well i have officially made it through our second quarter of the school! this week marked week twelve of outreach and therefore, as a team, we spent a few days hanging out, discussing the last twelve weeks and reflecting on past times. we also had a personal one on one with our staff, so they could give us feedback on what they see in us and we had an opportunity to say anything on our minds. we had wanted to spend some time away from the base as a school but all the plans were failing, so we ended up doing one day trip to a really nice hotel that had a pool area and was on the beach. we spent the day swimming and playing games and got to order a nice lunch. i was very excited because they had a ham/cheese/tomato sandwich on the menu! so of course i ordered that. my fav! it was also one of the best i’ve ever had... and after having no cheese (now that i can eat it again without the stomach aches!) in three months it was amazing!
the next day we went to a buffet breakfast as a team! amazing! its funny how excited one can get over a cup of real coffee, or a piece of french toast! but we did, we must have been some entertainment for the staff there.
that same day (wednesday) we booked into the hotel, (only a few of us) for three nights. it was amazing, AC, tiled floors (opposed to concrete), a flushing toilet, hot water and an amazing bed to sleep in that you didn’t need a mosquito net for! we spent our time watching movies, hanging out by the pool and checking internet! then on saturday morning we were picked up (5 of us) for a safari! our guide, Afra, was one of the greatest guides you could ever ask for. it was a five hour drive to the national park were we’d see the animals. we stopped halfway for a picnic lunch and then hit the road again. it was quite hot, and long but when we were a few miles from the entrance we saw our first taste of safari, elephants! right on the road side! it was pretty neat, driving even further we saw a baboon and a giraffe off in the distant. safari had begun! Afra was amazing, his english was good and he had tons of information about all the animals and Tanzanian landscape. we got into the park and the roof of our land cruiser came off and with our heads sticking out we were in the perfect place to enjoy what the African planes had to offer. giraffes, elephants, impala’s, riedbucks, zebra’s, water buffalo, warthogs, baboons and LIONS!!!!! we nearly missed the lions but the last hour on sunday Afra got a call and lions had been spotted! we drove very quickly waving our hands in the air from the top of the vehicle having a grande ol’time! we got to the site and saw nothing... we drove back and forth and back and forth and then, we saw them. there were four of them laying on the ground lounging out. you could only really spot them with the binoculars. we were getting ready to leave when Afra gets this mischievous grin on his face and says, ‘i am about to make a foul’... we were a tad confused but then he started driving off the road (apparently not allowed) and before we knew it we were within feet of the lions! so neat! it was an amazing experience, the landscape was so different compared to where we live which was good to see the difference in Tanzania.
there was an over night in a little guest house that had a flushing toilet and hot water! and a chief that was there to cook for us prepared amazing food for dinner and then lunch the next day as well! after lunch on sunday we headed back to the city, and arrived late and Afra helped us find a taxi who would take us home. it was really nice to get out and relax and see more of the country that we’re living in.
next weekend is christmas.... not sure what i think about that. its hard but i think i’m also a little in denial... i’m listening to Celine Dion christmas right now, but the fact that im sitting on my concrete floor under a LOVELY ceiling fan trying to stay cool just doesn’t really encourage the ‘christmas spirit’, but we’re trying. we’ve planned a team breakfast/morning tea (i’m sad i’m missing sticky buns) and are doing stockings and a secret santa so hopefully we’ll have a fun morning!
well till next time....
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
funny day......
so i wanted to add more details to the day we spent going to that mall.... a cultural experience really, if thats what you can call it! it was the saturday we had our free day and we went to that mall.
the morning started off as any other, we got to the village by dala dala and proceeded to find our next bus into the city. well we were walking and i was a little ahead of the two other girls so i stopped to wait. i was standing waiting and all of sudden i see a shovel full of gravel flying towards me. i jumped out of the way just as the gravel hit the ground. i looked up to see about six guys in the back of this gravel truck laughing. i was not laughing. i was nearly hit in the head by huge rocks! the continued laughing and giving me 'thumbs up' signs. i just walked away, what are you to do in that situation?
so after the gravel incident we found the proper bus and got on.... well about five minutes later everyone on the bus started getting off. one gentlemen told us that there was something wrong with the bus. so we got off and waited for a bit in the crowd and hot sun before getting a little frustrated and then looked for a cab. the problem with the cabs, like any third world nation it is always a bargaining system to decide on a price. when finding a cab we were automatically surrounded by men trying to get us into their taxi's. during all chaos one man who actually spoke english came to me and said 'where do you want to go?' i told him and he said 'okay 40 000' i said 'we can't pay that much' so he asked how much we could afford and i said '15 000' he looked at me and said '20 000' i looked at the girls and we agreed. so we climbed in and drove off and after an hour of sitting in the cab through traffic we got to our destination.
the day was nice, looking through a supermarket we almost went crazy with all the food we haven't seen in months! there was a bookshop and coffee shop upstairs that nearly felt like being in a mini chapters! for dinner we enjoyed subway and then decided to get a cab home.
getting a cab wasn't a problem and he agreed to the same price we paid coming here. so after the hour drive to the village where we'd catch our bus home we ended up having to get out and walk because the traffic was so bad and we were in a standstill. we thought if we wait in this traffic any longer we'll be getting home to late and the sun was already starting to set. so we got out, paid and started our walk to catch the bus. we waited among a crowd for any bus marked with our destination. we knew by now it was going to be a fight to get on. usually there is a lot of shoving and pushing and foot stepping on to get a place, and this time was no exception. a bus pulled near and in a slow motion fashion people started walking over, then moved to a fast pace walk then before you knew it they were running. well i was prepared when i saw the bus and i started running, i yelled at the girls behind me 'run!' so we bolted it to the bus. the door was still closed and the man inside who operates the door was pointing saying he was going to pull up to the bus's regular stop. well that didn't fly with the this particular group of Tanzanians because everyone, including us three white girls were pressed against the bus door waiting. so he opened them and released the mob! the men are the worst, they push and elbow and jump on each other and over each other to get on. i had one hand on the door frame but wasn't fully prepared to get a limb ripped off to get a seat on the bus so we kinda stood back a bit but still managed to get stepped on quite a fair bit. Naomi was offered by one man to be 'thrown' through the window! yes he was nearly ready to pick her up and put her through the window when she motioned to her skirt and gave a whistle! implying, 'if i go through that window my skirt will go up and that is not good!' he laughed and stopped trying to pick her up. after realizing the bus was filling up and we still were not on i decided it was time for business and started doing things the African way, elbowing and shoving and squeezing my way on that bus. one of the women started yelling 'sukuma' which means 'push' which is what we say to the labouring women all the time, we thought that was pretty funny so us three started yelling 'sukuma! sukuma!' and pushing our way on... and we made it! we were jammed in there, with every seat full and some women on each others laps and when i tried to count the people standing in the aisle i got lost around forty! so yes very full. i was leaning against some guys shoulder and Linsday was practically in his lap!
so what we thought was success, we made it on the bus! and even got a 'good job' from one of the Tanzanian ladies tell us we were "Tanzanian's now" the bus was slow to move and once it made it out of the village it stopped completely. we were told there was an accident up ahead and all traffic was stopped. and was it ever. we got out and decided to walk.... anything was better than staying on that bus. so we walked, alongside all the other people who couldn't get to their destinations any other way. we got many yell's at us. apparently three white girls were quite the site to see walking along side the road. we walked for half hour and the sun went down. traffic had started moving so we tried to hale down a bus to pick us up. one finally did stop for us but it had the most creepiest man running it. (all busses have a driver and a man that opens the door and takes your money) he was angry and trying to make us pay double for the ride. we refused and he tried to kick us out of the moving vehicle. we weren't sure if he was joking with us or not because the rest of the bus were smirking but he was so angry. we finally got to our stop after he attempted marrying me off to one of the other men he called his brother. we were thankful to be home and i'm certain it will go down as one of our most eventful days here in Tanzania!
the morning started off as any other, we got to the village by dala dala and proceeded to find our next bus into the city. well we were walking and i was a little ahead of the two other girls so i stopped to wait. i was standing waiting and all of sudden i see a shovel full of gravel flying towards me. i jumped out of the way just as the gravel hit the ground. i looked up to see about six guys in the back of this gravel truck laughing. i was not laughing. i was nearly hit in the head by huge rocks! the continued laughing and giving me 'thumbs up' signs. i just walked away, what are you to do in that situation?
so after the gravel incident we found the proper bus and got on.... well about five minutes later everyone on the bus started getting off. one gentlemen told us that there was something wrong with the bus. so we got off and waited for a bit in the crowd and hot sun before getting a little frustrated and then looked for a cab. the problem with the cabs, like any third world nation it is always a bargaining system to decide on a price. when finding a cab we were automatically surrounded by men trying to get us into their taxi's. during all chaos one man who actually spoke english came to me and said 'where do you want to go?' i told him and he said 'okay 40 000' i said 'we can't pay that much' so he asked how much we could afford and i said '15 000' he looked at me and said '20 000' i looked at the girls and we agreed. so we climbed in and drove off and after an hour of sitting in the cab through traffic we got to our destination.
the day was nice, looking through a supermarket we almost went crazy with all the food we haven't seen in months! there was a bookshop and coffee shop upstairs that nearly felt like being in a mini chapters! for dinner we enjoyed subway and then decided to get a cab home.
getting a cab wasn't a problem and he agreed to the same price we paid coming here. so after the hour drive to the village where we'd catch our bus home we ended up having to get out and walk because the traffic was so bad and we were in a standstill. we thought if we wait in this traffic any longer we'll be getting home to late and the sun was already starting to set. so we got out, paid and started our walk to catch the bus. we waited among a crowd for any bus marked with our destination. we knew by now it was going to be a fight to get on. usually there is a lot of shoving and pushing and foot stepping on to get a place, and this time was no exception. a bus pulled near and in a slow motion fashion people started walking over, then moved to a fast pace walk then before you knew it they were running. well i was prepared when i saw the bus and i started running, i yelled at the girls behind me 'run!' so we bolted it to the bus. the door was still closed and the man inside who operates the door was pointing saying he was going to pull up to the bus's regular stop. well that didn't fly with the this particular group of Tanzanians because everyone, including us three white girls were pressed against the bus door waiting. so he opened them and released the mob! the men are the worst, they push and elbow and jump on each other and over each other to get on. i had one hand on the door frame but wasn't fully prepared to get a limb ripped off to get a seat on the bus so we kinda stood back a bit but still managed to get stepped on quite a fair bit. Naomi was offered by one man to be 'thrown' through the window! yes he was nearly ready to pick her up and put her through the window when she motioned to her skirt and gave a whistle! implying, 'if i go through that window my skirt will go up and that is not good!' he laughed and stopped trying to pick her up. after realizing the bus was filling up and we still were not on i decided it was time for business and started doing things the African way, elbowing and shoving and squeezing my way on that bus. one of the women started yelling 'sukuma' which means 'push' which is what we say to the labouring women all the time, we thought that was pretty funny so us three started yelling 'sukuma! sukuma!' and pushing our way on... and we made it! we were jammed in there, with every seat full and some women on each others laps and when i tried to count the people standing in the aisle i got lost around forty! so yes very full. i was leaning against some guys shoulder and Linsday was practically in his lap!
so what we thought was success, we made it on the bus! and even got a 'good job' from one of the Tanzanian ladies tell us we were "Tanzanian's now" the bus was slow to move and once it made it out of the village it stopped completely. we were told there was an accident up ahead and all traffic was stopped. and was it ever. we got out and decided to walk.... anything was better than staying on that bus. so we walked, alongside all the other people who couldn't get to their destinations any other way. we got many yell's at us. apparently three white girls were quite the site to see walking along side the road. we walked for half hour and the sun went down. traffic had started moving so we tried to hale down a bus to pick us up. one finally did stop for us but it had the most creepiest man running it. (all busses have a driver and a man that opens the door and takes your money) he was angry and trying to make us pay double for the ride. we refused and he tried to kick us out of the moving vehicle. we weren't sure if he was joking with us or not because the rest of the bus were smirking but he was so angry. we finally got to our stop after he attempted marrying me off to one of the other men he called his brother. we were thankful to be home and i'm certain it will go down as one of our most eventful days here in Tanzania!
week twenty three - base/clinic
this past week was spent primarily on base. the community profile project was due so i was on my computer for majority of the first two days working on completing it. we still needed more information so on wednesday the three of us that were leading it went to a different hospital to interview the matron (head of department) there. the hospital was so different compared to where we work. they had not near as many women as we see in a day. thier death rates were much lower and the supplies they had were incredible. it was neat to see all these boxes labeled “U.S. Aid” and the matron shared with me that much of what they use is given to them by other countries. we also saw water bins labeled “Germany” on them. we were able to get all our questions answered including about cost to patients. which if you are a pregnant women everything is free. you do not need to bring your own supplies and anything you need is covered by the government. not sure why the hospital in which we work at is so vastly different. must be some sort of different level of government help. with that information we were able to finish the community profile project on wednesday. it was a really neat day. we were also able to see the finishing of a cesarian, they just said ‘karibu’ (welcome) and they gave us scrubs and we walked in! you’d never find that at home. it also poured rain and thundered like crazy so we found a little hut that served tea and chapati’s (a fried tortilla thing) and had a snack while the rain died down.
i also spent a few mornings at the clinic but there was not much to do. one day was independence day and its funny cuz apparently there are no sick people on that day! the clinic was empty and there were more staff than sick people. with only two pregnant women coming for antenatal care i found myself doing one antenatal check, drawing blood on a women to test for her HB levels and then we left. so not too much happened. the only plus side was i got to practice doing IV’s again, and it went in great! and i drew blood for the first time, also a good experience. i realized i can handle drawing other peoples blood just not a fan of when people do it to me!
friday one of the girls who was supposed to be in labour room was sick so i got to take her place and was able to go and spend the day in the hospital! it was fun, i love being there. not too crazy of a day, i helped my partner with the baby she delivered and checked on the women and babies. it was a good day.
saturday i was supposed to go on a small plane to a village to provide antenatal care for the women there who would other wise not receive care but my staff that i was to go with was very sick so we could not. so instead because it was our day off i joined two girls and we ventured off to a different shopping place we had heard of. we found our way there by taxi as the dala dala’s were quite frustrating and confusing. but once we got there it was amazing! they had a real coffee shop! i was able to order my first mocha in three months... so nice! they also had a book shop with english books and a really big supermarket with recognizable brands. of course things were really expensive, for example Fructise shampoo... is like what $5 at home? well at one shop here it is 9000 shillings (which is like $6-$7). at the supermarket there it was 27 000 shillings (almost $20) just crazy!!! but we had a nice day and even got Subway for lunch!
sunday was our first day of our debrief/holiday week. so we had team things in the morning. debriefing questions and things. i also started a lovely cold that day! no fun....
the rest of the week we’ll be doing team things and then some of us girls have booked a hotel for a few nights downtown and then are going on a one night safari for our break! i’m really excited, i think it will be just what we need to revitalize!
till next time....
i also spent a few mornings at the clinic but there was not much to do. one day was independence day and its funny cuz apparently there are no sick people on that day! the clinic was empty and there were more staff than sick people. with only two pregnant women coming for antenatal care i found myself doing one antenatal check, drawing blood on a women to test for her HB levels and then we left. so not too much happened. the only plus side was i got to practice doing IV’s again, and it went in great! and i drew blood for the first time, also a good experience. i realized i can handle drawing other peoples blood just not a fan of when people do it to me!
friday one of the girls who was supposed to be in labour room was sick so i got to take her place and was able to go and spend the day in the hospital! it was fun, i love being there. not too crazy of a day, i helped my partner with the baby she delivered and checked on the women and babies. it was a good day.
saturday i was supposed to go on a small plane to a village to provide antenatal care for the women there who would other wise not receive care but my staff that i was to go with was very sick so we could not. so instead because it was our day off i joined two girls and we ventured off to a different shopping place we had heard of. we found our way there by taxi as the dala dala’s were quite frustrating and confusing. but once we got there it was amazing! they had a real coffee shop! i was able to order my first mocha in three months... so nice! they also had a book shop with english books and a really big supermarket with recognizable brands. of course things were really expensive, for example Fructise shampoo... is like what $5 at home? well at one shop here it is 9000 shillings (which is like $6-$7). at the supermarket there it was 27 000 shillings (almost $20) just crazy!!! but we had a nice day and even got Subway for lunch!
sunday was our first day of our debrief/holiday week. so we had team things in the morning. debriefing questions and things. i also started a lovely cold that day! no fun....
the rest of the week we’ll be doing team things and then some of us girls have booked a hotel for a few nights downtown and then are going on a one night safari for our break! i’m really excited, i think it will be just what we need to revitalize!
till next time....
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
week twenty two
labour room
my second week in the labour started off much different then the time before. monday and tuesday were quite slow. there were even moments where we could take a seat and just rest for a moment. i was able to deliver two more baby boys in these days! i really do enjoy catching them babies!
the week really picked up wednesday and then by thursday it was utter chaos. thursday topped the entire first week all together. the morning started off as any other, i got to deliver a perfect baby girl! the first delivery for me that was a girl! i was very excited. excitement was short lived in that moment though because the mom was continually bleeding. there were huge clots coming out and she just kept bleeding. i called for one of the doctor’s and they came to inspect. there were no tears or anything that they could say was the reason. me and my partner continued praying over this new mom as they inserted an IV to help restore fluids lost. i thank the Lord because after she was checked again the bleeding had stopped! she was a little dizzy and tired but with the IV in and her resting she soon recovered and was able to breastfeed her little girl. what happened next was a little frightening. i was at the nurses desk telling my staff about the mom and how she was doing and the sound, so loud, of an airplane flew over head. i literally thought there was a bomb that would be dropped on us. it was so loud, the plane must have been just over the hospital. my staff thought the roof was going to cave in. we were all a little shaken up but the hospital staff didn’t seem phased, which gave some peace i suppose! i went back to checking the mom’s vitals when Celia entered the room saying that they needed partners on the other side because her and her partner were both delivering babies. i walked over to the other side and it was if that airplane had sent a rush of adrenaline into each women in labour and all of sudden we had everyone delivering at the same time. women from antenatal were being brought in and placed on the floor because we had no beds left. the two post-natal beds reserved the mom’s who had had there babies but are’t ready for the post natal ward yet were being cleared off for the women coming in busting to deliver. there were at least five babies coming all at the same time, one on the floor which Ash, one of us students caught just in the nick of time. i was with Emily labouring with a first time mom who was not understanding the concept of ‘pushing’, Celia was delivering all on her own for the first time, Rachel was delivering with Louise helping and Robyn, our staff, was running back and forth between all the students. the nurses were there also delivering babies and the mama’s were hollering and babies were crying..... mass chaos! but so much fun! as i had one arm under the mom’s head and shoulders helping her and trying to show her how to breathe and push i don’t think i’ve ever sweat so much in my life! Emily had to ask me to remove her glasses cuz the sweat was continually rolling down her face and getting in her eyes. the baby was born, perfect little boy. and it was my most favorite day so far! i loved the chaos, babies coming and all of praying and running around!
friday was much slower, i delivered another beautiful baby girl, but again the mom bled alot. the reason for so much women bleeding is a result of the poor health and nutrition. lots of anemia and most the mom’s i’ve delivered have been first time mom’s and have all been younger than me. on friday, she was twenty years old and the tiniest pregnant women i’ve ever seen. i was afraid her baby would be so tiny but she was perfect, yes she was small but perfectly healthy! and the mom did an amazing job. we had a good week as far as no deaths while we were there. there was morning we arrived to a set of twins that had been delivered just before but they were pre-mature. one was 300 grams and the other was 500 grams. (only one pound). he was so small. i’ve never seen anything like that in my life. one of the girls in the post natal ward met the mother who was devastated. its hard when those things happen but there are still lots of women needing our help. i’m thankful we can be there to pray and sit with those mom’s and comfort them as best as we can. the staff at the hospital usually don’t even take the time to explain that there baby has died let alone sit with them and offer some form of comfort. (the mom of the twins knew that one had for sure died but hadn’t heard about the second yet) i pray that God will continue to teach us how we can be a blessing for these women and the hospital staff.
friday night we had a bit of a get-a-way with some of our group. we reserved these tents on the nearest beach and brought food and spent the night hanging out and falling asleep to the wind and the waves! it was a great night! then the next day i went to the city and got on-line! woo hoo! haha! and was able to buy a few things that i’ve been needing for a while now, toothpaste, conditioner and of course some chocolate! this week has been a little bit rough with home sickness.... its not often i miss home but contact with home is hard and to not be living in a setting that ‘feels like home’ is also difficult. i like being busy in the hospital but sitting around the base gives me too much time to miss the familiarity of things of home. sitting in the living room hanging out with my family, going out for coffee with friends, driving my car, eating food thats ‘normal’ to me, not being sweaty and hot always, having a laundry machine to wash clothes and getting to wear jeans! just a few things i miss!
well i’m on base and in the clinic this next week. i also have the community profile project that is supposed to be finished. so hopefully it will be a restful week but also productive!
miss you all and wish i could be home to spend christmas with you!
till next time....
my second week in the labour started off much different then the time before. monday and tuesday were quite slow. there were even moments where we could take a seat and just rest for a moment. i was able to deliver two more baby boys in these days! i really do enjoy catching them babies!
the week really picked up wednesday and then by thursday it was utter chaos. thursday topped the entire first week all together. the morning started off as any other, i got to deliver a perfect baby girl! the first delivery for me that was a girl! i was very excited. excitement was short lived in that moment though because the mom was continually bleeding. there were huge clots coming out and she just kept bleeding. i called for one of the doctor’s and they came to inspect. there were no tears or anything that they could say was the reason. me and my partner continued praying over this new mom as they inserted an IV to help restore fluids lost. i thank the Lord because after she was checked again the bleeding had stopped! she was a little dizzy and tired but with the IV in and her resting she soon recovered and was able to breastfeed her little girl. what happened next was a little frightening. i was at the nurses desk telling my staff about the mom and how she was doing and the sound, so loud, of an airplane flew over head. i literally thought there was a bomb that would be dropped on us. it was so loud, the plane must have been just over the hospital. my staff thought the roof was going to cave in. we were all a little shaken up but the hospital staff didn’t seem phased, which gave some peace i suppose! i went back to checking the mom’s vitals when Celia entered the room saying that they needed partners on the other side because her and her partner were both delivering babies. i walked over to the other side and it was if that airplane had sent a rush of adrenaline into each women in labour and all of sudden we had everyone delivering at the same time. women from antenatal were being brought in and placed on the floor because we had no beds left. the two post-natal beds reserved the mom’s who had had there babies but are’t ready for the post natal ward yet were being cleared off for the women coming in busting to deliver. there were at least five babies coming all at the same time, one on the floor which Ash, one of us students caught just in the nick of time. i was with Emily labouring with a first time mom who was not understanding the concept of ‘pushing’, Celia was delivering all on her own for the first time, Rachel was delivering with Louise helping and Robyn, our staff, was running back and forth between all the students. the nurses were there also delivering babies and the mama’s were hollering and babies were crying..... mass chaos! but so much fun! as i had one arm under the mom’s head and shoulders helping her and trying to show her how to breathe and push i don’t think i’ve ever sweat so much in my life! Emily had to ask me to remove her glasses cuz the sweat was continually rolling down her face and getting in her eyes. the baby was born, perfect little boy. and it was my most favorite day so far! i loved the chaos, babies coming and all of praying and running around!
friday was much slower, i delivered another beautiful baby girl, but again the mom bled alot. the reason for so much women bleeding is a result of the poor health and nutrition. lots of anemia and most the mom’s i’ve delivered have been first time mom’s and have all been younger than me. on friday, she was twenty years old and the tiniest pregnant women i’ve ever seen. i was afraid her baby would be so tiny but she was perfect, yes she was small but perfectly healthy! and the mom did an amazing job. we had a good week as far as no deaths while we were there. there was morning we arrived to a set of twins that had been delivered just before but they were pre-mature. one was 300 grams and the other was 500 grams. (only one pound). he was so small. i’ve never seen anything like that in my life. one of the girls in the post natal ward met the mother who was devastated. its hard when those things happen but there are still lots of women needing our help. i’m thankful we can be there to pray and sit with those mom’s and comfort them as best as we can. the staff at the hospital usually don’t even take the time to explain that there baby has died let alone sit with them and offer some form of comfort. (the mom of the twins knew that one had for sure died but hadn’t heard about the second yet) i pray that God will continue to teach us how we can be a blessing for these women and the hospital staff.
friday night we had a bit of a get-a-way with some of our group. we reserved these tents on the nearest beach and brought food and spent the night hanging out and falling asleep to the wind and the waves! it was a great night! then the next day i went to the city and got on-line! woo hoo! haha! and was able to buy a few things that i’ve been needing for a while now, toothpaste, conditioner and of course some chocolate! this week has been a little bit rough with home sickness.... its not often i miss home but contact with home is hard and to not be living in a setting that ‘feels like home’ is also difficult. i like being busy in the hospital but sitting around the base gives me too much time to miss the familiarity of things of home. sitting in the living room hanging out with my family, going out for coffee with friends, driving my car, eating food thats ‘normal’ to me, not being sweaty and hot always, having a laundry machine to wash clothes and getting to wear jeans! just a few things i miss!
well i’m on base and in the clinic this next week. i also have the community profile project that is supposed to be finished. so hopefully it will be a restful week but also productive!
miss you all and wish i could be home to spend christmas with you!
till next time....
Saturday, December 4, 2010
a few photo's
one of the baby boy's i delivered!
a seventeen year old mom and her little girl, i got to spend the day before with her in antenatal going to an ultra sound and blood work.
week twenty-one - antenatal/post natal
antenatal and post natal ward.
compared to the week before monday morning i was extremely bored! i spent the morning on the post natal side, twelve beds filled with triple the amount of women with their babies all needing their vitals checked. me and Emily started going through each women checking their blood pressure, pulse temperatures and making sure their fundal height was back properly. on the babies we checked pulse, temperature and resps. the first thing i noticed was one little guy had an extremely high heart rate. after checking his temp it was well above normal. he was given some medication and we tried to show the mom how to cool him down. the rest of the mamma’s were doing well, and one more baby had a fever as well. i was checking them every half hour but they were not getting better. the doctors were notified but no further action was being taken. the next day i was not working on post natal but was in with the doctors doing the check on mom’s who were in labour. checking them over and seeing how far along they were. that little baby though who i had first checked was still quite feverish. in fact the mom must have thought him dead because she wrapped him up in the khanga and placed him at the foot of her bed. on of us girls found him there, feverish and with a terribly slow heart beat. she and another girl rushed him to the labour room where they have oxygen for the babies and they began resuscitation and prayer of this little guy to whom they gave the name Samuel. i went to the mom who was weeping, laying on the bed. with nothing to say i simply sat next to her, rubbed her back and just prayed. our day had come to an end and the doctors told us they would take care of Samuel. it was hard to leave the situation but we knew that there was nothing more that could be done on our part.
the next morning, wednesday, it was found out that Samuel was transferred to the ICU and was supposed to be sent on to another hospital but before they could get him there, he died. our thoughts and prayer went out to the mama that day.
on thursday i had a lot of fun spending the day with one women in particular. she was seventeen years old and in very early stages of labour. the doctor wanted her to go for an ultrasound and to get her blood checked for anemia. so off we went to the ultrasound. i had been there once before earlier on in the week so i knew where it was but its such an awkward thing. let me explain. the door is closed... i knock... nothing. i attempt to open the door but something is in the way. so i wait... and wait... then the door opens and i hand in my paper saying what i need to one of the professionals in there. i continued waiting and then the ultrasound guy came out and told us to come back at one if it was not urgent. but with her being from the antenatal ward they usually are able to get in quite quickly.... so we kept waiting... then another doctor came out of that room and looked at me and said ‘don’t wait outside like your not a healthcare provider’ i was a little taken aback but went in. a little awkward because the room is really tiny and there were seven of us in there... with a different patient getting an ultrasound... after her, i was able to get my women in there and we discovered a healthy baby and all was good! ultrasounds are really neat to see the babies heart beating and then to see bubbles in the waters! so neat! next we were on to the lab... blood tests and things. while waiting she was confused why i would wait with her. when i told her i wanted to wait with her she smiled. its strange but there is such a line between the staff and patients. the care is very different, there seems to be a low value on patients. i liked that i can be there for the women through their experiences and show i care and just let them know there not alone. i think thats a really difficult thing i saw this past week, women struggling through hard times, alone. a few women with really high blood pressure being transferred for cesarians because there was no electricity for them to be able to do them there. (who would have thought, a hospital with no electricity and pretty much no running water, terrible) but these women have no family there because family is not allowed in. some family members wait outside. (literately outside, as the hospital is very open. its a maze of hallways with rooms on one side and a half wall on the other and its all outside.) but to be going through these experiences alone, i can’t even imagine.
friday i actually got to go to a c-section! me and Celia got suited up in our sterile scrubs and went in to the theatre (operating room) it was a great experience because the women we were going with spoke english. this was her third pregnancy but all her other babies had died. she and her husband had decided on a cesarian to help ensure the health of this baby. we met her husband and he spoke english too and was so excited that me and Celia were going in with her. it was a really neat thing to see them cut her open and dig around to pull out a beautiful, healthy baby boy! i was doing okay, but ended up feeling quite dizzy near the end but i was determined that i would not faint! and i wanted to see that baby come. so once he did, i went to the mom and smiled at her and told her everything was good and then we had to leave because we were late for our ride home. it was really neat to be with her before, and pray with her, she was muslim but wanted me to pray. and even thanked me afterward that i prayed for her. we saw her husband on our way out and told him he had a new son and him and her parents were so excited! we got to give him one of our little hats that each new baby gets when their born and a little congratulations note.
i’m really enjoying being in the hospital and taking care of the women when they can be so overlooked. its good learning more too from the doctors. we’ve met some really nice doctors and some not so nice ones but its encouraging that we’re so welcomed and they really want us there. they are looking forward to the day when we know more and can do more work for them because their so short staffed.
i had a good weekend just relaxing, sleeping and watching movies! its nice to have some down time to process all that i’ve seen and just to rest. next week i’ll be in labour ward again! so i defiantly needed my rest!
till next time....
compared to the week before monday morning i was extremely bored! i spent the morning on the post natal side, twelve beds filled with triple the amount of women with their babies all needing their vitals checked. me and Emily started going through each women checking their blood pressure, pulse temperatures and making sure their fundal height was back properly. on the babies we checked pulse, temperature and resps. the first thing i noticed was one little guy had an extremely high heart rate. after checking his temp it was well above normal. he was given some medication and we tried to show the mom how to cool him down. the rest of the mamma’s were doing well, and one more baby had a fever as well. i was checking them every half hour but they were not getting better. the doctors were notified but no further action was being taken. the next day i was not working on post natal but was in with the doctors doing the check on mom’s who were in labour. checking them over and seeing how far along they were. that little baby though who i had first checked was still quite feverish. in fact the mom must have thought him dead because she wrapped him up in the khanga and placed him at the foot of her bed. on of us girls found him there, feverish and with a terribly slow heart beat. she and another girl rushed him to the labour room where they have oxygen for the babies and they began resuscitation and prayer of this little guy to whom they gave the name Samuel. i went to the mom who was weeping, laying on the bed. with nothing to say i simply sat next to her, rubbed her back and just prayed. our day had come to an end and the doctors told us they would take care of Samuel. it was hard to leave the situation but we knew that there was nothing more that could be done on our part.
the next morning, wednesday, it was found out that Samuel was transferred to the ICU and was supposed to be sent on to another hospital but before they could get him there, he died. our thoughts and prayer went out to the mama that day.
on thursday i had a lot of fun spending the day with one women in particular. she was seventeen years old and in very early stages of labour. the doctor wanted her to go for an ultrasound and to get her blood checked for anemia. so off we went to the ultrasound. i had been there once before earlier on in the week so i knew where it was but its such an awkward thing. let me explain. the door is closed... i knock... nothing. i attempt to open the door but something is in the way. so i wait... and wait... then the door opens and i hand in my paper saying what i need to one of the professionals in there. i continued waiting and then the ultrasound guy came out and told us to come back at one if it was not urgent. but with her being from the antenatal ward they usually are able to get in quite quickly.... so we kept waiting... then another doctor came out of that room and looked at me and said ‘don’t wait outside like your not a healthcare provider’ i was a little taken aback but went in. a little awkward because the room is really tiny and there were seven of us in there... with a different patient getting an ultrasound... after her, i was able to get my women in there and we discovered a healthy baby and all was good! ultrasounds are really neat to see the babies heart beating and then to see bubbles in the waters! so neat! next we were on to the lab... blood tests and things. while waiting she was confused why i would wait with her. when i told her i wanted to wait with her she smiled. its strange but there is such a line between the staff and patients. the care is very different, there seems to be a low value on patients. i liked that i can be there for the women through their experiences and show i care and just let them know there not alone. i think thats a really difficult thing i saw this past week, women struggling through hard times, alone. a few women with really high blood pressure being transferred for cesarians because there was no electricity for them to be able to do them there. (who would have thought, a hospital with no electricity and pretty much no running water, terrible) but these women have no family there because family is not allowed in. some family members wait outside. (literately outside, as the hospital is very open. its a maze of hallways with rooms on one side and a half wall on the other and its all outside.) but to be going through these experiences alone, i can’t even imagine.
friday i actually got to go to a c-section! me and Celia got suited up in our sterile scrubs and went in to the theatre (operating room) it was a great experience because the women we were going with spoke english. this was her third pregnancy but all her other babies had died. she and her husband had decided on a cesarian to help ensure the health of this baby. we met her husband and he spoke english too and was so excited that me and Celia were going in with her. it was a really neat thing to see them cut her open and dig around to pull out a beautiful, healthy baby boy! i was doing okay, but ended up feeling quite dizzy near the end but i was determined that i would not faint! and i wanted to see that baby come. so once he did, i went to the mom and smiled at her and told her everything was good and then we had to leave because we were late for our ride home. it was really neat to be with her before, and pray with her, she was muslim but wanted me to pray. and even thanked me afterward that i prayed for her. we saw her husband on our way out and told him he had a new son and him and her parents were so excited! we got to give him one of our little hats that each new baby gets when their born and a little congratulations note.
i’m really enjoying being in the hospital and taking care of the women when they can be so overlooked. its good learning more too from the doctors. we’ve met some really nice doctors and some not so nice ones but its encouraging that we’re so welcomed and they really want us there. they are looking forward to the day when we know more and can do more work for them because their so short staffed.
i had a good weekend just relaxing, sleeping and watching movies! its nice to have some down time to process all that i’ve seen and just to rest. next week i’ll be in labour ward again! so i defiantly needed my rest!
till next time....
week twenty - labour room
after a week like this i realize it is getting more and more difficult to try and sum up my days in a single blog without going over bored in details probably boring those of you reading. so i’m thinking that maybe i’ll just write a few short stories from the week to give you an idea of what i’m experiencing out here.
this week: Labour Ward
first day, uniforms on, name tags in place and my lovely, but terribly uncomfortable, labour room shoes on, i’m ready.... as ready as one can be going off three months of education heading into a developing nations hospital where supplies are limited and women are all labouring together in the same room.
i’ll try and paint the picture of what this ‘ward’ looks like. you walk through the doorway and directly in front you have a desk in which the doctors and nurses like to hang out behind. record books are kept on this desk that list each birth that happens and a cardboard box holds each women’s card. (their card is kinda like their ‘file’ which holds there information, name, town their from, how many children they have etc..) to the right there are two rows of beds, nine in total. to the left there are another set of beds, five, and two ‘cribs’ with the sides down where the new borns are placed upon and a scale to weigh upon birth.
i guess that first day was a bit of a ‘welcome to the labour ward’ for me. we arrived around ten and were set right into the thick of things. the nurses being very trusting and short staffed assume that we can do anything and at times would ‘disappear’ leaving our staff and us six students to take care of things. so around eleven we had a catalyst of babies deciding to be born. at one point we had four heads crowning all at the same time. the phrase being heard through the room was ‘Melisa (staff) we have a head!’ “Melisa another head over here!” “Melisa, help!” she handled things very well and a few nurses stepped in to help deliver the babies that you just can’t tell to wait! my jobs for that day included getting things set up for the mama’s that were close to deliver,( getting the kidney dish, clamps, sterile gloves, razor (to cut the cord) and oxcytocin ready to inject after delivery to help with the placenta coming out and preparing against blood clots), and caring for the newborns. we saw around ten babies delivered that day, one lady delivered while sharing a bed with another women. because in case i didn’t mention although there are only 14 beds, there are sometimes women on the floor or sharing a bed. the day ended with a women labouring hard to have her breech baby born. it was the neatest things to see this little foot coming our first.... the doctors stepped in and got the baby out safe and sound, but not without a lot of work.
tuesday started off similar but with more women.... all the beds were full plus about an extra eight women on the floor. really crazy circumstances. things are meant to be sterile but kept on a metal shelf, resources are very low. gloves, syringes, catheters and others are hard to come by. women are responsible for providing there own cord clamp, gloves, razor and syringe. can you even imagine in Canada if you had to bring all your own supplies with you? crazy thought eh? i spent alot of the day taking care of the new borns. wrapping them in a dry conga, weighing them and then labeling them. by label i mean getting a piece of tape, writing the mothers name, babies sex, weight, APGAR score (how they are doing) and the date and then sticking that piece of tape to the conga. different eh? i think the hardest part of tuesday was a baby that me and Celia (my partner for the day) named Grace. she was born without a heartbeat so we rushed to one of the cribs and started recessitating. we worked on her for about 45 minutes, her heartbeat came back but was slow and uneven. we continued to pray and give oxygen but you could hear her little lungs struggling to take a breath. the scariest part was her eyes. from the time she was born they were unresponsive. they stayed open the entire time, she looked dead. even when we had to leave at the end of the day she still had no response. you could watch her chest rise and fall with pain.... we found out the next day her and her mother were transferred to a different hospital. i don’t know how if she made it through the night but have to take trust that she is in the Lords hands.
my next challenge happened the next day. i walked in to the left side of the ward and Melisa asked me how comfortable i felt to deliver..... i thought well, i think i can handle it. so i got my sterile gloves on and my partner, Celia came ready to help and take the baby after birth. this mama was not a fan of delivering, she was extremely difficult, she kept fighting us by closing her legs, which i can imagine is a little difficult to do when you have a head coming through. at one point her leg went up and around my neck... yes you can imagine the awkwardness of that situation! luckily a nurse came over to communicate with her that she had to let us do our job to help her. so with my elbows out trying to hold her legs and Melisa’s hands on mine, she helped me guide the baby out. a beautiful baby boy weighing 3.5kg! i dried him off and clamped and cut the cord and Celia took him to be weighed and further inspected. while Melisa and i waited for the placenta. a very difficult process, the mama lost a lot of blood and because she was not a fan of the pain she was in she kept moving around trying to ‘get away’ from us. (sorry if this is too descriptive for some) blood was everywhere, on the floor, on us, all up her back and all over the bed. the placenta finally came and i was guided in how to deliver it and get out any left over blood clots. to spare some details. when all was out i was left to clean up. the thing about deliveries here is the mama brings with her a bag of conga’s and they are used throughout the labouring process, delivery, as well as to clean up. so you use her conga’s to clean up as much as you can and then there is sanitary solution to wipe down the beds with. when she is cleaned up and a nurse has come to check for any tears the women are free to be moved to the post natal bed until they can walk to the post natal ward (sometimes the time that a women has between she delivers to the time she leaves for the post natal ward is less than an hour) this particular women remained on the bed for a while due to her large loss of blood. an iv was put in and her baby brought to her so she could be with him. my first birth. defiantly one i will not forget.
the rest of the week i did the basic labour room things, clean up, weigh newborns, assist those delivering and try my best to comfort the women in labour. a very productive, but exhausting week!
till next time.....
this week: Labour Ward
first day, uniforms on, name tags in place and my lovely, but terribly uncomfortable, labour room shoes on, i’m ready.... as ready as one can be going off three months of education heading into a developing nations hospital where supplies are limited and women are all labouring together in the same room.
i’ll try and paint the picture of what this ‘ward’ looks like. you walk through the doorway and directly in front you have a desk in which the doctors and nurses like to hang out behind. record books are kept on this desk that list each birth that happens and a cardboard box holds each women’s card. (their card is kinda like their ‘file’ which holds there information, name, town their from, how many children they have etc..) to the right there are two rows of beds, nine in total. to the left there are another set of beds, five, and two ‘cribs’ with the sides down where the new borns are placed upon and a scale to weigh upon birth.
i guess that first day was a bit of a ‘welcome to the labour ward’ for me. we arrived around ten and were set right into the thick of things. the nurses being very trusting and short staffed assume that we can do anything and at times would ‘disappear’ leaving our staff and us six students to take care of things. so around eleven we had a catalyst of babies deciding to be born. at one point we had four heads crowning all at the same time. the phrase being heard through the room was ‘Melisa (staff) we have a head!’ “Melisa another head over here!” “Melisa, help!” she handled things very well and a few nurses stepped in to help deliver the babies that you just can’t tell to wait! my jobs for that day included getting things set up for the mama’s that were close to deliver,( getting the kidney dish, clamps, sterile gloves, razor (to cut the cord) and oxcytocin ready to inject after delivery to help with the placenta coming out and preparing against blood clots), and caring for the newborns. we saw around ten babies delivered that day, one lady delivered while sharing a bed with another women. because in case i didn’t mention although there are only 14 beds, there are sometimes women on the floor or sharing a bed. the day ended with a women labouring hard to have her breech baby born. it was the neatest things to see this little foot coming our first.... the doctors stepped in and got the baby out safe and sound, but not without a lot of work.
tuesday started off similar but with more women.... all the beds were full plus about an extra eight women on the floor. really crazy circumstances. things are meant to be sterile but kept on a metal shelf, resources are very low. gloves, syringes, catheters and others are hard to come by. women are responsible for providing there own cord clamp, gloves, razor and syringe. can you even imagine in Canada if you had to bring all your own supplies with you? crazy thought eh? i spent alot of the day taking care of the new borns. wrapping them in a dry conga, weighing them and then labeling them. by label i mean getting a piece of tape, writing the mothers name, babies sex, weight, APGAR score (how they are doing) and the date and then sticking that piece of tape to the conga. different eh? i think the hardest part of tuesday was a baby that me and Celia (my partner for the day) named Grace. she was born without a heartbeat so we rushed to one of the cribs and started recessitating. we worked on her for about 45 minutes, her heartbeat came back but was slow and uneven. we continued to pray and give oxygen but you could hear her little lungs struggling to take a breath. the scariest part was her eyes. from the time she was born they were unresponsive. they stayed open the entire time, she looked dead. even when we had to leave at the end of the day she still had no response. you could watch her chest rise and fall with pain.... we found out the next day her and her mother were transferred to a different hospital. i don’t know how if she made it through the night but have to take trust that she is in the Lords hands.
my next challenge happened the next day. i walked in to the left side of the ward and Melisa asked me how comfortable i felt to deliver..... i thought well, i think i can handle it. so i got my sterile gloves on and my partner, Celia came ready to help and take the baby after birth. this mama was not a fan of delivering, she was extremely difficult, she kept fighting us by closing her legs, which i can imagine is a little difficult to do when you have a head coming through. at one point her leg went up and around my neck... yes you can imagine the awkwardness of that situation! luckily a nurse came over to communicate with her that she had to let us do our job to help her. so with my elbows out trying to hold her legs and Melisa’s hands on mine, she helped me guide the baby out. a beautiful baby boy weighing 3.5kg! i dried him off and clamped and cut the cord and Celia took him to be weighed and further inspected. while Melisa and i waited for the placenta. a very difficult process, the mama lost a lot of blood and because she was not a fan of the pain she was in she kept moving around trying to ‘get away’ from us. (sorry if this is too descriptive for some) blood was everywhere, on the floor, on us, all up her back and all over the bed. the placenta finally came and i was guided in how to deliver it and get out any left over blood clots. to spare some details. when all was out i was left to clean up. the thing about deliveries here is the mama brings with her a bag of conga’s and they are used throughout the labouring process, delivery, as well as to clean up. so you use her conga’s to clean up as much as you can and then there is sanitary solution to wipe down the beds with. when she is cleaned up and a nurse has come to check for any tears the women are free to be moved to the post natal bed until they can walk to the post natal ward (sometimes the time that a women has between she delivers to the time she leaves for the post natal ward is less than an hour) this particular women remained on the bed for a while due to her large loss of blood. an iv was put in and her baby brought to her so she could be with him. my first birth. defiantly one i will not forget.
the rest of the week i did the basic labour room things, clean up, weigh newborns, assist those delivering and try my best to comfort the women in labour. a very productive, but exhausting week!
till next time.....
Thursday, November 18, 2010
week ninteen
well its sunday evening, around six thirty (or twelve thirty if your speaking swahili... yes everything is backwards here) and it has been one busy week....
so i’ll start with today... we were invited to a church for there morning service and then to a ‘celebration’ afterward. the service ended (12:30) and we were told that at three we would begin the celebration. being hungary a few of us walked the short distance to the market area and bought ‘chips my eye’ (french fries and egg cooked together, very delicious!) it was pouring rain majority of the day so we were pretty soggy trying to eat under a small hut. we finished and walked back through the rain to the church... well maybe i should also mention that a ‘lunch’ was promised to us but after the service we found out that food would not be served until the celebration but they did prepare a soup for us in the mean time. but when the soup was being passed out one of the girls came into the church and looked at me and said ‘its bad news, its bad news’, Ema (one of the base staff that comes along with us as a translator) had a bowl of it and had us try it, but not before letting me know that it was ‘cows tongue’. i took a sip preparing for the worst, and yes it tasted like a cow. like a literal barn was inside my mouth, hence us going to the market for chips. so three o’clock rolled around and the church started filling up.... four o’clock rolled around and most chairs were filled and they were doing a mic check... four thirty came and they finally got things going! we realized once the ‘celebration’ started that what was actually happening was a ceremony for ordaining a new pastor. we were not quite prepared for another three to four hours of listening to swahili, clapping when other clap, standing when others stand and sitting when others sit so we decided we’d give it to five and then we’d leave. i’m thankful we did leave because its now dark out and a few of the girls who stayed are still there. this is what happens when your on outreach, many days go not as planned and things happen that your just not sure of!
yesterday we had a group of women who are from downtown and they spoke english come visit us at the base. we had a great afternoon talking with them about their lives and sharing about our experience so far. the girl i talked to was amazing! we’re hopefully going to get together with her again, it was neat to hear different opinions, we asked about dress code, as we are only allowed to wear skirts and t-shirts, and they laughed and said ‘what your not allowed to wear jeans? thats torture!’ i think we follow that rule because we’re reaching out to the muslim community and to be respected more we try to culturally oblige to what they wear. it was neat to hear about their lives, the girl i talked to was a journalist and going to school as a social worker, she learnt her english from watching cartoons as a kid. she was very encouraging to us, most Tanzanian women we meet its difficult to talk with because of the language barrier. we learnt a lot that afternoon theres a big gape in culture here. either your uneducated, living in the villages, probably working as a seamstress or in a shop or, those are educated, they speak english and have jobs in the city that pay a lot more. but today in speaking to a girl at church she told me that people who get education don’t stay here. they want to go to Canada, America, even Kenya or somewhere else where they can get paid more for their jobs. which is why there are not many educated people around. its also very expensive to get education here. and a lack of education is a main root of many problems a country can face. its neat to know that us being here is an encouragement to them and we can help educate the women in even the simplest things such as sleeping with a mosquito net can prevent malaria.
this week i also got to see my first birth since being here!!!!!! i was feeling very discouraged, last week on monday and tuesday there were births at the clinic but when i went wednesday and thursday, no births. then last week monday and tuesday there were births. and wednesday morning two women were in labour and it was not my day for the clinic. so wednesday at lunch the girls got back and reported another lady arrived who was in birth, and since we had a free afternoon me and another student decided to go and observe/help out in the labour and hopefully see her deliver. we hung out at the clinic with her till around five and she was only four centimeters dilated... far from delivery. so we left a number with the nurse to call us if anything changed and left. at eight me and Emily decided to go and check in on her, we walked to the clinic and she was still labouring progressing but not near delivery, as were talking to the night nurse a lady was brought in carried in a wheel barrow type contraption (can you imagine if that was your mode of transport to the hospital?) she nearly fell to the floor upon arrival and we knew we had to be quick, that baby was coming. we ran back home and got our uniforms on, labour room shoes, bp cuff and stethoscope and ran back with Louise (student) and Marchien (staff). Me and Emily got there and the baby was already out, we missed it. but we did get to see the placenta delivered which was really neat! (i’ll spare you the details) we took vitals of baby and mom (a baby girl by the way) and then they rested. we continued to take the vitals of our first mama who was now around 8 cm along. time reached around nine fifteen and another lady came in who was labouring. the nurse checked her and she was 9 cm along. Marchien told us at nine thirty we had to be back at base by ten because they lock up the doors then... feeling a little disappointed me and Louise prayed that there would be a delivery within the next twenty minutes. the nurse then came to check that new mama, Asha is her name, and said she was going to rupture her membranes (break her water) to get things moving. when she did we discovered that the baby had pooped inside and we knew we had to get that little one out of there. her heart rate was slowing down slightly so the nurse was going to give a drug through IV to help speed things along, but before she could get the IV in Asha started pushing and at 9:50 a beautiful baby girl was born! (fourth delivery of the day for the clinic!) it was so amazing, after the cord was cut i carried the little girl and weighed her, 4.3 kg (9.5 pounds), and dried her off and wrapped her in a clean conga (like a sarong, the mama’s are responsible to bring there own conga’s to lay on the beds and to wrap baby in and their families need to bring them food because hospitals and clinics don’t provide anything). i don’t know what she named her baby as we had to leave and the first lady, that i had stayed the afternoon with didn’t end up delivering in time which was a little disappointing but it was an exciting evening for me! i’m not 100% sure on how births are done in Canada but i can imagine its a very different experience then here. the mom’s are responsible for providing the things needed for delivery and they usually leave within hours of delivery. even they just sitting in there conga wrapped around, like if we wrap a towel around after a shower, pacing the room making hardly any noise at all, as they get yelled at by the nurses for being too loud. i’m interested to know how women will be once we’re in the hospital, because.....
...... WE GOT OUR VISA’S!!!!!!!!! yes yes we FINALLY got all the right letters and things signed and we are allowed to go to the hospital! so thursday we got our tour of where we’ll be working for the next 5ish months. it was a very different set up then a western hospital. we were showed around the different wards, some that we don’t have at home, such as a leprosy ward, malaria and HIV wards. for now we will be working in the antenatal/postnatal ward and labour/delivery ward. there is another ward for complications in delivery but we need to go through our second round of lectures (starting in January) before we’re able to help out there. it was so crazy to see the labour ward, all the women taking up the beds and sitting on the floor just waiting.... i think it’ll will take a while to get used to the way things go there but i’m sure we’ll adjust soon. we start monday! tomorrow!
so yes, so far i think most exciting week we’ve had. another story, on thursday after the tour we had the afternoon to hang out in the city which was fine except we were all extremely tired. me and Naomi decided to take a ‘short cut’ to the dala dala stop which turned into us walking for a half hour and realizing we had gone too far and could not find a stop anywhere. being over tired, a bit hungry and i had smashed my toe back, so also being in pain (Naomi slightly concussed because she walked into a huge metal sign)we sat on the side of the road and half cried half laughed. we sat there until a creepy man came and started talking to us and then proceeded to ‘shake’ our hands. and when i say ‘shake’ i mean the creepiest hand shake i’ve ever received in my life. he shook our hand but at the same time used his middle finger to ‘tickle’ our palm... left us feeling quite violated. so we started walked again to get away from him and got to a round-a-bout. feeling slightly ‘crazy’ i started yelling at all the dala dala’s going our direction for them to stop, but being on a round-a-bout of course they didn’t. a man heard me and yelled from the other side ‘taxi taxi’ i yelled back ‘we don’t have any money for a taxi i need a dala dala’. me and Naomi just looked at each other and wondered, ‘what do we do now?’ before we could answer our selves the man came across the street and asked us if we needed a dala dala and to where. we told him where and he said to follow him he will bring us to the stop. he led us right there and got one to stop for us, praise the Lord! but getting on the dala dala was another adventure in itself! it was completely packed.... we squeezed our way on (let me mention i was carrying a backpack that contained two laptops as well) and with me half bent over and Naomi practically out the door its took off. we were laughing so hard, entertainment to the entire bus as they were all staring at us, and one man even asked us why we were laughing. how do you even explain that mood when nothing is going right and so you just have to laugh and everything seems so funny when in reality its probably not that funny at all!? after a few interesting conversations, including one with a women who wanted to speak swahili with us but all we could do was reply to the common ‘how are you?’ questions, “Habari! - nzuri, Jombo! - si jombo, Mumbo?! - poa” we tried to explain that was all we knew, and she laughed every time we answered her, apparently being quite amused! we were finally at our stop, only one more dala dala ride to go and then home!
sorry this has been so long, hopefully not too boring to read, and i hope it made sense, its been a long day and i’m quite tired!
well till next time....
so i’ll start with today... we were invited to a church for there morning service and then to a ‘celebration’ afterward. the service ended (12:30) and we were told that at three we would begin the celebration. being hungary a few of us walked the short distance to the market area and bought ‘chips my eye’ (french fries and egg cooked together, very delicious!) it was pouring rain majority of the day so we were pretty soggy trying to eat under a small hut. we finished and walked back through the rain to the church... well maybe i should also mention that a ‘lunch’ was promised to us but after the service we found out that food would not be served until the celebration but they did prepare a soup for us in the mean time. but when the soup was being passed out one of the girls came into the church and looked at me and said ‘its bad news, its bad news’, Ema (one of the base staff that comes along with us as a translator) had a bowl of it and had us try it, but not before letting me know that it was ‘cows tongue’. i took a sip preparing for the worst, and yes it tasted like a cow. like a literal barn was inside my mouth, hence us going to the market for chips. so three o’clock rolled around and the church started filling up.... four o’clock rolled around and most chairs were filled and they were doing a mic check... four thirty came and they finally got things going! we realized once the ‘celebration’ started that what was actually happening was a ceremony for ordaining a new pastor. we were not quite prepared for another three to four hours of listening to swahili, clapping when other clap, standing when others stand and sitting when others sit so we decided we’d give it to five and then we’d leave. i’m thankful we did leave because its now dark out and a few of the girls who stayed are still there. this is what happens when your on outreach, many days go not as planned and things happen that your just not sure of!
yesterday we had a group of women who are from downtown and they spoke english come visit us at the base. we had a great afternoon talking with them about their lives and sharing about our experience so far. the girl i talked to was amazing! we’re hopefully going to get together with her again, it was neat to hear different opinions, we asked about dress code, as we are only allowed to wear skirts and t-shirts, and they laughed and said ‘what your not allowed to wear jeans? thats torture!’ i think we follow that rule because we’re reaching out to the muslim community and to be respected more we try to culturally oblige to what they wear. it was neat to hear about their lives, the girl i talked to was a journalist and going to school as a social worker, she learnt her english from watching cartoons as a kid. she was very encouraging to us, most Tanzanian women we meet its difficult to talk with because of the language barrier. we learnt a lot that afternoon theres a big gape in culture here. either your uneducated, living in the villages, probably working as a seamstress or in a shop or, those are educated, they speak english and have jobs in the city that pay a lot more. but today in speaking to a girl at church she told me that people who get education don’t stay here. they want to go to Canada, America, even Kenya or somewhere else where they can get paid more for their jobs. which is why there are not many educated people around. its also very expensive to get education here. and a lack of education is a main root of many problems a country can face. its neat to know that us being here is an encouragement to them and we can help educate the women in even the simplest things such as sleeping with a mosquito net can prevent malaria.
this week i also got to see my first birth since being here!!!!!! i was feeling very discouraged, last week on monday and tuesday there were births at the clinic but when i went wednesday and thursday, no births. then last week monday and tuesday there were births. and wednesday morning two women were in labour and it was not my day for the clinic. so wednesday at lunch the girls got back and reported another lady arrived who was in birth, and since we had a free afternoon me and another student decided to go and observe/help out in the labour and hopefully see her deliver. we hung out at the clinic with her till around five and she was only four centimeters dilated... far from delivery. so we left a number with the nurse to call us if anything changed and left. at eight me and Emily decided to go and check in on her, we walked to the clinic and she was still labouring progressing but not near delivery, as were talking to the night nurse a lady was brought in carried in a wheel barrow type contraption (can you imagine if that was your mode of transport to the hospital?) she nearly fell to the floor upon arrival and we knew we had to be quick, that baby was coming. we ran back home and got our uniforms on, labour room shoes, bp cuff and stethoscope and ran back with Louise (student) and Marchien (staff). Me and Emily got there and the baby was already out, we missed it. but we did get to see the placenta delivered which was really neat! (i’ll spare you the details) we took vitals of baby and mom (a baby girl by the way) and then they rested. we continued to take the vitals of our first mama who was now around 8 cm along. time reached around nine fifteen and another lady came in who was labouring. the nurse checked her and she was 9 cm along. Marchien told us at nine thirty we had to be back at base by ten because they lock up the doors then... feeling a little disappointed me and Louise prayed that there would be a delivery within the next twenty minutes. the nurse then came to check that new mama, Asha is her name, and said she was going to rupture her membranes (break her water) to get things moving. when she did we discovered that the baby had pooped inside and we knew we had to get that little one out of there. her heart rate was slowing down slightly so the nurse was going to give a drug through IV to help speed things along, but before she could get the IV in Asha started pushing and at 9:50 a beautiful baby girl was born! (fourth delivery of the day for the clinic!) it was so amazing, after the cord was cut i carried the little girl and weighed her, 4.3 kg (9.5 pounds), and dried her off and wrapped her in a clean conga (like a sarong, the mama’s are responsible to bring there own conga’s to lay on the beds and to wrap baby in and their families need to bring them food because hospitals and clinics don’t provide anything). i don’t know what she named her baby as we had to leave and the first lady, that i had stayed the afternoon with didn’t end up delivering in time which was a little disappointing but it was an exciting evening for me! i’m not 100% sure on how births are done in Canada but i can imagine its a very different experience then here. the mom’s are responsible for providing the things needed for delivery and they usually leave within hours of delivery. even they just sitting in there conga wrapped around, like if we wrap a towel around after a shower, pacing the room making hardly any noise at all, as they get yelled at by the nurses for being too loud. i’m interested to know how women will be once we’re in the hospital, because.....
...... WE GOT OUR VISA’S!!!!!!!!! yes yes we FINALLY got all the right letters and things signed and we are allowed to go to the hospital! so thursday we got our tour of where we’ll be working for the next 5ish months. it was a very different set up then a western hospital. we were showed around the different wards, some that we don’t have at home, such as a leprosy ward, malaria and HIV wards. for now we will be working in the antenatal/postnatal ward and labour/delivery ward. there is another ward for complications in delivery but we need to go through our second round of lectures (starting in January) before we’re able to help out there. it was so crazy to see the labour ward, all the women taking up the beds and sitting on the floor just waiting.... i think it’ll will take a while to get used to the way things go there but i’m sure we’ll adjust soon. we start monday! tomorrow!
so yes, so far i think most exciting week we’ve had. another story, on thursday after the tour we had the afternoon to hang out in the city which was fine except we were all extremely tired. me and Naomi decided to take a ‘short cut’ to the dala dala stop which turned into us walking for a half hour and realizing we had gone too far and could not find a stop anywhere. being over tired, a bit hungry and i had smashed my toe back, so also being in pain (Naomi slightly concussed because she walked into a huge metal sign)we sat on the side of the road and half cried half laughed. we sat there until a creepy man came and started talking to us and then proceeded to ‘shake’ our hands. and when i say ‘shake’ i mean the creepiest hand shake i’ve ever received in my life. he shook our hand but at the same time used his middle finger to ‘tickle’ our palm... left us feeling quite violated. so we started walked again to get away from him and got to a round-a-bout. feeling slightly ‘crazy’ i started yelling at all the dala dala’s going our direction for them to stop, but being on a round-a-bout of course they didn’t. a man heard me and yelled from the other side ‘taxi taxi’ i yelled back ‘we don’t have any money for a taxi i need a dala dala’. me and Naomi just looked at each other and wondered, ‘what do we do now?’ before we could answer our selves the man came across the street and asked us if we needed a dala dala and to where. we told him where and he said to follow him he will bring us to the stop. he led us right there and got one to stop for us, praise the Lord! but getting on the dala dala was another adventure in itself! it was completely packed.... we squeezed our way on (let me mention i was carrying a backpack that contained two laptops as well) and with me half bent over and Naomi practically out the door its took off. we were laughing so hard, entertainment to the entire bus as they were all staring at us, and one man even asked us why we were laughing. how do you even explain that mood when nothing is going right and so you just have to laugh and everything seems so funny when in reality its probably not that funny at all!? after a few interesting conversations, including one with a women who wanted to speak swahili with us but all we could do was reply to the common ‘how are you?’ questions, “Habari! - nzuri, Jombo! - si jombo, Mumbo?! - poa” we tried to explain that was all we knew, and she laughed every time we answered her, apparently being quite amused! we were finally at our stop, only one more dala dala ride to go and then home!
sorry this has been so long, hopefully not too boring to read, and i hope it made sense, its been a long day and i’m quite tired!
well till next time....
week eighteen
i think so far this has been one of my better weeks here in Tanzania. i’ve gone to the clinic twice (wednesday/thursday) which was really good. the first time was not very exciting, immunization and baby weighing day.... so kinda a slow day. i helped out a bit with immunizations, mainly watching how they administer them. i did hold one one of the babies that was born on tuesday, so only a day old and was holding her while they gave her, her BCG shot. it was neat to hold this one day old little girl in my arms pray over her and just be with her. it dulled down a bit as not many people came, so i went to help out in the pharmacy filling prescriptions which was kinda neat to learn about different medications. the second day however was more productive, i spent a bit of time doing prescriptions again, and then got to spend just over an hour in antenatal care doing palpations, measuring fundal heights and listening for the babies heart rate. the great thing is most of the women i met with were at least 24 weeks along so the babies were easier to feel for and i even had a lady 37 weeks with twins! i hope she delivers at the clinic and i can be there to help her. i love palpating twins, its a little difficult to figure out where exactly each baby is but this lady had had a ultrasound down at a hospital so we knew that both were head down. which is good since she’s due very shortly! i did two palpations all on my own without the help of my staff or a nurse and located the heartbeats right away! i was quite proud of myself considering my first time doing it i was so nervous and couldn’t figure out anything! so this time went much better, each time my confidence grows!
did more community profiles this week. one lady we interviewed had five children, all at home and all on her own, apart from the first. she said that the first one she had someone helping her so she do the rest on her own. she even had a set of twins and her last baby was born breech! we asked what she did and she said ‘she was scared when she felt the foot come out, but the baby came out okay but wasn’t breathing. she put it in a bucket of water and hoped it would be okay... and a few minuets of being in the water the baby started breathing!’ we asked her if she believed in God cuz he was defiantly taking care of her and her little guy. its always interesting to interview these ladies and learn how they handle different situations. (she said she did believe, in case you were curious!)
we had the normal, intercession and worship times. spending time praying for our visa’s to come... still waiting for the letter that gives us the okay to start the visa process.... in the meantime we’ve been discussing other options we can do as a team in our community we’re in. such as helping out at the orphanage, working with the street kids, teaching in some of the schools, perhaps teaching an english class to some of the people in the village, and even working with a lady who helps cook for us. she was a prostitute when she was younger and when she did her DTS with YWAM she has devoted her life to helping girls who want out get out of the industry. she has about 3-4 girls living with her now that she helps by giving them jobs making a way for them to provide for themselves without prostitution. we have looked started looking into these ideas and some may not work (such as the orphanage) but lots are looking promising!
our power was out for nearly two full days.... because of that the water pump stops working so we were without water for a while. so saturday (day off) i had planned to chill, watch movies and just relax, but well no power, no water.... so i went to the beach instead! it was a good day, relaxing. came back to base and the power was still out.... it did eventually come on around eight-ish, which was lovely since as of friday we got our fan fixed in our room! but had had no power yet to try it out! we still have an incredibly hot, stuffy room by night fall but its nice if you stand directly under it (ceiling fan) or lay on the concrete floor underneath! hmmm trying to think of any other news that might be interesting... i baked ‘cookies’ from scratch without any recipes! i was quite proud! haha! we had a team night on friday night and ingredients were bought for cookies but all recipe books found in the home (base directors house) were either swahili or german (his wife is german).... so i thought, i’ve made cookies before, no big. so i mixed stuff together and put it in the oven and they actually were not that bad... a little cakey but pretty good! it was fun baking, we don’t have any use of an oven usually, they make our food here by the fire, frying or boiling everything. and they don’t really do sweets.... we had chopped up chocolate bars because they don’t have chocolate chips here and it was delicious!
no creepy creatures lately... well there was a tarantula in the house the other day but it was high up in the corner... so no big... oh it rained today! actually was raining on and off all day long! so nice, it cools the air down and it was just really nice to hear the pouring rain. wellp i think thats all....
till next time....
did more community profiles this week. one lady we interviewed had five children, all at home and all on her own, apart from the first. she said that the first one she had someone helping her so she do the rest on her own. she even had a set of twins and her last baby was born breech! we asked what she did and she said ‘she was scared when she felt the foot come out, but the baby came out okay but wasn’t breathing. she put it in a bucket of water and hoped it would be okay... and a few minuets of being in the water the baby started breathing!’ we asked her if she believed in God cuz he was defiantly taking care of her and her little guy. its always interesting to interview these ladies and learn how they handle different situations. (she said she did believe, in case you were curious!)
we had the normal, intercession and worship times. spending time praying for our visa’s to come... still waiting for the letter that gives us the okay to start the visa process.... in the meantime we’ve been discussing other options we can do as a team in our community we’re in. such as helping out at the orphanage, working with the street kids, teaching in some of the schools, perhaps teaching an english class to some of the people in the village, and even working with a lady who helps cook for us. she was a prostitute when she was younger and when she did her DTS with YWAM she has devoted her life to helping girls who want out get out of the industry. she has about 3-4 girls living with her now that she helps by giving them jobs making a way for them to provide for themselves without prostitution. we have looked started looking into these ideas and some may not work (such as the orphanage) but lots are looking promising!
our power was out for nearly two full days.... because of that the water pump stops working so we were without water for a while. so saturday (day off) i had planned to chill, watch movies and just relax, but well no power, no water.... so i went to the beach instead! it was a good day, relaxing. came back to base and the power was still out.... it did eventually come on around eight-ish, which was lovely since as of friday we got our fan fixed in our room! but had had no power yet to try it out! we still have an incredibly hot, stuffy room by night fall but its nice if you stand directly under it (ceiling fan) or lay on the concrete floor underneath! hmmm trying to think of any other news that might be interesting... i baked ‘cookies’ from scratch without any recipes! i was quite proud! haha! we had a team night on friday night and ingredients were bought for cookies but all recipe books found in the home (base directors house) were either swahili or german (his wife is german).... so i thought, i’ve made cookies before, no big. so i mixed stuff together and put it in the oven and they actually were not that bad... a little cakey but pretty good! it was fun baking, we don’t have any use of an oven usually, they make our food here by the fire, frying or boiling everything. and they don’t really do sweets.... we had chopped up chocolate bars because they don’t have chocolate chips here and it was delicious!
no creepy creatures lately... well there was a tarantula in the house the other day but it was high up in the corner... so no big... oh it rained today! actually was raining on and off all day long! so nice, it cools the air down and it was just really nice to hear the pouring rain. wellp i think thats all....
till next time....
Thursday, November 4, 2010
week seventeen
monday we got the opportunity to visit a Maasai village! our whole team took the hour long dala dala ride and then walked for about twenty minutes till we came upon the village. we first saw the well in which they draw up their water by buckets and surrounding the area was about five women doing their washing (clothes and dishes). we continued down the path and saw about four huts. i mean literately huts. mud houses held up with sticks and thatched roofs. they were extremely welcoming, the tribe was a family, four generations. meeting the great grandma was especially neat, this women was so beautiful. i hope to try and get some pictures up so you can understand a little more about the Maasai people. they’re known as strong warriors, and incredible jumpers. yes jumpers. apparently they can get several feet off the ground. they also were very different in appearance then the African’s we’ve visited in our area. they dress differently, wrapping a long strip of cloth around there bodies, tying it over one shoulder and wearing many earrings, necklaces and belts. the women all had stretched out ear lobes and all had their heads shaven. we were invited to sit under a group of trees on straw mats and spent the days hearing their stories and learning different things about their culture. we were also able to talk to a group of five midwives from the family. not one had specific training they had all learnt from there mothers or each other. we got to ask questions about how they do things and learnt MANY interesting things! things like, using thread off their robes to tie off the umbilical cord and cutting it with a razor or when they have a breach baby, they ‘push the baby back in and turn it around from the inside’... yes i would imagine incredibly painful for the mama. we also heard stories from the men, who have killed lions. apparently ‘the lions were killing their cows, so he had to kill the lion.’ he mentioned that young men will kill a lion and then cut out their heart and eat a part of it to symbolize they are no longer afraid of lions. he himself had a scar on his leg from a lion. pretty crazy!
tuesday was also an interesting day... started off with me going to the clinic and finally getting to do some antenatal care! which consists of taking blood pressure, doing palpations (feeling for the baby), measuring the stomach which helps determine how far along the mama is and listening to the fetal heart rate. it was really neat when a women, about 8 months along, came in with twins! feeling for the two heads was a little tricky because the babies were actually opposite each other, one which its head up and one down. but it was really neat, a little scary for me as i’m not super confident in it yet but all in time right? okay so then (and i hesitate to say) i went to help in the pharmacy, and while i was in there the nurse told me to come in with her to help dress a wound. she said ‘abscess’ and i didn’t really think much of it.... she handed me scissors and i started cutting away the dressing that was wrapped around this mans hand. Ash (a girl on my team) continued removing the dressing while i held the mans hand and prayed for him, as he was in a lot of pain. well it soon became clear as to what an abscess was... it is a hole that has been drained and then packed with gauze so it can heal from the inside out. the gauze needs to be removed from the hole every day and new gauze needs to be packed back inside so the wound can hear properly. well as Ash continued pulling gauze out of this guys hand i found myself getting a wee bit dizzy. so my praying turned to ‘dear Jesus help him, oh Jesus help me’ i tried not watching but of course i was curious and it was happening right in front of me. i’m pretty sure she pulled out about 2 feet worth of gauze that had been packed into his hand (between thumb and first finger). after i left and sat on a bench feeling really dizzy, i’ve experienced this right before fainting when i was young. i remember thinking ‘i will not faint i will not faint, water, yes i should just get some water’ and the next thing i know i’m hearing muffled voices saying ‘she fainted and was fitting (seizing)’ and i can feel my legs still shaking and my head was incredibly painful.... lucky for me i always faint in a health care center and get the right care! haha! i came to more and had many people come and talk over me saying ‘pole (pole-ay)’ meaning sorry and telling me i was okay.... i had two cuts, one about my eye and the other on my nose, luckily not deep enough for stitches! (i really did not want stitches) and a very large goose egg on my head. but i was okay. i sure must have looked a scene, apparently no one saw what happened but the ‘crash’ was heard through out the clinic and scared a little boy. i guess in my dizziness i had gotten up, cuz where i fell was not where i was sitting, and i’m sure i would not have been in as much pain if i had fallen from sitting down. so the remainder of that day was spent in bed... and the rest of the week of taking it easy, mainly because my head and nose hurt so much. its been a week (i’m writing this a week later) and i’m doing much better, swelling around my nose is slowly making its way down and my head looks good, cuts are healing. my bruises are also disappearing its mainly just my nose that still hurts a lot when touched. its okay normally and then i’ll forget and go to scratch it and dang, it hurts a lot. they said it wasn’t broken but its defiantly been bruised.
the rest of the week for me was much less exciting, typing community profiles up and doing team things. for some of the girls though it was the first time there have been births at the clinic! and they had 3 in 24 hours! so a bunch of the girls have now gotten to witness and help out in some healthy births. two baby boys and one girl was born last week! so precious!
i have two clinic dates this next week so i’m praying for big things to happen, and not me fainting again!
currently trying to keep cool, it gets hotter each day as we head into the ‘rainy’ season. i think though its only rained three times since we’ve been here and they’ve all been at night. staying in the shade, having a wet clothe to wipe sweat away, laying on the concrete floors in our rooms and taking multiple showers a day are all ways we’ve found have helped us. but the relief doesn’t last long! we did however find out about a ‘resort’ (not like one you’d picture at home, its much smaller) about a thirty minute walk away that has a pool, but its about five dollars to use for the day, so every once in awhile i’m sure that will be very nice to keep cool for a day, well at least until you have to walk back!
take care till next time....
ps please be praying for our visa's apparently this 'letter' we need was put in the post (mail) like 2-3 weeks ago and we have yet to see it, it is the letter that gives us the okay to get the visa's processed....
tuesday was also an interesting day... started off with me going to the clinic and finally getting to do some antenatal care! which consists of taking blood pressure, doing palpations (feeling for the baby), measuring the stomach which helps determine how far along the mama is and listening to the fetal heart rate. it was really neat when a women, about 8 months along, came in with twins! feeling for the two heads was a little tricky because the babies were actually opposite each other, one which its head up and one down. but it was really neat, a little scary for me as i’m not super confident in it yet but all in time right? okay so then (and i hesitate to say) i went to help in the pharmacy, and while i was in there the nurse told me to come in with her to help dress a wound. she said ‘abscess’ and i didn’t really think much of it.... she handed me scissors and i started cutting away the dressing that was wrapped around this mans hand. Ash (a girl on my team) continued removing the dressing while i held the mans hand and prayed for him, as he was in a lot of pain. well it soon became clear as to what an abscess was... it is a hole that has been drained and then packed with gauze so it can heal from the inside out. the gauze needs to be removed from the hole every day and new gauze needs to be packed back inside so the wound can hear properly. well as Ash continued pulling gauze out of this guys hand i found myself getting a wee bit dizzy. so my praying turned to ‘dear Jesus help him, oh Jesus help me’ i tried not watching but of course i was curious and it was happening right in front of me. i’m pretty sure she pulled out about 2 feet worth of gauze that had been packed into his hand (between thumb and first finger). after i left and sat on a bench feeling really dizzy, i’ve experienced this right before fainting when i was young. i remember thinking ‘i will not faint i will not faint, water, yes i should just get some water’ and the next thing i know i’m hearing muffled voices saying ‘she fainted and was fitting (seizing)’ and i can feel my legs still shaking and my head was incredibly painful.... lucky for me i always faint in a health care center and get the right care! haha! i came to more and had many people come and talk over me saying ‘pole (pole-ay)’ meaning sorry and telling me i was okay.... i had two cuts, one about my eye and the other on my nose, luckily not deep enough for stitches! (i really did not want stitches) and a very large goose egg on my head. but i was okay. i sure must have looked a scene, apparently no one saw what happened but the ‘crash’ was heard through out the clinic and scared a little boy. i guess in my dizziness i had gotten up, cuz where i fell was not where i was sitting, and i’m sure i would not have been in as much pain if i had fallen from sitting down. so the remainder of that day was spent in bed... and the rest of the week of taking it easy, mainly because my head and nose hurt so much. its been a week (i’m writing this a week later) and i’m doing much better, swelling around my nose is slowly making its way down and my head looks good, cuts are healing. my bruises are also disappearing its mainly just my nose that still hurts a lot when touched. its okay normally and then i’ll forget and go to scratch it and dang, it hurts a lot. they said it wasn’t broken but its defiantly been bruised.
the rest of the week for me was much less exciting, typing community profiles up and doing team things. for some of the girls though it was the first time there have been births at the clinic! and they had 3 in 24 hours! so a bunch of the girls have now gotten to witness and help out in some healthy births. two baby boys and one girl was born last week! so precious!
i have two clinic dates this next week so i’m praying for big things to happen, and not me fainting again!
currently trying to keep cool, it gets hotter each day as we head into the ‘rainy’ season. i think though its only rained three times since we’ve been here and they’ve all been at night. staying in the shade, having a wet clothe to wipe sweat away, laying on the concrete floors in our rooms and taking multiple showers a day are all ways we’ve found have helped us. but the relief doesn’t last long! we did however find out about a ‘resort’ (not like one you’d picture at home, its much smaller) about a thirty minute walk away that has a pool, but its about five dollars to use for the day, so every once in awhile i’m sure that will be very nice to keep cool for a day, well at least until you have to walk back!
take care till next time....
ps please be praying for our visa's apparently this 'letter' we need was put in the post (mail) like 2-3 weeks ago and we have yet to see it, it is the letter that gives us the okay to get the visa's processed....
week sixteen
monday started off with a bang, that evening there was a lovely cry through the entire base around seven thirty in the evening, and it was announced that we had a visitor on the grounds.... a snake. a python to be exact. i of course was not a fan of this little find and retreated to my bedroom and jumped to a top bunk and stayed there for about an hour till i felt safe once again. needless to say i do not go out in the dark anymore by myself. i try to avoid it if at all possible. if your wondering what happened to the creature, it was killed, i believe with a machete? not sure the details i didn’t stay around to listen and didn’t ask any questions. but i did catch a glimpse of it when one of the girls tried to call me over to see it and i, being oblivious to the situation went over.... did not end well!
moving on.... hmmm i’m trying to remember what happened this past week. there was a lot of community profiles. lots of typing them up and i went on a trip to a nearby village to conduct a few interviews. met some neat women and am actually going back this week on thursday to see them once again. one of the women is actually eight months pregnant and her appointment at the clinic is on tuesday, the same day i’m scheduled to go to the clinic! so hopefully she’ll be there and i’ll get to see her once again. it was neat to talk to the group of women, in doing the interview we learnt that they didn’t know some basic things about when to wean your baby and little things about breast feeding. (this was the first time pregnancy for the one lady) so we got to do some basic teaching as well. at the end they wanted to ask us questions, which was pretty interesting. it started off with asking us if we were married and had children, then why when we were ‘so old’. we tried to explain our culture but i think its difficult to understand because here some girls are married and pregnant at fifteen. then the ladies asked us if we would ever marry ‘one of there brothers’ is how they worded it! and then the conversation turned to them asking about Canada and why we were fighting with Germany.... i asked where she got her information and the response was ‘i hear things from people’. so i was a little confused, but the conversation moved on to poor people in our western countries and how they get by. it was really interesting to have such a conversation with these women.
on friday we had a team day and went to the beach! so much fun to hang out as a big group, we packed chapattis (pretty much the best thing ever here in Tanzania, basically there a crepe but more fried) and banana’s and scrambled eggs.... quite the beach lunch! we had to eat in the parking lot cuz there is no outside food allowed on the beach as it belongs to a small resort. but it was a really good day. saturday was our day off and a small group of us ventured off down town to find the ‘mall’ and we found it! it took an hour and a half and three dala dala’s to get there but it was air conditioned and had an movie theatre! it felt so removed from the life we’ve been living here, but it was nice to relax and be ‘cool’ feeling all day! sunday was ‘find your own church to go to’ day and we had heard of a Vineyard church down town, that is apparently near the American Embassy. so we thought we could find it, gave ourselves two hours to get there and set off just after seven thirty am. well by ten o’clock, four dala dala’s later we had arrived at the American Embassy and could not locate this church anywhere. we asked the security guards outside the embassy and they had no idea either. so after a bit of discussion we decided to give up and the seven of us piled into a taxi and headed for a nearby mall. where we ate our lunch and had our own ‘home church’ in the restaurant. it was nice day besides all the extra traveling we did but we did talk to a staff from here on base and he said that we were walking distance from the church but it is tricky to find.... shucks eh?! next time!
so yes not a terribly exciting week but it had its moments! next week i’m in the clinic again and it looks like our team is going to have a few more opportunities coming our way!
till next time...
moving on.... hmmm i’m trying to remember what happened this past week. there was a lot of community profiles. lots of typing them up and i went on a trip to a nearby village to conduct a few interviews. met some neat women and am actually going back this week on thursday to see them once again. one of the women is actually eight months pregnant and her appointment at the clinic is on tuesday, the same day i’m scheduled to go to the clinic! so hopefully she’ll be there and i’ll get to see her once again. it was neat to talk to the group of women, in doing the interview we learnt that they didn’t know some basic things about when to wean your baby and little things about breast feeding. (this was the first time pregnancy for the one lady) so we got to do some basic teaching as well. at the end they wanted to ask us questions, which was pretty interesting. it started off with asking us if we were married and had children, then why when we were ‘so old’. we tried to explain our culture but i think its difficult to understand because here some girls are married and pregnant at fifteen. then the ladies asked us if we would ever marry ‘one of there brothers’ is how they worded it! and then the conversation turned to them asking about Canada and why we were fighting with Germany.... i asked where she got her information and the response was ‘i hear things from people’. so i was a little confused, but the conversation moved on to poor people in our western countries and how they get by. it was really interesting to have such a conversation with these women.
on friday we had a team day and went to the beach! so much fun to hang out as a big group, we packed chapattis (pretty much the best thing ever here in Tanzania, basically there a crepe but more fried) and banana’s and scrambled eggs.... quite the beach lunch! we had to eat in the parking lot cuz there is no outside food allowed on the beach as it belongs to a small resort. but it was a really good day. saturday was our day off and a small group of us ventured off down town to find the ‘mall’ and we found it! it took an hour and a half and three dala dala’s to get there but it was air conditioned and had an movie theatre! it felt so removed from the life we’ve been living here, but it was nice to relax and be ‘cool’ feeling all day! sunday was ‘find your own church to go to’ day and we had heard of a Vineyard church down town, that is apparently near the American Embassy. so we thought we could find it, gave ourselves two hours to get there and set off just after seven thirty am. well by ten o’clock, four dala dala’s later we had arrived at the American Embassy and could not locate this church anywhere. we asked the security guards outside the embassy and they had no idea either. so after a bit of discussion we decided to give up and the seven of us piled into a taxi and headed for a nearby mall. where we ate our lunch and had our own ‘home church’ in the restaurant. it was nice day besides all the extra traveling we did but we did talk to a staff from here on base and he said that we were walking distance from the church but it is tricky to find.... shucks eh?! next time!
so yes not a terribly exciting week but it had its moments! next week i’m in the clinic again and it looks like our team is going to have a few more opportunities coming our way!
till next time...
week fifteen
its getting a little difficult to write these weekly updates, i feel so much happens in a week here that as i sit down on sunday’s to put it all to paper becomes hard to remember all that has happened. (actually today as i’m writing is actually monday because i forgot yesterday to do this!)
okay so lets begin..... this last week has been challenging with a lot of good moments as well, i did go to the clinic again, but was disappointed because the day i went to do a teaching and help in antenatal care was actually a holiday here in Tanzania, and because of this there were not very many women who actually came to the clinic. so needless to say i did not get to do any antenatal checkups, rather i did my teaching and ‘observed’ in the lab. i say ‘observed’ because there was not much going on there either! however i did get to do a few checks with a microscope to look for malaria in different blood samples which was kinda neat to see what the organisms looked like.
something our team is doing in this time of waiting for visa’s and such is a project called ‘a community profile’ basically doing interviews with local women (who are or have been pregnant) to find out more about the needs in the area. as well, to learn about different areas of the culture we are in such as, nutrition (what do they eat, whats available, are they lacking any nutrients?), their past experiences in pregnancy, did they have regular check ups, how was the labour, where did they give birth, did they have a skilled birth attendant present, do they have support in there homes/families and what is there role as a women in there family/community and so on. every student is in charge of doing twenty interviews and then they will be compiled, along with information and statistics from the hospitals in the area to have all these facts together for present and future knowledge. anyways, me and two others have been put in charge of compiling the information that is gathered as well as going to the hospitals and retrieving facts and stats needed. at first i was slightly overwhelmed with this job but think it interesting in reading some of the findings that the girls have discovered upon interviewing.
hmmm other things we have been doing is working on our team dynamics. it has been a challenging week in working through differences of opinions and personalities but its amazing to see the breakthrough that can happen when we pursue and turn our focus off ourselves and each other and put the focus on God. it was said today ‘when our focus is on God then everything else will fall into place’ it challenged me to really think, ‘okay where is my focus right now? where do my thoughts go when i’m upset or frustrated?’ and to be honest they have not always been directed to God, but instead have gone either outwardly to others or inwardly where i’ve allowed them to affect my attitude. i am encouraged that our team has been open with each other and been able to share these things and pray into them. my prayer is that God will re-focus my mind to how He see’s situations and not how i see them.
as for this week, i was sick for a part of it with a bad headache and stomach aches... i think the lack of nutrition is getting to me and i wasn’t drinking enough water but i’m doing much better now so that is wonderful! but because i wasn’t feeling well i spent two days in my room so nothing exciting to share about that! by friday though i was feeling better and it was our day off (we get one a week so i pray that i’m never sick on a day off!) where three of us students went to one of the villages to check emails and things and then went to the beach. it was so amazing to sit in the sand and have the water just lap over my legs.... its really one of my favorite things, the beach, and i find so much relaxation from begin there. the ocean is so warm as well and i don’t have to worry about creatures and things that will bite me! so yes an enjoyable day off with a crazy dala dala ride back! its amazing how they squish so many on to them busses. and praise the Lord my ‘motion sickness’ has not been an issue!
on sunday we had a ‘home church’ instead of going out to church. we broke up into groups of five and had an amazing time of discussing and praying and encouraging one another. i think besides the beach that was a highlight of my week. to just sit with one another share and learn from one another because we all have different ways we see things. we can learn lots just by listening!
till next time.....
okay so lets begin..... this last week has been challenging with a lot of good moments as well, i did go to the clinic again, but was disappointed because the day i went to do a teaching and help in antenatal care was actually a holiday here in Tanzania, and because of this there were not very many women who actually came to the clinic. so needless to say i did not get to do any antenatal checkups, rather i did my teaching and ‘observed’ in the lab. i say ‘observed’ because there was not much going on there either! however i did get to do a few checks with a microscope to look for malaria in different blood samples which was kinda neat to see what the organisms looked like.
something our team is doing in this time of waiting for visa’s and such is a project called ‘a community profile’ basically doing interviews with local women (who are or have been pregnant) to find out more about the needs in the area. as well, to learn about different areas of the culture we are in such as, nutrition (what do they eat, whats available, are they lacking any nutrients?), their past experiences in pregnancy, did they have regular check ups, how was the labour, where did they give birth, did they have a skilled birth attendant present, do they have support in there homes/families and what is there role as a women in there family/community and so on. every student is in charge of doing twenty interviews and then they will be compiled, along with information and statistics from the hospitals in the area to have all these facts together for present and future knowledge. anyways, me and two others have been put in charge of compiling the information that is gathered as well as going to the hospitals and retrieving facts and stats needed. at first i was slightly overwhelmed with this job but think it interesting in reading some of the findings that the girls have discovered upon interviewing.
hmmm other things we have been doing is working on our team dynamics. it has been a challenging week in working through differences of opinions and personalities but its amazing to see the breakthrough that can happen when we pursue and turn our focus off ourselves and each other and put the focus on God. it was said today ‘when our focus is on God then everything else will fall into place’ it challenged me to really think, ‘okay where is my focus right now? where do my thoughts go when i’m upset or frustrated?’ and to be honest they have not always been directed to God, but instead have gone either outwardly to others or inwardly where i’ve allowed them to affect my attitude. i am encouraged that our team has been open with each other and been able to share these things and pray into them. my prayer is that God will re-focus my mind to how He see’s situations and not how i see them.
as for this week, i was sick for a part of it with a bad headache and stomach aches... i think the lack of nutrition is getting to me and i wasn’t drinking enough water but i’m doing much better now so that is wonderful! but because i wasn’t feeling well i spent two days in my room so nothing exciting to share about that! by friday though i was feeling better and it was our day off (we get one a week so i pray that i’m never sick on a day off!) where three of us students went to one of the villages to check emails and things and then went to the beach. it was so amazing to sit in the sand and have the water just lap over my legs.... its really one of my favorite things, the beach, and i find so much relaxation from begin there. the ocean is so warm as well and i don’t have to worry about creatures and things that will bite me! so yes an enjoyable day off with a crazy dala dala ride back! its amazing how they squish so many on to them busses. and praise the Lord my ‘motion sickness’ has not been an issue!
on sunday we had a ‘home church’ instead of going out to church. we broke up into groups of five and had an amazing time of discussing and praying and encouraging one another. i think besides the beach that was a highlight of my week. to just sit with one another share and learn from one another because we all have different ways we see things. we can learn lots just by listening!
till next time.....
Friday, October 15, 2010
week fourteen
well i have begun to find my bearings a little more in this place... some things take longer to get used to than others such as the constant feeling of being sweaty and dirty and that every where i walk, people are constantly yelling out ‘wazungu’ or ‘habari’ (the first meaning ‘white people’ second meaning ‘hi how are you’) at first it was very overwhelming but its now becoming more normal. plus i think the people around us are getting used to us more because its not as constant, which is nice... can you imagine every time you leave your house people are yelling out at you ‘white person, hey white person’...... its a different feeling than when i was in indonesia. there they thought it was so neat that you were there and thought you to be something of famous wanting to take your picture or if you say hi they just giggle. here is a mixed response, often people will just stare at you if you say hi, or they laugh at you. not in the giggly way of ‘oh they talked to me’ but in the ‘funny white person trying to speak swahili’ way..... its not always like that though, we have met some lovely people who are extremely helpful when trying to catch a dala dala, they escort you through the busy crowds to the correct bus and make sure you get on. others will smile at you and say hi back and many do say ‘karibu’ which means ‘welcome, you are welcome here’.
this past week has begun to get busier, we still have no working visa’s, (which we know could take months) but the clinic attached to the base has offered us a place to learn and work alongside them in. but because it is a small clinic only four of us can go in a day. wednesday was my turn! it was immunization and baby weigh day. we were told to prepare a teaching and that we could watch and learn from the staff there. so me and my partner did a teaching on ‘weaning foods’ (getting a baby on its way to eating solid food) and spent the rest of the day watching and learning. at one point the staff was very overwhelmed with women coming in continually and so me and my partner took over the baby weighing... a difficult task at first because some of the babies were just brand new and did not have there growth charts yet, so we had to fill in one for them and you can imagine with the language barrier it was a bit challenging! but we learnt what each slot meant on the card and how to ask the correct mother the questions... spelling, well that was a completely different matter that apparently doesn’t matter too much because no one seemed to correct us and later our staff said that many times people charts in the hospital will have several different spellings but its all for the same person, and its not an issue! it was pretty neat to weigh the babies and chart there weight, some who were a little older you could see if they were growing the way they should and if they were healthy. the smallest baby i weighed was only four days old and weighed 2kg (4.4lbs) so tiny. we basically did weighings for majority of the morning and watched a few immunizations, apparently next time we’ll be allowed to administer them.... not so sure how i feel about sticking needles into unexpecting young ones but we’ll see!
this week has also been filled with working around the base as they are short staffed, so cleaning and sweeping the outside... basically raking but they call it sweeping.... doing village walks and meeting some of the locals to build a relationship with the community we live in and i even spent a morning teaching at the elementary school. the teacher is a staff here on the YWAM base and has been sick all week, so to help out we offered. so two of us went over there on tuesday and it was quite hilarious! we were told to tell a story.... caught a little off guard we did as any ywamer does and told the story of ‘David and Goliath’ i told it and my partner acted it out! the kids loved it and i think somewhat understood it (they had english lessons). then were told to ask them questions and get them to draw a picture and then we were given a red pen to mark them! pretty neat hearing there accents saying to me ‘teacher, i am finished’
we had a free day as well where me and some other girls caught the dala dala to downtown where there is a hotel with free internet on the ninth floor! as well as a restaurant that had cheeseburgers! haha! it was a nice afternoon sitting in an air conditioned room and then made our way home on the dala dala, which isn’t as scary as the first time!
today was church, and although we left the base at 8.45 and arrived home at 5.00 it was an enjoyable day. the service was a mixture of our team doing drama’s, sharing testimonies and preaching, mixed in with their church sharing testimonies, singing songs and even having the children come and sing and then one of the girls, probably around ten years old preached! it was amazing! i think even the congregation was surprised and they brought up her parents after to the front to say a few words. and because this is Africa, they also brought up group by group the members of the church to introduce us and welcome us to the service! it was a long service around three and half hours but yet it was really nice, they had someone always translating for us so we could follow and understand what was being said which was a huge blessing. and then we discovered that they had prepared lunch for us and we were expected to go. so that is how the day became so long, a lunch turns into sitting in a living room for four hours! but the food was good, and they had real sofa’s to sit on and even a fan blowing cool air around! luxury!
so that was my week.... roughly! and i’m ready for another. this week we are having evangelism down town all day tomorrow, so another long day. and then on thursday i am going to the clinic again but this time its antenatal care! so hopefully i’ll be able to do some palpation's and things! who knows!
till next time....
this past week has begun to get busier, we still have no working visa’s, (which we know could take months) but the clinic attached to the base has offered us a place to learn and work alongside them in. but because it is a small clinic only four of us can go in a day. wednesday was my turn! it was immunization and baby weigh day. we were told to prepare a teaching and that we could watch and learn from the staff there. so me and my partner did a teaching on ‘weaning foods’ (getting a baby on its way to eating solid food) and spent the rest of the day watching and learning. at one point the staff was very overwhelmed with women coming in continually and so me and my partner took over the baby weighing... a difficult task at first because some of the babies were just brand new and did not have there growth charts yet, so we had to fill in one for them and you can imagine with the language barrier it was a bit challenging! but we learnt what each slot meant on the card and how to ask the correct mother the questions... spelling, well that was a completely different matter that apparently doesn’t matter too much because no one seemed to correct us and later our staff said that many times people charts in the hospital will have several different spellings but its all for the same person, and its not an issue! it was pretty neat to weigh the babies and chart there weight, some who were a little older you could see if they were growing the way they should and if they were healthy. the smallest baby i weighed was only four days old and weighed 2kg (4.4lbs) so tiny. we basically did weighings for majority of the morning and watched a few immunizations, apparently next time we’ll be allowed to administer them.... not so sure how i feel about sticking needles into unexpecting young ones but we’ll see!
this week has also been filled with working around the base as they are short staffed, so cleaning and sweeping the outside... basically raking but they call it sweeping.... doing village walks and meeting some of the locals to build a relationship with the community we live in and i even spent a morning teaching at the elementary school. the teacher is a staff here on the YWAM base and has been sick all week, so to help out we offered. so two of us went over there on tuesday and it was quite hilarious! we were told to tell a story.... caught a little off guard we did as any ywamer does and told the story of ‘David and Goliath’ i told it and my partner acted it out! the kids loved it and i think somewhat understood it (they had english lessons). then were told to ask them questions and get them to draw a picture and then we were given a red pen to mark them! pretty neat hearing there accents saying to me ‘teacher, i am finished’
we had a free day as well where me and some other girls caught the dala dala to downtown where there is a hotel with free internet on the ninth floor! as well as a restaurant that had cheeseburgers! haha! it was a nice afternoon sitting in an air conditioned room and then made our way home on the dala dala, which isn’t as scary as the first time!
today was church, and although we left the base at 8.45 and arrived home at 5.00 it was an enjoyable day. the service was a mixture of our team doing drama’s, sharing testimonies and preaching, mixed in with their church sharing testimonies, singing songs and even having the children come and sing and then one of the girls, probably around ten years old preached! it was amazing! i think even the congregation was surprised and they brought up her parents after to the front to say a few words. and because this is Africa, they also brought up group by group the members of the church to introduce us and welcome us to the service! it was a long service around three and half hours but yet it was really nice, they had someone always translating for us so we could follow and understand what was being said which was a huge blessing. and then we discovered that they had prepared lunch for us and we were expected to go. so that is how the day became so long, a lunch turns into sitting in a living room for four hours! but the food was good, and they had real sofa’s to sit on and even a fan blowing cool air around! luxury!
so that was my week.... roughly! and i’m ready for another. this week we are having evangelism down town all day tomorrow, so another long day. and then on thursday i am going to the clinic again but this time its antenatal care! so hopefully i’ll be able to do some palpation's and things! who knows!
till next time....
Friday, October 8, 2010
week thirteen - outreach begins!
Habari! ‘hello how are you?’ its the main greeting here.... yes we have arrived! we left late satruday night from Perth. flew through Dubai and landed in Tanzania monday afternoon. we were met at the airport but through a series of finding a vehicle big enough to take us all and one for our luggage as well took around two hours. but this is Africa, and this is outreach, which basically means that you must be flexible. anything can happen, or not happen! just go with the flow....
so we got to the base after a very eventful drive consisting of sharing back roads through villages with huge trucks.... the kind of moments where you suck in thinking it will help your van get through the driving space! but we made if fine to the base and it is beautiful here. we’re slightly outside the city and the base actually sits upon eighty acres of land, all of which were donated to YWAM! we have real beds (bunk beds of course) with a lovely little foamy for a mattress, and equipped with a mosquito net to be tucked in each night around us and untucked each morning. (trying to prevent malaria for the bite of a mosquito.)
the food is... we’ll i’m getting used to feeling hungary a lot of the time. the food in itself is not bad just not enough to sustain you for long periods of time. an average day consists of bread/mundazi (kinda like a donut without sugar) and a hot drink for our seven am breakfast, lunch is then served at one and is usually ugali (white, play-dough like stuff that is made of water and grinded maize (corn)) and beans, and dinner at six with perhaps more ugali and rice and of course beans. sometimes instead of beans theres this tomato sauce stuff with random veggies in it which is good as well. not much variety but so far i’ve enjoyed it.
what have we been up to since being here? well we are still awaiting our visa’s, which is apparently more of a process then we thought would be. our visa’s will give us residency and permission to work in the hospital. so this past week was kinda catching our bearings, we did a town run.... which in itself is an adventure. the public transport is called a dala dala, which in Canada is about the size of a mini van, legally seating twelve people, but here there are no such laws and yesterday we counted almost forty people squeezed on with a few hanging out of the door! so yes quite an adventure. so yes town run where we learnt how to catch a dala dala and then had some lunch in town and could look at shops if we wanted, we were so tired after the ride in and finding somewhere to have lunch that we left shortly after! there is one village in between us and the city where we stopped and looked around a bit. its an odd feeling to called out to consistently, and stared at, but again this is outreach and hopefully after they realize we’re here for awhile they will settle down!
we’ve done some help for the base as well. i was in a group that went to the primary school (elementary) to help the teacher mark tests. it was fun cuz the tests were in english and hearing some of those kids answers was just adorable! the school is ran by the base here, they actually have quite a few different ministry’s that they do. they have the primary school (which they desperately need teachers if anyone feels led to come and work in Tanzania!), a pre school, sewing classes and construction classes and of course run DTS (disciple training school).there is also a farm on base which provides some of the green’s we get, and soon hopefully other things will be ripe to eat! they have pineapples, passion fruit, some mango tree’s, coconut tree’s (which i’ve already had a few of!) and other things.
so trying to pick up some language and get to know the base staff here. one girl lives in the room with us, (our team is split into six different rooms, three of which are families and then us single girls split up in three rooms as well) and she speaks a little bit of english so trying to learn swahili from her and then teach her some english... its been interesting!
i think next week we’re going to be doing some teachings in the villages nearby and perhaps get to go and teach some basic health to the public school across the main road. we’ll see what happens! you just never know!
we went to church this morning and it was so neat, the kids did a few songs for us and the worship in general is just what you’d imagine singing to be like in Africa! i love it! oh and a fun fact for those of you who didn’t know, the movie ‘the lion king’ has swahili in it! ‘Simba’ means ‘lion’, Rafiki means ‘friend’, ‘hakuna matata’ literately means ‘no worries’ and my favorite is ‘asante sana’ means ‘thank you very much’. when we found that out we couldn’t help but add on the rest of the phrase, ‘asante sana squashed banana’s’!
internet is going to be far a few i’m thinking, to get free wireless to use my computer i have to take a trip downtown, not my favorite thing to do, and with only having one day off a week i won’t have the time to do so. so i apologize if this is not as updated as it used to be but at least there is a place where i can bring my computer! i hope it works, i actually haven't tried, i’m currently writing things on my computer and saving them to make the sending off faster! so we’ll see i guess! yesterday was our day off and we went to the beach! about a forty minute trip using two dala dala’s but we found our way there and it is beautiful! we’re right on the indian ocean... just gorgeous!
oh i just remembered another thing this week that happened! i turned twenty-two!!! it was a very special birthday for me, in the evening the base held a birthday party to celebrate all the september birthdays, i felt so special to be included in this celebration and to have it happen on my real day. there were four of us in total but two did not come and so it was me and a little four year old named Shady, (short for Shadrak). it a little overwhelming as they had us sit at a table facing everyone else. so everyone is watching you all the time! and then Shady fell asleep with his chin on the table! so cute, so it was just me. they brought out a cake with candles and everything! my name was even on the cake! i had people praying for me, encouraging me and even was handed a basket of goodies. without my knowing it my team had gotten together to purchase presents for me! some of which were brought from Thailand (one student and her son had a layover there, on our way here they flew separate) so yes it was a very good birthday, i felt extremely blessed!
okay i realize how long this is but so much has happened, i’m finding myself settling in and adjusting to once again washing my clothes by hand, taking bucket showers and am even getting used to wearing a skirt at all times..... this is outreach!
i’m looking forward to when we get our visa’s and start teaching and learning and delivering babies!
take care till next time!
so we got to the base after a very eventful drive consisting of sharing back roads through villages with huge trucks.... the kind of moments where you suck in thinking it will help your van get through the driving space! but we made if fine to the base and it is beautiful here. we’re slightly outside the city and the base actually sits upon eighty acres of land, all of which were donated to YWAM! we have real beds (bunk beds of course) with a lovely little foamy for a mattress, and equipped with a mosquito net to be tucked in each night around us and untucked each morning. (trying to prevent malaria for the bite of a mosquito.)
the food is... we’ll i’m getting used to feeling hungary a lot of the time. the food in itself is not bad just not enough to sustain you for long periods of time. an average day consists of bread/mundazi (kinda like a donut without sugar) and a hot drink for our seven am breakfast, lunch is then served at one and is usually ugali (white, play-dough like stuff that is made of water and grinded maize (corn)) and beans, and dinner at six with perhaps more ugali and rice and of course beans. sometimes instead of beans theres this tomato sauce stuff with random veggies in it which is good as well. not much variety but so far i’ve enjoyed it.
what have we been up to since being here? well we are still awaiting our visa’s, which is apparently more of a process then we thought would be. our visa’s will give us residency and permission to work in the hospital. so this past week was kinda catching our bearings, we did a town run.... which in itself is an adventure. the public transport is called a dala dala, which in Canada is about the size of a mini van, legally seating twelve people, but here there are no such laws and yesterday we counted almost forty people squeezed on with a few hanging out of the door! so yes quite an adventure. so yes town run where we learnt how to catch a dala dala and then had some lunch in town and could look at shops if we wanted, we were so tired after the ride in and finding somewhere to have lunch that we left shortly after! there is one village in between us and the city where we stopped and looked around a bit. its an odd feeling to called out to consistently, and stared at, but again this is outreach and hopefully after they realize we’re here for awhile they will settle down!
we’ve done some help for the base as well. i was in a group that went to the primary school (elementary) to help the teacher mark tests. it was fun cuz the tests were in english and hearing some of those kids answers was just adorable! the school is ran by the base here, they actually have quite a few different ministry’s that they do. they have the primary school (which they desperately need teachers if anyone feels led to come and work in Tanzania!), a pre school, sewing classes and construction classes and of course run DTS (disciple training school).there is also a farm on base which provides some of the green’s we get, and soon hopefully other things will be ripe to eat! they have pineapples, passion fruit, some mango tree’s, coconut tree’s (which i’ve already had a few of!) and other things.
so trying to pick up some language and get to know the base staff here. one girl lives in the room with us, (our team is split into six different rooms, three of which are families and then us single girls split up in three rooms as well) and she speaks a little bit of english so trying to learn swahili from her and then teach her some english... its been interesting!
i think next week we’re going to be doing some teachings in the villages nearby and perhaps get to go and teach some basic health to the public school across the main road. we’ll see what happens! you just never know!
we went to church this morning and it was so neat, the kids did a few songs for us and the worship in general is just what you’d imagine singing to be like in Africa! i love it! oh and a fun fact for those of you who didn’t know, the movie ‘the lion king’ has swahili in it! ‘Simba’ means ‘lion’, Rafiki means ‘friend’, ‘hakuna matata’ literately means ‘no worries’ and my favorite is ‘asante sana’ means ‘thank you very much’. when we found that out we couldn’t help but add on the rest of the phrase, ‘asante sana squashed banana’s’!
internet is going to be far a few i’m thinking, to get free wireless to use my computer i have to take a trip downtown, not my favorite thing to do, and with only having one day off a week i won’t have the time to do so. so i apologize if this is not as updated as it used to be but at least there is a place where i can bring my computer! i hope it works, i actually haven't tried, i’m currently writing things on my computer and saving them to make the sending off faster! so we’ll see i guess! yesterday was our day off and we went to the beach! about a forty minute trip using two dala dala’s but we found our way there and it is beautiful! we’re right on the indian ocean... just gorgeous!
oh i just remembered another thing this week that happened! i turned twenty-two!!! it was a very special birthday for me, in the evening the base held a birthday party to celebrate all the september birthdays, i felt so special to be included in this celebration and to have it happen on my real day. there were four of us in total but two did not come and so it was me and a little four year old named Shady, (short for Shadrak). it a little overwhelming as they had us sit at a table facing everyone else. so everyone is watching you all the time! and then Shady fell asleep with his chin on the table! so cute, so it was just me. they brought out a cake with candles and everything! my name was even on the cake! i had people praying for me, encouraging me and even was handed a basket of goodies. without my knowing it my team had gotten together to purchase presents for me! some of which were brought from Thailand (one student and her son had a layover there, on our way here they flew separate) so yes it was a very good birthday, i felt extremely blessed!
okay i realize how long this is but so much has happened, i’m finding myself settling in and adjusting to once again washing my clothes by hand, taking bucket showers and am even getting used to wearing a skirt at all times..... this is outreach!
i’m looking forward to when we get our visa’s and start teaching and learning and delivering babies!
take care till next time!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
week twelve
okay so here we are, t minus three hours till leaving for the airport and six hours till flying off, on our way through Dubai to Tanzania!
this week has been exciting, stressful, overwhelming, fun and very chaotic! but such is expected in this time. i am packed and ready to go, first some emails, then dinner, then a team prayer time and then we are off!
seems like time has gone by extremely fast, just thinking that before you know it i’ll be back home in canada..... so crazy! i am excited and nervous. not sure what to expect! i’m excited to have an african birthday! one of the girls today actually took me out for lunch and then bought me a mini cake where the waiter had written ‘happy birthday’ in chocolate sauce on the plate around it! so precious! i feel truly blessed to be here and am looking forward to whats next, even though i’m not entirely sure what that means!
i will be trying to update when possible, have patience and grace with me as internet will be a bit of a challenge over the course of the next 8 months. but i am committed to trying my best!
lots of love!
till next time....
this week has been exciting, stressful, overwhelming, fun and very chaotic! but such is expected in this time. i am packed and ready to go, first some emails, then dinner, then a team prayer time and then we are off!
seems like time has gone by extremely fast, just thinking that before you know it i’ll be back home in canada..... so crazy! i am excited and nervous. not sure what to expect! i’m excited to have an african birthday! one of the girls today actually took me out for lunch and then bought me a mini cake where the waiter had written ‘happy birthday’ in chocolate sauce on the plate around it! so precious! i feel truly blessed to be here and am looking forward to whats next, even though i’m not entirely sure what that means!
i will be trying to update when possible, have patience and grace with me as internet will be a bit of a challenge over the course of the next 8 months. but i am committed to trying my best!
lots of love!
till next time....
Monday, September 20, 2010
week eleven
it is very difficult for me to talk about this past week. so much has happened and since we are closing in on our last few days here in Perth everything seems in chaos! in the midst of classes and prayer for finances, there other issues of packing, preparing, cleaning and organizing. so i will try my best and give an idea of what this is all like!
okay, so topic of the week in lectures, evangelism. not going to lie, a little challenging to pay attention at times as i have been dealing with some personal issues.but this was the top we had lectures till wednesday then on thursday our class went out to downtown to do what we had been learning about. i think our lectures were more a preparation for our hearts in why we do what we do. i appreciated our speakers’ thoughts on salvation and evangelism. he had said ‘salvation is knowing and loving God’ and ‘evangelism is inspiring others to know and love God’. so simple, yet holding so much more. so thursday morning that is what our school did. it was a different style then i’ve ever gone out to do. we were in the main market area of downtown and as a group sang worship songs (yes someone was playing the guitar!) and had moments of people sharing what was on there hearts to basically whoever would listen! it was neat to see people stopping to see what we were doing, some stayed to listen and then talked to someone from our group while others walked by muttering annoyances at us. at the end we spent ten minutes asking anyone we felt if they wanted prayer. it was neat to see how responsive some people are to accepting prayer even when they weren’t sure what they felt about God. others were not responsive at all and were very deliberate in saying ‘no’. either way it was a good morning and lots of people received prayer for personal issues or physical.
friday our class went to the ‘natural family planning centre’. very interesting! we learnt different methods of contraception without the use of implanting anything into your body! we also learnt what some of these methods do. like the pill for example actually doesn’t ‘prevent’ pregnancy it will just ‘blow up’ in a sense a fertile egg. (there are different kinds of birth control pills but this is the most common) but ya, i’d be happy to chat more on these methods if anyone wishes!
as for other things going on this week, i have been able to prepare a bit more for outreach. gone and bought a few things i need. i’m still in need of more things, like labour room shoes (they have to be cleanable and no holes) some skirts (as it is the only thing we will be wearing for the entire time in Africa) and a few other odds and ends. but in a way i am feeling more prepared for leaving. getting excited too! (which is a very good thing!) we leave sunday the 26th. our plane heads out at 10:30pm. so please be praying for this week that i will be able to get more ready and not feel overwhelmed! also a praise report i think everyone has gotten there fee’s in! which is HUGE! even this mornign there were still four people needing a total over $15 000 and by lunch the need was down to $4000 for only one person! so God is moving and since lunch i think more has even come in! so Praise the Lord for that! our God is BIG!
till next time!
ps as of two o'clock monday all the money needed was in and everyone has there plane tickets! over 15,000 in one day!!!!!!
okay, so topic of the week in lectures, evangelism. not going to lie, a little challenging to pay attention at times as i have been dealing with some personal issues.but this was the top we had lectures till wednesday then on thursday our class went out to downtown to do what we had been learning about. i think our lectures were more a preparation for our hearts in why we do what we do. i appreciated our speakers’ thoughts on salvation and evangelism. he had said ‘salvation is knowing and loving God’ and ‘evangelism is inspiring others to know and love God’. so simple, yet holding so much more. so thursday morning that is what our school did. it was a different style then i’ve ever gone out to do. we were in the main market area of downtown and as a group sang worship songs (yes someone was playing the guitar!) and had moments of people sharing what was on there hearts to basically whoever would listen! it was neat to see people stopping to see what we were doing, some stayed to listen and then talked to someone from our group while others walked by muttering annoyances at us. at the end we spent ten minutes asking anyone we felt if they wanted prayer. it was neat to see how responsive some people are to accepting prayer even when they weren’t sure what they felt about God. others were not responsive at all and were very deliberate in saying ‘no’. either way it was a good morning and lots of people received prayer for personal issues or physical.
friday our class went to the ‘natural family planning centre’. very interesting! we learnt different methods of contraception without the use of implanting anything into your body! we also learnt what some of these methods do. like the pill for example actually doesn’t ‘prevent’ pregnancy it will just ‘blow up’ in a sense a fertile egg. (there are different kinds of birth control pills but this is the most common) but ya, i’d be happy to chat more on these methods if anyone wishes!
as for other things going on this week, i have been able to prepare a bit more for outreach. gone and bought a few things i need. i’m still in need of more things, like labour room shoes (they have to be cleanable and no holes) some skirts (as it is the only thing we will be wearing for the entire time in Africa) and a few other odds and ends. but in a way i am feeling more prepared for leaving. getting excited too! (which is a very good thing!) we leave sunday the 26th. our plane heads out at 10:30pm. so please be praying for this week that i will be able to get more ready and not feel overwhelmed! also a praise report i think everyone has gotten there fee’s in! which is HUGE! even this mornign there were still four people needing a total over $15 000 and by lunch the need was down to $4000 for only one person! so God is moving and since lunch i think more has even come in! so Praise the Lord for that! our God is BIG!
till next time!
ps as of two o'clock monday all the money needed was in and everyone has there plane tickets! over 15,000 in one day!!!!!!
Monday, September 13, 2010
week ten
a continuation from last week in regards to lectures.... the postpartum time and then into some other things such as breastfeeding, spotting signs of a respiratory infection and what to do for a child thats had diarrhea. it was sad to learn how many infant deaths there are because of dehydration. in fact its the second leading killer among infants. the first is respiratory illness’s. so sad because theres mostly always preventable.
we also had a field trip to the hospital this past friday! so much fun! we learnt resuscitation of infants and had a tour of the facilities. including the labour ward, the operating ‘theatre’ (room, theatre is what they refer to it here and on outreach), the nursery and the postpartum ward. it was a privately run hospital and very nice, nothing compared to what we’ll see on outreach! but it was neat to see and defiantly got us more excited to be leaving in two weeks. we even got to see a placenta! which i’m sure to many sounds disgusting, but for us who have been learning about these and much more it was nice to finally get to see ‘a real live one’ haha! it was pretty neat to see the ‘home’ of a baby! and we were even given gloves and got to touch it!
this week has been full, with the deadline of outreach fee’s creeping in on us every spare moment we’ve had has been devoted to prayer. we’ve seen huge progress and many people have been provided for, as of friday however our school as a whole still needed just over 30,000.00AUD. we’ve seen God move, we know he is bigger than anything we can imagine, so we wait on him to see what he’s gonna do!
so yup that has been the week, we’ve started a little more with some outreach prep which has been informative as well as a little overwhelming. crazy to think, i will live in Africa for six months. i’m excited, just not sure what to expect.
till next week
we also had a field trip to the hospital this past friday! so much fun! we learnt resuscitation of infants and had a tour of the facilities. including the labour ward, the operating ‘theatre’ (room, theatre is what they refer to it here and on outreach), the nursery and the postpartum ward. it was a privately run hospital and very nice, nothing compared to what we’ll see on outreach! but it was neat to see and defiantly got us more excited to be leaving in two weeks. we even got to see a placenta! which i’m sure to many sounds disgusting, but for us who have been learning about these and much more it was nice to finally get to see ‘a real live one’ haha! it was pretty neat to see the ‘home’ of a baby! and we were even given gloves and got to touch it!
this week has been full, with the deadline of outreach fee’s creeping in on us every spare moment we’ve had has been devoted to prayer. we’ve seen huge progress and many people have been provided for, as of friday however our school as a whole still needed just over 30,000.00AUD. we’ve seen God move, we know he is bigger than anything we can imagine, so we wait on him to see what he’s gonna do!
so yup that has been the week, we’ve started a little more with some outreach prep which has been informative as well as a little overwhelming. crazy to think, i will live in Africa for six months. i’m excited, just not sure what to expect.
till next week
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
'a day in a midwife'
here is a link to a video of an example of 'a day in a life of a midwife' it takes place in India and was the BAS last year!
its also on facebook but for those of you who don't have fb hopefully this will work for you to see it! also please be praying for our school as outreach fee's are due today for everyone!!!!
http://vimeo.com/14688854
its also on facebook but for those of you who don't have fb hopefully this will work for you to see it! also please be praying for our school as outreach fee's are due today for everyone!!!!
http://vimeo.com/14688854
Monday, September 6, 2010
last years BAS in Tanzania!
'our bathroom at the base'
the base
one of my staff with a newborn
a typical 'waiting' area...... pretty crazy eh?
week nine
week nine
well its official, there is less than a month left here in Perth!!! i still can not believe i will be living in Africa for six months. and just as it is beginning to smell of summer here! i’m currently outside as i write this, its a lovely day here in Perth, and i’m enjoying the sun from across my house in the field just outside a stadium, where currently there is a soccer game going on! lots of crowd and cheering! pretty entertaining and smells good too. like a carnival with hotdogs and all the greasy good food you only eat there or maybe at a goldeye’s game!
so this past week, hmmm..... well our lecture topic was a bit mixed up but in general it was the postpartum time. (time after delivery) so we’ve covered the care of the newborn as well as some of the physical care of the women. next week is a continuation of this past week. but i did enjoy the care of a new born lectures. it is exciting to think that i’ll get to play such a vital role in the welcoming this new life into the world. i loved the quote of our lecture leader ‘for the newborn to be able to feel the hands of Jesus through our hands’ makes me feel very privileged and honored to be doing this job. also learning about cutting the cord, and doing the first examination to make sure everything is ‘normal’ in the baby. it seems like it will be the ‘take a breathe’ moment where the chaos of the delivery is over and the baby is out and stable and resting upon its mother and you get to check its eyes, ears, ten fingers, ten little toes and listen to them breath, among other things! i’m not sure exactly how this will go down on outreach, i know for the girls going to India it will be a hectic time and even in Tanzania in the hospital i think they’ve mentioned that some women are in and out the same day, if not hours after delivery.... i actually have a few pictures from one of my school staff from her time last year there and i’ll get them up so you can see kinda what its like!
other than lectures, lets see, what else has been going on..... well we’ve been hearing many neat stories of God’s provision in finances for students in our school, one girl received just over 2000 in one day, just from various people donations! it makes me so much more aware that there is no way i could do what i’m doing without the help of you at home and around the world that have supported me financially and through prayer. you all really are partners in what is going on here in Perth and what is going to happen in Tanzania in three very short weeks! thank you again!
yesterday some of us girls decided to go to ikea! (yes they have one here and not in winnipeg!!!) it was so much fun!!! we ate breakfast at the buffet as it is cheap! and then took our time (as you have to when walking through ikea) and went through each display, posing and taking photo’s, even having a dance party in one! me and Naomi then went to the mall and got our haircuts.. a little scary but the guy i had was really trust worthy and was actually from Kenya, (just north of Tanzania) so we had a nice chat about Africa and a bit on how he got here to Australia. then we went to Naomi’s house and hung out. also most exciting, i got to drive! a little strange especially to go around a round-a-bout and turn left not right, but i did pretty good! it was fun to get behind the wheel and drive, made me feel more normal! haha!
well there are people out of the stadium now (half time?) kicking around a football and its slightly going into the tree’s above my head and for the sake of my computer and brain i may have to relocate!
take care have a good week!
well its official, there is less than a month left here in Perth!!! i still can not believe i will be living in Africa for six months. and just as it is beginning to smell of summer here! i’m currently outside as i write this, its a lovely day here in Perth, and i’m enjoying the sun from across my house in the field just outside a stadium, where currently there is a soccer game going on! lots of crowd and cheering! pretty entertaining and smells good too. like a carnival with hotdogs and all the greasy good food you only eat there or maybe at a goldeye’s game!
so this past week, hmmm..... well our lecture topic was a bit mixed up but in general it was the postpartum time. (time after delivery) so we’ve covered the care of the newborn as well as some of the physical care of the women. next week is a continuation of this past week. but i did enjoy the care of a new born lectures. it is exciting to think that i’ll get to play such a vital role in the welcoming this new life into the world. i loved the quote of our lecture leader ‘for the newborn to be able to feel the hands of Jesus through our hands’ makes me feel very privileged and honored to be doing this job. also learning about cutting the cord, and doing the first examination to make sure everything is ‘normal’ in the baby. it seems like it will be the ‘take a breathe’ moment where the chaos of the delivery is over and the baby is out and stable and resting upon its mother and you get to check its eyes, ears, ten fingers, ten little toes and listen to them breath, among other things! i’m not sure exactly how this will go down on outreach, i know for the girls going to India it will be a hectic time and even in Tanzania in the hospital i think they’ve mentioned that some women are in and out the same day, if not hours after delivery.... i actually have a few pictures from one of my school staff from her time last year there and i’ll get them up so you can see kinda what its like!
other than lectures, lets see, what else has been going on..... well we’ve been hearing many neat stories of God’s provision in finances for students in our school, one girl received just over 2000 in one day, just from various people donations! it makes me so much more aware that there is no way i could do what i’m doing without the help of you at home and around the world that have supported me financially and through prayer. you all really are partners in what is going on here in Perth and what is going to happen in Tanzania in three very short weeks! thank you again!
yesterday some of us girls decided to go to ikea! (yes they have one here and not in winnipeg!!!) it was so much fun!!! we ate breakfast at the buffet as it is cheap! and then took our time (as you have to when walking through ikea) and went through each display, posing and taking photo’s, even having a dance party in one! me and Naomi then went to the mall and got our haircuts.. a little scary but the guy i had was really trust worthy and was actually from Kenya, (just north of Tanzania) so we had a nice chat about Africa and a bit on how he got here to Australia. then we went to Naomi’s house and hung out. also most exciting, i got to drive! a little strange especially to go around a round-a-bout and turn left not right, but i did pretty good! it was fun to get behind the wheel and drive, made me feel more normal! haha!
well there are people out of the stadium now (half time?) kicking around a football and its slightly going into the tree’s above my head and for the sake of my computer and brain i may have to relocate!
take care have a good week!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
week eight
again words can not express what this past week has been for me. it was nice to have a relaxing weekend of pretty much doing nothing cuz this week i was once again rocked, but in a good way!
our speaker was Pete Brownhill, (the husband of Shirley who has spoken to us twice now, also the director of YWAM Perth). the topic being the Spiritual Dynamics of Birth... yup as you can imagine it was pretty heavy stuff. the idea alone of the battle of life and death that we’re going to be facing each day on outreach is daunting enough let alone the concept of entering into a spiritual battle for each of these babies. there are so many mentalities that are different that what we have coming from a western nation. for example; mothers not wanting their child if its a girl, because the status given to girls is extremely low and the mom’s are seen as being a disappointment to there families if they have a girl, our staff told us stories of the mothers trying to give away there babies to the YWAM staff because they didn’t want them.
so i’m not sure how much else to say as to not overwhelm and confuse you readers! another topic we discussed was generational curses and the freedom that can be received through prayer. also the concept of a godly midwife, and what that looks like for us BAS that are going out into these nations to not only share knowledge and compassion for these women but also the gospel. something interesting i thought i’d share with you is our vision statement from the Birth Attendant School. (which i’ll post separately)
our school was also facing the deadline of our plane ticket money by this past friday. (now pushed to monday) as a school the need is still around $15,000. so many girls have had amazing testimonies of how God has brought the money in for them, and many are still in need. we’re waiting on the Lord and have been spending extra time in prayer for this need. we’re also as a school doing another car wash this saturday so if you could be praying for our school and the provision needed there.(as this is a late post, carwash is done and we made just over 900!!!!) we know that each of us were called here by God and he has a plan and way to provide. but times like these when a deadline is so near can still be stressful! the thing with this particular deadline is apparently there are cheaper air plane tickets, but are only cheaper if purchased before monday, then the price goes up significantly. so our leaders have requested these funds to be in by that date. the rest of outreach fee’s are due september 8th i believe. i am so blessed to have all my money needed, and am so grateful for those who have come along side me in prayer during this time of my life. you truly are partners in this ministry!
i feel as if i could go on and on about the revelations i’ve had this week on God and his goodness. i feel there are so many area’s in my life where truth has started to come through. i don’t know why it has taken this long! but am grateful for this time, being in this environment where i can grow and learn so much under leadership that truly does care.
take care:)
our speaker was Pete Brownhill, (the husband of Shirley who has spoken to us twice now, also the director of YWAM Perth). the topic being the Spiritual Dynamics of Birth... yup as you can imagine it was pretty heavy stuff. the idea alone of the battle of life and death that we’re going to be facing each day on outreach is daunting enough let alone the concept of entering into a spiritual battle for each of these babies. there are so many mentalities that are different that what we have coming from a western nation. for example; mothers not wanting their child if its a girl, because the status given to girls is extremely low and the mom’s are seen as being a disappointment to there families if they have a girl, our staff told us stories of the mothers trying to give away there babies to the YWAM staff because they didn’t want them.
so i’m not sure how much else to say as to not overwhelm and confuse you readers! another topic we discussed was generational curses and the freedom that can be received through prayer. also the concept of a godly midwife, and what that looks like for us BAS that are going out into these nations to not only share knowledge and compassion for these women but also the gospel. something interesting i thought i’d share with you is our vision statement from the Birth Attendant School. (which i’ll post separately)
our school was also facing the deadline of our plane ticket money by this past friday. (now pushed to monday) as a school the need is still around $15,000. so many girls have had amazing testimonies of how God has brought the money in for them, and many are still in need. we’re waiting on the Lord and have been spending extra time in prayer for this need. we’re also as a school doing another car wash this saturday so if you could be praying for our school and the provision needed there.(as this is a late post, carwash is done and we made just over 900!!!!) we know that each of us were called here by God and he has a plan and way to provide. but times like these when a deadline is so near can still be stressful! the thing with this particular deadline is apparently there are cheaper air plane tickets, but are only cheaper if purchased before monday, then the price goes up significantly. so our leaders have requested these funds to be in by that date. the rest of outreach fee’s are due september 8th i believe. i am so blessed to have all my money needed, and am so grateful for those who have come along side me in prayer during this time of my life. you truly are partners in this ministry!
i feel as if i could go on and on about the revelations i’ve had this week on God and his goodness. i feel there are so many area’s in my life where truth has started to come through. i don’t know why it has taken this long! but am grateful for this time, being in this environment where i can grow and learn so much under leadership that truly does care.
take care:)
vision statment
Vision Statement
Birth Attendant School
To lay a foundation of worship, intercession and warfare as a key to overcoming the spiritual forces against mothers and their children.
To study the value of new life, women and children from a biblical perspective (Ezekiel 16)
To function as the old testament midwives from Exodus 1:15-20, to fear God in their lives and in the practice of midwifery.
To train and equip students in basic midwifery skills in order for them to be effective in meeting the needs of women in developing countries, with an emphasis on the Muslim world.
To train and send students to practice midwifery and investigate communities and their needs in maternal and child health.
To establish birth centers in developing nations.
To train local women in maternal and child health.
To multiply and establish the school in developing nations.
To evangelize families, women and children.
To establish orphanages for children abandoned by parents.
Birth Attendant School
To lay a foundation of worship, intercession and warfare as a key to overcoming the spiritual forces against mothers and their children.
To study the value of new life, women and children from a biblical perspective (Ezekiel 16)
To function as the old testament midwives from Exodus 1:15-20, to fear God in their lives and in the practice of midwifery.
To train and equip students in basic midwifery skills in order for them to be effective in meeting the needs of women in developing countries, with an emphasis on the Muslim world.
To train and send students to practice midwifery and investigate communities and their needs in maternal and child health.
To establish birth centers in developing nations.
To train local women in maternal and child health.
To multiply and establish the school in developing nations.
To evangelize families, women and children.
To establish orphanages for children abandoned by parents.
Monday, August 23, 2010
little update!
so just to inform you all, its official i will be going to Tanzania for six months, then our team will split and the group i'm in will be heading to Bangladesh!!!!
just the heads up for ya!
just the heads up for ya!
Friday, August 20, 2010
week seven
well past the halfway of lectures... funny to think its been almost two months but it has. i feel at home here but also feel like me being at home was not far away as well.
anywho.... this week was a good one, lecture wise we had a man named Dr. Martin Panter. he has been involved in health care in East Timor for over 25 years and has many other works he’s done. he’s a very kind gentlemen, would be a lovely grandfather! (just to help you picture him a little better!) he arrived monday evening so lectures with him didn’t start till tuesday. so monday we learnt about fistula’s. which is where if a women is in labour for too long the pressure of the baby can cut off the blood supply to the bladder and the tissue dies creating a hole between the bladder (can also happen between the rectum as well) and the vagina resulting in constant leaking of urine out of the vagina. we watched a video based on the book ‘Hospital by the River’ where this couple has opened up a clinic (in Ethiopia) specially to offer surgery and help for women dealing with this problem. its a very common problem for the women there because of; the lack of skilled help during births/hospitals too far away/lack of money to go to a hospital/women not be educated on a ‘normal’ length of labour so then by the time they realize there is an issue, there baby has died and they are left with this fistula for life unless operated on. it was sad to hear there stories, many of the women were rejected from there villages, there husbands left them and they were shunned in public because of the constant leaking. they had no hope, no knowledge of this place that could help them unless they heard of it from a friend. one lady mentioned that it was either get this surgery or kill herself because she could not go on living this type of life alone from her friends and family. there was hope for the women in the movie though, two were healed through surgery, one had no fistula but because of prolonged labour her muscles that controlled her bladder were very weak resulting in no control of the urine. she was given exercises to practice to help build up the strength. for one lady (she was only 17 yrs old through, as lots of these girls are given in marriage at the age of 7 and pregnant by 13) her issue was that her bladder had for some reason become much smaller and had to have a ‘plug’ placed in her urethra (tube that urine goes down from bladder to outside your body) to help control the leaking. all very interesting and mind opening, bringing more importance to the job we as a school will be doing in Africa.
our lecture topic was health in developing nations. he spoke on HIV/Aids, STI’s, malaria, tuberculosis, and the need for people to not just go in, drop off meds and then leave but for people to be aware of the need in the area they are in, to observe how the culture does things, and from there assess what can be done to make life better for the people. an example, having the toilets dug away from the local well where everyone gets there water. because of course we would think that bacteria from the toilet can seep through the ground into there clean drinking water creating not so clean water therefore resulting in many illness in the village. but these things are just not thought of sometimes in a developing nation. also to have compassion on the people and see them as Christ would see them. to treat them as humans, part of our world, created by our creator just as we are too. with the corruption in governments and the ‘class’ systems in place most people are just seen as a something taking up space and have no value. but these people do have value. they were not created just to ‘take up space’. i am very excited to go and show value to the women that we will meet as well as the men.
other than lectures its been a good week, small groups monday night, an evening lecture tuesday night with Dr. Panter to make up for our missed monday lecture. wednesday is a free evening so i finished my homework and then wednesday got to make a few phone calls home and thursday was evangelism and then friday was our friday night meeting (church basically) and laundry!
we find out hopefully next week exactly where i’ll be for the second part of outreach as our team is splitting up. we were supposed to do a car wash this weekend to help raise money for outreach but miscommunication happened with the place who hosts us and so its been post poned, but our BAS is going to get together and go to the park for a bbq instead! i’m sorry i have to miss it cuz i have work duties.... but hopefully i’ll be able to go for a bit! (i couldn’t find anyone to cover my shift) i said i’d bring pickles! i haven't had them since home and every bbq needs a jar of pickles!
whoa longest one yet! hopefully you made it to the end! till next week!
anywho.... this week was a good one, lecture wise we had a man named Dr. Martin Panter. he has been involved in health care in East Timor for over 25 years and has many other works he’s done. he’s a very kind gentlemen, would be a lovely grandfather! (just to help you picture him a little better!) he arrived monday evening so lectures with him didn’t start till tuesday. so monday we learnt about fistula’s. which is where if a women is in labour for too long the pressure of the baby can cut off the blood supply to the bladder and the tissue dies creating a hole between the bladder (can also happen between the rectum as well) and the vagina resulting in constant leaking of urine out of the vagina. we watched a video based on the book ‘Hospital by the River’ where this couple has opened up a clinic (in Ethiopia) specially to offer surgery and help for women dealing with this problem. its a very common problem for the women there because of; the lack of skilled help during births/hospitals too far away/lack of money to go to a hospital/women not be educated on a ‘normal’ length of labour so then by the time they realize there is an issue, there baby has died and they are left with this fistula for life unless operated on. it was sad to hear there stories, many of the women were rejected from there villages, there husbands left them and they were shunned in public because of the constant leaking. they had no hope, no knowledge of this place that could help them unless they heard of it from a friend. one lady mentioned that it was either get this surgery or kill herself because she could not go on living this type of life alone from her friends and family. there was hope for the women in the movie though, two were healed through surgery, one had no fistula but because of prolonged labour her muscles that controlled her bladder were very weak resulting in no control of the urine. she was given exercises to practice to help build up the strength. for one lady (she was only 17 yrs old through, as lots of these girls are given in marriage at the age of 7 and pregnant by 13) her issue was that her bladder had for some reason become much smaller and had to have a ‘plug’ placed in her urethra (tube that urine goes down from bladder to outside your body) to help control the leaking. all very interesting and mind opening, bringing more importance to the job we as a school will be doing in Africa.
our lecture topic was health in developing nations. he spoke on HIV/Aids, STI’s, malaria, tuberculosis, and the need for people to not just go in, drop off meds and then leave but for people to be aware of the need in the area they are in, to observe how the culture does things, and from there assess what can be done to make life better for the people. an example, having the toilets dug away from the local well where everyone gets there water. because of course we would think that bacteria from the toilet can seep through the ground into there clean drinking water creating not so clean water therefore resulting in many illness in the village. but these things are just not thought of sometimes in a developing nation. also to have compassion on the people and see them as Christ would see them. to treat them as humans, part of our world, created by our creator just as we are too. with the corruption in governments and the ‘class’ systems in place most people are just seen as a something taking up space and have no value. but these people do have value. they were not created just to ‘take up space’. i am very excited to go and show value to the women that we will meet as well as the men.
other than lectures its been a good week, small groups monday night, an evening lecture tuesday night with Dr. Panter to make up for our missed monday lecture. wednesday is a free evening so i finished my homework and then wednesday got to make a few phone calls home and thursday was evangelism and then friday was our friday night meeting (church basically) and laundry!
we find out hopefully next week exactly where i’ll be for the second part of outreach as our team is splitting up. we were supposed to do a car wash this weekend to help raise money for outreach but miscommunication happened with the place who hosts us and so its been post poned, but our BAS is going to get together and go to the park for a bbq instead! i’m sorry i have to miss it cuz i have work duties.... but hopefully i’ll be able to go for a bit! (i couldn’t find anyone to cover my shift) i said i’d bring pickles! i haven't had them since home and every bbq needs a jar of pickles!
whoa longest one yet! hopefully you made it to the end! till next week!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)