1. Never hold your breath.
2. Dive with a buddy.
3. SUN is good for visibility, and for getting a sweet tan!
4. Plan your dive.
5. Dive your plan.
and that but not least...
6. Diving etiquette entails using the bathroom to change so as not to make other divers feel uncomfortable.

Yes, that last one was a real, live question on the test I took for my diver certification.. don't worry though, it wasn't ALL that bad. and I learned a lot. and now I'm a certified diver! Here's Charity, me, Lois, and Jenny in "class" reviewing before the test.

and here is our teacher..it was cute because the club has painted keywords on the white board that reminds the teacher what all to cover when reviewing. It was a pretty good set-up.

A weekend GETaway.

Complete with flowers in the toilet bowl, Paradise Beach&Resort proved its name true once again...Krys picked us up just before 10 am friday and we met up with the rest of her family (Matt, and their two girls, Josie and Jessica), Lynn and Gary, and the filipinas at the fairy to take us across the channel to Samal Island. One of the 'white' girls (i put white in quotations because i'm nice and blACk/red after falling asleep in the sun) needed to room with the filipinas, so I was fortunate enough to be placed in their room. [so, it kind of sounds like we're somewhat segregated from the filipinas, but it's just that we're rooming with our friends, right, and they're all more comfortable with eachother, and we all know us whities better, with the exception of me, naturally, i'm trying my bESt to become a flip :P]

These were my roommates for the night. From left to right is Ate Ermie, Ate Estefanie, Ate Mayflor (my supervisor), and Ate Ana (who's currently on mat leave) SUch great, great girls to hang out with..
and here are the people that RUN the SHOW here, midwives and their husbands, my teachers and mentors from left to right are Krys and Matt McNeil, a friend of Josie, Josie, and Gary and Lynn Jones (whose daughter completed the program I'm currently a few years ago, they came over 7 years ago and have been missionaries here ever since).

hahah...yeeeee, ROOM SERVICE! :D It was a pretty sweet deal because our school financed the whole trip!

..the filipinas sure know how use the phone in our room to call down to room service, our breakfast display was quite impressive.

It's no pina colada..but fresh coco "buko" juice is probably my favourite thing to get ANYwhere in Davao.

thIS is what it's all about:

http://midwifeschool.org/Home.htm - for those of you who might think i'm making this all up, i've made it into MMC's newly re-vamped WEBsite...all of the students thoughts, opinions, and critics went into the making of this site. It's kinda crazy that I can recognize, and that I know and interact with all these people every day.

"Catches-to-date" total TWELVE live babies!! I'm busy finishing a current assignment (mircobiology) and getting ready for my semester exam at the end of next week that will cover everything I've learned up until now...uhh, I probably shOUld be spending more time looking into preparing for that...but, as always, "life" gets in the way. BeSIDES, my mom is coming in LESS than ONE week now!! And, I need to get ready for her arrival!...cleeean my room, clean the hOUSe, buy some groceries, wash the linens, get her bEd ready, find fun places to take her, budget, etc, etc, etc. hah. I'm just joking. come on now, she's my MOM, once she is in town, SHE can do all that stuff for me! I do get side tracked often..


Actually, the school has planned this nice little vacation/treat for us midwives, whities and filipinas alike, to hit up Paradise Resort for friday and saturday. [You mIGHt be wondering who'll catch all the babies born this weekend, but half of us went a couple weeks ago, and nOW it's the other half's turn! which includes me] So that is what i'll be doing this weekend, but first, I've got night shift tonight.

YEE, the bESt!

today on shIft..uhh, i think it was the vERY first time I was truly comfortable/confident being endorsed a labour. WHen I think back to some of the first times on shift, I was AB.sol.utely.terr.I.fied about being responsible for a labouring woman. But toDAY was different. Enday (Rudyleen Labajo) had a few complications that needed to be taken care of before delivery would happen naturally... a handsome baby boy was born @ 4:03pm, but was immediately transported because of meconium inspiration and nostril flaring - so sad because he didn't get his first meal before going off with his dad and leaving poor Enday totally alone and complEtEly exhausted. (this is where I shINE :D). I kicked it into 'nurse' mode, made Enday some 'milo' (kinda like hot chocolate, we always give these girls milo after a birth to boost their energy, like 200 calories a cupful), scammed some food from the kitchen for her! (usually the 'banas' (husbands) will go to get some food after the birth, if they haven't already brought some)...

so, we kinda became buddies, as I was hanging out with her in her cubicle while finishing all the paper work involved with delivering someone's baby. (NORmally I try to leave her, her husband, and new baby alone to bond) And SOMEwhere in and amongst all of her immediate postpartum checks, we started talking about baby boy NAMES! She asked me what I liked, so I began listing off names, starting with the coolESt ones I could think of, and finishing off with some of my friends names (it's hARD to think of boys names on the spot!) After all that, she asked me to repeat the very first one I had listed because thAt was thE ONE!

And, I'm excited to announce...

BRYDEN has offICIAlly had a baby in the philippines named after him! Enday has two other boys, both with two first names, so in keeping with this, her son was named Bryden Liam Labajo Pallor. I was so incredibly excited! BRY!, how COOL is THIS?!

As I was walking home I started thinking about if I'd ever get the chance to meet Bryden Liam when he gets older...THEN I started thinking about the ELEVEN OTHER babies I've delivered...I am the first person to assess, see, touch, and speak to these little babies and I've never really thought about their lives AFTER Mercy Maternity Clinic. [i miGHt be getting too far into this] How cool would it be to meet up with some of them 10, 20 years down the road and be able to say I HELPED you out of your mOm! and, ...would this have an impact on them? Then I started thinking about who delivered ME...and, i don't think i'd really care either way. So, maybe Bryden Liam wouldn't care either. But still, he is a big deal to me right now. I will probably go visit them in the hospital to see how things are.

ALSO. (yikes...) we had student group tonight, where all of the students meet with the directors/founders/active participants in the school AND birthroom. TOnight was all about missions (haha, again.) and Matt named off EIGHT countries they are in contact with who are bEGGing them to send midwives. They are as follows: Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Afghanistan, Romania, Cambodia, Mexico, and India....urghhh. [did i mention, they're BEGGInggg] Matt is such an amazing speaker, so inspiring...I wanted to cry a few times during his little schpeel. i.don't.know.what.to.do/think. Matt and Krys are totally behind supporting 4 or 5 of us going into a country and starting a birthing clinic...my face in this pic best describes my emotions.

the traditional family picture in front of the tree..

I just received brianna's christmas package. She sent me such great and thoughtful things, one of which were updated pictures...looks like i was home for christmas after all :P

thIS is my continuity, Aileen at her last prenatal at the clinic. We've been hanging out outside of the clinic though, and I am SO looking forward to delivering her baby. It's cool because she tells me her thoughts about pregnancy, and how her boyfriend doesn't want to be at the birth because he's afraid of seeing her in so much pain..(pfft. BAD excuse!) ahha, if I have anything to do with it, he'll be there. She's due April 10th...and i.cannot.wait!

and vaaaalentines day prep.. this was the kitchen we spent All wednesday in, preping, cooking chicken, pork, asparagus soup, this amazing salad, roasted tomatoes, etc. (good thING Joy haad extra chef's jackets and hats...everyone kept calling us martial arts pros)

i handled the chicken cordon blu...I enjoyed the prep part, at Joy's house, but after we got to the church it was inSANity. SO many helpers (which is good)(but OVERstimulating)

Let me introdUCE you to Jennah Fruylan, and her mom, Maricel
Jennah was my nineth handle. the TENth came as a bit of a rip off...let me explain. I got to work for 5:45 am, for enough time to change and get ready before endorsements at 6. As Estef endorsed her labour to me we could hear her moaning. We quickly finished her endorsement and I went straight to her cubicle to check on her. When I arrived she was pushing, and the BOW was bulging out of her, and I could only get one glove one before out spilled a little baby boy! uhhh...not.my.fault. haha. no no, everything was fine, I put the baby up on the mother's tummy, no harm done (good thing there was no cord coil..). AS the assist took over that part, I got 'ready' to deliver the placenta. It was nuts though, because the mother, Analyn, basically birthed her baby all by herself! The clinic was crAZy that day...all six beds were full, and I had to move Analyn and her family into the 'overflow' postpartum part to be able to check in yet aNOTHer labour (whom I later endorsed because she was only 4 cm). Things have been busy, but OH-so-good!

picture deprived.

i've TAKen the pic of Jennah and I and her mom, but had to use someone else's camera. So i'm just waiting for her to email to me... here are some others I got off ppl, to keep you entertained in the meantime!
this is me, tiffany, and laura one night after a bIG dinner out for Krystal's birthday, attemptING to all fit in my single, bottom, bunk bed!

and HERE laura and i are playing the guitar. i taught her e and em...lol.
this mIGHT look like I'm rapping..or something, but i'm ACtually trying to get away from the picture that was being taken of me..and only me..hah, laura was being funny. but i just felt awkward. but the PICture makes me look kinda cool ;)

in and amongst

Yeah, I'll get pictures of Jennah for everyone at the next baby check-up.
In the mEANtime, my words will have to suffice..

I wanted to fill you guys in on a few of the things that have been happening around here. As time goes on I'm slowly becoming more and more inVOLved with the 'stuff' that makes up my reality here (as my mom would say, it was only a matter of time). I realized that the contact list in my phone has grown out of control...I'll share a story to give you a bit of an idea as to why this is so...

I was in my favourite coffee shop, drinkin' a chai latte (one WAY better than ANy starbuckS) and working vigorously on finishing an essay for class when these two Korean girls approached me, kinda laughing at themselves while explaining to me that they're here to learn english, but that their classes aren't enough...they needed more conversational practice. hah, THEN they go "so, do you have time to be our friend?" We quickly exchanged numbers with promises to text. I just met up with them last night at the mall, and it was surprisingly a good time - no awkwardness (although, i did have an american along for supprt), we sat and talked then walked around and shopped THEN went to see Blood Diamonds (wHICh, by the way, is an amazing movie).

Also. today was my very first day to play the keyboard at my church's worship service...that's right, I've held off thIS long! They ALmost inSISted on me singing aswell...but I got away with not. And it went really well. The worship team at All Nations Christian Fellowship is vERY vERY good - made up of an acoustic, one electric (who both sing), bass, the keyboard and drums, and usually 2 other female voices. It was easy to play with such talent...not that the church on the hill doesn't have talent, because you DO! This was just...more...refined, I guess.

Let's see...what else?
Ahh, so i know that there was no consensus on whether or not I might 'meet someone' while here in the Philippines. Some would totally rebuke the thought, when OthERs were conVINced there is nothing wrong with it (those were the ppl who were SURE i'd go off, meet someone, and never come back). haha. For example, my last and very WISE employer (Mr. John Leyenhorst) absolutey forBID me to meet a guy here, while Bonnie Fahnestock encouraged it, as long as I brought him back home to be wed. WELL. You all will be reliEVEd to know that my school is also against intercultural relationships. And, I strongly believe that it's because of thIS reason alONE that I am dateless for valentines'07. lol. j/k...no, but I am...

SO, I made friends with a caterer named Joy. I love cooking, and baking, and eating - and she promised All of these things and more if I would help cater the valentines day couples dinner at our church. I figured this would be an excellent alternative to wallowing in...well. you get the point. but i am SUPER excited to be catering/serving again. Lois and I are going to her house early wednesday morning to prepare, and might even slEEP over! (her husband is out of town, so she wants some company - should be fun though, because she said she lives near the 'club' and that we could bring our suits...suhWEEt)
WOW - this became a novel.

Just one more thing...something I've been thinking about lately...
What is your perception of reality?

jenna(..with an h) Fruylan

last night's shift endorsed Maricel Malate, a 19 yo G1P1 (now) to me at 8 cm dilated. She wanted to push right then but I advised her to while until she was fully to start pushing...she was tired, so she rested. Just before 8 am she started getting more vocal, so I lifted her leg (she was lying on her side) expECTing to see nothing new.
exCEPT, somewhere in that hour she'd gone from 8 cm to fully and the baby's HEAD was alREADY visible!
yIkES!
so I call 'head visible' as I slap on the gloves so my supervisor will come to chart for me. [as students, we are suPPOSEd to have our supervisor in the cubicle for all the 'important' events such as crowning, baby out, and the birth of the placenta]. Maricel did sUCh a great job of controlling herself. She'd push when I encouraged it and would breathe when I'd say to. The newborn baby girl was born at 8:05 with a nuchal cord coil AND a 'body wrap' (when the cord also going around the body). I've never been faced with THAT situation before, and there's all these protocols and whatnot, but at the time, you don't really thINk about or reMEMber the rules, you just deal with it. And the baby slid out with being strangled, so i gUESs i did my job.

Roldan, her husband disappeared later on, just before the bath and i THOUGHt he was going to miss it. [i consider the first bath a prEtty.bIG.dEAl.] So when he DID show up I was like 'WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!', totally joking of course..but he smelled like smoke. I made him bath the baby, haha, all in fun, of course, as punishment for slipping out for a smoke.

Also, Maricel had said that Roldan would name their baby..and after 5 hours she remained nameless - when I was filling out the birth certificate I started asking him all these questions like 'well, what kind of names do you LIKE?', 'what are you conSIDering?' ...Finally he goes, 'i like YOUR name.' YEEEEEE.
Jennah Fruylan is THE first filipino to be named after me - maybe because I pressured him, maybe because we were buddies, or maybe just because he liked the name jenna, it doesn't matter - it feels prEtty darn good. They'll always be a special family to me.

beAUtifUl babY bOY.

what the stORk saw.

WELCOME JADEN LUCAS! born Feb.5, 2007 at ~3:15pm

the Neufelds were one of the hardESt people to leave home last september as I came to the Philippines to learn how to deliver babies, KNOWing that I would be missing the birth of Ted and Julie's precious second child. Communication throughout was as often as schedules allow, and has just recently become more of a steady, daily thing as they anticipated the birth of little Jaden. Juls went into the hospital in the wee hours of the morning, and by that afternoon gave in to a cesarean birth.
As you can see from the pictures, he's an angel!
- I'm am so thrilled for you guys, but also cannot help the saddness in my heart as I think of all that I have missed, and will miss until I return. !!God blESS you and your WHOLE family, imMENSely!! :D

hAPPy 22Nd!

haha, yeah - Michelle, you miGHt possibly be right with that one... hOPefully you're all assuming i'm holding out on ya until sOMEbody comments (yeah, no, someone OthER than michelle. lol)(you're cool) but, the truth is not much has been out of the ordinary around here.

I am not trying to say the delivering babies is in ANy lESs exciting. because. it's. amazing. but the birthroom has been quite on my shifts lately. and i WOUld've taken a pic of this crAZy salon that our neighbours built (right beside our house) in like, a day. I'm serious. They started building, and I'm pretty sure I saw her cutting someones hair thAT SAme night! Pretty fun though, I have BIG plANs to get my hair styled there...every.morning.

hAPPyyy BIRTHday wAHkeena!
dearest Tiff was sick on her ACTual birthday, and i had this super huge meal planned..so we postponed it. until tonight. Tiffany didn't want to spend money on going out for dinner, so we had everyone over to our house, and i planned different courses everyone could work on/be a part of...it went really well.

"and, et, y, ug"

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

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

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

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

what FUN we have!

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

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

more CLINical.

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

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

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

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

gingerbread/grEEnhouse

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

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

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

IF i were a flip:

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

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

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

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

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