There and back again...

Wow, I think I'm having culture shock again!!

I came home Wednesday, July 20th after traveling for 26 hours!! In my travels- I met a Baptist Filipino taxi driver that is 52yrs old and working to put his 3 kids through college.  Also, I met a 34yr old Korean name Joshua, who is a Presbyterian and who was headed to NJ to take his lawyer's exam. (Did you know that in Korea you are one year old when you're born?)

I haven't written in a while so I'll do a quick recap of my last 2 weeks in the Philippines:
 I continued to stay at the clinic until right before I left. My internship ended July 15th and two new girls came to do their internship.  I had a lot of down time the last week or so because there weren't any births. I helped with prenatals and postpartum, worked on my Tagalog, talked with the midwives, went to the market, did first aid care to the guys, gave a little baby antibiotic shots( he had to have them 3 times a day), read some good midwifery material, and enjoyed some sunny days at the beach and the river! =)

When I got home from my nice long airplane rides it seriously was like having culture shock!  Just being able to drive our own car away from the airport was just weird. I'm use to being squished beside other people all crammed into a Jeepnie. Our house seemed so big!!  I will never complain on the size of a house in the states again!

My first morning back I had cereal with REAL milk!  When I got hungry in the afternoon I had CHEESE on some HOMEMADE bread!  Wow, the things we American's take for granted....

To kind of sum everything up --- I have been gone a month and 20 days. I have seen terrible, hard, life-changing, wonderful, amazing things. I have performed 64 prenatals, 8 postpartums, 7 new born exams, and assisted with 6 births. I learned how to start  an IV (and actually did on a real live person!), suture, apply an anti-shock garment, give shots, feel the position of a baby, use a pregnancy wheel, use Doppler, preform a newborn exam, prenatal, and postpartums and SO much more!!   I have given antibiotic, Hep B, vitamin K, and tetanus shots.

 I saw the huge need for health care workers, but even more for Spiritual care.  I prayed with the ladies I did prenatals on, but the language barrier was hard. (Though several of them new minimal English)

I made several new friends, learned SO much, saw so much, and will remember so much! My life is forever changed.

Signing out from her last blog posting,
 Miriam True

PS.  My plane ride on the way back was Manila-Tokyo, Tokyo-New York, New York-Nashville, Nashville-HOME!! =)

PPS. A word of warning to travelers- It is hard to exchange Filipino pesos in the Tokyo airport and everything in the Tokyo airport is like 4x the cost as it is in the Philippines and about twice as much as in the States. =)

Photos of our trip

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150715715015024.701263.8998400
23&l=ad22ff7ffb&type=1
   Copy and paste this link to your browser to see pictures of our trip!!! (for some reason just clicking on the link doesn't work...)  One more blog post to come!\
 
    Here's another album of pictures =)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150715860140024.701316.899840023&l=15d9f02ae6&type=1

News from Miriam

Tuesday, July 5, 2011, 11:59 PM

It’s been a while since my last posting! Let me catch everyone up to date!  I moved into the clinic about a week and a half ago, so I wouldn't miss anything =) It's been fun staying with the midwives and hearing Tagalog all the time. I'm picking some up, slowly, but surely =)  The biggest news is that Liz went home! WAAAAA!! We already miss her! =(  A group of us took her back to Manila (a 3 hour  bus ride) and spent two nights there. We went to this awesome market that was inside. It had tons of vendors with clothes, jewelry, furniture, carvings, chimes, etc. So cool! Things are a lot cheaper here than in the states! I would l have gotten lost in it! HUGE!! And of course our hotel had to be right across from a Starkbucks-a nice treat.  We saw this chocolate castle (like Willy-Wonka!), but didn't go inside. Maybe when I go back we will. John said it was really cool. It’s kind of like a chocolate factory.  Monday morning John, Kelsey and I took Liz to the airport at 2AM. Liz was pretty nervous, but calmed down a little by the time we had to leave her. I found out later she threw up a little before she got on the plane. =/  She doesn’t do early morning real well. We went back to the hotel and slept in and then caught the 3:30 bus back home! I ‘m so glad we are staying in Olongapo because Manila is too big and busy for me! ( 14 million people)  BEST PART OF THE TRIP WAS THE HOT SHOWERS!!!!!!! Oh, I can now ride in a taxi without getting over charged! =)  I assisted with a labor on June 29th. I was in charge of keeping up with baby's vitals before and right after birth. Then I kept up with the Mom and baby's vitals every 15min for an hour then every hour until we cut the cord (about 4 hours later).  She gave birth to a maganda bata babae (beautiful baby girl-- spelling might be a little off, but I can say it!) at 11:25AM and they named her Princess.  I got to go to the  postpartum visit the next day and mom and baby were doing well. Mom had to be reminded to wake Princess up to nurse her and not to cover he umbilical cord. She and her family live by the land field (city dump), but they live in a nice concrete house.  Today (July 6th) and yesterday I got to assist with two more births!  Yesterday the mom was in labor for about 5 hours at the clinic. She came in and was dilated to  3cm with irregular contractions.  She was a small lady from 12th Street ( the slums), this was her 2nd child.  She delivered at 3:53 PM and had a little girl also. They named her Jenelyn. I again was in charge of baby's vitals during labor and right after.   Jessica (a lady that is a nurse from El Paso that is helping out and learning) and I did the newborn exam together and I cut the cord.  She was a small baby at 4.5 lbs, but nursing good!  The birth that happened today was super fast! Well, she had been in labor for a while, but when she came in it went fast.  We were doing prenatals and she comes in holding her stomach say she's in labor. Cecille (the Filipino midwife who has  been one for like 25 years) checked her and she was fully dilated and 100% effaced.  She literally gave birth like 15min after getting inside. Another girl =)- Charmee was what they named her.  Jessica and   I kept up with mom and baby's vitals    Getting a lot of experience in!!! Yay =) Okay, so other news.  My first visa will be up the end of July/first of August and instead of renewing it, I decided to go ahead and come home. The cost was more than triple the cost I had planned for and my internship will be over.  So after prayer, and talking with mom and Dad, I decided to go ahead and come back early. Mom was so disappointed =) When I bought my return ticket through a Christian travel agent I got one that could be flexible without a lot of hassle. Bummer thing is, now I'll have to help with tomatoes! =)