this is my first blog of 2016!
I know it has been awhile since my last blog but here it is at long last
Babies and assignments
The last bit of November saw more babies and an assignment on fetal development, which was very interesting and fascinating! and I learned lots. We finished another assignment on the "Newborn" in December and are now starting to delve into the world of "Breastfeeding"
We have had several busy days in the clinic, one of these days was when I wasn't on a scheduled shift but was there due to watching over a patient that i had been taking care of since her first prenatal visit, and I was doing her labour watch. I ended up staying all day. During this time there were three other babies born, so it was a lot of darting in and out of labour rooms all day. The patient that I was watching over ended up having to be transported to the hospital which was difficult because i had been with her all day and we all wanted her to able to deliver at the clinic. \ but in the end she had a normal and safe delivery.
My supervisor had her baby! A very cute little boy. it was a very difficult labour and in the end it had to be a cesarean, but both mom and baby are doing well, do keep the mom (Novie) in your prayers as she recover and adjusts to motherhood and her baby that he will continue to grow big and strong.
In December I got to greet some more babies into world. Some mothers came in with just long enough for us to prepare the birth room before they pushed their babies out into the world.
I took care of another woman in labour whom I have been aiding during her pregnancy. I was there as she heard her baby;s heart beat for the first time, felt the baby grow as she came back for each visit, stood by her as she labored and got to greet her baby boy into the world. the picture of this little fella is below
Holding one of the baby's I welcomed into the world 6 weeks ago, in this photo he weighs a little over 5 kilos. He and his mama came in for their final check andare doing very well
Recently Ellora and i went to a baby baptism where Ellora was one of the godparents. We were both at the birth of this beautiful baby girl so it was pleasure to meet her family and see the mother again
At the Anglican church where this little darling (the baby) had her christening
Christmas parties
On December 12th we had a Christmas party for all the women that had attended the well baby seminars for all of 2015 (seminars that teach mothers about everything from discipline to family planning to how to handle emergency situations involving their children i.e chocking, diarrhea)
So many women came that we had to have the event outside under a massive tent. There were games, A Christmas message and a whole lot of food!
dishing up the food for the well-baby seminar: not a party till there's pancit, and fried chicken!
On December 20th we had our staff Christmas party which also took place out of doors under a tent. Games were provided for both the kids and adults with lots of fun results. We ate a LOT of food, and all so very delicious! we also had a kids Christmas skit which I had volunteered to organize. Several of the kids of the staff participated. Ellora narrated the Christmas story while the kids acted it all out and I cured them. It went pretty well in the end!
I also did the Christmas message, about five minutes talking about the true meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus and salvation of course :)
During all these festivities a woman came very much in a labour and a few minutes later she gave birth to a baby girl of whom she named Mary Christine (A very cool Christmassy sounding name), The event seemed very fitting for a Midwives Christmas party.
Also during the party everyone's "secret Santa's" were revealed. During the month of December everyone at the clinic had someone else's name (without that person knowing) and was buying them a little gift every week, and then sneaking into a location where they would find it. Every week had a different, the first was "Something Useful" the second week was "something delicouse" and the third was "Something funny" then on teh 20th the person would get the "real gift" and find out who their secret santa was. It was a really fun activity, and my secret Santa ended up being Anie a great midwife and friend who bought be a really nice hand made beg which I absolutely love!
To the theater and return!
Act 1: the thrill of the movies
It turns out that both Ellora and I are star wars fans so the excitement of the latest movie hitting theaters last month did not escape our notice. We do not have a theater in Tabuk so going to seeing movies is certainly not a common activity. However we happen to know of a mall in a nearby city called Cuayan (when I say nearby I mean a three hour drive or a four our trip by bus) that contains a movie theater. So while hoping that nothing would prevent the theater from the showing the film on that specific day, Ellora and I made plans to make the journey via public transportation (on a bus) on December 23rd. We also planned on taking advantage of being in a big mall and hoped to do some shopping as well. The husband of one of our supervisors kindly drove Ellora and I do the buss at the abnormal waking hour of 5:30 a.. in his tricy (see one of my early blog post for discription). the bus took off an hour later. It was a rather bumpy ride as the bus looked like it had seen better days and was bit rattly. There were no windows so we had the pleasure of the fresh country air all the way there. We arrived around 10:00 a.m. in the city of our destination. I should mention at this point that we did not have an exact idea of how we would return, we found out that the bus that we arrived on would return that way but it would not give us enough time to watch our movie, however we were quite sure there would be other means of transportation so we did not worry too much.
After confirming that Star Wars was indeed playing that day we decided on which showing we would go to and then hit a coffee shop where we tried to figure out the best plan of action for getting home. We got some info for a few options and concluded should not have a problem.
We went to our movie: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and it was as or even more epic then we imagined. Both Ellora and are very expressive movies watchers, so we each gasped, squealed and squirmed in our seats. It was so much fun and I highly recommend the movie!
right before going to see the movie we got a random person to commemorate this memorable experience; I am holding up 7 fingers to indicate the 7th episode of star wars; Hay, I'm a fan!
Stuck in Roxas (pronounced Ro-hass)
We did some shopping after, both for clothes and for food. Now comes the interesting part of the story. At this time we had figured that our rout home would consists of taking a jeep to the city of Roax and than a van to Tabuk. We had already confirmed that the jeeps from Cuayan to Roxas continued until 9:00 pm so we had lots of time. However we were not sure how late the vans left from Roxas to Tabuk. While we were in the jeans department of one of the stores; I received a text from my friend in Tabuk whom had been provided me with transportation info. When she realized that we had not left Cuayan yet at 3:00 pm she exclaimed that we would probably miss the van from Roxas to Tabuk because we wouldn't make it to Roxas for the last trip. We could only hope that maybe there would somehow still be one van left.
We finished our shopping, stood in line for a hamburger to go at MacDonald and then packed ourselves into a jeep heading to Roxas by 4:00 pm. By this time I was getting stressed as all I could think about was how I was sure we were going to miss the van to Tabuk. Fortunately Ellora was calm. I would start freaking out and she was all "its fine, its going to be fine" We arrived at the Roxas Van station (which is just a bunch of vans and jeeps on the side of the road, so its more of a van stop) at about 6:00 pm where we talked to a guy about where we needed to go, he told us to wait and we hoped that a van or a jeep would arrive with the destination of Tabuk. The guys came back and said that there were no more jeeps going to Tabuk that night. We hummed and hawd for awhile trying to decide on our options, then another guy came up and volunteered to take us in his jeep for a price of 1500 pesos (about 55 dollars Canadian), which didn't seem a terrible deal.
In the end however due to the fact that the first guy we were talking to seemed to be hinting that maybe we should just wait till morning and Georgia's advice (i was texting her about our situation) to find a hotel and wait till morning; we decided to stay the night. We were pointed in the direction of a hotel which was conveniently across the street. It was a nice hotel with a police post right outside. The hotel was clean and had air conditioning and the luxury of hot showers (we do not have hot showers in our living quarters so it is a real treat any time we get them)
We found our way to a mall like store a few blocks away which you will see by the photo reminded Ellora and I lot of the Emerald City in the wizard of Oz as everything (except the Christmas tree) seemed to be green. we got some clothes and snacks and returned to our hotel for a lovely evening of hot showers, t.v. snacks and a very good sleep.
PureGold store in Roxas which was more green than gold; as in the color
The next morning we returned to Tabuk refreshed and with a great story! in the end we were both quite happy that we got stuck Roxas, it created lovely mini Christmas holiday for us.
Christmas and New Years
Christmas day was nice and relaxing, the night before I had gone to a Christmas eve service at a Catholic church which was my first ever mass. It was really interesting but I was sure tired after as I am not used to staying up that late unless there are babies being born.
Christmas morning we had a lovely Breakfast and just hung out together. For lunch we had fried chicken and spagetti, we watched t.v. and just relaxed. later in the evening we watched a movie by the lights of the Christmas tree
Our Christmas tree, made of bamboo. Pine cones collected when we went to Sagada (they have pine trees there) and hand decorated by Ellora and I
The gang Christmas morning: L-R Ellora, Keri, Maryann, Vienna, Belen. Ana (our lovely cook)
Jess, Ellora, Keri, Vienna, Belen Ana
Christmas Breakfast
Christmas lunch
New Years eve Georiga brought a whole bunch of food for us to eat, including really yummy cookies. Keri also had a box arrive from home full of chocolate and candy which she very kindly shared. lets just say I ate a lot that day. At around 11:40 p.m. Anie, Keri, Jess, Ellora and I headed up to the roof where we watched the fire works display from various locations in Tabuk. It was incredible!!
New Years eve, we all had a cup of hot chocolate while we waited for the fireworks to start at midnight
The next morning all of us who were on shift were tired from our late night but it was worth it!
God as always is teaching and stretching me, this year I feel Him calling me to listen more, which is something that I have been lacking in, in the last few months. Spending time with God is something I have let slide and I want to change that. When I was a child spending time with God seemed so simple and feeling His Presence came with ease, I could never understand why adults had such problems with it. This simplicity is one that I am Prayfully hoping to achieve again by His Grace
As always thank you so much for all your prayers and support
the Prayer request are pretty well the same,
-Assignments
-Clinical work
-Opportunities to share God's love
-Safe deliveries
-Growth and Strength in the Lord
-oh yes and I have this cold that i would really like to go away!
P.S.: Also I now have a nice new computer charger that is working beautifully!
Many Blessing to you all, until next time
Vienna Moilliet, the sheepish midwife
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