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....