To await the fate of a post that's late

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

                                                the underground river

                                              Cowrie Island: one of the islands we "hopped"

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!

In other news: medical team and a baby
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

March marches in

Is it really March already? how did that happen?
Life has continued on since my last blog, there have been babies, assignments, church, and outings.

Life in general
Not gonna lie to you I am a little fuzzy as to what happened in January, we did have a great assignment on breastfeeding which was really interesting and very informative.  In December we had the assignment on fetal development, part of the assignment include Ellora and I collaborating and coming up with a teaching material.  We got to use this teaching material when we went on our out reach to Bugnay, which was pretty neat.
Speaking of which you might remember Bugnay from a previous post, Ellora and  spent some there shortly after we came here.  Anyway there is a maternity clinic but unfortunately it has to be closed down temporarily until we get supervisors trained and renovations done/  There is a big need for this clinic as the village women have no other facility to give birth unless they manage to find a car that can drive them the hour or more drive to the hospital.  Until the clinic is "rebooted" w are doing monthly day trips to do prenatal and postpartum care.

Clinic life
February saw lots of babies into the world.  Last year there were only nine births in February, this year there were nineteen,  a record month for February which is typically quite slow.  I had a lot of patients that I watched over and it was a very busy time but also very rewarding.  One such time, early in the month after the baby has been delivered I was sitting in the labor room while the mother and her new son were cuddling, she turned to me and said "thank you mam," I replied simply that she had done all the work and then she replied "yes but thank you for not leaving me." it was a really cool moment.  It is moments like that, that remind me I am where I am meant to be.

There was another baby that I witnessed into the world whom was very small, 2.1 kilos to be exact which is 4.6 pounds, this is considered to be an abnormally small baby.  In most hospital facilities the protocol would be to take the baby away from the mother and put him in an incubator, in some situations this is a good thing, however in other cases the best thing is to put the baby skin to skin with the mother.  This is what we did.  sometimes small babies can have a hard time breathing or just coping well, but as long as that baby was skin to skin with her mama she was just fine.  The little baby is currently gaining weight very well.

Assignments anyone?
In January we had an assignment on breastfeeding which was super interesting, we learned so much, I did a presentation with one of the other girls where we interviewed different people about their breastfeeding experience and noted the similarities and dissimilarities.  It was really neat to be able to talk to women with different backgrounds, beliefs and experiences on the matter.

February saw us working on a Nutrition and an Art assignment.  The nutrition assignment was very interesting and I leaned lots, I am pretty sure I am eating more vegetables because of it.  I also had a lot of fun with our Art assignment, where we got to write a short story about a fictional midwife, I set my story in 1983 Edmonton about a frontier midwife.  It was a lot of fun to write.  I also put together a picture video with music which represented my journey to midwifery.  I got the other clinic staff and volunteers to help me with different picture poses and put it all to music.  I was very happy with the result.  I really liked this project because it shows how God really paved the way for me.  Even though I felt like I was swimming up stream to get here, the truth is that God was very carefully placing stepping stones in front of me.

And in other news!

I was in a parade!!! Okay so I grew up watching the Mayday parade (and when i say grew up I mean I saw it like maybe three times) and I always wanted to be in a parade and my wish came true.  Every year in February overlapping with Valentines day all of Kalinga (our province) celebrates Kalinga day, which is really Kalinga week because it lasts for 7 days.  Anyway there are several parades that occur during the week and on the last day of the celebrations the Abundant Grace of God clinic staff and volunteers joined the procession.  we all dressed in our purple scrubs with the clinic's logo and marched through Tabuk while throwing candy to the kids.  It was a lot of fun, a little hot but fun nonetheless.

And speaking of Kalinga day! we deffinitly got in on some of teh fun besides just teh parade.  One the first day, I went with several of the girls and Catao and I went on the ferrest weel which was really fun! we also went on the "scary train" ride, which really wasn't that scary.  We ate Shawarma and hung out.  On the last day of teh celibration (after the parade) we went and ate more Shawarma (shawarma is a big thing on Kalinga day and really good!!!) here is a picture of us eating Shawarma

So life continues.  It is a good life, sometimes it is hard other times it is full of joy.  Things that were once so foreign when I arrived a year and half now have now become familiar, like hailing a tricy or jeepney, eating rice 2-3 times a day, doing laundry by hand, maneuvering through the market place to find the best fruits and vegetables and knowing the best days to go, and delving into the world of midwifery.

                                             a day in the clinic

                                               
                                                 Midwife power!

Thank you all so much for your continual support and prayers throughout this journey

A little money talk
So I haven't talked a lot about finances recently but I realize that I need to let you all know where I stand.  I do not have enough money for my last semester, never mind my plane trip home and of course other expenses that come up.  The Canadian dollar is not helping matters either.  In August I will need to pay my final semester which is about $5000 US where the dollar stands now it will cost me almost $7000 Canadian.  As I cannot work overseas because I am on a missionary visa not a workers visa I am dependent on donations.  I also want to take this moment to thank everyone who already has been donating to me, it means so much! thank you!  I also know that some of you want to donate but can't or don't feel you are in place where you can.  But prayer is a huge need! for both the incoming of income and for the rise of the Canadian dollar.  If you are interested in donating you can do so through several ways, if you know my mother Karen, you can give cash or cheque to her and she can deposit it into my account, you can also use the paypall account linked to this blog, or you can pay through my GoFundMe which my mother set up for me.  I think you can find it under Vienna Moilliet. Again no pressure to donate its just if you feel led.

Thus ends another blog post from thesheepishmidwife

P.S. so next week is my 24th birthday and I am going to attempt to make a black forest cake, hoping and praying it goes well, yes i am praying, I believe God also cares about randoms details in our life such as black forest cakes :) I will let you know how it turns out in the next post.

Farrell for now friends!

A New Year

Greeting everyone!
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

Post 25!!!

My 25th post wow how time flies, it does not seem so long ago that my sister and I sat in a Starbucks coffee shop and she helped me set this blog up for me! Is it really November 17 now!? craziness!! time goes by so fast it is hard to keep up with it but here we are nontheless with less than two months left of 2015.  lots has happened since my last post so I will waste little time babbling on and on and get to it

A trip and a bit
As a treat Georgia help to finance a special trip for us missionaries, Keri, Jess, Ellora and myself at the end of October/begining of November.  It was a really great time together and we had a lot of fun. The first day we traveled to Bugnay (which if you remember from a previous post is a mountain village where Ellora and I spent 2 weeks a year ago.

After we arrived we spent the afternoon and evening visiting with one of the midwives that was working at the maternity clinic (which is where we stayed) that day and just taking it easy, we even pulled together and made a Filipino dish of lumpia (spring rolls) which tasted quite good!

The next morning we hiked up to Buscalin which is a beautiful village set among the rolling Kalingan mountains and rice terraces.  We met some tourists from manila and had some great conversations, Keri loves to pray for people so we prayed for several people while we were there, including a local lady who invited us in for coffee.
We made the beautiful hike down that afternoon, Keri and Jess went down into Bugnay to visit some of their friends that they made while they were staying in Bugnay last summer, while Ellora and I had a nap and a relaxing evening of heartfelt talks and then made a supper of spaghetti.

The next morning we caught the local transit (a jeepney) which took us to Sagada the famous town where a lot of tourist find themselves.  It is a great place! we checked into our guest house, and then had an amazing lunch.  The town is famous for many things, one of them being yogurt which we all had took part in for our lunch and it was so good!!! We hung our for the day, exploring, having coffee and cake and each getting a full body massage which was amazing!

The next day three of us (as Jess stayed back due to a fever) went to do some caving.  Sagada is also famous for its caves and guided expeditions.  We chose a cave that we all felt we could handle (that didn't involve anything too physical) and headed out.  It was AMAZING we headed into the depths of the mountain where except for our guide's lantern was completely dark, we saw rock formation and took our shoes off so we could easily tread through the streams and pools of water and climb over rocks that you could pretty well scale with your bare feet due to its texture.  It was a great experience and amazed me at how amazing our God and Creator truly is.

That evening we went on another tour of the area, and te next morning we were taken to see the sunrise.  Sagada is one of the coldest places in the area and that morning it was about 15 degrees,  i had not been anything that cold for about a year and half, and I was not dressed properly so it was very cold, but it was also very beautiful. After that our tour guide took as to catch out jeep but we missed unfortunately, but our was guide was very nice and took us to the next town where we were able to catch the bus that would take us all the way back to Tabuk city.


and now for some photos....

                                                 making supper all Filipino like

                                                     Before our great hike

                                                  The Philippines really is beautiful!

                                                        Trails

                                                      Yogurt with wild honey in Sagada at the "Yogurt House"

                                                    Sunrise in Sagada

Medical Mission
After the trip we then drew our attention to a medical mission that was coming from Canada with Sameratins Purse. It was a group of nurses, doctors, an eye doctor and dentists.  All of the staff at the clinic had the opportunity to join them whenever they could.  They went to a different tribal village every day and offered their services.  Many of the people they saw had never been to eye doctor or dentist before.  People who needed them received a pair of glasses that allowed them to actually see! hundreds of teeth got pulled and a ton of fillings were done.  Many people got to express their medical concerns to the doctors and receive advice and medicine to help their various ailments.
I was able to go for three of the days that they did their mission. The first two days I mainly just escorted people from point A to point B and helped in the flow of traffic.  The first day I realized how much Illocano I could speak as I was forced to use a fair bit, however the local language is different than Illocano so it was still a challenge.

The last day I went which was also the last day of the mission I helped in the pharmacy area, where I helped to fill out prescriptions and got to mix up cough medicines which was fun.  In the afternoon I got pulled into the dental area where I held a flashlight for the dentist while she did fillings.  It was incredible to watch her work, and see what really happens when you get fillings.  I watched as she turned blackened teeth into pearly whites as if there had never been a problem.
That night we had a party at the last village; Pakak which is a personal favorite of mine among the villages.  The children preformed a traditional dance, people sang and then we ate, it was all so good!! After the meal the adults preformed a traditional dance, which was simply amazing, I even got to get up and dance for one of them. it was all wonderful experience and lots of fun

Sunday night there was a final party that they mission group put on for everyone who helped, it was at the really nice hotel in town, we swam, visited and ate more good food and then said our final goodbyes. They really are a great group of people and I sincerely hope that our paths will cross again in this world.

                                                      A day with the Medical mission team

Clinic life
the clinic has been busy! the day before we left on our trip there were 4 births within 12 hours.  One woman was pushing as I arrived on shift, after she delivered I was helping with another labour, then another woman starting pushing I went to go help with that labour, an hour or so later the third starting pushing which we all helped with, her baby got stuck on the way out so it was good we had lots of help.   The baby girl came out safe and sound but a little help to breath at first but she cried showing off her lungs.  She was such a cute little thing.  In the midst of all these babies another woman came in with labour pains, she delivered later in the afternoon.  That was just one day! Just yesterday I was unable to finish this post due to them needing an extra person in the clinic since there were two ladies pushing at the same time, Then I was on night shift and there was a another labour which I continued with until after the shift was over which resulted in a very tired midwife who was very eager for nap this afternoon :).  I have been able to help with many births the last few weeks and it has been really grand; I am learning lots for sure!

The other day we had our well-baby seminar and the subject was family planning (birth control methods) I had the privilege of teaching on Intrauterine Devices and Condoms.  I actually managed to get through the whole condom explanation and demonstration (with banana) without blushing.  Sorry I hope this isn't too much information. I am  talking more and more like a midwife every day!

Teachings
God has been working lots on my heart of late, well actually  I think He is always working on me, I just feel it more times than others.  He has definitely been teaching me about humility and how to let go things.  I am also learning that I need to give m fears over to Him.

I have discovered that I struggle with being confident in who I am and who God has created me to be.  Often I look at Christians and think that I ought to be like them, that they have it right and that I am failing in the areas where they are strong.  All though I believe it is important to admire people's strong areas and look up to certain kinds of people, God has brought the verse from Romans to be me saying "the thing molded will not say to the molder "why did you make me like this?" will it" (Roman 9:20) I realize that I often I have done this, sometimes wishing I was made a little bit differently.  But God has been showing me that He has made me as I am and although of course he will keep molding me and forming me I have to allow God to use me as He made me and try and be like someone else.   This is something that I never realized that I struggled with until I came here where people think differently than I do an the environment is different than what I grew up with

Missing home but happy to be here
This is the time of year that I miss home the most why? the snow of course! this will be the second year in my life where I will not see snow and I miss it so much and all that it comes with....fire places, snow men, sledding, skiing, clear night ske ect, ect.

Of course that is not the only thing I miss, I miss my brothers an sisters (that includes all me in-laws ;) and all the people in the North Thompson Valley,  I miss the sheep and the boarder collies, horses and milk cows.  The interesting thing is that despite missing all this so much I am in no rush for my time here to end.  The longer I am here the more relationships I build, the stronger friendships form and the more I love the people.  I am not necessarily saying that I will stay here forever, but it is becoming a very special place in my heart.  It is such an interesting emotion to miss home so much but also feel at home away from home

Prayer request
Fear:  I tend to be very afraid of making mistakes or messing up, I have found this fear is a tremendous obstacle in being able to care and love the patients. It causes me to be so nervous that it gets in the way of being to be the midwife that I want to be.
Skills: I won't go into detail but their are certain skills that I have not overcome yet and in order to be a better midwife I really need to get a handle on them,  of course I  always have a supervisor near to preform them when I cannot but it is something that I need to learn.
Rain: these last few months are supposed to have been the rainy season but there has hardly been any.  On top of that there was a big dam that broke which has left a lot of the rice farmers without their irrigation.  The rice farmers therefore have not been able to harvest as much rice as they would usually be able to which is going to make for a difficult year for them as it is going to be challenging to make any profits. Please pray for rain, and for the rice farmers.
Grandma: my grandma just recently underwent surgery and is recovering please pray that she gets better soon!
A baby on the way: one of our supervisors is expecting her first baby very soon, please pray that the birth goes well and that she will have strength and joy bringing this baby into the world, we are all very excited!!!!
Computer charger: yep you heard right, I am still having computer charger problems, turns out the one I bought is a bit of a dud so now I am going to have to pay another 30 dollars for yet another one and I have been having problems being able to order it.  Please pray I get a hold of one soon and that it will be the last one I will need to buy.  Also that my old laptop will keep on keeping on!

Well I think that is all I will go into today, but it has been a pleasure, I hope this post has found you all well, until next time my dear family friends!

Enter October

Greeting friends and family, I pray this update finds you all well and that you all had a wonderful thanksgiving

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

September: 1 year in the Philippines!

So this is a special blog as yesterday September 1st (Philippine time) marked a full year since Ellora and I arrived in Tabuk city.  Two weeks before we had spent 10 days in Davao city for orientation but the arrival into Tabuk city truly marked the beginning to a new chapter of our lives. 

 Since my arrival!

Since my arrival I have learned much and experienced plenty.  There have been tears and there has been joy.  There have been babies, mothers, new friends and new food.  And I am becoming half decent at washing my clothes by hand.

I now have a year and half left until the end of the program and I am in no rush for it to end.  I am reminded of this as our second years Alex and Bina prepare to depart from the Philippines and head back to Canada.  I can see how hard it is for them to leave and i cannot imagine how difficult it will be to say goodbye to the people here when my time comes,  but that is still a little ways away I must not dwell on that now.  It is not that I do not miss home and my family and friends because of course I do but I have also grown to feel at home here and of course it will be hard to leave, but as I  say I shell not dwell on that I am still not even half way through yet and despite my full knowledge of how fast time flies I am determined to say the phrase "I have lots of time".

About this month

So on to what happened this month.  It was a very good month with lots of wonderful moments. I got to be involved with some wonderful births.  There was one birth where I was in of which I was so grateful that the skill of the midwives, It was their skill and experience saved a particular baby's life.  The baby and mother are now safe and sound.  

During the second week of August you may have heard about the meteor shower that was expected, some of you may have even been able to witness it.  On of those nights Alex and three of my Filipina friends here at the clinic laid out on top of the clinic roof with blankets and pillows and watched the stars fly by.  The first shooting star we saw was huge, red, and lasted for a good 10 seconds.  As it shot across the sky we all pointed and screeched with delight.  It was such a beautiful night and it filled me with so much joy.  

IV's were another lovely experience this month! After Ellora came back from her break in the U.S. we practiced giving each other IV's. Ellora's first IV was inserted into my hand, and she did a very good job!  I have to admit it took me a few tries to successfully get an IV in my fellow missionary.  And it took three willing and very obliging volunteers for it to be a success but as you can see I did manage to do it with the careful guidance of our head midwife.  

My last blog I know expressed the difficulty that I was feeling with my first few weeks back.  Through prayer and the encouragement of family and friends I have been able to not only see God's hand in Him bringing me here but also that I am meant to be here.  I still have so much to learn and that is a definite prayer request that I will become more and more skilled in the practical aspect of clinic life. 

 I admit that volunteering overseas in a midwifery clinic involves many things that do not come naturally to me.  But then I have found that when I am learning new things; often they do not come naturally to me. I do not really know why, I think it has to do with how my brain works and processes things, maybe its Dyslexia, or Irlen or maybe it is some un-discovered learning difference.  I do not know for sure.  I do know that often God seems to call people to things that they are not always natural at.  Gideon, was an unlikely candidate for his calling as he came from a small family and he was absolutely terrified at the notion of doing what God asked him.  Scripture seems to indicate that Moses was not a fan of crowds but he did become a great a leader and God gave him the resources to do it.  Louis Pasteur was never good at academics and his greatest skill when he was younger was tanning yet he became the greatest Chemist in History.  

The very fact that things do not come naturally to me he here just shows how much I need to lean on Jesus and trust Him that he will carry me through, and that when I get through it will not be my own doing but my heavenly Fathers.  The one thing that does come naturally I will tell you, is how much I love the women.  I was not expecting such an overwhelming feeling when I arrived concerning the love for love each woman that I have the privilege of helping during their pregnancy and labour.  

1 year anniversary

As mentioned before, September 1st marks one year since our arrival to Tabuk so Ellora and I celebrated the occasion by baking a cake and serving it to everyone here at the clinic.  It has been a great year, not always easy but then I understand that most great things are not always easy to achieve.   I want to thank all of you who are praying and supporting me through this journey, it is an honor to work with these fine midwives and women and to help where and when I can with these woman and babies that pass through these clinic doors! Also thank you again for your prayers concerning the patient and her baby whom both had dengue and are now better.  Until next month, over and out, the sheepishmidwife! 

a prayer upon a prayer request!

Just want to send a quick prayer request out. In my most recent post I mentioned that there was a patient who was confined in the hospital with Dengua fever.  I got word today that her newborn baby has also come down with Dengua fever and was taken to a nearby city for treatment.  Please continue to pray for this woman and her baby, for privacy reasons I will not include their names, but I just ask that you lift them up in prayer.  For a complete recovery, strength and peace.  As I mentioned before Dengua has been known to be fetal.  So this can be quite scary.