Life in Tabuk: Places, People and Birth
Life in Tabuk is completely different than life in Davao where there are malls, massive traffic walking to and fro to the clinic among many other things. Tabuk is much, much, much smaller if I had to describe it to a Canadian city maybe a Filipino version of Vernon but with no big houses, no malls, instead of horses there are water buffaloes (which people will ride to and fro to the rice feilds) and instead of vineyards there are rice fields. I have visited the market several times already as one can get most things there, fruit, vegetables, school folders, flip flops, laundry supplies, meat (but one should really only get meat in the morning when it is still fresh) coconut milk which is made right in front of you which is how I discovered that coconut milk is made from the flesh of the coconut.....yeah I know I am little ignorant. Oh yes and a place where you can get your clothes fixed which I have taken advantage of and the woman was so kind she absolutely refused to take payment and believe me I tried to pay her. The market is a little like an outside Walmart but way more fun to go to, way more interesting and I also like it better than Walmart so maybe I shouldn't even compare.
Our living area is located just above the clinic, so it is very convenient. Ellora and I share a small room and the other day we got to share it with a gecko, I called him Freddie. There a lot of geckos that like to make an appearance in the house in the evenings, I am getting used to them they actually are really cute and they eat the bugs so I am actually becoming rather fond of them. I am slowly adjusting to the large quantity of ants as well, although we are currently in negotiations about what is their space and my sleeping area it has come to as long as I keep food away from bed they will for the most leave me alone. Ellora and I have seen 4 births since being here and it works well being so close; one of the midwives will come and say "she's starting to push" and we come down to witness the process. For one of the recent births i was allowed to locate the fetal heart beat after each contraction that was really cool! not all of the births have been easy to watch the first we saw here was quite intense, and happened in the middle of the night, after as I headed back to bed I wondered if I would be able to handle this, but the next two births were perfect, one mother even named her baby girl Ellora Vienna after us. The last we saw was quite difficult as the baby had to be taken to the hospital to be put on oxygen, please pray for this baby and her mother. This experience made me truly see the importance of good midwifery care and what the vision of the clinic is, if this baby was born with no medical help it would have died. Yesterday it was announced that the clinic had 6 births within 24 hours it was very busy! Ellora and I have also been able to see how the clinic works during the day hours involving things like prenatal patients. We have started to learn how to take vitals under the supervision of the experinced midwives such as taking blood pressure pulse.
On Saturday there was a health seminar on health and nutrition Ellora and I along with three other women were each given two points along with information to teach to several young mothers. This made me nervous but it went very well Ellora and I assisted each other in portraying the lesson by doing a dialogue skit. My two points were the importance of Iodine in the diet before and after pregnancy and good hygiene to keep germs to a minimum.
Many of the Filipina staff midwives live for certain periods of time above the clinic as well. They are all wonderful individuals and I look forward to getting to know them better. We have a wonderful cook who makes our lunches and suppers 5 1/2 days a week, during the weekend everyone takes turns cooking suppers. We (the single foreigners) are each given a set amount of money during the week for breakfast food.
Story time: A Church Search Adventure
Sunday was yesterday for us and Ellora and I began our church search, we have been warned that trying to divide time between church and life at the clinic can be a challenge so we are hoping we can find a church that will fit well into our new life at the clinic. So here is a funny story about our first week finding a church. We were told about that Fundamental Baptist church that has its service in English, so Ellora and I decided to try it. We decided to take a tricy there (a motorbike with a side car attached) it would be more expensive but it should be easier to get there.....so we thought......so we go to the place where you get a tricy and there is only one, the young driver approaches and asks us if we would like his tricy and I explain
"yes we want to go to Fundamental Baptist church in Bulanao [the name of a section in Tabuk]"
He replies
"yes, yes" so we get on his tricy and he promptly turns in the opposite direction than what I was quite certain was where we were supposed to go, but I thought well maybe he has a better way of getting there but I ask him
"you know where the Fundamental Baptist church is?"
"Yes, like the Seventh day Adventist?"
"No I mean the Baptist church, can you take us there?"
"Yes, yes I can take you there"
"okay wonderful"
the next thing we know we drive up to the seventh day Adventist, of course it is close as it is Sunday which he notes
"oh it's closed"
"yes but we want to go the Baptist church"
"oh the baptist church...." you can tell he doesn't know where that is. But fortunately he did not let that detour him and went on to ask about 4 other people, we begin weaving in and out of back roads and both Ellora and I are thinking where are we?
finally we arrive at a building with a sign that reads "Christian Ambassador Baptist Church" (culture note, we were told that a Filipino even if he doesn't know where a place is he won't admit it because he does not want to be negative or disappoint, so I think this was part of the reason we ended up as we did it also could have been just simple miss communication with the whole language thing)
"Here is the baptist church" the driver says and Ellora disembark and pay him. he drives off and we look at each other and say
"this is not the church" I was a little more lost feeling than Ellora, and was thinknig we should call someone but Ellora said
"lets just go here" turned out we were right on time for the service. A woman shook our hands and in we went to a bench in the back, many people visibly turned their head to look at us (but they were nice looks) and who could blame them I think we were the first white people to ever enter the doors. we sang hymns and then the announcements started and I was so nervous they were going to call us up and make us tell our life story or sing or something (we had been told that this is common) but it was fine, we were only asked to introduce ourselves not unlike little Vavenby church. the sermon was fantastic! turned out it was southern Baptist Church which is where Ellora is from. The preacher preached in Tagalog but for our sake also spoke in English. The church was about the same size as Vavenby church and everyone was very friendly and shook our hands. So in the end it was a lot of fun and is on both our lists of possibly returning. The funny thing is we thought we would never find our way back since we didn't really know where we were (don't worry we had a cell phone, there was no danger) but we found another tricy to take us back and it turned we weren't as far away from the clinic as we thought. In the end it was a lot of fun! Anyway that is my story of the week.
The language
So that brings us to today! We had our first Ilocano lesson, it went well but my goodness I sure hope my mouth muscles will learn the new sounds and my memory will be able to remember the meanings. we will a lesson everyday (for five days a week i think) from 9 AM to 11:30ish AM
With that in Mind here are some prayer requests
1. For the little baby who is in the hospital on Oxygene and her mother (I won't say much than that because I don't know how much I should say for privacy sake)
2. That Ellora and will learn this new language and that I will make myself practice it with other people who speak it
3. That I will continue to develop strong relationships with the other clinic workers
4. that both Ellora and I will be able to find a church
5. that I would adjust and feel at home and develop a retinue
6. for strength in my relationship with God; that it will no diminish but grow.
Oh my that is a very long post don't worry I don't think they will all be this long
all my love to you back home!
