Before I get too far allow me to start of by apologizing for the lateness of this blog post. It was meant to be written the last week of March but due to a big assignment due I decided to postpone blogging until the assignment was complete (more on that later) anyway here we are in April, Spring for my fellow Canadians and Summer time here in the Philippines. So where shell we begin....
Clinic/Missionary life
I feel like I have been progressing in skills in the clinic. I really do love helping the women through their labour, whether rubbing their back or speaking encouraging words to them. I am also slowly getting more confident in certain areas some of which I wondered if i could ever grasp. My supervises are really great and are wonderful teachers. I had a really good talk with one of them the other day and she was very encouraging and gave me some good sound advice for some of my weak areas. There are still many, many times when I feel overwhelmed and discouraged at my slowness at getting comfortable at doing and learning certain things but there are also many times to rejoice.
Language
I have also been able to use the language a little more in the clinic, in many ways I should be using it more but I have gotten to where I can ask almost all the questions during a postpartum (the checkup after birth) visit which was an exciting discovery. One of the ladies on staff who understands lots of English but doesn't speak it very often (although she can speak English much better that I can speak Ilocano) told me something the other day and I was shocked that I could understand it! Not word for word mind you but I still knew what she was saying which was very exciting! But the language is still a big weak spot for me so I certainly would not object to prayer for this area!
Academics
As mentioned above there was an assignment due (remember i am a student with National College of Midwifery) that was 107 questions long, we had 4.5 weeks to complete it, it required a lot of focus and dedication but it is now complete! The test is also finished which is equally exciting as some of you know I am not a fan of tests. So now I just have to wait for the results, hopefully next by week, to see how we did. To celibate the completion of our assignment Ellora and I took an afternoon and went swimming at one of the local hotels, we enjoyed some lovely food as well. It was such a nice afternoon. The fact that we live, work and study all in the same building can cause a person to really not get out much so going out for an afternoon to get some sun and water was a fantastic reprieve.
News
Although this does not really have to do with babies it is some fun bit of news; some of you may have heard this already but who cares. My little brother Seth proposed to his girl friend several weeks ago and she said yes! so I will soon have a fourth sister-in-law.
Due to the above news I have other news, my break was originally scheduled for August but I was able to change my month break to June instead for the wedding. So I will be returning to Canada, pretty soon, it will be quite brief, only four weeks, but I am looking forward to it. I will have the honer of being in the wedding party at my brother and his fiancee's wedding. I am also hoping to be able to witness some births as well. I have to see 4 more home births and 1 more hospital birth in order to graduate from National College. So if anyone is expecting in June and wouldn't mind having an extra person there do let me know :) I also am tentatively planning an evening where I will share the work that is being done here and fund raise for the last of the money that is needed for my stay here. I am thinking that the event will most likely be in the second week of June, but I will let you all know when I have more details.
I turned 23! Okay well its not huge news but it fills blog space. Here in the Philippines instead of people dong stuff for you, you do things for them on your birthday; this takes the form of making food or buying food to share. It is actually a really cool thing to do. So for my birthday I made macaroni and cheese (the first time I'd had it since I left Canada) and in the afternoon we had banana splits. It was a lot of fun and I had a nice relaxing evening. It was my first ever birthday spent completely away from family let along outside of Canada
We have a lovely lady Midwife from Kamloops who has come to volunteer for the month of April and it has been a pleasure having her, we are already dreading her departure. When she arrived she brought a ton of chocolate that was sent from the family; it made me so happy I thought I might cry, don't worry i didn't.
Hanging up the jean jacket and Tilly for scrubs and crocks
Well....its April....and for the Moilliet's of Aveley that means one thing....lambs. This marks the second time since my infancy that I will miss a lambing season. I thought that since I had missed one before (when I was at Alberta Bible College) and since I would be surrounded by birth (just the two legged kind instead of the four legged ones) I wouldn't miss the Lambing season as much. But as April first came along and pictures of baby lambs and news about the Aveley Ranch adventures hit the facebook pages it brought with it the emotions of homesickness, but not just any kind of homesickness the kind that makes me miss jean jackets, tilly hats, sheep, lambs, bottles, knives strapped to your belt, afternoon tea, hay bales and water buckets, rain, snow and sun (all in the same day) and everything that spells LAMBING! the April season is after all my second favorite time of year and actually if it really came down to it it would probably win over Christmas which I have typically always said is my favorite time of year. Hence I should not be surprised I find myself greatly missing the busy, exhausting, joyful, difficult, worth-every-minute-of-it 30 days of April.
Lambing is without a doubt a big reason why I wanted to be a midwife, it was during April 2007 that the midwife wheels began to turn. I think I really miss lambing because that is my area of expertise and I feel very comfortable and confident among birthing ewes. But my experience here is still very new and I am still so very green. Whether when it comes to lambing; I have 22 years of experience under my belt, and yes, I counted my first lambing when I was a month old; after all I am pretty sure my mama had me out there in the action even if I couldn't do anything yet.
Has the lambing experience prepared me for human birth experience, actually there has been several moments, especially in the birth room where I think my training as a Midewe (sheep midwife, and yes I just made that up) have helped prepare me. Of course it most ways they are completely different but in other ways there is some familiarity to some of the situations.
So for this year and next year at least, instead of donning a jean jacket, baggy blue jeans and a tilly hat in the morning, I dress in scrubs and head to the field!
A thought of sentimentality - Grandma Alice: It's in my DNA
So instead of a story I thought I would share something a little more sentimental. The other day after a long shift I was feeling a little discouraged about how well I was doing in the clinic and my Grandma Moilliet came to mind. I never knew my Grandma Alice Philips Moilliet. She died several years before my birth but I know her through others. She was the village nurse. She had completed her training before her marriage to my Grandpa. During that time there was no doctor let alone hospital in the area and she was really the only medical person around. This resulted in people bring her their sick, she would lay them on her table or in an extra bed and use all of her expertise to cure them. But nursing the sick wasn't all she did, she was also the town midwife, I even saw her old beg once titled "Midwifery kit". She would cross frozen rivers and go out in storms to help women deliver their babies. For some of these women my Grandma Alice would be all they had. I knew this before I left Canada, in fact the year before I left she had become my inspiration, but I hadn't thought about it for awhile until this recent evening. A wonderful feeling struck me, yes midwifery was hard, learning new concepts was challenging but my Grandma did it. Of course my experience is very different than hers was I suppose but delivering babies is still delivering babies.
I knew I did not want to be a nurse, people suggested that I might want to go that route but I have never really had a desire to be a nurse, not like Midwifery. But even though I am not following Grandma Moilliet's footsteps in nursing I feel honored to be following her steps into Midwifery. Somehow knowing it is in my DNA is reassuring. Of course with this thought comes a new emotion; the great desire to sit over a cup of tea with my grandma and talk babies, I would ask her all about her stories and experiences and soak in all of her wisdom. Although I know I can't speak to her now I am looking forward to that cup of tea in heaven someday where she and I can talk all about babies and mama's giving birth.
Prayer requests and thus ends another post
Well I suppose here is as a good of a place to cease my ramblings as any but before I completely sign off here are a few prayer request
The three usual's - as I maneuver through clinic life, academics, and language
For the clinic - the clinic has been rather slow the last few months and there has been concern that maybe someone has said something bad about the clinic and false rumors are spreading, please pray that if this is the case that they will cease and women will come to the clinic. One of the hospitals also seems to be making some of the patients feel bad about delivering at the clinic the reason: there is no good reason. Please pray that this situation will resolve and for unity among all the health care facilities.
For the women and babies - as always there can never be enough prayer for every women, baby and family member that pass through our doors, for them to be keeps safe and healthy. There is one mother right now who was transported to the hospital from the clinic and her baby was confined for several days she was unable to hold the baby for quite some time, this was probably unnecessary but such is the protocols of the hospital. Although they are both out of the hospital this young woman and her family could definitely benefit from your prayers.
Thanks - My round trip flight for June to come home for that month has been paid for! Family and friends pulled together and the money came through, I was quite shocked at how smoothly it all came together Praise God and thank you too all his people who gave. Thank you everyone for your prayers they truly mean so much! Also there was a guest speaker st church this last Sunday that God really used to yet-again confirm my calling here, and that I am where God want me.
On this note I shell leave you all and sign off, until next time, the sheepish midwife, serving in the Philippines
here are some photos of a walk that Ellora and I took the other week to the river.
a water buffalo
