think breaks, comfort food, and chicken nuggets

I am not sure how many of you know about my undying relationship with chicken nuggets... I love them. They are my favorite form of fast food. And when I go into a third world country, I just say goodbye to my beautiful chicken nugget friends. Well, I was prepared to go for a whole year (until my holiday) without my dear nuggets, but I stumbled into a McDo (McDonalds), actually only wanting to go to the bathroom (cause they have toilet paper (most of the time), and soap!!). All I had heard about was the fried chicken, spaghetti, and rice they have at McDo here... I walked in, and to my utter delight there on the menu was something that looked very similar to my good friends, chicken nuggets!!! So I decided that in addition to the potty break, I would sample a Philippines McDonalds meal... And, people, besides being slightly overcooked... it tasted like home!! I was jubilant!!! So, yesterday, when I was doing massive finishing of the assignment (which is due tomorrow, and 98 % done) I needed to have some chicken nuggets.... so me and Holly walked to McDonalds and I got a big old honking order of nuggets and Holly had a quarter pounder with cheese... it was a wonderful think break, and I came home and was ready to work again!!! I'm really excited to have this little "taste of home" in this crazy different culture. I feel like it's just another way I am being blessed here (who ever thought I'd be blessed by McDonalds??).

I hope you all are well. I am praying for you.

~Sarah

First time Moms!

So... prenatals today, they went great! I only couldn't find one baby's heart beat, but no worries, it was there, I just couldn't find it... The baby was kicking me like mad, it was just in a different position than I was expecting... oops! :-) But I had 2 first time moms, and they were pretty early, like 22 weeks and 25 weeks. And I found the heart beat, and I asked if they had heard it before, and they said no, and I asked if they wanted to hear, and they both grinned and nodded... so I took off the ear thingys of the fetoscope, and she popped them on... and, I can't describe it. The incredible joy that comes on the faces of these mothers when they hear their baby's heart beating for the first time. It's so amazing. All the women are happy, all the women grin to hear their baby's heart beats, first, second, however many times... but the first time moms who haven't ever heard... wow, their faces, I just love to watch their faces... I go pretty slowly, with mine... I love to watch the moms as I am palpating their baby and the baby kicks me. They are so funny. I wish I had some pictures to show you, maybe next week! Prenatals are great, and they are getting less scary (english speaking mothers help a lot, though! ) and I just love the moms, I really hope that I can take enough time with each one to really show them the love of Jesus.

~Sarah

Random stuff

Here are some random pictures from fun stuff these past few weeks!!


I am trying to eat some icky thing for an eating relay race. Actually, coming in to this item... my team was behind, and then we caught up and passed the other teams, AND two teams were eliminated on this thing, cause they couldn't eat it! yay!!


We went on a boat trip last weekend, and here are some pictures from that... I was trying to avoid sunburn... it didn't work.


Yeah, how could I get sunburned with all coverage, you might ask?? I have no idea, really. I put on sun screen 4 times... and I definitely burned... oh well....


We were going exploring! :-)


So this picture... It was kinda a problem... I was sitting on the bar thingy of the boat, and my legs were hanging off, which was my first mistake... I look calm and relaxed in this picture, but the reality was that my legs were flapping against that bar under water, and I definitely have the bruises to prove it now! I couldn't get my legs back up, the water was too strong, so I was stuck like that... and by the time we got there, I had slid (and pushed Holly), all the way to the end of the pole, where there was another support thingy, so we couldn't go any further. Just so you know, the goggles really helped! :-)

But really, Homework is going well... I think... I am almost done with my assignment, it's due tuesday... I have still only seen 2 babies, but I have had lots of other experiences. And last week I started doing prenatals by myself, well... with the supervisor doing prenatals at the next table with the curtain open... And I am officially in charge of taking everyones vitals... :-) And re-making beds, and cleaning stuff up.

I hope you are all well! I hope I have some good action to report to you soon!!!

~Sarah

Yay!

Oh wow! I finally saw a baby!! It was a great shift. Lots of interesting stuff.

The first girl we had was only 30 weeks (I think) and her water broke, and she was having contractions. And we had to transport her because she was so early. And it was really sad, because when we got to the hospital, they checked to see how she was progressing, and she was pretty far along. She was only 18 and it was her first baby. She had only another girl with her, which I took to be her big sister, but it could be someone else. When they said how far she was, she didn't really understand, but when we told her helper, the helper started crying, and she said, please pray for us, please pray for us. We aren't ready. We don't have anything ready. And she was just sobbing right there in the middle of the hospital, and that is not normal for this culture... I just about lost it right there. I didn't cry, but I came dangerously close.

We had a couple other patients but the one who really got me was this girl Inday. She was 20 years old and was on her 2nd baby. Her labor was SO fast, she was really amazing. There was some craziness involved, but she handled it wonderfully. She gave birth to a little girl, and if I understood right, she wants to name her Ella Mae. She was 7lbs and 5 oz. :-) She is beautiful, and I'm so proud of her mom. Here are some pictures!!!

Praise to the Lord who holds the power of life and death in His hands! Pray for the girl this morning that her baby and her will be ok, and that they will find the money to pay for the hospital.

~Sarah

shifts

Well... I had my first clinic shift and my first birth room shift... they were amazing, and eye opening, and emotional, and wonderful.

Thursday was my prenatal day, and it started at 7:45 with a staff devotional. While we were there, we could see the ladies already sitting in the waiting room so they could get in early. Cause the earlier you get in, the earlier you get in... or seen, it just made me laugh to say that... I'm kinda tired. So then, we have praise and worship with the ladies, and a short devotional and teaching. Then they start filing in. They all have their blood pressures checked, and are weighed and stuff like that, and some of them have their iron levels checked as well. I was with another new student, Michelle (we are on the same team, so we always work together), and we were assigned to BP's and iron checking. I was on the blood pressures and I did about 40, she had done some while I was watching something else. And a then I did about 12 hematocrits. Then all 70 women were finished and we went into the exam room. We got to feel some babies and find some heart tones. It was wonderful to see the joy of the moms' faces when they got to listen to the fetoscope and hear their baby's heart beat, maybe for the first time ever.

Today (friday), I had my first shift in the birth room, and it was... well... interesting. I didn't see any births. But I saw different stages of labor. When we got there they were about to transport a lady because of high blood pressure. We had another lady in there from that poor village I talked about going to last time, and her water had broken early. Her labor wasn't moving, and we ended up transporting her, as well, because it had been too long. And then our last labor was active, and we discovered that she had never had her hepatitis screening. So we ran her to the lab, real quick (which was a short ambulance ride away), and she was back. The lab phoned the results over, and she tested positive for hepatitis B... so we transported her too, because we aren't allowed to deliver moms who have tested positive for hep. Transporting was really hard because of the conditions of the hospital. It was really bad. When I was in the hospital in Africa it was really bad in the general ward, but I had to go to the pediatrics ward so it wasn't THAT bad, this time I was in the general ward, and it was awful. There were people laying everywhere in various stages of sickness and dying. It was really terrible. And I understand why the women don't want to be transported, it's not only about the money, it's about the whole situation there. And how the women are treated, and how the whole atmosphere is there... it's a hard situation.

And that brings us to now. I just had a great dinner. The girls at this place are amazing cooks... and it's time to start on the homework again. So, here we go! Have a great weekend!!
~Sarah

Isla Verde, Balut, and Durian

Wow, it seems like forever since I've blogged... it's only been 3 days. So much has happened and I'm trying to process everything I'm seeing... We got our first assignment... it is going to be good, I think. It's due at the end of the month... the assignments are pretty intense so, please keep me in your prayers.


Yesterday we went on an outing with the national midwives... it was AMAZING. They took us all over the place and we got to see so many locations of the economic spectrum. First they took us to this place called Isla Verde, it is the place where the lowest class lives. They are actually squatters, their houses are built on stilts and they sit over the sewage and trash of the city that pours out and sits there. But to see these people, you wouldn't know they were such social rejects. They have such joy, and such beautiful hearts. I really want to go back there. These are really the people I love to serve. Those nobody else wants to, not the ones who smell good and have pretty clothes. I had a hard time not crying when I walked through their homes. They are all stilted, so the paths from house to house are streets of shaky boards balancing across bamboo poles. I was wondering if they were designed to hold the amount of weight all of us north americans were subjecting them to. I was a little afraid, at times, that I would go toppling into the sludge below... not a good thought.

Next we went on to see some other places and got to try LOTS of local food, like young coconut, durian, and balut. Young coconut... it's good... the others... umm... not so much. Durian is this fruit thing that is all prickly outside, and then inside, you crack it open like a watermelon and you eat this pudding-ish stuff that surrounds the seed... It smells SO foul. Like NOTHING you have ever smelled... and it tastes... well, not as bad as it smells... but, definitely not good... THEN I tried Balut... if you don't know what it is.. it's probably better... um, it's partially incubated duck egg... ick. I didn't like it. Then they took us to a WONDERFUL dinner, and all the girls were impressed by my rice eating.... :-) It was a wonderful day.

Thank you all for your prayers. They are helping this time of adjustment go so much better! I hope you all are doing great! I am praying for you.

Always,

~sarah

The Philippines.... wow.

Well! Here I am!!! In the Philippines, we got here Friday afternoon. I can not believe it, really. It is kind of surreal at the moment. I'm sitting here on the balcony of my new home and smelling the smells, and seeing the people, and seeing my new life... but it still seems weird. I'm in that getting used to everything phase, I guess. Things are going well, we have started orientation and we get our first assignment tuesday. Shifts start Thursday, and I have a clinical shift thursday morning, and then friday a day shift in the birthroom. I'll let you know how it goes!! :-)

Thank you guys for praying for our trip over, it went well, we had some... issues, but nothing major, and we are all here and all of our bags arrived with us, and we saw God's power again and again. For example, in Manila we had to re-weigh our baggage, and because we were making a domestic flight, even though it was from an international flight, we only got about 45 lbs, and we all had two 60-70lb bags... so they wanted us to re-weigh... The man graciously told us we could average the totals, pay a discounted rate... and they were adding the total weight of all the bags, the man accidentally hit the reset button on the counter, and the total weight disappeared, and most of our heavy bags had already made their way down the conveyor belt!! So we only ended up paying $100 US for 20 overweight bags!! Praise the Lord!!!

Things here really are going pretty well, pray for our interpersonal dynamics, 20+ girls in one house leads to some... umm... stress and hurt feelings. But pray that we will have grace for eachother, and that the new girls won't be stepping on the older girls toes too much. Also, the air is really not too clean here, and my allergies are going crazy. Please pray that they settle down too, cause in the Philippines, I've heard, it's really rude to blow your nose in public... this presents quite a problem for myself... but, I've been doing my best to only blow my nose around my North American buddies! :-)

That's it for now! I'm sure there will be more posts up here soon, as well as more pictures!! I couldn't find my camera for a while after I got here... I just found it right now... in a bag... oops! Have a wonderful day!!

~Sarah

Wow!!

Wow wow wow!! I am here in Oregon doing this orientation thing. It is glorious. It is definitely just what I needed after this past... sheesh, how long? month of craziness. I met the single students and they are great. It's going to be a good year. Our host families brought us hiking on a bunch of mountains, and we saw waterfalls and God's beauty everywhere. But boy, it's cold!! It's been wonderful because we are getting to ask SO many questions to people who have been there, and there are lots of us asking, so what one person may not think to ask, someone else will. It's SO great to be here. It's so fun to be able to put faces to all of the names I have been praying for all these months! Pray for us as we get ready to go to the Philippines on Wednesday!! It's going to be a great adventure!

~Sarah