A Day with Vanessa

A few afternoons ago I got to bring Vanessa over to the birthing home for a few hours. It was such a beautiful afternoon to spend with her. I pushed her on the swing, we took a few walks and we napped on the couch. She fell asleep on the swing and on the walk. She's such a sweet, beautiful girl and it was great to have this lovely afternoon with her!

Practicing Midwifery Skills

This past week we practiced a lot of practical midwifery skills. We sutured chicken, injected oranges and did IVs on each other! Everything was really fun! I really liked giving IVs to people but didn't like receiving one so much! I was really nervous about it and I'm sorry to say that I cried like a baby! Kuya Effrain and Ate Helen were awesome and offered up their hands and blood vessels for us to practice on! Ate Helen even allowed us to poke her three times on one hand so that we could get into her vessels, she was so sweet about it! If my face doesn't show it from these pictures I'll just say that suturing was probably my favorite. It's was great, we each had our own midwife who guided and taught us.


I think Kim enjoyed suturing too



Lyds did an amazing job as my teacher! (Dina also did a great job helping both me and Miranda)

Lauren, Kim, Miranda, and me with our chickens

IV practice


Don't let my calm expression fool you I acted like a total baby! I had to squeeze Lyds hand

Miranda's IV on me

Me doing an IV on Miranda with Ate Lyds help

I was happy when my IV was over! It was a great learning experience!

The Midwives' Jeepney

There weren't many births at the Paanakan these past two weeks. In fact, these past two weeks have had the fewest births of any since I arrived in the Philippines. Despite the lack of births, somehow I have been incredibly busy. Last weekend Kim and I packed up our stuff and headed for a day and a night at the beach with all the midwives and their families! We rented a jeepney so that we could all ride together. The owner of the jeepney was Jorge's aunt who just happens to be a midwife. It was so cool to ride with all these amazing midwives in a jeepney that said "midwife" on the back!


Jeri and Deborah along with a few others were the midwives on duty while we were gone
Unfortunately we were all ready to go at 4:00 on friday morning, but the jeepney didn't show up until 5:30. We all packed ourselves into the jeepney as tightly as possible. The bags were in the isle and piled up as high as our shoulders! As soon as we got settled inside the jeepney the moms laid down a foam mat and all the little kids took a nap!







I tried to take a nap too and all of the mommies took such good care of me! They gave me a towel to cover my nose (because of the polution) and a bag of clothes and a pillow to lean on! The drive up was gorgeous! We passed by Taal which is a really famous volcanic lake with an active volcano in the middle of the lake! I saw cute little towns, beautiful bigger towns, and the country side of the Philippines! I saw hills and mountains and valleys full of palm trees and pineapple fields (if you didn't know that pineapples grow in fields you are not alone ;) Throughout the entire trip the midwives took such good care of us. They kept us fed for all three meals plus snacks and drinks in between! It was an awesome break from providing our own food! The beach we stayed at was a little disappointing to me because of the black sand and the lack of waves. But I stayed in the water most of the day and got to take Maybell out in her cow floaty a lot! She really trusted me in the water, she had no fear! Even after being dunked by a small "wave" she still pointed to go out deeper! The water got deep very gradually which was nice.

Beach time




Michelle and I






Kim and I also managed not to get sunburned by putting sunscreen on just about every hour! We ate and slept in a bahay cubo (bamboo house). Actually the midwives slept in the bahay cubo and let us sleep in the tent with all the kids and babies. The bahay cubo is a really cheap way to be able to go to the beach here.

My first view of a filipino beach

Our bahay cubo

cooking yummy food!

When we got to the beach we had a yummy lunch on the table and then cleared the table and all took a nap on it!



Tulog na tayo (time to sleep)

After much more swimming and a yummy dinner I was exhausted! I slept for about 11 hours that night! The same night we allowed our jeepney driver to go visit his family who lived close by. Unfortunately, he never came back, for whatever reason. I think he may have had jeepney trouble. The next day we got up and everybody except for the mommies, Kim and I, swam early in the morning. We hung out on the beach, had breakfast, and (Kim and I) read our midwifery books. Finally, we decided not to wait on the jeepney driver anymore and rented a van for the way home. It was so nice to have air con and no pollution smells on the way home! In the van we could see the lovely views even better and got quite a few glimpses of Taal. We were packed in really tightly in the van, both Kim and I had kids sleeping on our laps! Maybell on hers and Roanne on mime. I fell totally in love with Roanne all over again as I watched her fall asleep in my arms. It was one of the best road trips ever!