its been awhile I had hoped to get a blog post up before the new years to fill everyone in on a Christmas at Safe, but the time I was allotting for computer work was all going to finishing my yearly financial report, which is still in progress, though I am down to adding and moving totals around now, I started this blog post while working at Daughters of Faith Lying-in, in Manila and had given up working on my finances as I was trying to add numbers past 4 PM and I was starting to put totals into my calculater instead of my spread sheet. me and numbers only really get along in the morning right after I have had coffee. Anyway, I am now well overdue to post this blog update so here it goes...
Oh baby!
I finally got to get in on a birth shortly before I left Daughters of Faith lying -in in December, it was so nice to be around birth again but I was disappointed no other babies wanted to say hi while I was there, of course after I packed my beg and got ready to leave the labouring mamas started coming in, I considered unpacking my beg and staying an extra day, but I really felt it was time for me to return to Safe, it was hard to leave my new friends here in Quazon. I really enjoy everyone at the clinic and the surrounding ministry, the live in Midwife and I get along really well, and its so nice to just be able to talk about midwifery things. But I said goodbye with promises to return soon. I then proceeded to take a tricy, jeep, MRT and bus all through Manila and back to Tagaytay all on my own, during rush hour I might add, I was pretty proud of this fact as you might be able to tell....
Anyway I was glad I did return when I did because the holidays business started right away, ....
Parties, baking and more!
The day after I arrived home I attended a class Christmas party for one of the elementary girls and went with her mom. In the following days I went shopping for baking supplies, purchased an oven rack (the new oven only came with one rack) this was a half day ordeal as we had to travel 45 minutes by bus to get it. On another day we had a whole afternoon full of baking!! we made ginger bread cookies and sugar cookies, I never did count them all but the three tables we had out were completely covered in cookies, I also lost count of how many people and kids helped, I taught several people how to roll out ginger bread and how to cut the shapes, I didn't do any of the decorating of the cookies as it was a full time job helping kids share the icing tool (in our case small plastic begs with a hole cut in them,) refilling icing decorators making a fresh batch and shuttling the iced cookies to the freezer and fridge to harden the icing before they could be stacked into a plastic container, the thing with baking in a hot country is that things like icing don't harden like it would in Canada ( even in a heated Canadian house) rather it melts, hence why each decorated cookies had to be put in the freezer on a plate before it could be stacked and stored. It was a very exhausting but happy day, the next day we had visitors come from a ministry whom wanted to bless Safe, we offered them the cookies that were made the day before, the girls performed the dance we had been working on, and the visitors gave out gifts.
That evening was our Christmas party, so the house was full!! all of the staff and all of the residents were present. there was much cooking, a Karioki machine was rented for the occasion, we played games, ate, and exchanged our secret Santa gifts, I received a new bed sheet and pillow cases, which I had just said to myself the other day "I wish I had an extra bed sheet," and tada!
There was more baking in the following week! Christmas eve resulted in baking butter tarts and short bread, two of my favorite Christmas treats! that evening I showed everyone a video of the Christmas story in the form of a Children's play performed by the Vavenby Christian Church Sunday school back in 1979 re-vamped by my older brother a few years ago. We then had a candle light ceremony where we incorporated one of my family traditions.... lighting a candle and speaking a promise for the following year everyone also spoke a thanksgiving. It was pretty moving to watch the room slowly shine with candle light as everyone lit their wick and seeing a tradition that I had practiced all my life fit into my additional family at Safe. We finished by singing Christmas carols.
As par Philippine tradition we all stayed up until Midnight to eat in Christmas day, no that is not a typo. The tradition is that you eat a large meal at midnight Christmas morning. My contribution was a massive pot of mashed potatoes. Potatoes are not cheap in the Philippines so its not an item we eat often at Safe, but I splurged and bought 5 kilos worth, We had delicious gravy made from the chicken juices that were cooked by Ate Mercy, she boiled them in Sprite before they were roasted, it was so good and the sprite made some seriously tasty gravy.
It was pretty late..or early by the time the dishes were done and the girls were settled in their rooms for the night, I then helped the staff unpack the gifts. There had been several boxes of donations that had arrived over the weeks leading up to December that had been wrapped by the staff, as well as some brand new toys and some other fun gifts for the girls. I think it was around 2 AM when I finally fell into bed. Everyone was up at 6 AM despite it all though, I slept in a little later and walked over to Safe around 7, W had breakfast and then I led out in Communion, after this, everyone took turns un-wrapping their gifts, everyone got one practical gift of donated clothes and one fun gift, Everyone exclaimed over each gift and there were many many thankful hearts. After gifts I served Hot chocolate made from scratch and brought out the short bread. Sometime after this I escaped to have a small rest, and in the afternoon we (the adults) crowded around my laptop and watched the movie Bird Box, later we put something on for the kids. Christmas day is the day that Emma celibrates her birthday (she does not know her actual date of birth or her exact age) we were originally planning to celebrate on a later date with the other December birthday but one of the former staff members came to celibate Christmas with us and she went out and bought a beautiful cake and furnishings for a massive salad to celebrate Emma. Emma was so pleased by this, it was written all over her face. I was so excited about the salad as this is not a common thing in the Philippines, We all pulled together and created the massive deliciousness, and then consumed the mixture of fresh lettuce, grated carrots, apples red pepper and all sorts of fun stuff, we even had ranch dressing. Tea and Butter tarts topped off the evening.
Christmas Communion, grape juice and flat bread spread with butter honey, to represent the sweetness and great price (honey being very expensive) of the sacrifice of the cross
The rest of the holidays kind of went by in a blur...I made a cake for the other birthday girl in December! that was a lot of fun as I made my first ever Ube Cake! which turned out pretty well, our little girls was giddy the whole evening, basking in the love she received.
News Years eve resulted in more food!! and another late night, I made pizza for the meal at midnight. we even managed to see some fireworks.
It was a busy few weeks of holidays but I enjoyed it, at one point the staff did have to tell me to take a day off to which I eventually agreed. I have realized that I do need to take one full day off a week, I was often feeling guilty about it, figuring I wasn't really working hard enough to warrent a day off, but I noticed that if I didn't take a day of complete rest I started getting more irritated and my nerves begin to get raw at every little thing. so I have been better at being consistent with my offs, when I do take them I usually strive to hide from the world as much as possible, as I often just desire to have a day with as few people around me as possible.
One to ones
One of the things that caused me to be busy over the holidays and into January was that I started taking each of the girls out for some one to one time, sometimes it was coffee, sometimes it was a snack at a fast food place, once it was tea and pastry. The idea was just to build relationship and be a listening ear if they needed it. For awhile I was feeling discouraged that not many of them were opening up, but I reminded myself its not really normal to open up to someone you have only known for a few months, especially when there is still language barriers. But one day, very unexpected and unplanned one of them started opening up, not a lot but enough to make me realize she trusted me enough to do so and be reminded I am not completely useless :) Another girl told me while we were both working in the kitchen that she will miss me when I am gone, I assured her i wasn't going anywhere yet, but I was comforted that these relationships are building, as there is no way I can help anyone if there is no relationship.
taking the kids out for ice cream
So I have been slowly finding my place in the month of January. Every day is different but there is some routines beginning to form. Hanging out with the girls when they get back from school, playing with the kids, working on my financial report (which is almost done!) and continuing to be whatever Safe needs me to be, Oh and there was another massive birthday celebration in January, another five birthday cakes! this time it was Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing, three chocolate layer cakes two with Ube filling, and one Banana Ube cake with chocolate icing (Ube is like a purple sweet potato which is often put into desserts here)
My box from Canada finally arrived!! I want to thank everyone so, so, so much for this wonderful gift, I was amazed how much stuff fit in there, so we had a second Christmas in the middle of January! Some other late Christmas gifts also arrived around the same time so we had an evening of handing out gifts, the girls loved the jewelry and scarves that were given, the kids loved their stuffed animals and the books brought lots of excitement! I shared the beautiful Christmas pudding that arrived from my aunt and it was a hit! I have been relishing the chocolate and coffee and all the little luxuries that arrived and am saving the the hucklberry jam and canned milk (the canned milk here is not pure) almost afraid to use it. I know so many people contributed to this box and I want to thank you for every little thing that was carefully placed and given. I felt overwhelmed with love...
a pop up book from Canada brought some excitment
As indicated at the beginning of this post, near the end of January I headed back to Quazon city to spend 11 days at the clinic again. I was sure that statistics would be on my side this time and that I would get in on several births….not so much, although I got to do some prenatals I only got to assist at one birth since only one baby was born during that time. No question God is teaching me about patience and how I have no control over anything. But I enjoyed my time there, got some reading done, worked finances and this blog post and did get to do some midwifery things. Now I am back in Tagaytay, we have a new missionary, well actually she has been here before but has returned for a 6 month stint, staying at Safe for half the week. she is from the US and is a great gal I think we are going to get along really well. Naomi the international leader and co-founder of Safe will be arriving sometime today with her husband and baby boy and will be here for three weeks
Church
I discovered that there is a Church of Christ (same community of churches as I grew up in) basically next door, I visited there with a friend and really did enjoy it, especially taking communion, I really miss taking communion every week. I have decided that I am going to try and go to both churches and rotate each week, one week at Victory church with the girls (as I do enjoy the church there and the fellowship of going with the girls) and then the next week going to the Church of Christ. We will see how this pans out, but I like the idea of being plugged in at both churches and will at least give it a try for a time.
I have had two language lessons so far, they were brief but very beneficial, I have also t noticed that going to the birthing clinic has helped my language skills, as I am forced to use it in the clinic setting and it just gives a different perspective and environment
Adjusting
Someone just asked me the other week how I was adjusting to living here, and I could tell they were truly interested. I have a hard time answering this question I always think I am going to give a really good answer but every time I try, it never feels like I hit the mark. I realize this is because I am unable to put the emotions of adjusting into words. Its possible it would have been easier if I was in Kalinga as there is a lot of familiarity in that culture whether living in Tagaytay involves a lot of new things. But I also think its more than just culture, as I find that if I take the culture by itself I don't feel like there is a lot of struggle. I do like the the Filipino culture but I think its more that some days I miss the Aveley Ranch-Vavenby-Canadian culture, and some days I am simply homesick, sometimes the homesickness pain is incredibly intense, and if you recall from my blog posts when I was in Canada I was intensely homesick for the Philippines. It truly does seem that no matter where I am in the worlds it seems I am missing some place. But I think overall the biggest adjustment is just that this is a different kind of life than I know, its different than life as a student, life on a sheep ranch or a life delivering babies. These past lifes had very clear results, growing crops, healthy babies and mommies, where I don't always see results on daily bases in this ministry. I also find myself sometimes craving to have someone tell me what to do on a daily basses, when to come to work, when to leave, what assignments I have to do and what deadline I need to meet. Instead I am the one that often needs to make these kinds of decisions. That's not to say that the staff don't ask me to do things, but my daily routine and decisions involved with my life at Safe, time with the girls, activities, when I go to the lying in clinic ect. are all things I am needing to coordinate. This is where I am thankful for my homechooling background as it helped to prepare me for this kind of thing, self learning and self organizing. But that doesn't mean its not tiring at tiems. I have alwasy been someone who naturally follows rather than leads. Sp what I am trying to say involving adjustment? its hard, and challenging but I also know adjustment needs to happen, in the same way that parts on a car need to be adjusted, its a necessary part of life and eventually the adjusting part is complete and one is adjusted. I really love these girls and really love spending time with them, talking with them and learning from them. Lately God has been reminding to be Faithful and to feed his lambs. I am glad the adjustment part id hard, if it wasn't I would have no reason to cry out to God, or to learn and grow.
dance practice
Playing music together
Thankfulness
-For everything that I am learning
-For the progress (as small as it is) in the language
-For God's provision for myself but also for Safe
-For the new Christian friends I have been able to make
Prayers
-Chesa is still having says where she is having seizures, please pray for complete healing, she is very thankful for all your prayers so far,
-For the adjustment process
-Language
-For my missionary visa, which is taking forever to go through!!
As always thank you all for your prayers and support
God Bless you all
thesheepishmidwife
