week 4

this week...

i was able to go 3 hours south with Dr. Joel and Melisa (my leader) for a night. We did teachings and Antenatal Care with the women in the village that was in the middle of nowhere. we were on a dirt road for about an hour to get there. we brought tons of medical supplies and set up our traveling clinic in two empty rooms.

There was around 60 africans waiting to get checkups and medications, while Melisa and i had 7 pregnant women to check. it was a bit difficult with the translator who didnt speak English well so many things got lost in translation but nonetheless the women were able to get checked, hear the babies heartbeat, get prayer and hopefully felt cared for.

we were next to a beautiful river with a long dock and many of the people there lived on the island next to where we were at and many had never seen white people before. The children always get scared of us because we are white.

the second place we went to was an hours drive on a dirt road away, across 2 rickety bridges. when we got there we were able to be with some missionaries who are fluent in swahili but are from the states. Jason, who was one of the missionaries, made us cake and coffee and it was soooooooo good! havent had cake since i got here. his house was African but he was incredibly creative with how it was set up. usually we take bucket showers here, but he connected a shower head to the bottom of a bucket and propped it up high so it was like a shower! one of many things he had done...it was encouraging to me to see Western mindset integrated into his African house.

the next day we were able to palpate (feeling the mothers womb to see the status of the baby) 7 women. one women we found out had twins! , one we didnt know if the baby was alive, and the rest were able to hear the heartbeats for the first time. hope to explain more in my next update as i have run out of time.

bless you all!