This is Rockell and her husband Ron. It's her second child and she is so appreciative of the care!
This is one of the alleyways we walked thru. They got a lot narrower and dirtier than this!! lol
This is the other lady who lives in the slum area that had a bad fire! They live in the charred ruins!!!
It is hot!! I actually slept pretty decently last night but I work up so lethargic because of the heat! I wetted my hair down but it dried so fast! DJ, my roommate, and I cleaned the upstairs room we are going to be sharing. I completely sweated thru my shirt! I have a double foam mattress on a wooden frame. I thought I was going to break it when I first sat on it! Lol We lugged my heavy bag upstairs and then I tried to unpack it! Lol But there is not really anywhere to put things. All my clothes are so wrinkled from being rolled up in Ziploc bags but there aren’t any hangers so I laid them all out on the back of a chair! More than half my stuff is still in my bed which I stuffed under the bed. The upstairs room is way hotter than downstairs!! DJ and Imelda, the midwives, are busy cleaning and cooking downstairs. I’ve asked them several times if I could help or if there is anything that I can do, but I think they prefer to do it themselves. Or maybe they think I won’t do it right! Lol Probably right! I think I’m gonna start having about a minimum of 3 showers a day! The cold showers feel so nice! They actually heat up water on the gas burner and have warm showers! I feel like I should be doing something useful right now but I guess it’s going to take more than a day to fit in! So maybe I’ll go ask again and if not I’ll take a shower! Lol
So I went back downstairs and it was lunch time. They teach me new words in Tagalog at mealtimes but unless I write them down I can never remember them! Lol My new words are fork, spoon, plate, cup, rice, rice accompaniment and delicious! Which are: tandori, kotchari, palot, basso, gainin, oolum, and masaram! I’ve already learned: how are you (Kumustaka), thank you (salamat) and tired (pogod). After lunch we went to do some house calls on pregnant ladies who are due any time! We walked to the nearby slums to check up on these ladies. We turned down an alley that was about a foot n a half wide, and trekked thru the garbage and sewer water that flowed thru the alley. It smelled great in there too! Lol Everyone we passed looked at me like I was crazy to be walking down there! After winding around on many alley ways, we called out at this door way and a neighbor let us into the house. It was very dark and the ‘house’ was about 6 feet by 6 feet. A mother, her 3 daughters 2 of their husbands and 4 soon to be 6 grandchildren live there! They were so appreciative that we had come! DJ and Imelda told them that I was one of their sponsors and that’s how they are able to receive this free prenatal care. The one pregnant girl seemed so young and it was her second! They were really shy but curious about me so they managed to ask me a few questions. The first one is how old are you and the second is are you married!! LOL Both answers seemed to shock them! They were probably barely 20!! I felt so privileged to have been welcomed into their home. It was so neat to see first hand the work that is being done by the midwives here! I’m excited to witness the birth of their babies and start a relationship with these womenJ The second lady that we visited lived a few blocks away in a part of the slums that had been burned a little while ago. 320 families that lived there had their homes burned down in a bad fire. This family still doesn’t have their home rebuilt and they live in the charred ruins!! It was quite shocking!! They have one bed with a matt and burned dresser. I’m not sure where they even cook. They have 2 children with another one due any day!! I couldn’t even imagine living in such a situation!! We took this lady’s blood pressure and listened to the baby’s heart beat. Her blood pressure and been up a bit last time and she was worried that DJ and Imelda might refer her to the hospital if it was still high. She was so happy that it was normal today! I have no idea how people live like that! I don’t think they have the money or means to rebuild their house. And now they are bringing another life into it! Breaks my heart! I wish there was more that I could do for them!! Its hard cuz the slums are everywhere here! But I believe that people that God brings across your path are the ones that you are meant to help! I’m just not quite sure what that’s going to look like right now. But I’m excited to make friends with these ladies and families!!:) Ahh!!:) I just had a nice, cold shower! Feels so much better! I’m going to do a bit of reading and then hopefully go to bed early. These births could happen at any time so you have to get rest when you can. I’ve got a lot of textbooks to read in the next few months and I’m trying to read up on labor and delivery as much as possible before the first one. I’ll try to put up the few pictures that I’ve taken of where I live, the alley ways and the 2 ladies.
Love you all!!!
Sherina
So I went back downstairs and it was lunch time. They teach me new words in Tagalog at mealtimes but unless I write them down I can never remember them! Lol My new words are fork, spoon, plate, cup, rice, rice accompaniment and delicious! Which are: tandori, kotchari, palot, basso, gainin, oolum, and masaram! I’ve already learned: how are you (Kumustaka), thank you (salamat) and tired (pogod). After lunch we went to do some house calls on pregnant ladies who are due any time! We walked to the nearby slums to check up on these ladies. We turned down an alley that was about a foot n a half wide, and trekked thru the garbage and sewer water that flowed thru the alley. It smelled great in there too! Lol Everyone we passed looked at me like I was crazy to be walking down there! After winding around on many alley ways, we called out at this door way and a neighbor let us into the house. It was very dark and the ‘house’ was about 6 feet by 6 feet. A mother, her 3 daughters 2 of their husbands and 4 soon to be 6 grandchildren live there! They were so appreciative that we had come! DJ and Imelda told them that I was one of their sponsors and that’s how they are able to receive this free prenatal care. The one pregnant girl seemed so young and it was her second! They were really shy but curious about me so they managed to ask me a few questions. The first one is how old are you and the second is are you married!! LOL Both answers seemed to shock them! They were probably barely 20!! I felt so privileged to have been welcomed into their home. It was so neat to see first hand the work that is being done by the midwives here! I’m excited to witness the birth of their babies and start a relationship with these womenJ The second lady that we visited lived a few blocks away in a part of the slums that had been burned a little while ago. 320 families that lived there had their homes burned down in a bad fire. This family still doesn’t have their home rebuilt and they live in the charred ruins!! It was quite shocking!! They have one bed with a matt and burned dresser. I’m not sure where they even cook. They have 2 children with another one due any day!! I couldn’t even imagine living in such a situation!! We took this lady’s blood pressure and listened to the baby’s heart beat. Her blood pressure and been up a bit last time and she was worried that DJ and Imelda might refer her to the hospital if it was still high. She was so happy that it was normal today! I have no idea how people live like that! I don’t think they have the money or means to rebuild their house. And now they are bringing another life into it! Breaks my heart! I wish there was more that I could do for them!! Its hard cuz the slums are everywhere here! But I believe that people that God brings across your path are the ones that you are meant to help! I’m just not quite sure what that’s going to look like right now. But I’m excited to make friends with these ladies and families!!:) Ahh!!:) I just had a nice, cold shower! Feels so much better! I’m going to do a bit of reading and then hopefully go to bed early. These births could happen at any time so you have to get rest when you can. I’ve got a lot of textbooks to read in the next few months and I’m trying to read up on labor and delivery as much as possible before the first one. I’ll try to put up the few pictures that I’ve taken of where I live, the alley ways and the 2 ladies.
Love you all!!!
Sherina
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