 

 

The group consisted of 36 graduates and us as their trainers. You can see an empty chair in the center. That was for Becky who was still comforting a wonderful and loving little Mark.