A Sundrenched World

Back to the birthing home here are some pictures of what I do!

Here I am measuring

the woman's belly to make sure she's growing. The midwife on the right will recheck what I do.

I am cleaning the instruments after a birth. Dirty business.

Kim and I were extremely excited

about the fake pelvis and adjoining

baby doll. It's great for learning!

This is at the graduation for the women who came to every "seminar" we had. The seminars include nutrition, childcare, birth, breast feeding, reproductive health care and etc.

These women have been very committed to coming every week. We give them a party, with food, games, gift bag of baby supplies, and a certificate.

One of the games we had consisted of two dads

having to dress a panda

while blindfolded with the direction of his wife. It was hilarious!

One of our students at the birthing home

bought us a new refrigerator! This has been really nice! We now have ice and we can put our water in to be cooled and we are able to buy more things that have to be refrigerated. It's really funny; we shorten refrigerator to "fridge" and the mid

wives shorten it to "ref". : ) This is Jorge the mission driver showing the excitement we all shared over the new appliance! Se the size difference!

This week we gained a new apprentice, Miranda, which makes four of us! It's great to have these relationships here with girls so like minded. Miranda is really enjoyable to be around!

It's so great living and working here. Being such apart of these women's lives. It comes with struggles too, but the midwives are so gracious and care so much about us apprentices.

Land of the Elephant

After arriving at our hostel Kim and I went out to eat and meandered through the market around the corner. The first thing I noticed about Thailand was the aestheticism of the country. It was beautiful!
So, of a country I thoroughly enjoyed here are the things I really enjoyed of it: night market; We were both overwhelmed by

the beautiful cloths and crafts

the Thailand markets to offer.

Let's just say I have a new wardrobe! Just kidding.....sort of.

fresh food and juice from the street vendors; delicious!

The flower market; I bought a bouquet of roses and Kim orchids, both amazingly cheap.

river rides,

beautiful golden temples;

reflexology and Thai massages,

eating grasshoppers and silk worms;

we met a backpacking couple, Courtney and Lee, over breakfast at our hostel and after a day or two set up a night to go out for dinner and while sitting near the road we saw a bicycle vendor selling bugs and grabbed a mix bag for 20 bhat. We didn't realize it was buying us an evening of fun!

and Little India where we bought incense, bought henna and got henna done on our arms, and enjoyed excellent samosas!

We loved this visit and yet when we hopped into the taxi and heard "Nobody Nobody but You" on the

radio and were able to call our taxi driver "Kuya", we felt we were returning to some sort of home.

from one adventure to the next!

Every time I write on here again I think to myself; has it really been that long? The past month or so has flown by as I expect the rest of my time here to do. So, no boring with long details as I sometimes default to, the past month I have:

1. enjoyed a spontaneous trip to China Town on Chinese New year and encountered the thrill of the dragon (quite literally in my face), did some jewelry shopping, had the best siopao! What an adventure! I felt like a little girl at a theme park.

2. Started forming more of my own ideas about being a midwife and what my purpose is as a midwife. I realize that I need more motivation than just to be a midwife. It's still not all written out or anything, I have a lot of thoughts spin

ning in my head.

3. Encountered more frustration and sorrow- reality check for a midwifery student. Last week we had a woman come in for her normal checkup at 36 weeks. When no heartbeat was found with the doppler the midwives sent her to get an ultrasound. She returned that afternoon with tears streaming down her face. What could we do? When everyone had done right at the end of the day all we could do was be there surrounding her in love. Also, one of my continuety of care women was transported, and a woman I had been with for many hours of her labor was also. When you put so much into something, emotionally and physica

lly and mentally letting go is pretty rough.

4. My sister visited me! I learned so much from her and had a ton of fun. I was a little nervous about her coming just because I feel I've changed a lot. We had a great time though! The time was so short however. Enough to go to the movies, spend a day at prenatals, see the Intramuras, go to the beach and attend church and the sunday market and have lunch and listen to Jeri and her students discussing their community developm

ent projects, and chat with Sara. I am so grateful she came so that I can be understood when I came home and act like a nut! haha!

Up next is my trip here in Thailand to record. So far it feels like I'm in a fairy tale so get excited! : ) Carpe Dieme!