Today was a good day... we are recovering from nasty head colds... our good friend from Davao was here visiting and brought CHOCOLATE (ssshh)... I was able to walk down this morning to assist the municipality midwife with her prenatals. The midwives hired by the government are basically like traveling nurses... they come, they see, they immunize... they leave. This gal is here for only 2 days a month.... and boy is she kept busy with all the TB meds to hand out and all the areas immunizations, plus prenatal appointments... plus a malnourished kids program. No wonder she can hardly spend more than 2-4 minutes per patient. So we agreed that starting next month I would basically take over the prenatals while she did the immunizations... Sweet! She is a big advocate for the women delivering at the clinic and tells each one to make sure she comes to the clinic... everyone is scared... this is their first time exposed to white people... besides modern meds... but 2 lovely ladies are brave enough to start coming to the clinic for prenatal check ups and have now seen the birth room... so they were telling all how nice it was... "even an electric fan!"... :) Also since the death of the lady giving birth to her first just a couple weeks ago... I think the women are more apt to start paying attention more and maybe one will eventually "break in" the clinic. Most likely I figure I'll get called out on some emergency first... but we'll see....
Anyway.. like I said... a good day... Joe took our friend and the Reach nurse up to Buena Vista (the next 'village' over) to take out the last of the 'itlog' guy's stitches... all 3 guys are doing well and now we have a better idea of the recovery time for these guys.... good to know since there are 3 more guys we know of with the same problem.
We've had lots of rain... which means lots of mud... and clothes not drying... but we did get the sun peaking through long enough today to dry a bit of clothes... enough to get us through. We got a horse bit and bridle made for our new horse... weirdest thing... the bit is made of rope! But hey... it's better than the bent piece of rebar that it had previously... Now to make a saddle... this includes stuffing a rice sack full of palm leaves... sewing lines down it... and nailing some wood together... seriously! (I'll take a picture of the finished product!) Besides an unexpected quick trip to the city (the rain was coming down to hard to send the visitors home on motorcycles)... and Levi n Tyler being mischevious and purposefully 'losing' the hamster... and our goat having a couple 'fainting' spells... it was just another ordinary day in the Germain household! Come visit! :P