tales of a MIDwife..: October 2008

Friday, October 31, 2008

Anatomy and Physiology

FOr the past 2 weeks, I've been the TEACHER! Both first and second year NISMers needed an intro to anatomy and physiology, and I was the onE asked to teach. I was given the material, and power point presentations, but basically was allowed to set it up how I wanted, and conduct class the way I thought best. It's been a streSSfuL 2 weeks, let me tell you- i have a whole new appreciation for teachers now. But, it's been such a good learning experience. And the girls have been super gracious and encouraging, and thaT always helps ease the pain of listening to yourseLF lecture for a few hours every other day! Now all I have left is to mark this weeks assignments, do a little review, and their finaL exam is this coming MONday!! YEAH!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

The 5am beLL calls the lucky few who might still be sleeping, after a night of confused roosters it's not hard to get uP at the crack of dawn! But who'd want to miss the sunrise in a place like this anyhow?! As the first few beams peek over the tallest mountain on the horizon, the clouds begin to quietly dissipate, revealing underneath a sea of mountaintops easily seen from the village of Butay. THe Manobo tribe might not have many pesos in their pockets, but they are mORE than rich with their surroundings in Creation.
We were fortunate enough to accompany a Foursquare Pastors' Retreat to the mountains 4 hours north of Davao City last week for a total of 5 days. Not only doing prenatals and countless baby, children, and well woman check-ups, our team of 3 nurse-midwives, and myself were able to witness a little of how praise&worship happens in Butay and the surrounding tribes. One word to sum it up: CONstant.

Pictures to the left detail the common way to carry a baby around by tying a malong (like a thin sleeping bag with the bottom open);

Shelling rice by pounding it with an oversized mortar and pestle- ya, they were laughing at me;

Erika, a 6yr old washing her families dishes (like a pro, i might add) at one of the 2 water sources (a black pipe running from a spring higher up) in the village;

More check-ups;

and church pews (one of the only times the church was empty).

There are tOO many pics to post them all. And tOO much more to say about the experience. Just know that I am back in Davao, safe in the orange house and back working at Mercy.

I BOOKED MY FLIGHT HOME! For December 23rd...and would love to recount more of the tale in person in the new year ;p

Sunday, October 05, 2008

hOUSE fIRE devastates 1st Opal/Dacudao

It was a normal swing shift (2pm-10pm) that day, one immediate postpartum settled in and stable, and another 2 labouring women- one of which was my responsibility. Nowadays, I give most of my "responsibility" to Brianna, while I oversee her work in the birthroom! She was in with our girL monitoring contractions when I went home quickly to get a pot from our house (to cook our dinner in).

As I'm unlocking the gate to our house I notice some commotion a just down the street, on the corner at Dacudao...as my eyes started to make my brain understand what the heCK is going on, my legs started running toward the screams...and toward the heat. Just two houses down on Dacudao, a house had caught fire and already up in flames at this point. I tried calling 911 but the automated voice operator just kept telling me to dial 117..?! But 117 isn't an emergency number! I was frustrated, to say the leasT. The flames reached the electrical wires, and the power went out. It was around 7pm, and just like that all was dark on 1st Opal, except for the flames that continue to reach higher and higher, as it spread our way to the second floor of another house. It sucks because the houses are primarily made of wood, and they're packed in so tightly...

I always thought that, when faced with a fire like that i'd do what ANYONE in the movies does- run in, save a cat or maybe a baby, come out with smoke and flames behind me looking like I just stepped off the red carpet... (just a little comic relief in the midst of this not-so-nice post). But it didn't exactly work like that. And I was angry. I couldn't do ANYthing. I was helpless. I only watched as the fire consumed more and more of my neighbours homes. SOMEone must have reached 911 because the firefighters did arrive. As you can see in the one pic- in a big coat, shorts, and flip-flops =) I love this country!!

Back at the clinic, our patients had evacuated Mercy, and been transported to another location and Matt and Krys had already been in our house grabbing up laptops and other such valuables, in case the fire couldn't be contained...(funny how NONE of these actions ran through my head as a good idea, i just bolted to the fire, but wasn't really needed there either =S). People were watching in horror, with tears in their eyes as the fire creeped closer to their own homes. Moms were wailing, guys were lugging tvs and other such belongings out of their house just in case. blahhh, it was awfuL to witness. The firefighters worked well and got the fire under control before any done damage was done. Afterwards, people just sat on the adjacent curb staring in disbelief, wondering what to do now, etc. It started pouring rain around 9pm (where was thAT when the fire called?!), i don't know where those people went at that point...hopefully some place dry.