"and, et, y, ug"

Mahal na mahal kita pangino-on
Mahal na mahal kita pangino-on
Kailan man di kita ipagpapalit
Pagkat sa piling moy langit
Mahal na mahal kita pangino-on

Habang buhay, papupurihan
Ka habang buhay, maglilingkod sa iyo
Habang buhay, pag-ibig ko sayo iaalay

This is an example of one of the songs we sing in cebuyano/visayan with our patients before prenatals start.
I now know, from language class, how to pronounce of these words, and can even translate some of it.
The girls see me/us singing these songs and automatically assume I can speak their language fluently. [Keep in mind, we have anywhere from 50-100 patients on any given day coming thru for prenatals so i'd say the chances of already KNOWing a patient are 50/50.]

So, I grab their chart, call out a name, they follow me into our cubicle, and I introduce myself in visayan - "ako si Jenna"
i GUEss this too is a little deceiving. THe girl then repeats my name ("ma'am jeanna" is what i NORmally get...sick!) and then starts off in a language i do not understand. hahah

what FUN we have!

It's been a slow run for me this year, but I just delivered my second baby of the new year..(it's the luck of the draw as to how many babies you'll get to catch, my roommate had 6 babies in EIGHT days! - that could possibly get a little overwhelming!) This was probably the easiest birth I've had, although, the pt. had no recollection of her water breaking. When the baby girl came out it's mouth and nose were full of blood instead of mucus and fluid...it was really strange...basically NO amniotic fluid. OH, haha, and another funny thing about this birth, the MOM was going nuts (as is expected) but THEN goes ahead and takes a little 'break' when the head was out, asked for some water, and thEN proceeded to push the baby the rest of the way out only when I asked her too...i wass like "uhh, please, could you open your legs and push your baby the rest of the way out?" It makes me nervous as it IS to have that head just stuck there. Anyways, it all worked out!

aaaand, I've just received word that my semester brEAk is from March 3-12. so NOW my mom can finalize booking her flights. She'll be visiting for almost THREE weeks...it's going to be amazing! I have SO many things to show her and i also have SO many things I would like her to bRING me! I'm excited..

more CLINical.

This past week I had day shifts both thursday and friday, which has never happened for me before. It's friday night and i'm dONe for! Yesterday I labour-watched all morning with the strongest woman eVer...she was so tough and, after endorsing her, I came back this morning to learn she didn't give birth until closer to six thursday night!

This morning I was endorsed a lovely couple. It was exciting because they both speak english very well and it was easy to see how much in love they were. Mercedita's bana (husband) was aMAZingly supportive throughout the enTIRE morning. Unfortunately she was very small and, after pushing for almost two hours, the baby's head wouldn't move past her low-set pubic bone. She was just TOO small! My supervisor took over and I observed my first episiotomy..which doesn't happen often at Mercy. It was sick though - to watch her cut through flesh and muscle like that. By this time BOTH Mercedita's mother AND mother-in-law were assisting in her labour! It was a pretty fun cubicle! After that procedure, and a whole lot of perineal pressure and stretching, the baby crowned and came into the world at 12:25pm.

She had been on a birth stool and after swinging her back around to lie on the bed my supervisor thEN began cct (controlled cord traction, basically pulling the placenta out) while I supported her uterus externally. We needed to get it out quickly because she was hemorrhaging. Except the insertion of the cord into the placenta was "bottle-door", making it more likely to break. so THEN the cord broke and May had to stick her hand up into the uterus to manually remove the placenta. I mean, you're PRObably picturing it worse than it ACTually was, but still...another complicated birth. The sweet thing was because the 'tear'/incision was so straight it was an easy suture and May let me do it. Even though it wasn't "MY" handle, it started off mine and when May asked her when she could come in for her first baby check-up Mercedita said she wanted me to do it! So thAt's fun!

Because of the prolonged labour, the baby had a fairly big caput (kINda funny when I stop to think of how to describe a caput...it's like a conehead!). Just to ensure the baby has the ability to clot well vitamin k is injected IM at every birth, but with a caput that size we needed to do it immediately. Eye meds are also administered, to prevent any infections the mother might have had from spreading to the baby. We've ALSO just started giving the baby's first hepatitis B injections before discharging. Some of the midwives (the white ones..) at our clinic have problems with giving hepa.b, but it's a law for every baby to be vaccinated. THEREfore I've become a pRO at giving hepa injections because no one wants to, so I do it for those who won't. The way I see it is - they're going to get it eVENTually, so I might as well be the one....kINDa nuts though, when I think about what I'm allowed to do. Sorry there aren't any pictures..the batteries for my camera last less than half an hour before dying. It's somewhat frustrating.

gingerbread/grEEnhouse

The filipinas I work with at the clinic had nEvEr made a gingerbread house before..and my mOm mailed a disassembled one to me for Christmas, so (while on shift one day) we put it together. They were SO SO excited!...my supervisor even exclaimed "we're making a GREENhouse!" to someone, ahah..she was a little confused. It was great fun. They were so into it...planning the decorations and such. NExt year we're going to get graham crackers and actually make our own from scratch. There's talk of two/three-story mansions! ahah.

CHRIStmas doesn't keep labouring women away...but RAIN seems to. I just got off another shift where I was, yet again, the first one up to catch a baby. Except, it was raining all day and I could of predicted that no one would show. There's somewhat of a particular anxiousness that comes when you're first up, at least for me there is. And because I haven't had a birth since December 26, 2006 I am evitably ALways up. I hate it! I wish I could just catch another baby already and take my turn at watching a continued post-partum. I walked home in the rain, but thIS time was oh-so prepared with the new, pretty, blue umbrella I bought the lASt time it was raining. Praise the Lord for the rainy season, but i'm pretty sure my toes are perma-wrinkly from walking in flip-flops! ALso, clothes do not have time to dry out completely when it rains so often. These days laundry is strung up throughout the house, to lessen the envitable smell of must and mildew...sICk!

this may lOOk like your average display of chips at the local superstore in town...bUt read carefully, as the title they splashed across the board reads 'NATIVE DELICACIES'.
Sad...., not ONlY am I a minority/immigrant, but i'm a fat 'puti' (white girl) and therefore i mUSt consider doritos a 'delicacy'... doesn't say much for America.

IF i were a flip:

I'd go to any market/side street to buy a pig-in-bamboo the day before Christmas in preparation for the big feast. ANY special occasion isn't complete without roasting an enTIRE pig on a spit here in the philippines. Christmas Eve day, i saw at lEASt 9 ppl with pigs tied up just like this, lugging them with their trucks, outta their cars and into their yards. From what I've gathered, they have to soak'em down real well before roasting them, so that the skin of the pig won't burn [i'm sure mr.Presti knows ALL about this]. But, oh my GOODness, the squealsss. it's INSANE! WAit, i'm sure i've got a video of it.

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YA...listen to thIS! HEre, we are on a boat, waiting to go scuba diving, while these guys just keep lugging pig, after pig off this boat next to us. it.was.lOUD! The older pigs are allowed to walk, probably because they're too heavy to carry, but they have a hard time trying to get them to 'walk to plank' between the boat and the main land...it reminded me of Gramma and Grandpa's farm, and that piece of ground with bars across it that always kept the pigs in the pen without an actual gate...pretty cool actually...THEN there was the time when a skunk got STUCK in there...well thATs an entirely different story. You can see the guy after the pig, carrying two little piglets strung up by their heels...they are the ones singinggg.

the rain in the phils falls mainly after six pm...

or so has been my experience ever since arriving here in 2006. bUT 2007 comes with a much different pattern: it's been cloudy and raining all day, almost every day. I gUEss that means we're now officially in the 'rainy season', which I'm pretty sure was supposed to start long ago, but thIS is more than welcomed! Rain in the morning keeps things cool and also gives me that warm, cozy feeling of not really having to do ANYthing because it's raining!
This is esPECially true thIS morning...I wanted to jet out to the post office because a PACKage has arrived for me..?!? Which I am totally excited about - but it will hAve to wait - public transportation does NOT lend itself well to rainy travel. I believe these cool days have been the biggest blessing God could have showered on me. Some days it's so moderate out I feel as though I could be at home (....wick-ED!) ahah. And, I must admit, this crazy holiday season hasn't seen many 'quite times' with the Lord. I feel like the rain thIS morning quite possibly could be straight from God, so that I will slow the hECK down and spend some quality time with my MAker, cREAtor, and sustAIner.
i'm not NORmally this personal on here. IT's been more to let you know whats been going on IN my life, but this...this is what fills my mind this morning, so i thought i'd share.

haha - and that quote that i changed around for the title of this little blurb comes with a funny story. Dad was always gOOd at quoting 'the rain in spain falls mainly on the plains'...lol, i'm not sure WHY he'd say that, over, and over again...ahah but, he did/does. (maybe not anymore now that i've let out his secret). We were playing sherades on new years day and everyone had to write a phrase down on a piece of paper for ppl to act out and for SOME reason, this popped into my head. but i COULDn't remember how it went! ahha, i ended up putting SOMEthing about the plains in spain, lol..and when someone grabbed it to act it out...well. it was funny. maybeee you had to be there. but i almost peed my pants laughing to hard!