The month of September brought, joy, tears, new experiences and transitions. The beginning of the month saw Ellora and I starting a new assignment. We had some buisy days in the clinic and many babies entered the world creating new moms and dads. I met some new people and tried some new things. The main theme of the month however was the bold awareness that it was the last month of having Bina and Alex with us.
New experiences
The girls and I have started attending a new church, it is only five months old and part of the Victory Church which are all around the world. The sermons are in English which is a bonus and the pastor and his wife are a wonderful couple who have an amazing vision for this area. So far we are all really enjoying it so I think most of us will remain there for a good while.
One Sunday after attending the church and after Ellora and I had a wonderful afternoon visiting, we found ourselves out in one of the rice fields playing tag with the local kids, now every time I walk down our road the kids know me on a first name bases, they are a great group of kids and a lot of fun to hang out with.
The following day I experienced something else for the first time. I went to a birthday party with Alex and some of the girls (no a birthday party is not the new experience) and I sang Karioki for the first time! Yeah I know 23 and have never sang karioki pretty sad. Anyway I discovered that it was a lot o fun (even if I am not all that good at it). It was a very enjoyable afternoon eating a ton of food, meeting and talking with new people and hanging out with friends while singing to a video karioki machine.
Clinic life
There are several women that I have been following through their pregnancy since they first came into the clinic. They are such wonderful ladies and it has been an incredible joy to watch their babies grow inside them, watch them as they get excited about becoming mothers and be able to pray for them each visit. this is my favorite part of working here; being able to build relationships with the women and get the opportunity to love them and strive to allow God's light to shine through.
There is so much to learn in the clinic but by God's grace he is leading me and providing me with skills and experiences as I know He sees fit. The clinic has been quite busy the last few weeks with sometimes two or three labours at a time. The other day we had a woman delivering a baby while other women were coming in for prenatal checks, and then several ladies coming in with signs of early labour. Fortunately the other volunteers came down to help. In the end, a beautiful baby came into the world, all the women got excellent care during their prenatal checkups and we got the other women in labour settled in.
Academics
The book studying is going well we are always learning so much. We recently completed an assignment about postpartum care and it has been great being able to apply our book knowledge to the practical clinic world. We have now started our assignment on family planning which so far has proved very interesting
Goodbyes
Well the big event since my last post was saying goodbye to Edolbina her husband Andrew and their little son Ari and also to Alexandra. Alex and Bina (as we tend to call them) have been our senior missionaries in our program and started one year before us. Alas it was time to throw them their big party, say speeches, cry and then a week later say goodbye as they headed back to Canada
Their party was held on the clinic roof covered with colourful tarp and decorated with Christmas lights, we ate delicious food, hung out together and proceeded with a fun and heartfelt program. We all preformed a zuba type dance with steps that all involved midwifery care. The very end of the dance had the grand finale of acting out delivering baby. Ellora and I preformed a song titled "When can i see you again" by owl city and presented Alex and Bina with homemade lanterns made by a guy in the market place to symbolize how they will shine their light for Jesus no matter where they go. The evening ended with everyone taking a turn at the Karioki machine that was rented for the night, it was a lot of fun.
Ellora and I singing our song
at the party on the roof, Ellora, Bina, Alex and I
(the hats are part of our gift to Alex and Bina to help prepare for Canadian cold)
A week later it was time to say goodbye and send them off. Ari was born here in the Philippines so it was a big deal for everyone saying goodbye to him as the girls here have watched him grow since he was still inside his mom. And everyone had come to love these individuals. I wept as I hugged these two wonderful women that have become such good friends and have helped me through so much this past year. It was very hard to say goodbye and I miss them terribly but I know that God has great plans for them wherever they go from here.
Adjustments
So with saying goodbye to people, comes adjustments. Ellora and I are now the most experienced foreign volunteers here which is a little intimidating for both of us but I think it will teach us a lot. I know that I often feel that I should be a certain way have a certain set of skills for this title and so forth but I need to remember to not get caught up in that and just let myself be just where God wants me to be
Pinkeye
Right at about the time we were all getting ready to say goodbye to Alex and Bina the staff here at the clinic all started getting pinkeye (called sore eyes here) it is crazy how contagious it is. Pretty well everyone got it who live at the clinic save about three or four. In the end I think it was less about who was exposed as compared to who had the stronger immune system. I was one of the ones that got it and spent most of that day putting compresses on my eye, turns out green tea begs are very effective!
Thanksgiving
I did a thanksgiving meal for everyone here at the clinic on Sunday, I even found a turkey which my Filipina friend went with me to buy. We bought it live, brought it home and the guys "did him in" the next morning. There was definitely more bone on him than meat but it was still really fun to have turkey. We also had stuffing, sweet potatoes cooked with sugar and butter, green beans (which were pretty stringy) and Jess (one of the American volunteers) made mashed potatoes and Gravy, so good. For dessert we had pumpkin shakes, made from homemade pumpkin puree, bananas, ice cream, spices and what not. It was really nice to have a meal that tasted like a Canadian thanksgiving
our Turkey dinner!
On another note
So I have a technical prayer request (literally) my computer charger is dying, I am currently charging my computer by jamming the charger into the computer via holing it against the wall with my foot while I type (I know it is not very good for my computer but I have no other choice) Ellora's charger has also died so we have been frantically trying to get a hold of two new Lenova computer chargers. we are going looking again today, so if you could pray that we successfully find a way to each get one that would be wonderful!
Thank you all so much for your love and support
Many Blessings
Vienna; the sheepishmidwife
Clinic life
There are several women that I have been following through their pregnancy since they first came into the clinic. They are such wonderful ladies and it has been an incredible joy to watch their babies grow inside them, watch them as they get excited about becoming mothers and be able to pray for them each visit. this is my favorite part of working here; being able to build relationships with the women and get the opportunity to love them and strive to allow God's light to shine through.
There is so much to learn in the clinic but by God's grace he is leading me and providing me with skills and experiences as I know He sees fit. The clinic has been quite busy the last few weeks with sometimes two or three labours at a time. The other day we had a woman delivering a baby while other women were coming in for prenatal checks, and then several ladies coming in with signs of early labour. Fortunately the other volunteers came down to help. In the end, a beautiful baby came into the world, all the women got excellent care during their prenatal checkups and we got the other women in labour settled in.
Academics
The book studying is going well we are always learning so much. We recently completed an assignment about postpartum care and it has been great being able to apply our book knowledge to the practical clinic world. We have now started our assignment on family planning which so far has proved very interesting
Goodbyes
Well the big event since my last post was saying goodbye to Edolbina her husband Andrew and their little son Ari and also to Alexandra. Alex and Bina (as we tend to call them) have been our senior missionaries in our program and started one year before us. Alas it was time to throw them their big party, say speeches, cry and then a week later say goodbye as they headed back to Canada
Their party was held on the clinic roof covered with colourful tarp and decorated with Christmas lights, we ate delicious food, hung out together and proceeded with a fun and heartfelt program. We all preformed a zuba type dance with steps that all involved midwifery care. The very end of the dance had the grand finale of acting out delivering baby. Ellora and I preformed a song titled "When can i see you again" by owl city and presented Alex and Bina with homemade lanterns made by a guy in the market place to symbolize how they will shine their light for Jesus no matter where they go. The evening ended with everyone taking a turn at the Karioki machine that was rented for the night, it was a lot of fun.
Ellora and I singing our song
(the hats are part of our gift to Alex and Bina to help prepare for Canadian cold)
A week later it was time to say goodbye and send them off. Ari was born here in the Philippines so it was a big deal for everyone saying goodbye to him as the girls here have watched him grow since he was still inside his mom. And everyone had come to love these individuals. I wept as I hugged these two wonderful women that have become such good friends and have helped me through so much this past year. It was very hard to say goodbye and I miss them terribly but I know that God has great plans for them wherever they go from here.
Adjustments
So with saying goodbye to people, comes adjustments. Ellora and I are now the most experienced foreign volunteers here which is a little intimidating for both of us but I think it will teach us a lot. I know that I often feel that I should be a certain way have a certain set of skills for this title and so forth but I need to remember to not get caught up in that and just let myself be just where God wants me to be
Pinkeye
Right at about the time we were all getting ready to say goodbye to Alex and Bina the staff here at the clinic all started getting pinkeye (called sore eyes here) it is crazy how contagious it is. Pretty well everyone got it who live at the clinic save about three or four. In the end I think it was less about who was exposed as compared to who had the stronger immune system. I was one of the ones that got it and spent most of that day putting compresses on my eye, turns out green tea begs are very effective!
Thanksgiving
I did a thanksgiving meal for everyone here at the clinic on Sunday, I even found a turkey which my Filipina friend went with me to buy. We bought it live, brought it home and the guys "did him in" the next morning. There was definitely more bone on him than meat but it was still really fun to have turkey. We also had stuffing, sweet potatoes cooked with sugar and butter, green beans (which were pretty stringy) and Jess (one of the American volunteers) made mashed potatoes and Gravy, so good. For dessert we had pumpkin shakes, made from homemade pumpkin puree, bananas, ice cream, spices and what not. It was really nice to have a meal that tasted like a Canadian thanksgiving
our Turkey dinner!
On another note
So I have a technical prayer request (literally) my computer charger is dying, I am currently charging my computer by jamming the charger into the computer via holing it against the wall with my foot while I type (I know it is not very good for my computer but I have no other choice) Ellora's charger has also died so we have been frantically trying to get a hold of two new Lenova computer chargers. we are going looking again today, so if you could pray that we successfully find a way to each get one that would be wonderful!
Thank you all so much for your love and support
Many Blessings
Vienna; the sheepishmidwife
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