My first baby catch!

Coolest experience ever! Jane my assist, Claire the charter, Abigail in the back became the photographer, and Ate (AH-tay) Sus my supervisor. "Ate" is a term of respect you use for women older than you, it means big sister.

Me and Ate Sus, she is so funny!

Baby coming!

3 generations here. The mom (Benjelyn) is the sweetest girl. She is so excited to have a baby girl, this is also the first grandchild.

First family picture

Outreach to Saml Island

Yesterday, a group of us from Mercy went on outreach to do prenatal exams on a neighboring island. We piled into an awesome old VW van, caught a ferry, and drove onto the beautiful island of Saml. We met at a local church where women were waiting for us. These women can not easily travel to Davao so we come to them. We did prenatal exams for about 4 hours then hit the beach the rest of the day. It was a wonderful "vacation"

We stayed at the beach till sundown, it was beautiful!

Relaxed at the pool

played with a monkey

Checking baby's "kasing kasing" heartbeat

Outreach group

Teaching about proper nutrition. Sadly women will try to diet when they are pregnant b/c people are very concerned about weight and will tell them they are fat, even though they know they are pregnant....

The church

On the ferry

17,000th baby!

17,000, I think that has to be the size of Morehead, KY (with school is session )

That is a lot of babies! I was glad I was on shift for this memory.

Baby # 17,000 came in style. Momma came in and reported "36" weeks. We don't take women unless they are at least 37 weeks. She also didn't have her Hep screening which is a big no no at the clinic. We were rushing to get her transported when she (and the baby) decided to push. 1 minute later "baby out". Baby looked healthy and the midwifes stayed safe with shoulder length gloves on.

Lately...continued

We went out for a night of Durian tasting...

This spiky fruit smells like eggs, fish and trash, but it is known as the "king of fruits" here

This is probably my first and last taste

Been taking a lot of blood pressure

And drinking buko juice

Lately...

I got to watch my cousin dance in her school talent show

Took a ride on a ferris wheel that got started by this man and these wires...

Defiantly the SKETCHIEST ferris wheel I have ever seen, but we got a lot of laughs out of it, especially when we were about to be sick and the Filipino man directing the ride was laughing at us as we came to the bottom making every possible universal signal for STOP...so funny

Seen a lot of adorable babies like this

And got a wonderful package from my oldest friends back home. Thank you Lucovsky's!

Catch Up

Here are just some random updates:

This is what shrimp really look like?

Night out to a Filipino buffet....Mercy ambulance hooked us up with a ride

Stocked up on fruit, a wonderful moment

I Love Pregnant Women

This is Beth doing her health teaching on Fetal Development before prenatal exams

Bellies everywhere

They were really enjoying the health teaching