Christmas EvENts wrapped UP in a blog~

Charity's got this sweet new underwater camera...it lOOKs like a normal digital, but you can get.it.wEt! So when Lois' parents took us all to Paradise for a night, we were experimenting with it! This is just one of the shots of fiSH...marine liFE gets me every time.

On the bed at Paradise, indulging in the Toblerone they brought for Christmasss..in order of heads from left to right it's Tiff; me; Laura; Jenny; and Charity - these are the girls in my class.

ChICken fights in the ocean.

My entire class, again, at Jack's Ridge, celebrating Laura ANd Jenny's december birthdays...this would ALso be a good time to say Happy Belated Birthday to my father as he, too, is a december baby.

Tiffany and I at Mercy's Christmas party..which was extREMEly well done. We had fOOd and drINks and gAMes and tEAms and prIZes, a gift exchange and, oh - it was alotta fuN! Girls Only!!

3 BABIES in 1 week is enough christmas blEssing for mE! - All very normal, natural births, the babies have been hearty and healthy! I've been stunned again and again by my 'secret angel' who leaves little notes and (big) presents under the tree for me! I now have my very first pair of umbilical sissors and a hemostat, thanks for her (SO fun!). I'm procrastinating at the moment, as my final is tomorrow afternoon. Between this computer and a book my mom sent me I'm never without sOMEthing to keep me occupied! I can hardly wait for this weekend to begin - friday night is Mercy's Christmas celebration, and on saturday my class is off to PARADISE resort for a night on the beach, celebrating 50 babies caught and the Christmas season (I'm in dire need of a tan..). Monday's the 24th, with a possible boattrip to the islands, and a Christmas service at church. Christmas morning we're planning on brunch in a new park downtown (with rumours of REAL GRASS!) Normal people hope for a white blanket of snow on Christmas, but we are in search of actual grass - it should be exciting! Christmas dinner will be at Chad and Naomi's house (a married student, and our neighbour). And I don't work again until nightshift on the 25th AND the 26th, with the exception of clinic tomorrow.

Have a vERY mERRY Christmas, EveryonE!!
Hopefully, we'll be able to connect on the phone over the holidays..

bacK at it...oH the mIRacle Of Birth -

I've had shift the day after getting home from outreach, and by 2 hours into it had caught a 9lb little girl (that's sUPerr big for the phils!). I had Sunday off, but Monday was back in the birthroom, with Krys as the supervisor on shift. And IT WAS NUTS! Babies were being born at 1/2 hr intervals! Tiff, Jen and I all had active and pushing labors - each born around 8am, 8:30, and mine (the last to go..) at 9:08am! Two more were born around10:30 and then at 1pm for a total of 5 brand new bundles of jOy on our shift!!

TIff and I side-by-side, encouraging our girls to push out a baby...really, this is thE bEst job in the Entire world! I couldn't ask for better midwives to work with.

to the MOUNtains!!

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join one of our apprentice midwives at the clinic, Jane, to her "hometown" out in the country with 2 other students, Jen and Medea on a midwifery medical outreach for the past week. We packed noodles and rice for a week and headed out on a bright Sunday afternoon from Davao. By the time we reached Tagum by one long bus ride and a jeepney ride it was raining so hard we decided to postpone the next leg of the trip (a motorcycle ride into the village) until it was only sprinkling. We made it to Mary Jane's house (the local midwife, and the midwife/healthcare worker for a number of remote villages) and just rested up that night in preparation for our "courtesy call" to the Mayor's office the next morn.

After the Mayor's visit, a little volleyball game, and negotiations for some free meds we re-packed, ate lunch, loaded the 3 motorcycles taking 8 ppl (including our drivers) a couple hours into the mountains, and were off again! Monday afternoon was spent travelling and then resting before dinner. Tuesday morning we were prepared for 100 some odd ppl of the village (population of around 7-800) to gather in front of Mary Jane's modest little health center (where we spent the nights) for our services. exCEPT that it was RAINinggg that morning, and therefore the patients and pregnant women just trickled in all morning long. Medea handled most of the first aid and health problems (she's a registered nurse in Switzerland) while Jen and I worked with the prenatals. IT was so cool because we were able to bring a Doppler, and most of the girls had not heard their baby's heart beats before..actually, everyone was intrigued by the swooshing sounds! The afternoon was spent finishing up prenatal and health check-ups and I was able to steal away for a bit a play with the kids... who, are sO adorable!! I remembered my hemp and they have tiny coins here with a hole in the middle of it, not worth much, and we made probably about 50 bracelets with these coins and hemp and tied them off on each child's wrist.


The coolest thing, ALSO, was meeting the trained hilot of the village - a 60-something year old shriveled up, soft-spoken woman who gave us acupressure massages (it really hurt...they are CRAZY!). A hilot is the traditional birth attendant here in the philippines, and are known for handling stressful complications. She was very sweet.

Whaaaaat else..., because it was raining there was no shortage of frogs and that first night we went out in the rice fields and caught about 20 of'em and stuffed them in a bag. The next morning i helped gut them, behead them, skin'em and fry them - wow, i neveer thought it'd be good, but they WERE! THat day we also hiked through a banana-tree forest to a pretty tall waterfall where we could swim and jump and play around. Thursday we did some Motorcross biking (except with 2 or 3 ppl to a bike) to yet another, more remote village. We did mOre prenatals there, and I assisted Medea in a minor surgery - a little 2-yr old girl had a crazy boil on her knee that we sliced open and drained (I felt sick afterwards..)






































































All in all, the week was relaxing but eye-opening and really very exciting! We accomplished a few physical things, but mostly just hung out and made solid friendships with people who speak a different language. IT always amazes me how easily bonds can be formed without the use of words, communicating instead through eyes and facial expressions and hand signals - i really like that. I was blessed oVEr and OVer again. Thanks to all who were thinking/praying for me while i was away...hopefully I'll get to go again!!

..juuuust SOME of the things we do while on shift, waiting for a (REAL) laboring woman to waddle through the door - today's shift was esPECially dead and needed some liveninggg UP (how cOOl would this be for reaL?!...anyone lucky enough to be pregnant deserves to be conGRATulated!)

hOw many days 'til Christmas?!

nOt enOugh.

I can be sure of that fact, alone! Things are nUts here in the Philippines at the moment...and not jUSt for me. Somehow, all on Monday afternoon, I got super sick (again) which is so weird because i don't gEt sick often. but, I'm almost better now (thank the Lord) because OUTREACH is quickly approaching.

I am sUPerrr excited for outreach and no Mom, i do not yet have the names of the places we will be travelling (mostly because I cannot pronounce, let alone spell them correctly!). But, from the meeting today, i DO know that we will be leaving Sunday afternoon to be well rested and ready to meet the Mayor of the city early Monday morning. We were advised to 'dress well' for this meetting, hahah, which includes a nice blouse and actual shoes, instead of flip-flops!

From there we will be travelling around for a period of 5 days, by motorbike, to 3 different tribes in the mountains, accompanied by the local "community health worker', Mary Jane. Mary Jane is actually a trained midwife, but does not have this status because that would mean a bigger salary and full-time work, which the government is not willing to sacrifice. Mary Jane is, therefore, not only a midwife but the general healthcare worker for many not-very-accessible miles.
I am looking forward to meeting her!

I've realized how dependant I've become - they told us today at the meeting that we'd need to supply our own food. A year ago I would've jumped at the chance to plan a camping menu for a week, but nOw it seems like a daunting task! I'm sure everything'll work out, as it always does. Prayer is essential, and would be appreciated, not only to stay safe (as beds are rare, malaria-carrying mosquitoes are rampant, and water must be boiled before drinking), but in order to really connect to these women! We have been given the task of preparing certain health teachings, will be doing prenatals, and assisting Mary Jane with whatever other first aid cases she may encounter.

WE're expecting something bIG to happen! Even if not ever seen or known, that hopefully our presence in some way will make a difference...
I'll be sure to update you all after returning home - the outreach runs from Dec.09-14th and I will most likely not have any time to write on this before then as I have dayshift tomorrow, and church Sunday morning before boarding the bus to the mountainsssss :D And after that, it's just a short week of work, parties, holidays, and gift exchange before the 25th arrives. Life is rough (as dearly quoted by my mom!) YEE.

ADVANCE MERRY CHRISTMAS! (the common greeting around Davao for the past few months :)

a little more of lIFE..

Every young adult that is any young adult plays badminton as a hobby after work in this country. As such, I've taken up the sport ;) My Chinese friends, Joan and Jean pick Lois and I every Thursday and we play from 8-10 pm at Smashville, a nearby gym. hahah, it's hilarious. They, Joan and Jean and their friends, are so so good, some of them even teach! I'm picking up a few tips here and there. It's quite fun!
These 2 girls also took Tiffany and I on a roadtrip, about 45 minutes away, to Panabo to visit their Aunt and Uncle, who OWN MONKEYS!
It's always been a dream of mine to have a monkey, and thIS is the closest i've come to getting one. It was so amazing to play with the monkey for the morning. Monkeys hands and feet are absolutely incredible! Their Uncle also owns the medical clinic in town, running for over 30 years now! We got a tour, plus a little demonstration on some new, high-tech acupuncture!