I know, I know it has been forever! I am surprised my sister (who usually gets on my when I haven't blogged in awhile) hasn't sent me any frantic facebook messages asking about me next post ;) but here I am again at long last, typing out another update for those of you who take the time to read it. So what has happened.....well last I left you I had had a crazy busy month, since then things have come to an incredible quite state at least as far as births, other areas of my life have certainly been active, i went on my first tropical vacation!!! which was fantastic, metsome new people, more assignments thrown my way and some babies and pregnant bellies sprinkled throughout, oh yeah, and I turned 24. Yikes!! how did that happen?
The cake!
so I mentioned that i was going to attempt a black Forrest cake for my birthday, as that it is the custom here, if its your day you make a meal, or snack for everyone else, the result is that everyone is super excited about everyone's birthday :). Anyway to my great delight and almost surprise, it worked! it actually tasted like a Black Forrest cake which made me super happy!
The black Forrest cake, te girls decorated for me, so sweet of them :)
That evening Jess and Ellora took me to our hangout place, Total Gas station (which is nicer than it sounds) and hung out together.
The Holiday
So both Ellora and I get two weeks off of clinicals and we decided to use one of our weeks to escape to the
island of Palawan in the city of Peurto Princessa. We were eager for a break as we have had little rest from assignments and felt the need to just be still for awhile. So we packed our begs and via bus and plane headed on Holiday.
We booked two tours, one to see the Underground river (one of the new 7 wonders of the world) and another to go island hoping. One day we spent the entire day at the beach and got so burnt our skin hurt for several days but it was worth it! we spent some time at a coffee shop, watched a movie in the cinema (the Jungle book) we swam in clear blue water (which was so warm), ate some really good food; indluding crab (first time I had actually crab in the shell) and lamb (well it was lamb mixed with beef but the first time I have tasted lamb in almost a year!) and hung out at the local mall. Most evenings we sprawled on our beds with our noses in our novels reading like it was going out of style ( if truth be told it sort of is) it was really fun reading something other than midwife textbooks or something on our required reading list, just pure fluffy romance novels!
the beach: about a 5 minute walk from our guest house
After a week we returned to life in the clinic, with peeling skin, a little darker and happy
Hellos and goodbyes
We have had two interns staying with us, both observing the life of the midwives here at Abundant. Both of them have fit in very nicely one of them will be here for two and half more months.
As often happens here at Abundant, there are many hellos and just as many goodbyes. Jess one of the other volunteers here, whom arrived a little over a year ago headed back to the States. She had a terrible time saying goodbye and we had a terrible time letting her go. She has gone on to pursue higher education and although we all agree it is the right decision for her to move on we still threatened to lock her in her room :) We miss you Jess!
Church life
I am continuing to enjoy attending our church. Recently Ellora and I have been meeting with our pastor's wife weekly to enjoy a cup of tea, visiting and discipleship, we have only done it twice so far but i am very much enjoying it, and it is refreshing to have an excuse to get outside of the clinic for awhile and take in the wisdom of a Christian woman who as been walking the straight and narrow for awhile now.
God, as always teaches, stretches and molds me, not in dramatic ways but softly. Trust seems to be the common theme, it feels like every time I go to ask Him about something, His still small voice responds with Trust me,"
Clinic life.
This last month was a little slow as far as births but we are hopeful it will pick up soon. it is after all our slow season. Yes believe t or not there are fast months and slow months for babies. But as always life in the clinic is never dull. There was one birth the other day where the baby of a young mother was born beautifully into the world but failed to start breathing right away. We stimulated him by rubbing him with a blanket (his heart beat was fine; just didn't feel like breathing yet) and then gave some puffs of air. During this time I spoke to the mother, telling her to talk to her baby. Her entire family were in distress and in tears at this point. Despite the fact that she (the mother) was crying she started to call to him through her tears while he lay on her stomach during the process of giving him air. While she talked to her newborn son he finally started crying and breathing and we all praised the baby for his effort and said a silent prayer of thanksgiving.
I hear of people who are not to keen on midwives because they believe them to not be as safe as a doctor. Although I agree that doctors are trained in emergency situations (which is why a patient is always referred when there is a complication beyond the midwife's skill level) and we need to have doctors and midwives work closely together, I would like to kindly inform the world that I have seen these midwives save lives an perform excellently whenever a complication does come up unexpectedly. whether its a hemorrhage, a stuck baby or an infant that doesn't cry right away. Midwifery is not just about loving care, rather it provides safe care in a loving manner. It is pretty amazing to be a part of this team and see these women at work.
I am holding the baby from the story above, he is 6 weeks old in this picture
I have been happy with how my skills are slowly improving. There have been things that I have taken longer to get the hang of but slowly and surely my hands are understanding how to tackle certain tasks and my the heart beats a little less fast before certain procedures. I remember not long after I arrived I thought, maybe this isn't for me, because things are not coming naturally. But I have discovered (and I think I mentioned this before) that just because we are not "natural at something" doesn't mean we are not meant to do it. For example I am gonna take a guess that Moses did not feel like a natural leader, I mean the guy had issues with speaking in public for pity's sake. But God made it clear that he (Moses) was going to lead an entire nation out of Egypt anyway. So God gave him the tools to do it. In fact I think if one looks through the Bible God often takes people out of occupations that they are "natural" at and puts them into areas that are new and foreign to them, but he also teaches them and guides them.
Okay that was my deep though for the month :)
Another April from home
So I got through another lambing season away from home. The first was in Bible college and the second was last year. It is the time of year I miss home the most, possibly as much or even more than Christmas if you can believe it. Last year was really hard, this year was better. There were a few moments when i saw pictures of lambs and the people working in the pens, that I shed a few tears. What can I say, I love being among sheep I always have and I always will whether I end back on Aveley or in some far away land. The strange thing is, that Lord willing I will be back for lambing next year.
Computer unfortunates
My computer had a break down! yeah talk about STRESSED OUT! Okay so it wasn't really a break down but I woke up one morning about two weeks ago and my computer had wiped everything, it was like it had gone back to factory settings and I couldn't find any of my pictures or documents, including my current assignment. and note that this compute is 6 years old so that was 6 years of information I had that was simply gone...or so I thought. Fortunately with the help of one of my cousins via Facebook I was able to locate everything which had automatically backed up onto my internal hard drive. My computer still isn't completely back to what it was but I have the info back, so that is good enough to me. Thank you Jesus!
Another medical team came from Canada via Samaritans purse, to provide a free medical clinic to the tribal villages in the mountains. I did not attend as I and several others had to stay at the clinic while the midwives who spoke the local dialect went to help. After a week in the villages the team came to the clinic for two days of outreach here. It was packed with a LOT of people who came for medical check ups and eye checkups. during the tribal outreach they also had a dentist who did extractions.
In total the medical team saw 1500 people!
The day before the tram left they had a banquet and pool party. Near the end of the banquet one of our pregnant midwives Rema who had been in labour since that afternoon and had gone swimming and everything, decided her baby was getting serious about being born. So she and several other midwives headed back to the clinic where a few hours later she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy!!
Weather and thoughts on weather
For any of you who wonder what the weather is like here, Well we are in our summer right now and it is hot. actually it is less hot now than it was at the beginning of the month. However we all agree it is much hotter than last year. I am probably only mentioning this in my blog because I am sitting here on my bed sweating like crazy cause not only is it hot but we have "brown out" the term used for a power outage, which means my fan is not working...yikes! its okay it can;t last forever.....and actually right now we are hitting rainy season which means we get these incredible rains every night and awe inspiring lighting storms.
Really I have never seen such incredible lighting storms before. The other evening I was sitting on the veranda overlooking the rice fields and was watching the lighting in the distance. The streaks of white light danced across the sky and seemed to touch the peaks of the mountains. I felt this sort of Holy moment, as me eyes beheld the sight. Lightening is such a mighty and powerful thing, dangerous even, and yet it is beautiful, almost a reflection of a particle of God's character, not that i am trying to compare creation to the creator, but as a painting reflect the painters emotions I think perhaps God's creation may reflect His to some extent. Whatever the case, watching the lightening storm reminded that God is so incredibility mighty, strong and even fierce, but He is also beautiful and loving. We have such a mighty and powerful God who for reasons that are beyond us loves us to heights greater than our sight. Its pretty amazing when you think about it.
Okay so I guess that's my second deep thought for today, last one, promise! ;)
So my life continues on, I have 9 more months here and I am determined to savor each moment. which brings me to another item. I have one more semester to pay for. So far people have been great at coming forward with a little here and a little there but I am still about 3000 USD short. Again I am not trying to pressure anyone to donate but if someone felt led or inclined to any amount is always lovingly received. You can donate here, on my blog through paypall, through my gofundme account https://www.gofundme.com/CallTheMidwife or can give it to my mom Karen Moilliet who can put it directly into my account.
Well I think that's all for this post folks I hope that you are well and enjoying life. Thanks for taking the time to read, I know there are plenty of other things you could be doing
Prayer requests: for the patiens and their families and all of the staff, Two other midwives are also pregnant, so prayers for their safe pregnancies goes appreciated.
Until next time, over and out,
the thesheepishmidwife
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