tales of a MIDwife..

Filipinas "Faith" - my homebirth patient

2008-12-18T14:16:00.000-08:00

And THIS is how my very first attempt at a homebirth went- eventual cesarean section in the hospital the next day! haha huhu...maybe i won't recount the tale for all to hear on this. It could've been worse...bUT, just know that it was tried. and relationships were formed that won't ever be forgotten!
Here we (a budding midwife, Joan and myself) with Faith and the first ever addition to their family, Alexandra! She's a doLL!

2008-12-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

It's ALmost Christmassssss!! The amazing giRLS of the OC have decorated with lighTS- which makes me super excited. WHenever I see a Christmas tree I literally cry at the thought of seeing the one in my own family room in Canada this year... can'T wait. but can, at the same time.

This weekend has been jammed pACKed fuLL of activities and emotions- scuba, beach, continuities, being called in for deliveries in the middle of night, shifts, sleepless nights, people packing, people leaving, immigration, blahhhh. One more week... and then what?!...

A new hobby...

2008-12-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

mmm.. eating sushi. this japanese restaurant could quite possibly be my favourite place to eat in aLL of Davao- sayanG Joan and I just found it with onLY a few short weeks left of my time here!

AGDAO Prenatals...

2008-12-09T21:19:00.000-08:00

YES! Agdao prenatals are still in fuLL swing! Every thursday myself along with 2 or 3 (sometimes 4) others serve the impoverished people of Agdao with free prenatal and baby check-ups. This also gives the women, who would otherwise deliver at home or in the less-than-desirable public hospital, a chance to deliver their babies at Mercy Maternity Center! I think we've had about 6 women since August deliver at Mercy! We're planning yet another "buntis party" (party for the preggies) this coming Dec.18 - my very last opportunity to see these women, as i'll be flying home Dec.23rd. It's sad, but past and present patients have all been invited for a last hurrah. The exciting part is that Agdao Clinic will not fade away after I leave. The new girLs that have been helping me out since September are willing to continue overseeing it!! Which puts my heart at ease, the women of Agdao will be left in very capable hands.

Here are a few shots of the clinic, the first Beth is helping the patient to hear her baby's heartbeat through the fetoscope, and the second shows Bethany playing with the children- who are pretending to be pregnant!!

2008-12-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

in and amidst the hEAT, the business of liFE as a midwife, stressors of homework (for bk), we were able to take a break, rest, and relax in aircon at the Marco Polo Hotel for a night, in honour of Janelle's belated birthday. We captured her, gagged and bound her and took her blinded to the 4th floor of the hotel where we proceeded to push her in the pool! She loved it. It was great... love ya girls! In this pic we're just sitting down to enjoy breakfast on the 17th floor =)

Becoming a midwife (round 2)..

2008-12-04T00:15:00.000-08:00

This is BK's 2ND catch! On a first day check up. These filipino babies are just so small and easy to hold - i like holding them in such a way that it makes mothers gawk and then laugh at how comfortable we are with handling little ones.

and THis is her 4TH handle... such a fun (and FAST!) birth, but BK was there, ready to catch the baby flying out of the mother of 4 now. Although, the shoulders were a little tight still inside, and a little downward traction was needed to help the baby out. BK is becoming more and more comfortable pulling'em out! and i LOVE it!

May I direct your attention to the 2 letters behind my name... RM, registered midwife ;p SLight fabrication but, hapit na!!

2008-11-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

SCUBA

2008-11-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

WE went SCUBA DIVING this sunday/monday...such a good time, i haven't been in over a year and a half...which is WAY too long when it's so available here. Hopefully there'll be time to do it more often before Dec.
Alison, Tami, me, our scuba instructor (Edward), and BK with all our gear.
And, a little instruction for the new ones the night before...as you can see, pictured here, this is bk's first time to breath underwater!!
There was, of course, time to jump off the second floor of our bEACh house for sunday night!! WEEE. We took a private boat to this amazing house on stilts, a secluded little getaway, loaded with pool table, aircon, a terrace up high on the side of the hill (for watching the sunset!), among other amenities ;p

a couple of crazy days...

2008-11-14T00:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i checked in a continuity from Agdao, sent her homE in early labour and then continued on my way (in scrubs) tO Agdao clinic. Upon returning I found out my continuity was bACK and in active labour. She admittedly told me she had a low pain tolerance (awesome!), but all turned out well and she delivered her baby at 2:03pm that afternoon. After finishing all the postpartum care and the suturing, I made it home just in time for dinner (thanks for that - JO).

Then toDAY, both Brianna and I had dayshift starting at 6am (bah). I wasn't tOO worried, because I was last up! Three labours later, I was put in charge of supervising bk's work with her labour plus my own (fully) labour - who delivered at 9:10am with an amazing assist by none other than Brie. Brianna's labour was not progressing as easily as I would've liked, so dear Carmen took over, although, between discharging patients, suturing, and baby checks, I was able to return the favour to Brianna, who caught her SECOND BABY (this week and in her whole liFE) at 11:35am. How GREAT is that?! SHe assists me, I assist her... it's pURE bLISS!!

I work again tomorrow swing shift...you could pray for that!

BK's FIRST HANDLE!!

2008-11-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

LAST NIGHT was bk's first shift without me...and sHE was "first up" to catch a baby. I was there for the first part of shift, but left just before midnight with pleas of being texted if anything or anyone happened to come in! I awoke with a start around 6am this morn only to find my phone had fallen from my bed...there were TWO new messages!! THe first from brianna "i got a fully", the second from Krys, the supervisor on shift last night "bb out. brie was awesome." SHOOT! I missed it! I missed brianna's first birtH! ah well, there's always next time! This is what she has to add to the tale-

today. at 4:23 am... i caught a baby girl. she was only 36 weeks. but she came in fully so we kept her even though she was by definition premature. kathy princess marie was born at only 5lb 1oz and is very healthy... it was sweet.

[exhibit a] ~ OCtober ponderings...

2008-11-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

~ i AM a midwife.

~ i am still becoming who i am as a person. knowing i need/want to change for the better and constantly (hopefuLLy) moving forward in that area...He is very gracious in this regard!

~ i have delivered 115 babies since Dec.7/06 and often times don't even remember this fact! I converse with obstetricians and gynecologists and doctors about certain cases, follow other cases after referring them out, and learn nEW things DAILy...but I have the knowledge anD the experience to deliver babies for the rest of my LiFE. I can not imagine how many that would add up to... it's kind of scary, but crazy cooL to think about! and, What does the future really hoLD?!

~ i should read more.

~ i will go back to being a "normaL" white girL living in Canada in less than 2 months...and will leave that statement at that, for the time being..

~ i am missing faLL!! My favourite season is once again slipping by, not without me thinking fondly of it (because i dO frequently), but without having the privilege of be submersed in wooly sweaters, and colourfuL, crunchY leaves. But i AM able to go to the pooL whenever i want, still have a descent tan, and wiLL make it home for SNOW this year =)

~ i am nOT able to be in 13 places at once...i am not even able to be in 2 places at once...although I'm constantly doing so in my head- davao city, BOhol, TabuK, Greenlane Rd., Rittenhouse, Tallman, Menno St., VINEland in general, NOTL Concession 7, MEXico (mom), South Korea (jamie dear), Australia (Krista and Evan), Japan (for no good reason at aLL), etc.

~ i just missed Nathan Matthew West's oh-so-natural arrivaL into the worLD - congratulations Matt and Becky =D

~ i wiLL miss darling Owen's 4TH birthday bash this coming nov.12...i can't wait to re-meet him and Alexis at the end of December <3

~ the girLsss in the OC continue to amaze me. Proof that there are incredible women aLL OVer the wORLD (and i would love to have the time to meet them aLL at some point in life) but 2 of my favs, SD and JL, are taking off to Tabuk in less than a week for almost a mONTh. Who will I watch pp and the new grey's with every weeK?! Who can I bounce off the moral implications of these shows with?! Who will I watch ANYthing w when I return to VinelanD?! mer.

~ december is ALmost upon us...and it is my personaL goaL to spread AS much Christmas cheer and joy starting dec.1 until I leave on dec.23- which reminds me, this is a LAST CALL for everyone and anyone who reads this, what can I bring you?! I currently have the philippines at my fingertips. If there is ssomething you crave from this great republic, speak now, as I won't have ANY time for Christmas shopping when I get back ;p

~ lastly, but probably the most important poinT is this conglomeration that iS my life, is that i am still an incredibly selfish human being ([exhibit a], posting an entire blog all about mE)...maybe BK should post the next one =)

On our way home from chURCh last Sunday...my favourite mode of public transportation are these pedicabs where our driver peddles his little tricycle (pls excuse the awfuL smiles, ahahaa)

And the view from inside the pedicab... mmm, i hope I never forget what this looks like...

Anatomy and Physiology

2008-10-31T03:20:00.000-07:00

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!

OUtreach to Butay, Paquibato~

2008-10-18T04:53:00.000-07:00

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

hOUSE fIRE devastates 1st Opal/Dacudao

2008-10-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Neonatal Resuscitation Classes

2008-10-03T01:25:00.000-07:00

Krys flew in a DR from the states to teach us NRP (neonatal resuscitation procedures) this week. Here, Brianna provides PPV (positive-pressure ventilation) to the baby, as the assist, Beth, stands by for regular heart rate checks, as well as to assist in chest compressions if the heart rate drops below 60 bpm. Another classmate, Sarah, looks on as the examiner gives updates on the status of the baby, answers questions, and corrects procedure.

AND! FOr those of you who've been asking for an updated pic of the currently bUNtis (preggo) supervisor, Ate Estef (hOW beautiful is she?! and bIG! hapit na, ceguro..).

Tomorrow is yet another prenatal outreacH to Samal Island, Penaplata. Beth, Sabrina, and Shelley are accompanying me on the excursion... it should be a good time, as always! And, I'm jealous of everyone at home experiencing true "october" weather. Even though I love the fact that i can still make use of the pool just around the corner from our house! Much love <3

HAPPY Birthday to youuu..

2008-09-26T10:22:00.001-07:00

I was able to the wed.sept.24th oFF for the both of us (unknowingly to bk) and we hIT Canibad Beach- a remote resort on the other side of Samal Island. There was only 2 others on the beach at that night, and of course, our night watchman who put a kerosene lantern under a palm near where we slept in our hammocks as a night light (super sweet!). This pic is of us on the ferry, crossing to the island. We just spent a lot of time floatinggg in the water, reminiscing slash remembering certain people (family and friends)...mmm, sUCH a good time!

We arrived just after lunch in time for Brianna's language class, and then went out for dinner at the Swiss Deli. The girls made maNGO FLOat for dessert, and then we were able to connect with ma on skype so she could watch brie open the package she sent in the maIL. YEAH, chocolate! hahaa thEN we hung with some filipino friends, which is ALways a good time. So here is to BRianna- now 21 and aLL grown up teaching gIRLs how to handle pregnancies, labours, and deliveries! WHere does the time go... lOVE ya sis <3

2008-09-22T00:23:00.001-07:00

YES! We are alive!! AS always, though, LIFE gets in the way of blogging..

Brianna's actually hard at work right now (in language class) but I'm certain she'll have something to say when she gets home..although, it could be in a different language! So many new and exciting things are happening around here, it's hard to keep up with everything. Not only do I have more than 5 (that I can remember) patients ready to begin their labour at this time, our neonatal resuscitation course is coming up next week. I've been preparing for that one, as well as the class that I will tEACH! Yes! I've been asked to teach the A&P (anatomy and physiology) class to both classes. How exciting is that?! Actually, it'll be pretty easy because the last teacher did such an excellent job on powerpoint presentations, questions/answers, activities, and exams that anyone could teach it. But, i'm throwing in a few things, making it as exciting as learning about our bodies sHOULD be! I'm looking forward to starting classes...they'll start the end of October, for 2 weeks.

The PREnatal OUTreach to Paquibato is fast approaching, also! And preparations are basically finished. THe team from Mercy consists of myself, Medea (2nd yr NISM, RN), Beatrice (1st yr NISM, RN), and Sabrina (intern midwife from the states here for 2 months). We've stocked up on iron supplements for the women out in the mountains, plus have ample paracetamol, cough syrup, and mabendazole (de-wormer) for the children. We head out early morning October 8 and will return Sunday afternoon, October 12, 2008. During this 5-day retreat, we will perform regular prenatal exams, plus routine check-ups for both mother and child/baby. We're are going in association with the Foursquare I work with on thursdays (Agdao Clinic). The church will be having a pastor's conference while we focus on health exams and education. Also, YWAM is sending just under 10 people, some from Davao, and some just here on a missions trip from the states, to help in ministering both the children and the adults of the tribes. THEREfore, a lot (as in a lot) is happening on this outreach...i'm so looking forward to getting out of the city, being able to sleep at 8, wake up at dawn, bathe in the river, etc...and aLSO to meet the families out there! PLease be in prayer for this- for safety, and fun, and the chance to make a difference somehOW.

Let's see...wHAT ELSE?! hahaha, it's BK's 21st BDAY on WED!! YEEEE...more on thaT later, i'm sure there will be a pic or two ;p
Also, there's a cross-channel swim again on Saturday. I've done this twice before, we swim from the mainland of Davao, across the channel, to the island of Samal. Hopefully, there'll be no itchy rashes this time round!!

BK @ work.. BK @ prenatals.. BK & assignmentS!

2008-09-05T02:46:00.000-07:00

And this adorable little (17 year old) filipino is my most current continuity, ALmost ready to POP! I'm very excited for her birth- it's her first baby!

And as the AGDAO Prenatal Clinic continues,

2008-08-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

the Lord continues to bless the ministry with new patients every thursday, as weLL as some old patients coming back for a visit to the MIDwife! This past thursday was such a great prenatal day in Agdao. One of my past patients bought her son, of which whom I delivered AND named (a tribute to my brother <3), she and Rob came for a visit today because she's friends with one of the patients i'm caring for at the moment. The little 6 month old boy in the pictures below is a living testimony of how Mercy Mat works in the lives of women here in Davao. The newborn baby bOY pictured below (Elijah Micah) is my most recent "catch", born last Sunday, his mom was coming here thursday mornings for prenatals, and is also a member of the Foursquare church we hold the clinic in. His father missed their first child being born at the public hospital, and was mORE than overjoyed when he was able to participate in the birth of their newest son! It was amazing to witness (he cried as the the baby came out)!!

BRIE: yesterday was my first birth room shift. there was one labour but after she had been there for 10ish hours and nothing was progressing except for the fetal heart tone and the mothers b.p. She was transferred to the hospital.

the firsts continUE!...

2008-08-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

I think it's much nicer blogging about others...somehow, their activities are more exciting to write about than my own! Although, today's blog is about both of us (again!). It was bk's first day doing prenatals...she's on our team for prenatals and will therefore be working every wednesday morning with us as we see hundreds of patients for prenatal care. She was shadowing ME today, and caught on real quick! I hardly had to re-check fundal heights and fetal positions/FHTs by the end of the morning she was doing so well!

We saw some needy patients. One with a traumatic c/s experience her first baby, she's 23 and scared to death of needing another c/s this time around. She started crying as I explained we weren't able to deliver her baby at Mercy, but I assured her I'd go w to the hospital and make sure she's taken care of! Another woman started tearing as we talked about her husband (of 7 kids already) and his recent drinking habits. It's sad, but I like encountering these types of situations because it reminds you we're really needed here, and we're making a difference in these women's lives. Brianna also got to meet my 17 yr old continuity, LynLyn - who is so stinkin' sweet it kills me! I'm excited for her very first birth experience, and she's due Oct.4th.

Brianna wOULd have had sOmething to say (i'm sure...char) but ah she just ran outta here late for her language class! So sorry about her absence in this post...maybe next time. Love to you all.

Brianna's class on taking VITALS!

2008-08-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

JENNA: Vitally important to health care and assessing a person's status are CHECKING VITAL SIGNS! Here are a few pictures of Brianna's class aLL about pulse, respirations, and blood pressure. I'm working swing this afternoon/evening and i thiNK brianna's going out with my friends while i'm at work! hahaa, that's great. LOIS and I are on today- it should be a good shift, the clinic has been super busy the past couple of days. We expanded slightly, and moved the postpartum area (resting after birth) to another room.

BRIE: i dont know what im supposed to hear (in regards to taking bps)..... i learned on jenna how to prick fingers to test for anemia her blood has a hematocrit of 42% (very healthy)(and thEN she proceeded to prick 15 clients!). and how to type up birth certificates (that was yesterday, shadowing Ate Bebing, the clerk who types up and registers all the birth certificates, huGE job!).

(the phrases in the brackets is me, Jenna) hahaa

2008-08-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

A little "formal" affair maRKs the beginning of be-autifuL friendships (as brianna begins to steaL all my friends! ahahaa). Yesterday night we went out to Insular Hotel to a restaurant down the pier and on the water for PGEn's birthday dinner. Brianna's input for this blog would be the following direct quote- "in Canada we call it micky D's oooooor (long pause)... micky D's." HAHAA, we went to McDonalds after the amazing dinner and Brianna was confused not knowing what mc doe was (because that's what they call micky d's hERE). Anyways, the confusion, fun, and laughter grow as each day is fuLL of it's own novelties. And, i'm working on Brie to take over this blog once my time here is done (one sentence will have to suffice for now).

with LOVE from us <3

Brianna's arrivaL!

2008-08-19T17:15:00.001-07:00

SHe's HERE!! August 15 at approx. 3:20 BK landed in Davao with 10 of her classmates...and we were all eagerly waiting their arrival at the airporT! She's safe and sound. And we're having sUCh a good time hanging out, introducing her to people and places, and new foods. Thank you aLL so very much for your prayers..AND!
Another cool and exciting thing happened Aug.15 also - my continuity Imelda Revilla (nickname Ting2x) came in and had her baby (GIRL) at 1:14pm. It was a very normal birth...nothing special or exciting happened like an IV or hemorrhage (praise the Lord) but it WAS my HUNDREDTH CATCH! Yes! I've officially caught 100 babies since starting to handle last Dec.7, 2006. What an honour it's been...

The first (tWO) Agdao delIVERIES! -all the in sAME morninG!

2008-08-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

I got a miscall from the clinic Tuesday Aug.12 at 4am, because Rubelle Villa (nickname Ling-Ling) a 22 yr. old patient from the Agdao prenatal outreach was in active labour. She was fully! and ready to push...it actually wasn't too hard/long a labour considering it was her first baby. At 5:52am she was deLIGHTed to be holding her very first, baby gIRL! named Shem Villa. Ling2x had to be sutured, and just as i was finishing that up...

Abigail Ladaran (aka Gail) waddles into Mercy in active labour! The second Agdao prenatal patient to grace a Mercy bed. A 25 yr. old single mom, she had her mom there to help with the labour and delivery which, again, wasn't at aLL hard for being her first time! We welcomed Henk Ave Ladaran at 10:04am. She too had a slight tear needing a few stitches. GOODness! I finished all the after care and discharged all by 4:30pm! WHAT a blESSED day =)

These 2 pictures were taken in Agdao, at the Foursquare Church where we do prenatals each week...this is the 2nd day baby check up, and i'm gLAD to report that all is well.

UPdate -

2008-08-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Mercy Maternity CLinic, and all who volunteer/work there, successfully delivered ONE HUNDRED and FORTY-ONE babies for the month of July! Our numbers usually exceed 100 in this area, but an extra baby a day really makes a difference! Personally, I caught 8 of those... and as of right now i'm 1/3 finished the posts-grad requirements laid out by Ryerson (and it's oNLY the beginning of august!!).

Things are also well underway for the new students - the house beside us is empty, and ready for half of the students to move over/in. THe ground floor of the clinic is even being re-vamped to accommodate mORE patients! THings are super exciting. We've got an amazing missionary (Cathy) here right now for a few months as an intern, a PA from the states who has been working for 2 years in Sudan with her husband on medical missions, education, etc. She's teaching us primary health care that is very beneficial. Last weekend's outreach to Penaplata, Samal went very well. There's one girl due in a months time. And Cathy was able to come with me to do regular check-ups for anyone who needed and one of my very best filipino friends came and ended up translating for Cathy (suCH a blessing!). Agdao prenatal clinic is still going strong, and i'm enjoying it more and more as relationships are formed and the atmosphere becomes more comfortable and inviting rather than strange, new, and even a little awkward! The outreach to Talikud is scheduled for august 16 - the day after Brianna arrives!! - I haven't been to that specific one before, I had to miss the first one, so am excited to go meet the pregnant girls on tHAT island, too! It sounds busy, but because I don't have homework/assignments/studying weighing me down, I actually have a lot of free time to read or hang out, etc.

The Agdao "BUNtis" Party!!

2008-07-24T03:30:00.001-07:00

"Buntis" means pregnant in Visayan. And thIS morning we organized a party for the patients of the Agdao Clinic - it went SO SO well! Out of the 17 patients I've taken on as continuities, 15 showed up and 3 of them were also able to bring their husbands/bfs. This party was a reason to get these girls together for a morning to really inform them about pregnancy, labour, and delivery, and especially, what this looks like at Mercy Mat. They miss out on the regularly scheduled health teachings done at Mercy, so we invited guest speakers (supervisors and students alike from Mercy) to come and share their knowledge of family planning, nutrition, labour and delivery, postpartum, and what to expect when they actually come to deliver at Mercy. We were able to serve pancit bihon (a fav fil party food) and rice, compliments of Krys and Mercy's cook Ate Lori. Also, the YWAMmers that help out every thursday brought and grilled fish.. the whole morning was just amazing. My favourite part was afterwards though, when - after a morning of conjured up awkwardness - they all flOOD to where Lois and I are sitting with smiles of recognition to ask personal questions about their pregnancy or hand in their required labworks and the chaos of it all and the girls calling me miss jenna or ate jenna or maam and Lois doing most of the work while i just sit there and marvEL at it all... ahhh man. It's just great!

mga cONTinuities.. =S

2008-07-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

Since July 3rd I've had not one, not tWO, not thREE, but fOUR continuities deliver!! THe latter three have actually been in the past 3 days!! CRAZINESS.

The first delivered July 3 @ 12:30am - taken on as a continuity because I had already done a random 4 prenatals on her, and thought it must be fate (char). THIS one took the longest, and tested my patience...although her vitals were always so good and normal, she was only progressing at about 1cm every 3 hours. GOOdness! I spent over 20 hours straight with her at the clinic, starting at 8:45am in the morning, seeing 2 shifts of midwives come and go, and fINally on nightshift, and with a little encouragement and mORE than a little help from CS, her second baby boy came out at 2:30am very normally. Her last birth ended in an episiotomy, which split open this time, but other than that, a very normal, uncomplicated birth!

The second delivered July 19 @ 3:05pm - taken on as a continuity at 9 months because her husband, who happened to be my motorcycle driver that day asked if she could deliver at Mercy. She'd been prenatal care elsewhere, but was so thankful to be allowed to deliver her baby girl at Mercy! It was a thE best birth I've seen for a primigravida - so smooth, and fast, and easy.

THe third delivered July 21 @ 12:36pm - taken on as a continuity because she was Allison's cont last pregnancy, plus was scheduled for EPO (something to naturally stimulate labour) on July 22 because she was postdates. BUT, praise the Lord, EPO wasn't needed, labour started spontaneously, and went as fast as the last time (hahaa, supposedly AR had mentioned something about not being sutured the first time, and therefore her pwerta was big enough to facilitate a very fast birth! She was very proud of this fact and told me upon admission). Her third baby boy was born a fighter, with great APGAR scores and whatnot.

The fOURth delivered July 22 @ 2:42am - taken on as a continuity because she dazzled me early on in prenatals (and she has the same name as one particularly dear to my heart, aND the last name of a friend here in the phils - I wanted to ask if it was a relative of some sort (it wasn't)). Michelle delivered her first baby girl after a night of praying she wouldn't need to be transported due to fetal tachycardia and borderline high bp. She opened at a rate of 2cm per hour - twice as fast as normal - and pushed like a champ. So much so, that she had a third degree tear, and we ALmost transported the suturing, but dear Ate Susan came on shift jUST in time to stitch her up. What a great night!! Michelle (pictured above) is such a sweetheart!

The right words...

2008-07-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

can never be adequately expressed thru words spoken or words written. How can one ever say goodbye to a lifE so unknown at first and yet created and sustained merely through the relationships of strangers turned frienD? I can't really think about it, without a dark shadow settling over my head with, dare i say, a few rain clouds in and amongst. These girlS have shared this experience with me- together w the uncertainties and fears, lumps and bumps, hurdles as well as successes...2 years is more than enough time to get to know a person, especially when you're living together. But now they're gone (well, 3 out of the 6) and life in the philippines will never be the same again. These girls are now, and will forever be my friends slash co-workers slash sisters. To the above mentioned, please grasp the true amount of bonding bonding that has happened here, and always remember NISM'08 (hOW could you nOt, right ;p). And to enD- one thing you'll nEVER miss about the pilipines, the inevitability of public urination!! haahaha char. i love you aLL.

HAPPIEST EVER 1st birthday dear Alexis Joy Patricia Konkle~~

2008-07-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

there's NO good way to celebrate your life thus far when I'm thIS far away... anything and everything I come up with to send you pales in comparison to the actual tIME I wish I could give you - time spent just hanging out, getting to know each other, building relationship [blahh, i'm going to make myself cRY!] I didn't even feel like calling, like I can do with so many other ppl's birthdays, because you can't hardly speak! Just know that I'm thinking of you, and love you.

FIL Supervisor Appreciation Night!

2008-07-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last night we prepared tortillas plus all the toppings for burritos, and served the supervisors that have welcomed us, put UP with us, taught us, and affirmed what we know in the BIRTHroom over the past two years. There is really NO adequate way to repay them, or express to them just how much they've given us - not including their laughs and friendship that has made it all that much more special.

After dinner we let them relax and watch a slideshow of all the pics accumulated over the past couple of years (it was a loooong slideshow, and a gREAT conversation piece ;p) WHILE we gave them foot masssages, did a foot spa and pedicures for them! hahaaa, they lOVEd it! It was so fun to watch their faces, and hear their expressions as we worked! If I were leaving soon, i DEFinitely would have cried...gOOD thing I'm staying on for a few more months, which will probably only make it harder to leave but..

ESTILLES, Amelita

2008-07-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

- 41 year old
- G11P10L7 (this is now her 11th pregnancy, she's given birth to 10 children (aka no miscarriages), 7 children are still living)
- Due date is toDAY! (the baby is now 40 weeks)
- She has zero labwork completed (a requirement to delivery at Mercy)
- She has a 27 HCT (dangerously low, and indicates anemia)
- She's been experiencing false labour already...promises to bring her lab results in tomorrow and will take the iron supplements I gave her this morning. She hasn't come for prenatals since her first visit, and nOW she's in danger of not being sufficiently prepared, being too unhealthy, and/or being transported for any of the above! She needs prayer!

Someone who has had thIS many babies is already at risk for so much in labour and delivery, including hemorrhage, which can be controlled, but the ramifications of such blood loss with her already depleted system - goodness. I'll admit I'm scared to be called-in for her delivery..

OTHerwise, she's SUCh an amazing lady - the kind who demands the attention of an entire room because she's had so much life experience and is exploding with joy to tell someone (and everyone) about it! She speaks visayan a million miles a minute, even though she knows i'll understand her more thoroughly if she speaks slower...she's just too excited, and has sO much to say she has trouble getting it all out at once!

Please remember her today and in the near future, and hopefully there won't be any complication in labour and delivery and postpartum.

The week AFter graduation:

2008-07-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

Just to give you a little TASte of why I haven't been updating blogs, or answering emails, or writing letters (LIKE I have ever sent much snail mail before but) thIS week was nUTS! I don't think I spent more than an hour at a time at home this entire week =(
MONday - Grad
TUESday - newborn screening training and "appts" in the afternoon
WEDnesday - prenatal clinic, plUS had a continuity in labour (pictured above)(w her for 18 hrs at the clinic- starting at 8:45 through dayshift and swingshift and she FINally delivered at 2:30am- we're into THURSday now).. slept for 3 hours and then had
THURSday - Agdao prenatal clinic, shopping, goodbye dinner/evening for Kuki (going back to Singapore)
FRIday - dayshift, caught another baby, cooked for a goodbye party for kAYE (going to Japan), hAD the goodbye party
SATurday - Samal PREnatal OUTreach (a new venture I'm more than a little excited about), went paintballing, thEN had nightshift
SUNday - caught another baby (end of nightshift - that makes 3 babies in 4 days..), met ppl at the mall for lunch, hung out, bought a wATCh (yes, mom!! I found one!), and just got home around 9. I should go to bed...

NISM'08 Graduation Ceremonies ~

2008-06-30T18:03:00.001-07:00

"Midwives sila gyud!", "Midwives na sila!", "Ha-happy GRADuation" - have been just a few phrases floating around these past couples of days. We're DONE SCHOOL!! Yea-hey. I'm not so sure I believe it yet but, dO feel like if in a situation on a plane where some unsuspecting woman were to go into labour, I could boldly and proudly say "Don't worry, I'm a midwife!" ;p (we miss you sw). In addition to receiving my diploma, I also was awarded Excellence in Attitude and Service (thanks to mishewah for making that possible ;p). The ceremony was soencouraging, Matthew gave the commencement speech, there was singing, swimming, eating, and fellowship.
CONGRATULATION GIRLS - we did it!!

and we aLL PASSED!!!

2008-06-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Krys texted us saturday night, during our "grad getaway" saying "would it help the grad party if you knew you ALL PASSED?!?" We had been swimming and upon drying off and checking our phones a whole nother celebration erUPTEd!! my goodness...the weekend was awesome. Just such a good time hanging out, solidifying memories and relationships, eating and eating, and i think we even managed to not burn ourselves to a crisp! Reddened faces wasn't such an appealing thought for grad photos! THe ceremony is toNIGHT!~ more to come..

The FINAL EXAM - is OVERRR!

2008-06-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

We'll get our mARKs back on Monday :D - AFTer the bEACh! ;p

OUr last week as students!!

2008-06-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok so THIS pic isn't a pic of my classmates here at Newlife, BUt it IS just one of the many things i've been uP to recently...

LIFE has been inSANEly busy these past couple of weeks, as you've probably noticed by the lack of updated blogs...THIS Friday, June 27 marks our absolute final exam - testing EVERYthing et al. of what we've learned these past 2 years. And, it's been a tRIP - let me tell you that. NOT only have I acquired an amazing hands-on education, i've come to know 5 other amazing women along with it. The girls in my class blESS me dAILY, as in (which, is THIS country means "to the highest level!").

I've been hanging out with these amazing fils a lot lately...1st birthday parties (the biggest celebration in this country), going out to eat, going to the park, hanging out, getting to know each other's cultures and families, etc. It has blEssed my heart in more ways than onE!

And, i'm SOMEhow (covering shifts and whatnot) working EVERY DAY this week - which rEALLy cuts into studying time, but I'm confident the exam Friday will go well (you could pray for that, though!) AND THEN, the girls and I have a huge beach weekend planned...sleeping out under the stars, we've already started food preparations, Lois has a big check list going, and plans for celebrating our graduation. The actual graduation ceremony will take place the following Monday, June 30th - to which we'll all be sun-kissed and refreshed from the beach!

SPEAKing of celebrating Grad, my mother and FAther sent a package to help commemorate the event! It was so unexpected and incredible to receive!! [thank you both very very much!]. I'll be posting pics of all of this commotion soon!

[at long last!] our DIAMOND anniversary~

2008-06-17T04:04:00.000-07:00

My graduating class of 2008 celebrated reaching 75+ handles yesterday. The original plan was to have ultrasounds done on our uterus' (because we make our girls get'em, we thought we should try it also!), but weren't able to coordinate that with our consulting physician. SO, we went to the mALL and got halo-halo (the one and only true filipino dessert). We were playing president in the food court and enjoying our halo-halo until a security guard came up and told us management prohibits gambling (aka any type of cards) in public places... yIKES! hahaa, we quickly put the cards away and got OUTTA there!

AND then, we went to a cheap bowling alley (yes, each player can bowl a round for $0.25)...which is aLways a good time just before dinner! After which we crammed into a jeepney with maybe 10 other people we didn't know and got a ride to another part of town to try out a new Indian restaurant.

Lois (the indian cuisine EXpert) chose what we'd share for dinner and it was inCREDible! The owner is an Afghan who was born in Indian and raised in CANADA! That's right, Toronto actually! He graduated from McGill with a business administration degree and married a filipino a while back. It was SO nice to hear him talk of home - Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Shaw festival, and peaches, and whatnot...oh goodness, I asked him to stop so that I wouldn't start to crY!

2008-06-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

....meet Jhuliana, just another cUTe baby i had the privilege of delivering.

The commencement of our AGDAO Clinic -

2008-06-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

This, the 5th day of the June, 2008, Krys, Jenny, Lois and I headed off to the Four Square Church in Agdao for the very 1st day of the prenatal clinic I'm starting in that community. We were there for 8am...the signs all said 8am start time...and we waited... =D - four very capable midwives (one highly experienced, and the Di-RECT-or of the largest lying-in clinic in all of the Philippines) - ready to POUNCe on the very first pregnant lady to walk through the door! hahaa, that miGHt be a little bit of an exaggeration but, I was nervous enough to actually feel that way!! I was pretty sure I had everything ready - we'd brought a bed and mattress in the day before, I had copies of forms, stethoscopes and bp cuff, a fetoscope, TK's Doppler, alcohol and cotton, lancets, capillary tubes, folders, and pens, etc, etc. Not that I had to go to great lengths to obtain ANY of this (Mercy clinic is our neighbour and is funding this little operation). But still. I think the first lady walked in around 8:30ish, followed closely behind by our second patient! They starting filling out forms and things picked up from there!

Krys was gracious enough to step back and watch us do our thing, while still willing to totally help out and answer any questions that faced us. Jenny and Lois were SUCh a big help (hahaa, even though we only actually did 5 prenatals- which is NOthing compared to our prenatal days at Mercy seeing 60+ women daily but - it's a start). Two of the five girls have already had an initial prenatal at Mercy, but would rather just have prenatals done closer to home, plus they don't have to wait with all the other women at Mercy.

ANother fun thing about the day was the eager pastor of the church, Pastora Nora, kept going outside and inviting people in, even if they weren't pregnant, EVEn if they weren't women, to have blood pressures checked and hematocrits taken! As such, here is a pic of me, serving this new prenatal clinic by giving these old men a check-UP! It was so fun. We were just able to hang out all morning, talk, and have merienda (snacks =D).
But THE COOLest event of the morning came with the patient pictured above. She walked in saying she didn't know if she was pregnant or not, but that she'd gone without a period for 3 months but had been bleeding heavily for about 7 days now. THEN she says, I had my son at Mercy last year. When we asked who her midwife had been she couldn't remember BUT then said that the midwife had NAMEd her son... BRY-den LIAM! I just sat there for a minute, to let it sink in! hahaha, IT WAS ME! I had been her midwife! After looking back, and reading what I wrote after her birth, I totally remember...the baby had come out in ROUGh shape, blue, limp - it was the most dead baby I'd ever seen, let alone delivered (it was only my 11th birth). We transported him right away, and I just sat there with the mother, watching her stare straight ahead after having her first born son whisked away from her. I focused on making her comfortable, if nothing more and we started talking..after which, she asked me to name her baby. SO BRY, this little boy is named after yOU! Cool eh, i can't believe we ran into her again! [As it turns out, she's MOSt likely just had a miscarriage, but didn't want a baby now anyhow, so is kinda ok with it - times are tough right now in the economy here, rice is at an all-time high price, etc].

ANYways, it went SO well. And I am SO excited to hang out there every thursday...these girls are now my continuities! Most are due in September but that's ok, because that gives us a while to get to know each other!

continuity - delma FELIX

2008-06-03T02:26:00.000-07:00

Came in this morning at 3:20 and was 4cm at 3:45am...i was called out of bed. And it was a SUPER busy night shift (including transporting a breech), and the poor girl had to listen to 3 other women come in "fully" and ready to push and have their babies. Her husband kept counting as the babies kept poppin' out. SHe needed an IV because her blood pressure was borderline high. She was wanting to push around 8am but was only 8cm - the head still very high. I got her to walk stairs and do other exercises to help bring the head down the birth canal. THe flood gates opened at 9:32am as her bag of waters burst. At which point the head was visible and baby slid out at 9:39am. The baby boy, weighing 3.42 kgs (7lbs. 9oz.), was named John Paul F. Mamontayau - her second son (and she's ONly 19).

This week is SUPER SUPER busy. WIth one last review test before the final, AND the Agdao prenatal clinic is starting up THIS thursday. I'm heading up these prenatals, and all the girls will become my continuities...AKA from thIS thursday forth my life is not my own! Any second one of these girls could go into labour, or be having problems with their pregnancy, or postpartum and its my responsibility to be there as their MIDwife. This is the real deal... i think this is more of what it's like to practice as a midwife in Ontario (which might nOT be such so enticing anymore). But, we'll see. My prenatal clinic (run under supervision and with the HELP of MANY at Mercy, of course) will be every thursday at a church in the Agdao community. A lot of people i've talked to already are SO excited to get involved...it's really cool to see! I'll have pics next post of thursday morning..

Joecel Madula and her baby Jaiden Kyle

2008-05-27T02:30:00.000-07:00

Last 04-10-08 Joecel came in to deliver her first baby...we did a lOT of exercises throughout labour, and really bonded well during that time. She had had a cold for about a week prior and sure enough, as ALL the textbooks warn, the baby came out with signs of infection (temp, high resps and HR). We referred him immediately and he had to stay in the hospital for a week due to pneumonia.

When I went to visit them in the hospital and finish the paperwork for the birth certificate they STILL hadn't thought of a name for their son! And I was like "WHAT?! IT's been 3 days already, you need a name!!" She said she wanted ME to choose! Which, is SUCh an honour, but ALSO a big responsibility - naming a child, a 1st born son, no less, is not something I take lightly! THey'll have that name for their enTIRE life! I thought about it for a few days, and came back with suggestions that were both nice and sentimental. They ended up going with Jaiden Kyle =D - in honour of another Jaiden i know, and the kyle because the first 2 letters spell JK!

I LOVe my job..

SOMEone once said,

2008-05-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

“I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”

And THAT was DEFinitely true for me...guys, seriously - I've never done ANYthing like this before in my life, and I feel like I've done a lot of hiking and camping and whatnot but GOODness, it was an inCREDible 4 days. A quick rundown - it RAINed the first 2 days climbing, and we got a little behind schedule but I liked it that way (for one because my thighs were dONE for after hiking uphill for 5-6 hours the first day) and I really just wanted to enjoy the whole experience, you know, not rush things. The 2nd and 3rd night we stayed in a "bang house" (pictured below). We weren't able to camp closer to the peak because of a storm. BUT, the 3rd day the sun shone (i got burnt) and we were blESSed with blue skies hiking to the top of the kidapawan peak. Actually, a few of us got separated from the group and ended up climbing up the wRONG peak (davao peak), but it was cool because I got to see Samal Island and its accompanying Talikud Island from above, and eventually made it to the other peak, after a search and rescue from our guide (i'm exaggerating a bit). The entire 4th day was spent climbing down down down.

I really can't describe to you the feelings associated with hiking Mt Apo. It was all-terrain, sometimes we'd be walking a skinny dirt path in the middle of a jungle, and other times we'd be forging a raging river, and then have to scale a short rocky cliff, not to mention climbing hundreds and hundreds of manmade dirt/root stairs. Some parts reminded me of hiking in and around the Niagara escarpment, which was SO nice. AND, it was frEEZing - def. in the mid-teens, i think...plus EVERYthing was wet, ALL the time (even when it wasn't raining). Putting on cold, wet clothes at 6am in the morning sucks for the first few minutes, but once you start climbing, all thoughts of comfort and luxuries fly out the window. It was amazing. And, of course, it's ALways about the company your with - we had sUCh a good time hanging out in the tent, while it rained or winded around us. THe fOOD went SO well - I didn't have to worry about refrigeration! AND, another completely different part about thIS camping trip from any other I've been on was there are NO bears! Or any OTHER animal for that matter, so we didn't have to worry about putting food and such away at night. There were rumours of monkeys, but I never saw one!

Fresh springs offered fresh cold water in the middle of the trek.
We lugged fish, grilled chicken for curry, ground beef, aND pork adobo UP the side of the hill! Everyone was fairly satisfied before retiring to their tents.
The eerie fog and frigid cOLD of Lake Venado, a plateau about 8000 ft up Apo.
We had to cross this river 6 times total, as the trail curved through it when needed.
If there were no logs to shimmy, we'd forge through (already wet from the rain, it didn't really matter hOW wet we got).
A higher view of Lake Venado (an extreme difference in scenery when the sun cleared the fog and rain). Richard and Rachell (Joan and Genesis' friends) flew down from Manila to conquer the hIGHEST peak in all of the Philippines.
THis is on the plateau again, going to meet the only other climbers at the time. They had set up camp on the other side of the Lake.
At the kidapawan PEAK!...there was SO much of NOThing up there - except for the WINd, and the VIEW (which still takes my breath away). It was such a different climax of anything i've ever waited in anticipation for, but it was good.
Friday morning, back at the tourism office. The government regulates the amount of activity going up the mountain by enforcing a fee (extra for foreigners ;p). This also makes them aware of exactly how many climbers there are at a time, and able to search and rescue, if need be. They gave us a certificate at the end.

2008-05-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

MOUNT APO - the tallest peak in the Philippines reaching a whole 9,691 feet above sea level, this volcanic peak (Apo, meaning "grandfather"), dominates 72,796 hectares of the national park where natural wonders bOW before thE towering peak.
and I am going to cliMB it =)

We (a team of approx. 12 ppl including guides) start super early monday morning may 12th, spend the day climbing to a (supposedly) freezing lake and flat ground where we'll camp for the night. THe second day will take us to the summit. The anticipation of sleeping there is ALmost too much to bear! Early Wed. morning will be spent viewing thE most beautiful sunrise (I'm sURE) I've EVER seen, at which point we'll hike back down to the lake to spend another night there. One more day will take us back down to the bottom, but we'll stay over (sOMEwhere) one more night in order to be there Friday morning when the office opens - this is to secure a certificate verifying we trekked the second highest mountain in all of southeast asia! In total it'll take the week, 2 days UP and 2 days down. I guess I'm planning the food.. we'll have one little gasul burner - dry wood is scarce. And. I don't know how to incorporate rice and canned corned beef into every meal - as per request =D hahaa.. it's going to be so much fun.

a bit of lIFE outside clinic walls -

2008-05-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends take the fun (and art) of karaoke very seriously. This is at World Palace, a whole building of rooms done up in different themes from around the world to accommodate its tone-deaf customers! We rented the CLOUD room full of puffy cushions made out to look like we were floating on a cloud! IT was pretty cool.. and we sand our windpipes hoarse =)

This pic was taken at Gardena Fresca, in Matina. Tiffany is delivering Cathy's baby and threw her a baby shower here. The fun, food, and games made for a very successful baby shower! aaaaand, when Cathy delivers, Tiffany asked me to be the assist! Which is cool, because Cathy isn't just another patient, she goes to our church and has a caucasian husband.

In the middle of last week we all packed in the Germains jeepney and took a day trip to Samal Island to visit Hagimit Falls. It's an incredible place where you can jump into different pools of water that the rushing water have carved out.

And, who can forget IV-insertion class?! Not me, especially when I have 2 gross bruises on the back of both my hands, one goes down onto 3 of my knuckles - it looks like I've been duking it out with something/one. The first-year students had this class, and a few of us were asked to "supervise"! It was really fun, and also very successful...after 7 some odd pokes =) (TK's a rock!)

2008-04-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

Update from the birthroom - we had [surPRISE] TWINS born at the clinic last April 16th. It was during a dayshift that the unknowing patient came to the clinic already in active labour, and ready to push! Naomi, a first year student, quickly got things together to facilitate the birth. Krys was supervising at the time, with Ate Elsa assisting. The mother had a normal size tummy for a pregnant, full term baby - there weren't any signs that would lead one to suspect a multiple pregnancy. I had even done one of her prenatals, a few months back but couldn't determine the position of the baby (nOW i know wHY!). THe first baby slipped out weighing 5lbs. 5oz... when the patient's stomach still looked pregnant, Krys checked with the Doppler for another set of fetal heart tones inside, and sure enOUGH, another baby was waiting to be frEE! Krys ran to get another filipina supervisor while Ate Elsa double-clamped and cut the cord of the first baby. THe mother pushed again and the second baby fell out, weighing a mere 3lbs. 5oz. [both baby's were born in the caul]. THANKfully, everything went ok - the mom DID have to be transported after a few hours due to continuing bleeding but she got to spend time with her babies first and also Naomi was there to care for them. They hung around the clinic for almost a wEEK while their mom was in the hospital! - basically FAMOUS in Mercy circles, we started calling them bean-sprout and sweet-pea =) ...so thEN the mom gets out of the hospital and her and her husband pick the names Swheety and Cuttie (pronounced like sweety and cutie) for her two new daughters. GOODNESS! hahaha, what fun we have here in the phils!
It's a crazy feeling to hold something tHIS small and fragile. But, they are both thriving (thanks to a little wet-nurse action from Naomi and the love and care everyone has been showing to them). The family is now at home with their TWINS, and Naomi is going thERE for baby check ups, instead of having the mom pack everyone up to come to the clinic! But SERIOusly, as a midwife, you wait and wait and wAIt for the chance to see something like this...and i miSSed it! Sayang!

Luke&Ruth Schroeder

2008-04-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

I had the HONour of witnessing Ruth Biral (momi ruth) and Luke Schroeder get MARRIED yesterday at All Nations Christian Fellowship. The "Mercy girls" (Lo, Tiff, Medea, and I) had the task of doing HAIR&makeUP for the bridal party - it.was.so.fUN! THe girls (from Zamboanga) are sO inCREDIbly beautiful, putting makeup on their face was aLmost unnecessary. It was such a great morning. THe ceremony started at 2pm, with dinner to follow, and dANCing after that! I was fairly impressed at how the groom got every dancing, mainly by starting off with the easter song, followed by the macarena, and so on. ALL filipinos have EXcellent rhythm and LOVe to dance so little encouragement was needed to get the party started! SO FUN.

AiJEY's 1st Birthday!

2008-04-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

A beFORE and AFter shot of my dear little godson.. he turned ONE year old on April 11. It's kind of hard to believe that a baby I delivered is already walking!, but I guess there are many more out there - babies I've helped - just walkin' and talkin' (NUTS!) hahaa, some filipinos follow a tradition of not cutting a baby's hair until its first birthday. Aijey had some cr-azy hair patterns going on...and on his birthday they bUZZEd it! I went to their place on the day after and didn't recognize him at first! They put a lock of hair in a bible, and throw the rest in a flowing stream or river (in the hopes of long, flowing hair!) hahaa. Aileen said that "they" say she needs to buzz it 5 times in a row, to help the hair grow in thick and beautiful! I guess hair is a big deal here. It was cool because they've moved out to Comval Province (which isn't so cool because I don't get to see them very often), but Jeffrey (Aileen's almost husband, boyfriend) picked me up on his motorcycle and drove me almost 2 hours out into the country to visit them for the day!

a triBUTe.

2008-04-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

I've been SUPer "pre-occupied" lately (if you could call finishing an assignment pre-occupied)... but, as of tOday, I am finished the LASt (big) assignment of what could very well be my academic career (so much for those plans to go to Ryerson =P - i'm just kidding). BUT. for now, I am done. Next week we have a few lectures on ethics and communication and whatnot and that'll be IT. Crazy eh...I can't believe it's already been (almost) two years! I'm looking forward to starting work in Agdao, with a prenatal day and even mORe buntis (preggo) girls to keep me occupied, as well as starting exam/NARM review, switching to wednesday prenatal days at Mercy, which means new teams and a chance to work birthroom shifts with new people! A lot is happening on this side of the world, and even mORE planning is in the works in regards to what everyone will do when they leave - I'm pretty sure Lois has until summer of 2009 all planned out, almost to each day of roadtrips, visiting long lost friends, and working to pay off loans! I wish I was that organized! But, for now, I will watch my classmates all leave one-by-one (except for dear Charity, of course, who'll also be staying on). Goodbyes suck. I'm already not looking forward to watching them go..but thEN Brianna will come! THere's ALso the excitement of getting to know these incredible women outside the Philippines - seeing their homes, and meeting (the rest of) their families and friends and being able to hang out in our own settings.

ps. bk! you are rULing our street lately with graffiti aLL ovER the place! hahaa, every time I see one I fondly think of you... just know that you're already a part of the life here sa Philippines - and your initials are everywhere to prOVE it! LOVe

ALmost UNbelievable

2008-04-04T04:14:00.000-07:00

Another great story...without any pictures (sorry!)

A while back I had a continuity who delivered while I was away on a midwifery mission in the mountains. However she was/is still vERY attached to me and goes so far as to call me her best friend (kIN-da scary, but she means well, for the most part). She started texting me again asking if I could help her "fregnant friend" =), Ludivina Jayme who, according to her, is very poor and will come to Mercy for friday prenatals (my prenatal day). Honestly, I kind of ignored the request because it's tiring helping EVERYone and I really didn't feel the need to.

so thEN, thIS morning during prenatals I pick up a chart, and call the name of the patient "Ludivina Jayme", thinking to myself that I must've done a prenatal on her before because her name was so very familiar...only minutes after talking to her I realize she knows Madel (my other cont). I was surprised because I thought she'd be around Madel's age (17) but she was 37! AND this is her 10th baby! AND her husband just died in october leaving her with her nine children (all still alive, praise God) and one on the way. She didn't know she was pregnant at the time of his death. And I can't even beGIN to imagine her despair on finding out. Needless to say, I took her as a continuity.

Krys (the director of Mercy) did her initial prenatal last time and, given the situation, wrote on her chart that Mercy would pay for the lab works needed to deliver at Mercy: blood typing, HBsAg screening, and a urinalysis. She waited for me to finish prenatals and we went to a clinic in Agdao. It was cool because it was such a small place I asked the technician if I could watch him (I got my blood type also - mom, I'm "A" positive!). UNfortunately, we discovered Ludivina is hepatitis B REACTive. Shoot. The technician was clear she'd have to have all of her kids tested...and, a (+) hepB screen means I'll have to refer her to the local hospital for delivery, as Mercy's policy prohibits delivery. I will still be able to see her through pregnancy though. I wish I had a picture of her, for a 37-yr old mom with 9 kids to take care of, she looks aMAZing!

We went out to lunch after the having the lab works done and I asked her to list off the names of her kids, from oldest to youngest! I took a census as she did:
- Marilyn - 18 yrs old
- Liesel - 16 yrs old
- Liesa - 14 yrs old
- Gerald - 12 yrs old
- Jason - 10 yrs old
- Jessica Lyn - 9 yrs old
- Charlyn - 7 yrs old
- Jeffrey - 6 yrs old
- and little Jay Mark - 2 yrs old
- plUS one due in June!
Please remember Ludivina, and her kids - there is no telling how many of them have the actual hepB infection.. I doubt she'll have them all tested. But, I'll keep you updated on what happens with this family! I suspect she'll just stay at home to have her 10th, that's what she has done with all the others..

...just thAT kinda people -

2008-04-01T10:27:00.001-07:00

recently there have been 2 little girls hanging around on our street...NORmally, there's a pack of a bit older kids who always make me smile with their broken english, fun games, and interest in anything I have to offer. But these 2 girls I have never noticed before.

I was just coming off shift and they were there to greet me as I went 2 doors down the street to our house. I invited them inside because I knew Jenny's mom had brought some chocolate kisses for us (I'm good at being generous other people's stuff/food). The bold one came right on in and started exploring the unknown of the foreigners house, while the other one stayed back, warning her friend not get in trouble. I pulled 4 kisses out, 2 for each, placed them in their open palms, and sent them back outside. (here's where the story gets good!)

a few days LATer, I saw them again and they asked to come inside saying sOMething about "chalk-co-late" =D This time the timid one wasn't so and came right in and stopped at the fridge! I pulled out the entire (bIG) bag of kisses and let them help themselves this time. Oh gOSh! It was so cute. They both took ONLY TWO! I couldn't believe it! Dozens of memories ran through my mind about little rude white kids grabbing at candy, taking more than their share (and most of those were of mE just the other dAY!). But these cute filipinas were the total opposite, and they can't be more than 5 years old!

Every time I think about it, it warms my heart!

introducing Jonna Mae ANGCON~ her bf Jerson Velila, and their NEW SON Chaff Hickory <3

2008-03-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

SO, I've blogged about this continuity before, and told you i'd keep you up-to-date - well, today was a bit of a shOCker when Holly called me from the birthroom saying Mae was at the clinic in lABOUR (Mae hadn't texted mE at all!)...she texts me about everything eLSE to do w her pregnancy and YEt somehow forgot the fact that she was in labouR! Actually, she said, "it's too painful Jen, I couldn't teXt!" That, and the fact that I had told her in prenatals that March 27 was the date she would be 37 weeks' gestation, and therefore allowed to deliver at Mercy, anything before would be considered premature and transported to the regional hospital for delivery. Because it was only March 26, she was scared of the fact that she would be transported. THIS resulted in her coming to Mercy fULLY dilated and ready to push (a midwife's dREAm continuity..)
IT was her very first baby, and she pushed that baby boy out like she'd done it a million times (another AWEsome blessing for mE!). SHe cried when I put her first-born son on her belly only seconds after he'd slid out (which made mE tear!). He looked only about 37 weeks' gestation, covered in vernix and missing creases in his palms and soles that mark maturity. THe picture below shows this well..
The supervisor on shift, Ate Estef, kinda laughed when she saw his testes, saying that in the Phils they believe that when it's super dark the boy will be vERY bRAVE! Which is nuts, because Jerson (the father) had chosen the name "Chaff" (not chafe) which ALSO means "brave". To make a long and funny story short and sweet, dear Chaff is going to be one brave little fil! This pic was suPPOSed to show the absence of the creases on the soles, but also captures his...(sac) quite well.

2008-03-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

mORE pics - the resort had a trampolinE! In this pic (from L to R) is me, Lois, Pastor Genesis, Tyron, and Joan...the boys had nEVER been on a trampoline before, and it was pretty funny watching 20-something year old men try to figure out a bum drop. hahaaa, this activity made me think of brianna <3

and a tuBE we got to play on in the pOOL! Lois and I are on the bottom, and Laura and Joan are on top!

thIS is a good view of the pOOL - the INFINITY pool that made you think (or at least look like on camera) that you're swimming in the ocean! It was such a nice pool, with a waterfall across the front of it splashing down into the lower level.

thIS is a pic under the beautiful gazebo, a wrap-around bar, and some of the bOYs that helped mAKe the party a party!

at ONe point during the day, I figured it was time for cake, candles, and a little sOng and dance (by the way EVERyone was all whispering and suggesting that I go play frisbee w some Others)...but thEN, they surrounded me, offering a "mango shake"

as it turns oUT the shake was ACTually raw scrambled eGGS. and they proceeded to throw cups of this at me, afterwards completing disaster w corn starch sachets.. sICk! I DO remember hearing about this old filipino tradition, but reeeeeally didn't expect it. Half way through the rumble I realized the eggs wEREN't a mango shake like Ty had said, and therefore licking it off was OUt of the question! blahhhh, my bathing suit stILL smells.

a whOle 24 on the 24th -

2008-03-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

I didn't have time to think about being another year clOser to a 1/4 century (but thANks for that reminder, michellE!) as this past Easter/bIRThday wkd flew by in a whIRl of bEAChes, friENds, homemade gOOdness, exCItement, eGGs, cAKes/cUPcakes, swimming, sunburns, pACKages and a webcam hOMe, a massagE, karaoke sONg&dANce, and even mORe friends. Although nO champagne was had this time around, I did receive a few gOLden wishES! Lois' blog entry entitled 23 n 24~ has a bunch more pictures for your viewing pleasure. I haven't compiled all mine yet, but whEN i do, I'll be sure to post.

2008-03-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

lOIS turns 23!...starting oFF the day wearing gOggles (thIS coming from the girl whO said birthdays aren't really special =D) with a shirt to match even!

We had an early morning coffEE @ Arturo's pool/cafe/grill/etc. and a swim! and thEN went back to the house for frESh, hOMEmADE bagels and cream chEEse (herb&garlic...about as close as we could get to a tim hortons speciality)

WE also were able to hang out w some of Lois' past patients...at People's Park and out for lunch at the infamous bbq chicken place - bANoks! (too bad the chicken was late (we had to rush back to school for a test!))

We went to the mALL!, this photo taken in the back of a tricycab.

Aaand did a little MALLingg =D - let me take this opportunity (and AWful pic) to say that toDAY was Lois' birthday, and THEREfore we all tried our bEST to smILE as Lois does every Other day of the year, hahaaa, she's got some pretty characteristic faces.

We THEN tried to surprise Lois by meeting up w the rESt of the students for dinner at a favourite Thai restaurant, but alas, she knew...all along. mer. By 8pm we were done and dOne, no energy left to even play gAMes - instead we opted for a mOviee. So, was it SPECIAL?!

the bRIDE-to-bE: Ate (Momi) RUTH

2008-03-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots from the bridal church shower we organized last night! It was an amazing time! We had "heavy snacks" which constitutes dinner in this country - chicken adobo, rice, pancit canton, deviled eggs, brownies, cookies, and cAKe. And, of course, coke. Ate Ruth is in this picture between Tiffany and I. Ruth was honoured with blessings, words of advice, and gifts (I can not post thOSE pics). The wedding will be April 20th on the island of Zamboanga, and i reeeeeally would love to attend. It's a dangerous region though, and am not yet sure if i'll have permission to go. alThOUGH, she IS marrying a missionary boy named Luke - so, there wILL be other foreigners around!

the lAtest&GREATest..

2008-03-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

A pool/cafe/restaurant/bed&breakfast/WIFI place opened up just around the corner from us, in the quiet little subdivision we walk in...aaaaand, it's pretty much my entIRe houses' nEW FAV. spot...so perfect, in fact, that we plan on spending every day studying there! hahaaa. You can get a pool membership in groups of 5 for sUCh a good deal. And tHIS pool is the ONLY pool we've (or Laura, rather) found in Davao! It's a whole 8' deep! THe onlY thing missing is a couch and/or lounge chair - but i gUEss if one was doing hOMEwork, those things wouldn't be necessary ;p

2008-03-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

I'm stILL hERE! Unfortunately, my camera is not working at the moment, and so I'm seriously lacking in pictures..I try, whenever possible, to steal some from the other girls though - acTUAlly, it works quite well! Here are just a couple of pictures from my last assist.. I was helping out Naomi as she handled this birth.
Depicted here are the soon-to-be parents (the mother in mid-push, and the husband - sO nervous, this was his fourth child, but he'd never seen a baby come out before! He almost broke down and cried when it did finally come - he thought it was dead! awe, hahaaa, poor guy!), our supervisor - Ate Susan, and Naomi at the labouring woman's feet. It was an exciting birth!

Aaand waiting, waiting...sometimes we're forced to have more patience than i've ever had to practice (but other times, they fly out!) It's always a good time in the birth room, either way!

continuity - jonna mae ANGCON

2008-02-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

I've been with Mae since her initial prenatal, and have loved getting to know her. She always has so many questions, is so concerned about every little detail in pregnancy, and already lOVes being a mom. She had an ultrasound early on, making her EDD 04-17-08 and we alsO know she's having a little baby boy (most likely)!! I'll definitely keep you informed as to how it all plays out..

she's COMInggggg :D

2008-02-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

2008-02-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

Our class just finished a pretty intense assignment, and had the test yesterday. It went well! We're on to the next one, postpartum complications. The schedule for March has already been set. The second and third weeks of March will be filled with classes taught by one of our consulting physicians, Dr.Estrella I'm looking forward to sitting through lectures again! After that, I think there's something like 3 more assignments left. NUTS! The end is near. I've uploaded a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure, but mostly to make you jealous of my job!

Just a couple of the babies that were born on shift the other day. The little girl on the left is a low birth weight baby, just under 5 lbs. and her friend on the right is more of a normal size around 7 lbs. Two beautiful girls, both born within a few hours of each other, and both only a few hours old. The difference is pretty crazy eh.

SOmetimes I forget how lucky I am to be able to play with these little dolls every day.

Mercy's nEW AMbulance!

2008-02-11T00:54:00.000-08:00

"..mOVing on uP, to the eastside =D.." (thANks for commenting guys.. it makes me want to blog mORE and mORE!)

my continuity: Mary Ann Tormento <3

2008-02-09T22:52:00.000-08:00

Seriously - one continuity birth just beFORE outreach, and one just AFTERwards...how cool is that?!

My first night back Ann starting texting me in the miDDLE of the NIGht, and I really couldn't figure out WHY because she was going on about not being able to drink the protein shake I'd suggested she'd try to help fatten up her baby before birth. Finally, she said her tummy was painful. and THAT's when I clued in, blurry-eyed and tired, at 2am that she was in early labour. I encouraged her to stay at home, until it was so painful that she wasn't able to text me during a contraction! And didn't hear anything more from her the whole night. By 8am I was wondering what had happened to her, although not so afraid she'd push her baby out at home. She's 19 years old, super scared of labouring, plus it's her first baby.

She texted just before 10am to announce she was on her way to Mercy. After greeting her I could tell she was only in early labour.. I sent her home (she went relunctantly) at 4 cm and told her I'd text her around 5pm to ensure she stayed away until then. She came back at 12:45pm! haha, only a few short hours later, but I let her stay and she laboured well until starting to push at 3:45, and bb out (it got kinda stuck between the birth of the head and the body but Laura was there to assist) at 5:11pm.

The father's name is Jessie Reambonanza. As such, he was looking for a short, one syllable first name to counter balance the long surname. He wanted Kirt. I thought he said Bert. They must've read my reaction to the name Bert (I immediately thought of bert and ernie) because Ann asked me if I had any good names. I said my brothers names are Steven and RObert. Those were too long. She asked about my boyfriends names...aaand, i had nOthin! hahaa, I suggested my dad's name, Blake. THey didn't like it. So I asked about shortening the 2 previous options to either Steve to Rob. AND, ROb they liked. Jessie said his nickname could then be RR (Rob Reambonanza!). So, here's to you Rob, I named a baby after you yesterday!

OUTreach #2 - to Palet via Kapalong, Gupitan

2008-02-08T04:58:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to leave thIS is how we ride 2.5 hours up into the mountains.. as we went I wore my hiking boots and kakhi pants. unFORTunately, we got stuck in one of the mud ruts we passed through. It seemed like an eternity as we sat there, tittering on 2 wheels, when in reality in was probably only a second before the bike starting tipping. The heavy bag of food was attached to the left side, and over we went - all 3 of us catching it with our feet, but not having enough strength to keep it up, I was FORced to put BOTh boots ankle deep in mud. hahaa, it was fun, i guess. At least I didn't have to worry about getting dirty after that. On the way home I opted for sandals to speed up and down the hills, fly past embankments and 'round corners so fast it would make your toes curl, if nothing more than to keep my flip-flops on! I got pretty good at jumping off the back of the bike, if ever stuck so the driver could do his thing up front.

We stayed the first 2 nights, in Lanang, FLorida. Here Ermie, Michelle, Serena, Mary Jean, and Guang-guang pose while eating dinner the first night in the village - fresh (and I do mean frESh) chicken soup and rice, and bananas for desert.

This is the room we slept in the first 2 nights - on woven mats atop the wood floor, under a blue mosquito net! It was pretty cold. But after sleeping on such hard surfaces, I don't like my own bunk bed.. I woke up sorer this morning than any Other morning this week! The precious little children were CONstantly peeking in, staring at what we were doing, even if we weren't doing much of anything! We went to their school in the evening and played "teacher" (i was the teacher =D) and, when it was time to leave, they struck up a song unexpectedly "goodbye my tea-cher, good-bye! goodbye me tea-cher, good-bye! It was incredible, aaaand made me want to actually bE their teacher. How cOOL would it be to be the village grade school teacher?! ..there's sO much to dO in life!

Serena brought plasticine for the kids to play with, and we had SUCh a great time sculpting things. It's cool to see what "they" come up with to make, as opposed to what we would think of. One little boy held up what looked like a bowl (we'd make each other guess), but I was wrong...he'd made the toilet bowl in the outhouse! hahaa. aweee.

WHile we give the women prenatal care, the mEN are all about having their blood pressure checked.. as the feared "high blood" is talked about quite frequently. Needless to say, I took a lOT of blood pressures.

my continuity: Jay Marie Moricawa <3

2008-02-03T00:22:00.000-08:00

During our prenatal check-up last Friday, I told Marie (who was 39 wks pregnant at the time) that she needed to wait ONE WEEK before going into labour because I'd be away on outreach. It was more of a joke than anything else, I really didn't think she'd go. Marie is 18, it was her second pregnancy, but she had had a spontaneous abortion with the first and this is why I took her on as a continuity. Saturday night I get a text from the clinic informing me that Marie had arrived in labour! I came as quickly as possible, but sent her home after examining her (she was only 4 cms dilated and there has been too many transports lately due to prelonged labour (quite possibly from just being hERE, at the clinic too long!). I went to bed that night excited, knowing she'd most likely text me at an insane early hour to say she was coming back to Mercy. At exactly 3:46 am I received the text.

Marie was a little..."needy" (which I thrive on!) and with a little encouragement from Ate Susan she pushed her baby out into this world at 8:47am! A little boy, who has the same little skin tags on his right ear as his father. It was an amazing birth! There wasn't even a little skin split to suture! Later on, Marie said (to the best of my translation) "man, my pwerta must be really big if my baby's head was able to go through it without tearing!" hahaa. Bonnie! I gave the blue onesie you sent to her son, John Rievin =) THANKS again!
Truthfully, I had been having sort of a rough day - all my friends were sleeping on the beach on some deserted island for Tiffany's birthday but I had decided (with my head, not my heart) that I'd stay behind to do homework, save money and pack for outreach. After they'd all left, I was REALLy regretting my decision. But THEN, Marie came in and I realized what I had stayed home for! NOT homework, but to help this sweet sweet little girl have her first baby =) It was moRE than I could have asked for a consolation! i lOVE my jOb =D

[and THEN this guy came into the clinic...he'd jUST hit a dog while on a motorcycle and it looked like he skidded out real bad! I cleaned and dressed his wounds, then JH sutured his one elbow (crazy deep cut)]
[and THEN I had another labour (i was also working swing shift today) and she came in and I thought "oh man.." because she was acting super pushy but from an IE only 3 hours ago, she was only 1 cm) turns out she WAS fully, and delivered her baby shortly after I said she could push! wow...what a day. now I will sleep for approx. 6 hours before starting the long trek out into the mountAINs =)...hopefully life will be a bit slower out in there!]

another UPdate..

2008-01-31T15:21:00.000-08:00

Things have been sUPER busy. I apologize for not keeping you more informed! I handed in the art&history assignment that occupied January's days and nOW it's February and a new assignment is upon us - Antepartal (maternal) Complications. It's a fairly long and difficult assignment, but we (as students) are looking to complete the entire lot of undone assignments by APRIL. Therefore, we've only got until Feb.15, about 2 weeks, to finish this one (which is doable). BUT, I've had the amazing opportunity of going on another mountainous outreach with the same midwife, Mary Jane, this coming Sunday. It's very short notice because the girl who was supposed to go has some crazy diseases (possibly from last time she went on outreach) so, you could pray for that! I'll be gone from Feb.3-Feb.8th and am really looking forward to it. ALthough, this only gives me just one short week after coming back to start and finish the AP complications assignment, plus work, and keeping my sanity. It'll be a fun challenge!

ALSO, I had a mtg. with Krys, the director of my school yesterday and it's official! I'll be staying on another semester to acquire the post-grad experience required by Ryerson before applying to their program. To me, this is REALLY GOOD and REALLY SAD. I am really ok with staying a bit longer, although it'll be more than a year since being home, and Krys has amazing ideas on how I can more easily complete the number of births and hours I need for Ryerson (more on thAT latER!). Unfortunately, I do not have the time or funds to come home at any point through the summer. My goal is to finish by the beginning of December, which would allow me to be home before Christmas!! I miss all of you so much, and your encouragement and support (especially through the remainder of 2008) means so so much. I'll be gone next week on outreach, but will report back to you next weekend =) lOVE

Alexandra Mosqueda

2008-01-21T06:03:00.000-08:00

was born last night @ 2:11am, my first handle in TWO WEEKS! Her mother, Kaye, was such an amazing woman to work with. Alexandra, being only 5 lbs 10 oz, peeped out and came out all in the same contraction. She's the smallest baby I've ever delivered, and therefore, thought I'd share her with all of you! Just think about how small that is...a little 5 lb weight. YOu can kinda tell how big she was by the size of my hand next to her, which is basically the length of her trunk. She's beautiful!, strong, and very healthy. Oh, and Bonnie- I gave this beautiful little girl the little pink onesie you sent in my Christmas package. Her mother was very grateful!, a mother of 3 now, i'm sure she'll be able to use a new outfit, instead of those hand-me-downs i'm sure she'll get stuck with! THANK YOU!!

AIJEY's baptism!

2008-01-21T01:43:00.000-08:00

My continuity, Aileen Baluran, together with her boyfriend, Jeffery Bunao, asked me to be the "ninang" (godmother) for AIJEY (the CUTest boy EVER, shown above), whom I delivered last April 11, 2007. His baptism was last Sunday, an event I've looked forward to for quite a while! I cannot believe how big he has grown in the past year. He laughs (and cries!), and says "mama" and "dada", and even eats rice like a true filipino!
I was honoured to be a part of this celebration! Here the priest is pouring water over Aijey's head. It was crazy for me to attend a Catholic mass, and then sit through the instructions of the baptism (to which I understood very little!), and what my responsibilities are as a godparent. And then, all the babies were shuffled to the aisle seats (there were a lOT of people there, baby baptisms occur in mass amounts). The priest came around first with oil, and crossed the forehead, and then again to lay hands on and pray for each baby, and then again to pour water, and thEN to cross with oil again. It was kinda funny for him to keep going up and down the aisle, doing each thing once to each baby before going on to the next step - SOMEwhat impersonal. But at least I didn't have to go up to the front.
This is a picture of me, Aijey, and his godfather, Stephen.
And THIS is a picture of the after-party, which was better attended than the actual baptism! hahaa, filipinos go all out for occasions like this, anything for an excuse to make a hECk of a lotta food and eat all.day.long! Relatives come and go all day long, it's amazing! I was glad to be a part of it. and nOw, I'm an official godmother!!

a bunch of bb-sitting.

2008-01-15T18:14:00.000-08:00

Last week Monday - Tuesday I agreed to watch Mary Joy's (my continuity) 2 month old little boy - you might remember him, the super fast labor and absolutely no effort as the baby fell out of his mom, thus being named "Hurry John" :) (so great!). His mom wasn't with his father because he has a lot of girlfriends, but I was encouraging them to go out on a date, saying that i'd watch Hurry. Well the date turned into class, and lasted overnight :S Being a mom of a 2 month old is crAZY hard! I got less sleep that night than if I had of been working nightshift! But, it was fun to have the little guy lying around for a bit, I guess!

And thEN, Lois and I have spent the last 4 days watching our director's (Matt and Krys) kids while they took a long weekend to getaway. This was an amazing time for us! Not only did we have our own house, AND our own helpers, AND our own car...we instantly became the moms of an adorable 6-yr old and a pre-teen 11-yr old. And after "running kids all day" (as my mom used to say) I can truthfully say I am able to drive standard! It was interesting! But, for the most part, SO good. And Matt brought us back a box of Krispy Kremes EACh...which we duly offered them to everyone who was still awake at 11 or so when we got home last night!

LIFE is GOOD! ..it's not so hot. and I have been sitting here now for almost an hour without needing a fan! I'm in the middle of our art & history assignment - which I'm having fun with...a little abstract art, and imagining and creating our own clinic anywhere in the world. Hope all is well at homeeee <3

aaaand i jUSt got a filipino license!!

2008-01-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

2 thousand&EIGht!

2008-01-01T22:49:00.000-08:00

We had reservations at Claude's Cafe de Ville on New Years' Eve - the VIP "zebra" room, a private room off the back of the restaurant (same location as last year..). And, although different from last year's crowd, thIS celebration was definitely not lacking the laughter and excitement! We had organized dinner games planned, complete with questions surrounding 2007. This first picture is of some of the girls dressing for the event.

Lois, Jes and I had to be to work for 10pm that night, so we booked it outta there, rented a jeepney home and continued the party at the clinic! There weren't any labouring women to be checked, so the next few hours were spent hanging out with each girl presenting an animal they had researched. As midwives, we know plENty about human labor and delivery, and as girls we know a thing or two about ..."mating rituals", or at least the courtship it entails. ANYhow, we decided to each research one animal's mating habits, period of gestation, and how the animal gives birth to expand our knowledge of labour and delivery (nOt to mention, the incredible wORld we live in!). It's 2008!!

Christmas EvENts wrapped UP in a blog~

2007-12-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-12-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

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 -

2007-12-18T00:27:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-12-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

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!!

2007-12-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

..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?!

2007-12-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

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..

2007-12-04T02:50:00.000-08:00

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!

Nov.28, 2007

2007-11-28T16:17:00.000-08:00

That's funny, because when I started this post i put "sept" instead of "nov"...i'm a little behind. ANYways, just a little story - 2 deliveries ago the baby had to be transported immediately due to complications such as apnea, lack of muscle tone, mec-staining, extremely large caput (basically not breathing on its own, etc.) It was AWful. But the Lord is gracious, and my next birth went much better!

On Nov.28 Shirah Angela graced her mother's presence (literally) because her mom, Nancy, had already given birth to FOUR BOYS and desperately wanted a little girl. She worked incredibly hard to push the baby out, and after the baby was resting on her tummy I ask, "what's your baby?! check, feel between the legs to check!"...

She reaches over and feels the umbilical cord (that was still attached) and exclaims "lalake?!" ("boy?!")...and i said "NO!" and as i wrench her leg open to reveal her little...little...i'm at a loss as to what to even CALL it on this thing! Anyways, you get the picture. Poor Nancy, almost thought she was doomed to never have a girl, she's already 38, and after realizing what I was saying to her, that her BOY was actually a GIRL, she asks, "sure ka?!" ("you're sure?!") ahhahah. oh my...

Later on, she was thanking me for helping her out and said "babaye kaayo!" ("very girl") aweee :D She was oh so sweet! And I agreed that it was very much a beautiful little girl. What a great job.

a very lAte post.

2007-11-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

to match a vERY lAte THANKSGIVING! because the directors of our school are American, I celebrated Thanksgiving a little lATe again this year...i was relieved to see the pot of mashed potatoes next to the usual rice...thanksgivin' just wouldn't be the same w/o mashed pot and gravy! and to drink?! what else...but coke (and a little bit of (disgusting!) coconut wine). I love when everyone gets together :)

and on our fREE time.

2007-11-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

on the days we DON't have "duty" at the clinic...we pack up and head to an aircon coffee shop :) The favourites are Bo's; Blugre (not so much after they discontinued their green chai tea, but i've heard they've now got vanilla chai, so it'll PRObably become a fav again); Basti's; Cups and Lowercase; Humps (mmm, peppermint latte); 51 japanese coffee shop; Brewedcastor; Nezz Cafe; Wiki-something (i forget cuz i've never actually bEEn to that one...).
the POINt is, this city is brimming with coffee shops, all with wifi, and good tea to drink! We can get a lOt done in an 8 hr day of just sitting there in a cafe doing homework with nOthing to distract except the internet, the good company of other classmates, other patrons, non-stop christmas music played throughout the place, the constant racket of blenders and coffee pots and... the waiters ;) ...just kidding! I hope everyone at home is wEll! It IS the rainy season for me now, and sometimes, around 3am, I get chilly enough nOt to turn off the fan, but to cover up with a sheet. Oh, to play in snow...

with 2 hours left..

2007-11-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

around 8pm, in the 14th hour, sweet Marianita came back (the one I'd sent home earlier) more active! She was single, but had her amazingly experienced mom there to help her labor. Seriously, her mom could've been exPLOYed at Mercy - she was sO good at telling her daughter what to do, without being "overbearing".. A veteran laborer, she knew exactly what to tell her daughter to do - she's had at least 5 babies, and her first time pregnant had twins (who had both already died before she pushed them out..)

I got to deliver her baby at 9:33 pm, and because it was so close to shift change, I didn't have to do any of the postpartum things like the baby exam and bath and such (the fun part :P). So I finished up the paperwork and endorsed the rest. I later found out that the father came at some point that night (which was really special for her because he already has a family and told her he was going to stay with the others). It's a common occurrence here, i've kind of learned to accept it, but, as long as they can support all their children, it's socially ok.

It was a great birth! I was completely blessed by the support of Marianita's mother, and just how she handled pushing out her first ever little baby girl.

a 16 hr. shift

2007-11-17T00:18:00.000-08:00

I asked Jenny if she could work my sunday swing shift (afternoon-eve) because I planned somewhat of a party in Toril (about an hour from here) with a couple of the women i've delivered - mainly the 2 Aninon sisters. But, I switched her for toDAY, saturday swing although I already had saturday day shift. Therefore, i'm in my 11th hour at the clinic, and obviously there's not much going on. I haven't delivered a baby since the 2nd of november (TWO WHOLE WEEKS) and was looking forward to a busy shift, but so far I've only sent one girl home in early labour and done a tOn of Jenny's baby check-ups! I also did more homework than I probably would have gotten done at home ;) It's been a fun day though...i'm hoping this little blogger break will spur the fully dilated labours to start pouring in here!! (i'll letcha know what becomes of the next 6 hours..)

the funny ways people endure injections.

2007-11-12T17:14:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I had prenatal clinic...we each have our own cubicle and our patients sit in the waiting area until they are called. Because we have 5-6 midwives working on our team, we just pick the chart off the top of the pile, call the name of the patient, and carry out the prenatal. I picked up a rather large file yesterday and realized I would be seeing not one, but two patients because of it.

The filipino people have a community within the country called the "Bajaos"...even I can tell, just by seeing someone, if they are Bajao or not. It's hard to explain...they just have a certain look about them, are usually much darker than the average filipino, with different hair also. These people are also extremely uneducated, they do not know how to read or write, when we admit them in labor, instead of signing their name we take their thumb print. They do not know how old they are, or how many times they've been pregnant, etc. That being said - they are thE kindest, swEEtest people you'll ever meet.

I didn't know this, but our clinic just has one big file for the entire community of Bajaos...not that we see a lot of them, home births with a hilot (traditional birth attendent) are popular among them. I saw these 2 particular girls during the health teaching, but it didn't click until I found myself calling 2 single names into my cubicle. YIKES! Truthfully, I was scared at first...it's very hard to communicate with them and not only because I haven't yet mastered the language.

I almost pawned them off onto my supervisor, but really had the desire to work through the prenatal as much as I was able...I took measurements and made sure their babies were doing ok. Then, my supervisor came in to finish the communication and direct me through the rest of the prenatal.

I needed to give them both tetanus toxoid injections...and when I went to give the younger one hers (oh my goodness, she was already sO stinkin' cUTE!) and she saw the needle and immediately threw her hand over her eyes, where she kept it until the shot had been given. I wanted to cry...hahah, it was sO cUTE! After the prenatal we pray over the mom and her baby...the Bajaos are cool because when you start praying, thEY start praying!! (and usually clap after the prayer - It's amazing!). My heart is stILL smiling from the encounter. I wish I had my camera to take a picture of these 2 beautiful women.

and this is just a funny advertisement.. like ANYone would get away with thAT in north america!

You don't know how often -

2007-11-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

I can almost feel you right here with me.
I hear your words of advice and support on bad days...
see things you'd find funny and hear you laugh...
and even find myself trying to remember certain things so that I can share them later with you.
It's not as fun as having you here, but I love sharing that kind of closeness.
We're close in all the ways that count -
in spirit,
in understanding,
and in heart.
Being far away will never change that.
I'm so lucky to know that no matter where you are in the world,
You are in my life for keeps!

- Alaire Tennille

And, in the midst of being homesick, and just a little sad...my very first piece of mail since i've been back arrives!!, and not a minute to soon. Thank you oh-so much for loving me. and for making these words so true in our lives.

2007-11-06T04:11:00.000-08:00

Last week wasn't so good...thus, i did not blog. I was super sick! and really wantED to be at home, in Vineland, in my OWn bed, and miserable until getting better. inSTEAd, i was swaying, on the top bunk of a bunkbed, sneezingg, and snifflingg, annoyingg and infECtingg my 4 innocent roommates. blahhh. It was not very nice - i, was not very nice. BUt i'm better now! Praise God.

and, i've had some pretty amazing things happen while i was glassy-eyed and hopped up on drugs. I got to visit the Aninon's (sisters of whom I helped deliver their babies, the boy in the pic is almost 5 months now (how crazy is it to think I delivered this little boy!)), I was able to spend some time with Aileen and her son (my god-son, Aijey), had a sKYPee date!, start a life map, play in church on Sunday, and say goodbye to a dear friend named Jamie whose on her way back to Korea.

I also was able to finish an assignment, and take the test for that section on monday. We've only got 11 more assignments to complete! And this next one we're starting, Intrapartum Complications and Risks, will take over a month to complete. Oi, so homework is planned to Christmas. WHICh, by the way, i've already started my shopping (and not jUSt for myself..:P) I'm sO on tOp of things!

aaand yet another..

2007-10-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Last (saturday night/sunday morning) night at 1am Lois called me into the clinic because dear Mary Joy Yahot (another continuity) was in labor. Mary Joy was special because she's 19, was having a hard time with her boyfriend, and had tried to abort the baby with medication in the first trimester. She knew prior to delivery that her baby (boy from ultrasound) could possibly be 'abnormal'. We prayed that all would be okay.

I checked her at 2am, she was 6 cm (first time having a baby..) so I thOUGht there was plENty of time. A half hour later she was spontaneously pushing a bit, but i explained again how waiting until she's fully until pushing is a good thing. Next thing i knew she's like "uhh, jenna...i feel something coming out, like blood or something" (she was pacing the birthroom at the time). I lifted up her dress to reveal the BABY'S HEAD already out :S ye-ahhh, so she waddled over to the bed, while I threw gloves on but the baby was born completely unassisted, without pushing, by miss Mary Joy.. so USually first-timers have a long labor, and have to push hARD to get the baby out. but thIS little boy just fell out! She didn't even tear! We all had a good laugh about it after making sure the baby was ok (he was perfectly fine, by the way).

so thEN I ask, "what will you name your first son?"
to which she replied, "harry john"
then I go "what will the spelling be?"
and she goes "h-a-i-r-y john, you know, like hair" (as she lifts up her ponytail)
and i laughed.. as did the rest of the midwives.
my supervisor then goes "how about hUrry, because he was in such a rush to get out!"

[later on while filling out the birth certificate, I re-checked the spelling with Mary Joy. and she has decided that "Hurry John" is the most appropriate name for her son!! hahah, what a story she'll have to tell at hIS wedding!!]

Being a part of nEW lIFE~

2007-10-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

Last night on shift I had the opportunity to deliver Annabelle's 2nd baby. She was my continuity, a particularly cool situation for me because I delivered her sister's (Analyn) baby last spring. The birth was 'perfect', medically-speaking - she came in fully dilated at 3:30am and little Mary Kate was born at 4:34am. Her boyfriend (Michael), along with Analyn's bf (James) brought her to Mercy and were a great support for her. Although, James waited outside in the hall, of course. I cannot wait to visit their entire household!! I am so incredibly blessed to have been a part of their lives. These pictures show Annabelle with her new daughter, Mary Kate (just 3 hours old!).

aMAZinggly relAXEd!

2007-10-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of a crazy weekend, with clinic on friday, dayshift sunday, and clinic again monday morning.. we also handed in our Family Planning assignments, and took (and passed) the test for that, AND received our next assignment - all about genetic screening and diagnostic testing (which I'm looking forward to studying!) bUt. after the test on monday, Lois and I met Jenny and her dad who is here "on buisness" visiting Jenny! We were blEssed with the opportunity of staying the night at Paradise. and Uhh. Everything is right with the world (at least for now, in my mind).

the mysterious "Lake Agco"

2007-10-14T18:33:00.000-07:00

1)on the way UP!..

2)in front of Lake Agco.

3)a view of the resort..

4)i've ALways wanted a pet monkey :|

Ate May and Kuya Arex, boiling the eggs:)

This past wkd I went with Rose to our supervisor's place in Makilala and took a day trip to Lake AGCO, located at the foot of Mount Apo (the tallest volcano on this island) to experience all of the natural wOnders of the mountain. The "lake", as they call it, turned out to be (for me) more of a pond! But, it was breathtaking, none-the-less! As you can see from the first picture, lake Agco was sO hOt it was boiling and steamy...we actually boiled eggs in it for part of our lunch! The people there say that the lake gets angry if it's noisy and steams up to hide - so we were all whispering :) hahah, it was so cool. Actually, it wOUld steam more if we forgot to be quiet...

Whaaat eeelse, there was a natural spring pool (freezing to everyone except me), a "mud" bath - which turned out to be just muddy water, although still natural, and warm. There was paths and trails, and boiling clay to cover your body with, and a steam cave - the steam was natural and smelled like sulphur, but the cave was man-made.. It started raining around 2pm and we waited it out until 5:30ish to ride back on the motorcycles we packed onto to get there. At that point, I could ACTually see my breath, which was aMAZing because I haven't experienceD that kinda thing since last, last winter. The filipinos kept saying there was smoke coming out of the mouth, and I was trying to think of the word we use for that, and couldn't...i think i've deduced that it doesn't exist.

It was SUCh a nice, relaxing weekend...getting out of the city is pure bLIss! I'll leave you with just one last picture, that was posted before the trail leading to mount Apo. It reminded me of the movie Hitch...right?!

it's finally Friday

2007-10-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

and that means i was FINally able to hand out the bags of food we/you supplied, bought, and put together! THe first picture here depicts the girls dividing up all the food into individual blue bags - working hard on a friday night. And the next ones are of our patients receiving the bags after their prenatal, just before going home. We made ~350 bags, and handed out those bags ALL week, and there are still leftovers! It's been so amazing to bless these women in this way, a little extra somethin', for no good reason except that Jesus loves them!
Once again, thank you for your excitement in this. Through trying to show these girls love, i've been learning crazy new things about blessings myself, and growing in the process of putting my 'problems' or 'stuff' aside to help somebody ELSE out (whether that be at the clinic, or in a house brimming with girls who are all also missing home and whatnot).

an UPdate on Mercy.

2007-10-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

and i DO mean "mercy"!! The DOH came in monday morning with comPLETely different spirits than before...she was open to the explanations Krys (our director) had to offer instead of cutting her off left and right. SHe was impressed with the changes we have implimented to comply with her demands, AND she agreed to take the issue of training foreigners to CHED (commission of higher education) locally instead of Manila, which is exactly what we wanted. The board here knows us, knows about us, and understands the impact we make in our poor community and I doubt they will have much of a problem with what we're doing. Although not completely resolved, there has been incredible headway made and it lOOks as though I won't be pACKin' my bags any time soon! thank goodness. [not that i don't want to come home, it's just...i wouldn't have anything to dO when i got there!] I'm sure you understand!

a little spIN on thanksGIVing feasts..

2007-10-07T05:57:00.000-07:00

Let me start the pictures with the final product you see before you. Last Friday I was fortunate enough to accompany a few of the filipinas who, after calculating food and rations enough for 350 families, went to buy the stock. Here is the rice/noodle/and canned fish fest you see before you in the clinic's kitchen after much work of loading and unloading.

Our girls bargaining with the suppliers to get the best deal possible...when asked what this was all about, they simply replied their foreigner staff wanted to bless their people. Everyone was so interested in what was going on...and why (or how) we could buy so much rice.

A stock boy helping to load those huge bags of rice into the multicab.

The multicab packED full of good food! We got rice, mongo beans, noodles, canned fish, vinegar packets, soy packets, etc. to divide and fill individual bags for our patients.

aaaaand, the UNloading! It's kinda cool how this all worked out. We are ready to start this week handing out the food bags. Therefore, anyone who comes for prenatals this whole week will receive a bag of food. Tomorrow just so happens to be the day the DOH (department of health) is coming in for a "final inspection". The update there is that our clinic is fine, we will have our renewed license in hand this week...bUT, the DOH is concerned with the amount of foreign students working at the clinic. They still have the power to say we are not allowed to be helping out at the clinic in the capcity we currently are, which would ultimately shut down Mercy Maternity for lack of man-power. They are aware of this fact, and will hopefully see the care and compassion we have for the ladies we serve. The DOH has appointed monday morning at 7:30 am as a final review. We are excited it fell on this day, trusting and excited about what the Lord has for the clinic.

Thank you for your suppORt in all of this, it means such a great deal to me as well as the other foreigners living here and the native people of Davao..

@LL wør†h i†..

2007-10-04T02:12:00.002-07:00

Last night's nightshift began with being endorsed Genevieve Batoon, an inactive labor who'd been at the clinic since 5pm. She was sleeping at the time, and I decided to let her rest instead of checking vitals right away. Every hour, on the hour, from that point on I'd complete my checks...and kind of sit with her while contractions grew stronger. It was a routine of ours that she would go to the CR (bathroom) at every check, so that was fun because sometimes she'd go before I'd ask! Her sister was dead asleep on the bed in the adjacent cubicle.

At 1am I found her on her knees beside the bed her sister was in, her labor much more active. She had SROM at 1:35 am and at 2 I did an internal exam to check her dilation. With a little anterior lip (left on her cervix), we suggested she move into a "hands and knees" position! OH my, i've delivered babies with women lying on their side before, which is prETTy easy to figure out... But completely upside-down required my fULL attention! (especially because she was emptying her bowels at this time..). It was her fourth time giving birth and therefore the span of time from "head visible" to "head out, baby out" was all within one contraction! I eased the baby down, and unwrapped the cord that had strung up the baby by the heels (literally). The baby thEN went under and between Gen's legs as she flipped over onto her back to wait for the placenta.

The baby needed to be deep suctioned, and was having a hard time with the transition to extrauterine life. I ended up transporting her to the hospital soon afterwards, which is a post in itself beCAUSE I carry in this (somewhat fragile) newborn only to find premature twins beside us in the ICU (one of which was being placed into a shoe box because he hadn't been strong enough to make it). Oh man...it was nuts. They're heads were sO smALL.

I was able to reassure Gen, after seeinG the twins, that hER baby girl would be ABsolutely fine! Our patients stay at the clinic until stabilized before joining their newborn at the hospital. I made Gen some breakfast (special priviledges for pt's without their babiesss :P) and was just finishing up paper work and such when she asks me "what name you?" (the literal translation of her language to mine) And I answered "jenna" - we had gone through this when we met, but she was in labor at that point, soooo. After a bit of silence I asked "do you have a name for your daughter yet?" and, in a tiny sweet voice she replies "jenna." Oh my goodness. How fUN! Next I asked "how will you spell it?" and she goes "just like you". AWE! Anyways, it's cool because now Genevieve has a daughter named Jenna :D

biGGESt Birthday Wishes...

2007-10-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

dearest MOM, you know how much you've done for me (I live it everyday)...not only carrying me around for nine months, but for 23 years after this whole process you're still 'mothering', and 'gRANDmothering' now (not for me...for Rob.). Just wanted to thank you for how completely selfless you've been as a mom, and how incredibly helpful you always are to me. I pray nothing but another aaamazing year of your life, on thIS the day of your birth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA!~
i misssssssss youuuu.

nEW hobbIEsss..

2007-10-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

bADminton!!

a reason to cElEbratE!

2007-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

We (me and the other girls who were fortunate enough to go home for the month of august, Tiff and Laura) turned in our Newborn risk screening and provision of care assignment on Monday. The test for this assignment we completed (very confidently) on Tuesday. and tuesday NIGht Jonna and Lois took us out as a little reward for these accomplishments. ANd to renew us for the week ahead (Friday is the semester final exam..). Take out and a movie...then ICEcream (milo) and to MTS for a little truth or dare (and by that i mean dare or dare) initiated by Laura. It was a tuesday night, hardly anyone was out and we had to create our own fun and games. The jeepney ride back home, and stopping off for a late-night visit to Ate Nora's house (our ever-so-faithful laundry woman at the clinic) were especially fun.

yet another.. bOATtrip - sept'07

2007-09-22T19:59:00.001-07:00

yEEE! amidst the all-nighter shifts handling 4 or 5 births within just a few hours, the constant nag of assignments due, and the stress of up-coming exams (really, it's not all that bad ;)) we were fORtunate enough to get to spend all day saturday out on the water. It's ALways such a fun, relaxing yet tIRing day of sun and snorkling and getting stung by jelly fish.. yes, I have another rash. but I didn't get burnt this time - I wore a big brimmed hat aLL day [fashion sense ANd protection from my wise gramma!] I think my favourite part of these boattrips are the ride back across the channel to the dock because everyone finds cRAZy and nEW places and positions to fall asleep.

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!"

2007-09-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Our clinic has been through a tOUGh couple of weeks - what with the DOH (department of health) bursting in and giving us 15 days to comply with (UN)reasonable measures...all of which are underway. There are approx. 100 lying-in (maternity) clinics in all of Davao and WE, as Mercy Maternity, are the biggest of them all. We're like walmart...only with no sweat shops or cheap materials. The DOH has only found 14 clinics up to their standards, ours not being one of them. We almost closed down. Why? Not because we're dirty, or have malpractice, or anything like that...just because we're in a war against something bigger than ourselves. [OUR clinic gets in trouble for not having the cap screwed on tight to the container of our cottonballs.. when the public hospital gets away with cats running astray through the wards, blood splattered on the floor, not bothered with until the next shift].

Mercy is a great clinic, not ONLy because we are clean, but MORE so because of the people we serve. Most of our clients don't make more than $4 dollars a day (and that's being generous). And we give them free prenatal care, free labor and delivery, and postpartal care. We decided to show our patients jUSt hOW mUCh we love and care for them and their families by springing big bags of food on everyone who walks through the door, on some random day at the clinic. WE've done this before, the students just gather as much money as possible by a certain date, give it to our filipina staff to go to the market where they can buy lOADS of rice, and vegetables, and powered milk, and sugar, and such to bless our patients.

As I've said before, people at home just have such a heart for what I am doing here, constantly reading up on my blog, and girls have done this in the past where they throw this out there, and see if anyone would respond...
and so am i.
If you want to give ($5, $10, $1000) whatever you've got in your wallet at the time...(haha, Matt!) Just get the money to my mom 562-7400 - probably not so smart to put a telephone number on here but, she'll wire it to me, and i'll see that this foodbank at Mercy receives it. Oh my goodness...this thing'll be great, even if NO one gives any money! I cannot wait to see the reactions of our patients (a little disheartening, because filipinos tend to be shy and not as expressive as sOMe...but. mmm, it'll be sweet either way!) Pass on the word! and thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Isaish 58:6-8

.."when i'm lost, look at my picture of you."

2007-09-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Gian Brent Quilay, born this early morning at 3:37 am, sept.19th/07.
He weighs in at 6lbs10oz and is ABsolutely aDORable.
His mom, Joyce Carol, is an 18 yr old housewife who now has a son!

Two days ago, sept.17 I had the priviledge of catching the 5th baby of 25 yr old Elizabeth Somoza. It was a memorable birth story because by her LMP (last menstrual period) her baby was 47 weeks' gestation...let me remind you that NORMal is 40 wks, and our clinic refers those who are past 42 weeks because the risk is too high at that point. We kept her because she walked in fully dialated and ready to push and ALso because she'd had an ultrasound back in June changing her dates to make her 41 wks and 5 days (still late). We had NO idea when her bag of waters had ruptured, and i BASically pulled an overly done baby out of her little oven. Out with absolutely NO amniotic fluid, thick meconium staining and postdates, the brown/greenish stained baby was transported immediately to the hospital (although I saw her 8 hrs afterwards and she was doing much better). It was nuts though. I couldn't figure out what the mom was actually feeling, but I did make her laugh telling her that her baby was a little "burnt". Everyone's ok, praise the Lord!

the aMAZingg race - sa Davao

2007-09-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

depicted here all the teams: yellow, blue, grEEn, and red. I was part of the bLUE team - we started at 9am and came in third place around 1:15pm where the prize for all was chicken bbq and garlic-fried rice.

They had us running all over the city. Each team got a budget to work with for transportation and other costs that would arise along the way. We weren't allowed to use taxis or hire any other sort of private transportation. There was karoke involved (Celine Dion favourites), a urinalysis, massages to new interns, ate Barbara at the market, random raw pig parts, durian paradise, bowling, internet cafes, second-hand shoes, a lIVE radio broadcast! (with monster radio, 99.5), pedicures, train rides at sm, and finally jack's ridge as the finale. SUCh a good way to see/get to know the city though.