What I've Been Up To...

Here it is December 10 already! I started listening to and singing Christmas songs since December 1 but it doesn't even feel like December. We have had a couple days of clears skies and thus it was really hot and humid! Generally the cloudy skies keep it from being too hot up here. We are definitely having less rain than September and October; I am grateful for that as it makes it easier to go places.

I feel like not much has happened in these last couple of weeks but really we were just so busy that time has flown by without me realizing. We had several inpatients at our clinic 2-3 weekends ago. Our one inpatient we had for a week and had to give meds every 6 hours but its very nice having Danelle here because with two nurses it is easier to still get some sleep! We just took turns giving the meds. We had 3 babies, one with jaundice and sepsis, and the other two with really low hemoglobins due to malaria. The nurse, Wendy who used to serve up here with AFM and is now living in the lowlands with her husband, is still serving the Palawano people but through a different organization. Her husband flies a helicopter for this organization and is sometimes available to pick up patients for us and bring them to Brooke's Point, to the hospital there. So the morning after receiving our third inpatient, the helicopter was up and running and so they picked up our two families that needed to go to the hospital and delivered us our groceries from Puerto! Pastor (Kent George) and Minan (Leonda George) had done our grocery shopping in Puerto but were still in the lowlands overseeing the project's first rice harvest! And it was a very successful rice harvest praise the Lord! Most of the rice will be sold but some of it will go to the store up here that the Palawanos and us missionaries can buy from. Since then we have been swamped with patients at the clinic, its cold season here much like back home. Lots of malaria too. Then we are also doing inventory at the clinic, so we are keeping very busy.

So I was asked about what the Palawano people “do for a living”. They live a gatherer lifestyle mainly. They live off the land and sell whatever extra produce they have in order to have money to buy rice and things like candy (from others who bring it in from the lowlands), crackers, pansit noodles, maggi, soap and shampoo. Some people up here grow rice but not very many. And they don't grow very large amounts. I have seen only a couple of rice “fields” if you can call them that (they are very small, maybe 10 feet by 10 feet). They have market here in Kemantian on Sundays and Wednesdays in Nyug. Not much is available to buy except fish, some cooked food like rice wrapped in banana leaves, candy, some crackers and cologne! The market items are things that some of the Palwanos either make or buy in the lowlands and sell up here. The real place to buy produce and Palawano handicrafts is off of your own porch! And at the clinic! People come usually in the mornings, especially on Sundays to sell whatever vegetables or roots they have or to sell their baskets that they weave by hand. Then they usually take the money you give them and buy crackers (Skyflakes), soap/shampoo or rice from the George's store. The store is a service to the Palawano people, it isn't to make a profit. Things are sold for what they cost the Georges to provide or sometimes even less. So the Palwano people either live off the land entirely or by selling their produce to either us missionaries or in the lowlands at the markets there. Many people earn money working for the project doing things like carrying items up from the lowlands for the store or us, or doing things like cutting grass, selling building materials like bamboo and grass(to make thatched roofs). Recently many people went down to the lowlands to do the rice harvest on the project property down there.

The Georges are officially gone on furlough to the States for Christmas and return mid-February. I am sad to not be spending Christmas with them but am happy they can have Christmas with all their children this year. Their adopted Palawano daughter Dyilin (pronounce Jilin) got her visa approved in time and was able to go as well! Some of the other student missionaries are taking vacation at Christmas so there will only be a couple of us left here for Christmas and to keep the clinic and things running. School will be out for a couple of weeks for Christmas. I am not thinking it will be too hard to spend Christmas here as it probably won't even really feel like Chrismtas without the snow!

Just yesterday on of the ladies up in Nyug had her baby! I had seen her two days before and she was looking very pregnant and I said that it wouldn't be long before her baby was born! She sent word for me to come and I went up right away but just as I was getting close to Nyug I could hear a newborn cry! She had a beautiful baby girl! I missed the whole labour process, apparently they push on the mom's abdomen during the contractions (I am surprised they don't get more ruptured uteruses!). It was her mother who was the “midwife” but I have heard of men in some villages who do deliveries. I am not sure if they are like witch doctors or what. Anyways, so baby was lying on a blanket near the mother's feet. They made no move to tie or cut the umbilical cord until the placenta was delivered! I hadn't thought to bring scissors as I was expecting to merely watch and had only though to bring my stethescope, a BP cuff, emergency drugs and alcohol swabs. They asked me if I had scissors and since I didn't, they had a piece of bamboo cut sharply that they cut the umbilical cord with, it worked quite well too! Then the auntie held the baby. Mom was given a porridge looking food to eat and then after that held her baby for a little bit so I could get a picture! I did do vitals for babe and encouraged mom to hold babe and breastfed as babe was cold but other than that I just watched and helped as I was asked. All the ladies in the room watching seemed very excited about the baby but not mom. I am not sure yet why. I think it is probably cultural but don't know for sure.


I am really enjoying the routine here. Its nice to not be working shift work for a while and being able to have a regular schedule. We can still be wakened in the night to care for someone who is sick but that doesn't happen very often. Most people around here do not like to be out after dark and so most come to see us during daylight hours. Some people show up on our porch at 7am. That is almost the norm, especially on a Sunday. People are learning thought that except for emergencies we start the clinic at 8am. They still like to come and sit on our porch to sell stuff or as a place to hang out until the clinic starts.

Most of all I am enjoying the simplicity of life here and fewer distractions. It is easier to make time to spend with God and to listen for him. I enjoy looking up at the stars at night and the only sounds are the sounds of the crickets and such. But usually by the middle of the night they are quiet too and that is the best time to look at the stars (on the way to the outhouse).

God is definitely working on me here. There are so many things I see about myself that i am not pleased with, character flaws and weaknesses. We all live and work so close together that it makes those things obvious. I praise God for the team here. Everyone is so passionate about God and it makes resolving things so much easier. Danelle(the other nurse) and I established a good foundation before problems would arise, just discussing our various styles of working and dealing with conflict so that when (not if) problems arose we could deal with them effectively and understand where the other is coming from. Thankfully we have a lot in common and want to do so much to improve the clinic. Its nice to work with another go-getter. Living in close quarters with 2 other females has been a challenge but praise God again because he is teaching me through that as well. I continue to pray for my pride and selfishness to decrease and for a servant's heart. I realized several weeks ago that i even need to ask God to give me the desire to be a servant. Its hard to be nothing. It goes against what our culture teaches. We are taught that no one else will look after us but ourselves and we need to look out for number 1. But God teaches that we need to look out for others and let God worry about us. Its a lesson that God is needing to teach me repeatedly. I am doing my part and turning my eyes upon Jesus each day and praying for Him to change me. I remember the advice from training, that "the things we struggle with only become stronger"; we need to instead give them to God and focus on Him. I thank you for your continued prayers and ask you to continue to pray for a servants heart in me. Please pray especially for the Palawano people that they can see the importance of making a decision for God and letting God change them. That they see also the importance of resisting temptation and sin and of obedience to God. You are all in my prayers as well. I pray that you may also draw closer to God each day and listen for His voice.