My Many Blessings
by Arielle Ocampo

On an early snowy morning in January, my Papa and I left our Raleigh home for the RDU airport. The Northwest flight to Detroit was delayed, thus giving me the extra time to be with my mom and younger brothers, Andrew and Timothy. Already missing them, I cried for a while on the way to Detroit. I am glad I got a window seat. I saw North Carolina from the air. It seemed we were flying over a “sea of ice.” We boarded another flight that flew for 13 hours to Nagoya, Japan, followed by another 4 hour flight for Manila, Philippines. This was my first time to go outside the USA. It was exhausting!

We arrived in Manila late at night. It took us “forever” to get out of the airport. We were met by our relatives and stayed at my grandparents (de Leon) house in Parañaque, Metro-Manila . The next day I was able to visit my Papa’s parents home and met many relatives and young cousins. During our travel I saw many contrasting things that bogged my mind: big buildings amidst the “ghettos”; wooden dilapidated stalls against megamall; Small children selling flowers in the middle of traffic; old cars and new cars; buses and buses everywhere.. The sight and sounds of the surroundings were strange to me. Though I enjoyed riding the jeepney , the traffic was horrible.

After a few days in Manila, we finally arrived in Iloilo City, our home base for CMM 2005. We began the day helping set up the Pharmacy. I counted pills- probably the most pills I would ever see in my life. Every volunteer worked non-stop until the job was done. The next day we traveled about an hour to reach Miagao, the venue for the mission.I held many jobs such as helping with the pharmacy, helping my papa with picture taking, running errands for the doctors. I also gave out candy to the children. They always responded with “Salamat” which means thank you. I really enjoyed this job.

The mission was very successful. Thousands of patients got examined and their prescriptions filled for free. During the mission I have observed that many, though sick and hurting, still had a smile on their face. They were happy to see that we cared. I was very fortunate to have experienced not only the mission but also working with my 2 sets of grandparents. Lolo Art & Lola Mahal de Leon (my Mom’s parents) and Lolo Santos & Lola Rosie Ocampo (my Papa’s parents) who are regular CMM volunteers. I am very glad my grandparents and their friends are doing medical missions every year.

I hope that soon CMM will not only reach out to their brothers and sisters in the Philippines but also to other parts of the world. But if they don’t- I challenge our generation and other generations to carry on this task and try to make the World a better place for the less fortunate.

This trip has helped me more than I have helped the mission. This experience has opened my eyes to see the many blessings I had taken for granted: my happy family; my comfortable home; daily bread; clean water; clean bathrooms; air-conditioning; hot water; law and order; well-ventilated and lighted schools; doctors and hospitals; clean rivers; green surroundings, etc.

I recommend highly to my fellow Phil-American teens to take the opportunity to see the other side of the world, a third world country, in particular, to appreciate this wonderful country of ours, the USA.

* Arielle Ocampo is the 14 yr. old daughter of Edwin and Avelita Ocampo. At the time of the mission Arielle was an 8th grader at East Millbrook. Her grandparents are Art & Rosemary de Leon, Raleigh, NC and Santos & Rosie Ocampo, Durham, NC.