Early this morning, Jonah and Rony headed to Saint Thomas University, the oldest in the Philippines, to begin a two day workshop with psychologists, students and staff there. We were greeted by the director of the Philippine Association of Psychology and ushered to the presentation room. There, we found a traditionally shaped lecture hall with seats fixed to the ground and facing the front of the room.

Rony and I looked at each other and agreed, after some maneuvering, that it would work well enough, and we began to strategize ways to get people out of their seats just the same. This meant working with the circle with many chairs between us; not my favorite obstacle.

Luckily, a number of the participants in this group were actually also in the first group Michelle and I ran at Rizal Technological University on the first day! So, they were ready to jump right in and able to help keep the room engaged in the PLAYshop.

Rony ran most of the day, culminating in a mock emergency exercise in which some participants acted as victims while others acted as caregivers in a chaotic, often dramatic event. We then discussed the events, piece by piece, and came to a greater understanding of some best practices in emergency trauma circumstances.

As the next day was to be my last in Manila, I elected to take a day to look around and prepare for my departure. Michelle had intended to work with a group of kids but those plans had fallen through at the last minute, as they sometimes can, so she and I took some time to debrief and let Rony complete his presentation without us.