Party Party!

For Christmas the birthing home and baby home had a celebration about a week before Christmas. Each home had their staff come up with a dance and the birthing home workers did a traditional Filipino dance which they suckered me into! We practiced all week and even got the costumes for it. Here is the footage of the final dance.Before our little dance, for a gift to the midwive's  Christmas present I took them out to a mall for lunch, while Jeri and Deborah watched the birthing home. They loved it and it was really fun. 

 Now this last week I did a lot of shopping for Christmas (normally I'm good about getting that done much earlier but as it hasn't felt like Christmas I started much later). Jeri, Sara, and I went to a mall that has a market on the inside half of which is pearl market. We had fun there though the Christmas crowds were rather crushing. 

  Tuesday night I went back to the birthing home to sleep. I was up later than the midwife and mother of a midwife who were in my room watching a tv show with earphones. I put everything away at about eleven and laid down to get some sleep. I was laying on my stomach with my face towards the window, which is just a large screen basically that makes up most of the wall. there is a glass window pane that I could close, but to catch some cool breezes it stays open. I had closed my eyes and randomly opened them. A black silhouette of a man stood less than two feet from my face with the screen between us. My whole body went completely warm for a second and then I started yelling at him, saying "Hey!" with as loud a voice as I could muster. Why I didn't just scream I don't know. He still stood there

 after the first yell and then ran off when I got out of bed and started yelling "Help!" The midwife and Nanay woke up and moved me to the bottom bunk. They woke the other midwives and covered the windows up with pillows. I just laid there crying and trying to be quiet as one of the midwives checked all the windows and saw the man go into a shed we have in the back. You know, I've had a scared sensation at night sometimes but this was the first time my fear had a legitimate reason and that was a horrible feeling. We stayed awake watching and listening and we had the husband of one midwife  and some of the midwives go out side to make sure he was gone. Around four in the morning I found that I had fallen asleep and again was clutched by fear until the sun started to rise. We figured that because of Christmas coming up people were just getting desperate and maybe heard that there was an American living at the paanakan and went to see what they might be able to steel. We plan to put up curtains in that room. I do feel gratitude for my safety. What if I h

adn't opened my eyes at that moment or what if he had found a way into the building? I believe God protected me. I see how fragile we humans and our extravagant precautions for safety are. People tell me to be safe, but other than taking a couple simple measures for safety I don't really have much control over my situations. I mean something similar happened to my 17 year old sister in Colorado and to my cousin in Alabama. So, it's not just where I am, but who is watching out for me. I don't believe in being an idiot and jumping out into traffic, but why live life in fear? No, I trust the plans made for me and therefore have no need for fear of the future. 

  On Wednesday I got my visa renewed and helped

 blow up balloons for the Merry Christmas. 

To be continued.....

Fulfillment and Sleeplessness

 After my 10th birth I was able to start really getting involved. I checked babies' heartbeats consistently, caught babies, cut cords, checked postpartum moms, and learned baby checkups ! I am finally fulfilling the dream I've had since I was four years old to be a midwife's apprentice. I'm learning to have  different sleep patterns. I sleep when I can and a hard/deep sleep at that. Once I had a birth in the morning two that night and one the next morning. There was another birth that after noon but the midwives didn't wake me because they figured I needed my sleep, which I was very grateful for and anyways I had another delivery that night. It has really been a wonderful experience doing what I've always wanted to do.  For a little while now I've been taking a bit of a Christmas vacation and am not spending time at the birthing home. And Tuesday I leave for a beach trip with some friends!

Rocky and Company

Here's one of the families who delivered at our birthing home. They named their son Rocky, which made me think of the Beetle's song Rocky Raccoon!

Masarap!=delicious!

Good week! On Saturday I went to the house where our Bible study is held and we had another Thanksgiving dinner ( I had one at Jeri's house on Thanksgiving Day) and decorated their Christmas tree and had a children's choir come over. The children were from an organization that takes street children and gives them schooling and talent training such as singing to help them contribute to their family and prepare some form of career for the future. They were beautiful, however my camcorder was behind them so I couldn't record the performance. They had wonderful voices. 

Sunday I went to a market after church that has wonderful Filippine made products and yes many of you are going to get gifts from there. :) After getting home to Jeri's house Sarah (Jeri's daughter) lent me a tv show series called Leverage, which I am addicted to! You should check it out! Monday I found my way back to the birthing home via jeepney (yes I am very proud of myself! : ) On Tuesday (prepare to be jealous) I got a massage at a Thai place. It was wonderful and only 5 dollars! I then had dinner with my friends for Hope's birthday. 

  The first video is of all the daughters of the midwives who first laughed at me when I started a workout then joined in. It was so funny having all these little ones immitating me. 

  It's been a good week for another reason and that is that I am feeling much more useful around here. On Monday I went to the baby home and sang (out of tune) Christmas carols. One of the babies, Cindy, started trying to sing along, which was quite adorable as she is only 4 months old. It was great to be able to give something even if to a baby that won't remember where she got her beautiful Philippine Idol winner voice from. I also realized many things that I'm learning and how I'm changing, which is very rewarding. It's nice to see that this adventure has purpose. I'm learning things about how I relate to people and my motives and my impact on people and many other revelations.  

This video is of going into the city where I bought some things from the largest market in Manila called Divisoria. I had a sore throat for the rest of the week from the pollution. 

Mahal Kita

Time for an update!

This last week was hard on me, as I didn't have much internet access opportunities and everything feels different and I felt out of place. One comfort to me has been pilates and music. I found this place where they hang their laundry and which faces the back yard (tropical jungle!) to do my pilates. I have seen 5 more births! And I found a cure for my hand. Saturday I got on an FX, which is a large type of car that they shove full of people and drive to a certain destination! I went to meet my friends whom I had met at church and spent the night at one of their apartments. I feel like I'm getting better at public transportation and would really like to get it

 down so I have freedom to go where I will. As far as public transportation goes there are four ways: Trikes; motorcycles that have a seat atached so that you can fit probably 5 to 6 people, FX, Jeepney; an extended jeep that they also shove full of people and stop whenever they see a random person on the side of the street who looks like they need a ride ( you guys seriously ought to look these things up on youtube)., and taxis. The traffic is absolutely crazy!

   Speaking of crazy I went to a market called Divisoria, which is the largest market in Manila and all the other markets get their stuff from there. The smell of frying meats, garbage on the ground, crowded streets, cheap deals to bargain with, people yelling for attention, shifty eyes to watch for purse snatchers. What a great cultural experience. I bought some clothes and stuff. It was really fun. One weird thing though, was the men yelling at me "hello ma'am, you are beautiful." Even though when buying clothes I have to go from a small to a large here, my self esteem has survived due to these comments given even from women. It is really strange to be told you are beautiful when you are quite average where you come from. It's just funny to me. Now regardless of how fun it was I am still suffering from a sore throat just from the pollution! 

   So, I think it might be nice for some of my readers see into a week in my li

fe. Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are seminar (birth or child-rearing lessons) and prenatal visits. I figure the due dates of the new women, take blood pressure, weigh them, measure their bellies, and find the position of the baby. Afterwards we eat lunch and then I can do whatever. Most days I run an errand or two and do pilates. The picture above is of a neighbor girl who came with me to the coffee shop one day with her friend. I plan to really reach out to these neighborhood kids. Somedays I go to the orphanage and help the caregivers out with the babies or older kids. For dinner 3 nights a week I go to Jeri's house for dinner. On Saturday night for the past two weeks I have met up with my American and Canadian friends, spend the night at their apartment, and go to church on Sunday. Last Sunday I spent the night at Jeri's, which was nice to not be woken up in the middle of the night by various things like babies crying, people turning on lights, etc. I love coming to this little coffee shop in the morning to catch friends and family on skype or whatever. And that's my week!

Mahal Kita! ( I was informed today by one of the nursing students that mahal kita means, I love you!)

    

Caught a Baby!

I Caught a baby! I hadn’t really done anything at all Friday. I had read some in the afternoon, gone to the bank to exchange some money and was quite bored and was just starting to watching a Summit Summer video with one of the midwife’s daughters (I think the only one who has any interest or favor for me. We heard someone knocking at the door as we had closed up for the evening. One of the midwifes answered and then got the midwife who’s turn it was to deliver to come check her. I checked her blood pressure and Ate (sister) Dina checked to see how far along in labor she was. She was 9cm and 90% effaced for those of you who know the terms. Basically she was super close to being ready to give birth. After a while we sat her on the birthing stool with her mother behind her and Dina and I together caught the baby as it came into this world! I learned a ton just from that. I learned how to record it all and much more, which you can ask me about those of you who like those details. : ) lol I want to keep this blog medically-not-inclined friendly!

This experience was so good for one reason, because it reassured me that this was what I want to do with my life. I had seen a birth earlier this year and for some reason afterwards I just didn’t feel excited about becoming a midwife and was quite worried that I might have been pursuing something that I wasn’t really up to. So, I was happy to have my desires confirmed.

Rice, Rice, Rice, and many other cultural differences.

Okay, so I’ve moved in to the birthing home! Sometimes it seems like there is nothing similar to what I’m used to. I had a hamburger today, if you can call it that. I have milk in my tea- dry milk that is. So even if it is similar it is too different to call familiar. About the rice; (it is the funniest thing to me)! They have rice EVERY meal. If you don’t have rice it isn’t a meal. In fact they will have pizza in the afternoon and not consider it a meal, but a meryenda. They look at me like I’m turning anorexic if I don’t eat rice with my meals. : )

   I’m learning little by little about midwifery and missions work. 

Above written Thursday the 12th.

Moving Forward

Yesterday we went to church in Makati. After the service I talked with Dea, who had me contact Jeri in the first place! I also met her daughter who leads the college group. I went with her group to a starbucks (I know)! to have a Bible study. I met two girls who were new to the church and also new to the Philippines. It was so exciting to meet them! After church Jeri, Sarah, and I rode home on public transportation, which was interesting. : ) 

    For the afternoon we had planned a party for an elderly neighbor who was turning 80. It was the sweetest thing! We sang happy birthday to her when she walked in (this was all a surprise) and she turned around pretending to look for who we were singing to then she started crying. I think this was the second time in her life that her birthday had been celebrated with a party. What a blessing we may have if we only look for opportunities like this one to love on others. This was so easy and small to us, but meant the absolute world to this little lady. 

    Today Deborah took 

me shopping for a cell phone. Get this: people for the most part text only! My pre-paid plan is a texting-only plan! Jeri says this country is the texting capital of the world. We also bough

t groceries since I'm going to be staying in the birthing home

 starting tomorrow. I spent under a hundred for cell phone and over a weeks worth of gr

oceries; wow! Buyi

ng in the store was really interesting as all the packaging was totally different and most of the time I had no idea what to be looking for. It is interesting, because I became aware of the lack of mentality I have in the US regarding paying attention to how much I am using of anything! Here I know exactly how much water I use up for 

a shower (measured in buckets : ), I buy one small stick of

 butter because there isn't very much room in the refrigerator because the refrigerator is small to take up less space and less energy, I buy the cheapest phone possible because I don't need anything fancy since I'm only going to be here for six months (as if just because I'll have it longer means I need a calendar on it). Basically I am much more conscientious of my usage of things for my own self. It's a good thing to have and I hope I will continue to be thoughtful when I go back home. 

   After shopping we came home and had family dinner (meaning with Deb, Darren, and the boys instead of the usual Jeri, Sarah, and I). I showed Jeri my hand which had begun to worry me the night before. I've had a problem of dermatitis started from the sanitizer with which we cleaned our dishes at

 Jamba Juice. Right now I'm a little bit angry with that company! Anyways, the dermatitis is getting a lot worse and to a stage that is contagious. Therefore I cannot do any prenatal care or deliveries until my hand heals. This is very frustrating to m

e of course since deliveries and etc are the purpose I came here. I guess God has some other lesson for me now. Maybe just to study and make relationships with the women through taking blood pressure and stuff like that. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the hustle bustle that is many times a large part of a place like the birthing home so that when we are pulled out of it though we feel we aren't accomplishing anything, we in actuality are learning much more about the world around us and ourselves and etc. At least that's what I'm hoping for. : ) Anyways,  a great thing is that doctors cost much less to visit, so maybe I'll actually get this taken care of for good this time! 

Things becoming normal

Last night Jeri, Sarah, Paco (dog), and I went for a walk and found this on the front porch. 

Today Jeri and I went to the bank to get money exchanged and et cetera. Then we went to a mall to buy stuff for a rehabilitating community meeting (for recovery from floods). While we were at the mall we went to the supermarket and I saw....OREOS! So I bought myself a little packet-yummy comfort food; Jeri calls it food for the soul. : ) We then went to the Shiphra Birthing Home and set up for the meeting a little by making sandwiches. Jeri told me I could go over to the baby home, an orphanage for children mostly within the age of 4.5 years and newborn. Today they had an adoption complete! The family is from Holland and we had them over to Jeri's house for dinner. They adopted a one year old boy. So anyways, I was able to hold to some adorable little babies. I asked the ages but one of the workers kept giving me different ages, so I have no idea, but I  know that the little girl, Cindy, is malnourished from her mother not being healthy while pregnant. I hope to spend a lot more time over there with the little ones!

Oh, and you might notice some voices in the background as some guys on the street were asking for my name. First encounter with that much attention due to being white. : /

After the baby home visit I helped more with sandwiches and watched the meeting start. We gave them paper and colored pencils for each group to draw out community maps and then after this they told their own contributions they could make, like cooking, masonry and etc. Then they decided within their groups what was the most important two projects they needed to fix. It's really neat seeing how Jeri does her mission work, because she makes sure the people don't see her as someone undermining them and superior to them, but only helps them work as their own community together. She in this way gives them more than just relief, but dignity, worth, and empowerment in working through their own problems. I was asking if I should buy some scrubs and she said, "no, not necessarily. Because anything seemingly uniform makes a supposition that I am the caregiver and you are lower than I." Through this I learned that I am allowed to wear tank tops in the birthing home, which made me very happy. : )

Around 4:30 we came back to the house with Jeri's daughter, Deborah, her son-in-law, Darren, and her grandsons Aubrey and Auden (8 and 4), and picked up the new adopting family for dinner. I sat in the back with the boys on the way to the house, which was so much fun for me. They reminded me of Esten and Ryan back home. : ) Aubrey is very fun to talk to and Auden is bursting with energy and runs around constantly just for fun. They both are as blond as can be. 

Chasing the sun and wishing it would set

Chasing the sun and hoping it would set

Wow! What a trip! How does one prepare for such a trip; three flights accumulating to 171/2 hours of flying not considering layover times. Not only is the trip long, but knowing that upon arrival everything I am used to would be completely opposite; snow in Colorado; rain in Manila, morning in Colorado; night in Manila, my appearance being the norm in Colorado; standing out as a tall, blond hair, blue eyed American in Manila! While at the airport I felt a little bit of shock and adrenalin when I said to the lady checking my bags that my final destination was the Philippines! I knew what was happening, but it didn’t seem real.

To start out I had a beautiful flight to Seattle. One is able to view the mountains continuosly! At my layover I had some issues. I have a one way ticket and itinerar, but the Philippines is strict in this area and wants more than an itinerary from a travel agency and so I had to buy a ticket to Hong Kong, which I can change. I was pretty nervous and when standing in line to buy some food I thought that the man next to me had stolen my money right out of my pocket and I therefore gave him a shocked look as I slipped my hand into my pocket to check if my speculation was true. I felt my twenty as he said “Hi, how are you?” I felt so bad. We talked a little. This is how nervous I was! Because I had had issues at check-in I was totally on edge. 

Once I got on the plane all the nervousness  left me. The plane was the biggest I’ve been on. It was awesome and for those of you who have travelled internationally know of the free movies and meals and continuous drinks. I watched Julie and Julia (alright. She is way infatuated though!), Up ( I really wanted him to make amends with the explorer guy instead of killing him), and 500 Days of Summer (very accurate movie-sort of painfully, but really good). And there are your movie reviews from Lauren. I will be here all week. The couple next to me were from India and had unfortunately thought that they could communicate if they just knew sign language. ohhh. disappointing I’m sure. 

Next was the South Korean airport (awesome because it had wi-fi). This is where my seemingly quest for the sun ended with the Korean sunset. Now all I wanted was to get to my destination and SLEEP! I felt as I do now--tired!!! And that’s where the other half of the title comes in; night please come soon!

When I finally arrived I met up with a Coloradan whom I had met in Seattle. We went through customs/ security together and found Jeri or rather were found by her, who wasn’t sure if it was me because I had arrived with a second person! We drove home in crazy traffic and I saw a jeepney with a bunch of people hanging onto the back of the thing! I’ll have to take a picture of it sometime. We got to the house and spent time talking about things like how to flush the toilet with a bucket of water. Oh! And I met her daughter, Sarah. Being at her house I realized I was really in the tropics! I fell asleep around 2:30. 

At 6:00 I was up this morning and took a cold shower (not so bad since it’s so hummid). They’re house manager made me breakfast. We left for the birthing home at 8:30. A man named George is her official driver. I watched as over 40 pregnant women exercised and watched a skit dispelling fears and myths the women had asked about. Then Jeri introduced me to the women. After this I helped weigh the women and right down their blood pressure scores and gestational ages. It was awesome jumping right in even though it is a tiny thing I was doing. George drove me back to the house. I am now trying to stay awake! I think we are going to a market sometime this afternoon.

So there’s my first couple days of this new journey! 

P.S. That last video is a great example of me when I am jet lagged like I've been for the last 8 hours. : P

The beginning

This is to be a blog for me- a midwife to be, a child of God, a minister to the poor, a student of the universe, a member of my family, and a friend! I am creating this blog so I might be able to share my experiences with you as I go through my journeys in this life that I've been given to live. Feel free to e-mail me! I'm never too busy to respond to friends of my mother country.