Wow, it really has been a while since my last e-mail! I have been sending updates to Leonda George as she requested and now I am not sure who I have told what! Sorry for any repeats.
Thank you everyone for your Christmas and New Year wishes! I really enjoyed reading your e-mails over Christmas and kept running out of time to be able to respond! Call me selfish, I just enjoyed reading e-mails instead of writing!
So I know several of you were asking how I spent my Christmas and so will take the time to share about our Christmas here in the jungle! The week before Christmas the school had a Christmas program and a couple other events. First on Wednesday the school has an event in the afternoon called Changegiving or Thankgiving. It was hard to understand what people were really saying! Everyone brought a present worth 20 pesos (like 50 cents). People mostly had their presents wrapped in a brown paper bag and most gave candy, soap, shampoo, maggi (like instant or itchiban noodles) or crackers. For my 20 peso gift I gave 2 packages of maggi, a little package of crackers and 3 cremo (like Oreo) cookies. You definitely couldn't buy all that in Canada for 50 cents! Then the packages were all numbered and then you drew a number from a hat to determine what present you got! It was fun!
The next day was the school program. They had sort of like the traditional Christmas play but more. Our school started with the birth until the death of Jesus. They acted out his whole life and included an appeal for people to give their hearts to Jesus. Not everyone comes to church but I saw the most people ever gathered come to the Christmas program! I think almost all the people we regularly see at the clinic were there!
The Kensuli school came and performed as well.
Then in the afternoon they had a “track and field” sort of event. The women and girls mostly gathered on the sides of the field to watch while the men and boys participated. They did “rice sack” races, running long jump, high rope, basketball of course and we taught them to jump rope. Us missionaries jumped rope (you know, like skipping but two people turning the rope and people jump in...) but it was only the men who tried it and made an effort to learn. The girls were excited and nervous for us and sort of awed but couldn't be convinced to join Ann, Danelle and myself. Two people turned the rope and then we all jumped together. The women are definitely more shy and reserved here especially when men are around but not so much when its just women. Overall it was a very fun day and I was very glad to participate since the clinic was not very busy.
Then in the later afternoon we had our first experience here with pulling out teeth! Something I knew nothing about, having never even seen someone else's teeth being pulled out! We pulled out our book “Where There is No Dentist” and Danelle had some teeth pulling experience along with Josh, who had been shown how to pull teeth by a dentist friend just before coming here but none of us were really experienced (and me not at all). Then we went to work! I assisted and re-read tips out of the book as we went along! I didn't try pulling any teeth! Praise going to God alone for three whole teeth pulled out without breaking any roots!
So after that school was out for the holidays and several missionaries left for vacation but still many of us stayed behind to keep the clinic going and get other work done. Almost all of us were going to be around on Christmas Eve so we decided to celebrate then with a potluck at Yankee Hotel (the radio name for the George's house). The previous day after the weekly Wednesday prayer meeting we went Christmas caroling to the few houses close by. We sang in Palawano and only “We wish you a Merry Christmas...” in English. But how appropriate for us to sing as we walked along the trails “Here we come a caroling among the leaves so green...”
So the six of us gathered Christmas Eve at Yankee Hotel and had real mashed potatoes, pusu patties (made of pusu et punti or banana blossom), maccaroni and cheese, spaghetti, fresh buns and the traditional Klatt Christmas pudding with butterscotch sauce for desert! We also had sweet sticky rice and fresh kalamansi juice (like lemonade). Then as we lounged around with full bellies and Christmas music playing in the background and one strand of coloured Christmas lights glowing in the dark (its dark here shortly after 6 pm), we read the story “Christmas Everyday” by Willian Dean Howells from a book of the Georges and then the real Christmas Story from Luke in the Bible. I could almost imagine it was cold outside and there was snow! By then it was late and we had lots of leftovers so we made plans to return to eat the rest of the food the next morning after meeting for prayer and to exchange our gifts, again about 20 pesos worth, much like "Changegiving".
So Christmas morning I got up earlier then everyone else and carried my Christmas parcel down to Yankee Hotel and after plugging in the Christmas lights and playing "White Christmas" on my ipod I opened up my present.
I had also brought my photo albums down of family and friends and had fun thinking of each one of you! After awhile everyone else arrived and we had a good morning praying together, having worship, eating and exchanging gifts.
Later that afternoon, I convinced 5 year old MayMay to go swimming with me at the river (with her mother's permission) as it was a warm day and I wanted to take the opportunity while there wasn't many patients. We had a lot of fun, even me swimming in a skirt!
We had very few patients on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so we pretty much were just on call. Earlier on Christmas Eve, Ann, Carrine and myself spent most of the day cooking together in the house/hut that we share and it really felt like Christmas back home, everyone chatting and working together to prepare for the Christmas meal! When in the afternoon we had a patient and I left the house to go to the clinic, I was almost surprised to hear the birds and crickets singing, to feel the warm breeze and feel the warmth of afternoon sun. It was a very good Christmas, one I will not forget for a long time! I am so grateful to the team for making it such a memorable event!
I just wanted to write a little excerpt from my journal from December 31, 2009:
As I write this it is the last hour of 2009. It has been an incredible year! God has lead me in so many ways; I have gone interesting places and met interesting people who have helped me to grow and experience new things. God has lead me to missions this past year. He has shown me that I can only be happy in Him and that it is Him alone that can change me. I am very excited to see what this new year will bring! God knows my heart's desires and I trust His leading. What an incredible journey with God; Life!
The last two weeks have been incredibly busy! We hit the ground running with the New Year. We have had inpatiens these last 2 weeks. Thankfully we have gotten them on Sundays and they go home by Friday so we have had Sabbaths off but we are just exhausted! Late nights and early morning meds and once even nebulizations until 11pm and then every 4 hours through out the night! We also had an 10 day old baby with sepsis and were able to get an IV started with only 2 pokes that stayed patent for 3 days! Praise God for that success! It was a miracle really to have started it and have it keep working for 3 days! We are hoping for a quiet Sabbath again so that we can rest! We will likely be going to bed very early tonight!
A blessing I received two weeks ago was being asked for by Sunya to go up to Ngungnaken for another delivery! Sunya functions as the midwife around Nyug it seems. I am not sure what she would be called in Palawano but her father also used to help with deliveries. This time I not only brought emergency supplies but also the clamps and scissors to cut the cord! I again wanted to mostly observe and not interfere in their traditions or process but I took it upon myself to get the poor baby dried and warmed up as it was not even wrapped properly still lying on the floor with the cord attached. They suggested I cut the cord but I just assisted with the equipment and had Sunya cut the cord. I also ended up assisting with the delivery of the placenta. After an hour and a half of waiting and 3/4 of the placenta was already hanging out but it wasn't "falling out", I encouraged mom to push and did some fundal massage and then it came out. Again Praise God! I had previously made sure her fundas was firm and had looked through the floor of the house to see that her blood loss was an acceptable amount (floors here are strips of bamboo with slits left in between, its makes sweeping easy but also making dropping things annoying when you have to then go outside and crawl under your house to retrieve them). I also encouaraged mom to hold babe and breastfeed but she wasn't interested, so I gave babe to someone who I knew would finish warming the babe up and then Sunya and I walked back to Nyug together. She is the matriarch of Nyug and although was a baptized member of the church previously, she lately has been the cause of a lot of problems for church members. We have been praying for her and I was thankful for this opportunity to connect with her. Please pray the God can work in her heart.
I hear that January and February are busy months here, so you could pray for endurance for us and good night sleep! I thank God for the other 3 nurses here right now; Danelle and Brian and for Ann a new grad nurse. The rest of our team is very supportive of us and I really appreciate them as well! Please continue to keep the Palwanos in your prayers and us missionaries that we can relfect God's character and love to each other and to them! Please also pray for greater language skills for us, even though its coming along and for renewed enegry to spend more time with the people and not just working in the clinic or school!
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