random happenings = random posts
- Thanks America for sending all the very classiest t-shirts to Haiti. This one made us laugh at prenatal day yesterday. We've long since abandoned the "Kennedy" posts. It's kind of sad really, why did we bomb out on those? For posterity sake ... Kennedy One - And another - and another - and another - and another. Oh and one more.
- Today I saw itsy bitsy sperm under a microscope. That was weird.
- A truck in the "car catcher" (drainage ditch) blocked us out of our neighborhood for a time today. Not a problem, park at the Harbor House - walk home. This giant truck was hand lifted out of the ditch by scores of men. Impressed? I am.
- Fridays are shorter days at the Maternity Center. There is a Bible Study led by Agathe and then Wini has about 20 ppl she sees weekly to monitor blood pressures and medications ... We do family planning counseling, education, etc. and STD prevention on Friday too. Cookie (first photo looking into microscope) is teaching us everything she knows ... this could take decades.
- This article really puts things in perspective. Excerpt: "The report adds that if midwives are in place and can refer the most severe complications to specialized care, up to 90% of maternal deaths could be prevented. Each year, 358,000 women die while pregnant or giving birth, some two million newborns die within the first 24 hours of life and there are 2.6 million stillbirths."
"Among the 38 countries most desperately in need of midwives, 22 need to double the workforce by 2015; seven need to triple or quadruple it; and nine, specifically Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan need to dramatically scale up midwifery by a factor of between six and 15."
- I'm/We're training under insanely knowledgeable nurse midwives and midwives and I am so excited (and - full disclosure - also slightly nervous) to begin the academic portion of my training. If you have any interest at all in investing in my midwifery training please write to me at TL7inHaiti@ yahoo. com - I hate using the blog for personal fund-raising needs but if you want details in order to consider if it is something you'd want to give toward, please let me know. If not - pa pwoblèm!
- For those that aren't aware ... World Wide Village no longer handles our family's support (donations for personal funds that allow us to live and work here in Haiti). All of our personal support is now handled by Heartline Ministries in Washington state. Questions about that can be answered by either Teri White - Teri.White @ Heartlineministries.org - or by Troy and I.
- Happy Fall weekend to you and yours.
