Working at the Maternity Hospital!!!!

Yes, that´s right, I´ve finally made it to the maternity hospital/orphanage, and I´m SO thrilled about it! But first I will tell a bit about a tour that we went on Wednesday afternoon. We were taken around in a van to a large village type place, all homes lined up made of thatch and nothing more. The town was so poor they were stealing their water from neighboring towns. We toured one home, and it had nothing in it at all besides simple things and basic necessities. It was dark, dirt floor, small and smelly. We also toured a summer school, you could tell the kids did not want to be there, as well as a battered women´s shelter. Quite a downer. Everywhere we drove in this van, people would coming running from all directions because the white people had arrived. They wanted their pictures with us, to take us into their homes, and to get our money of course. I never thought I´d ever see a place in such poverty. People had pretty good spirits for the most part, but night time around there brings out a different side of people I´m told. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned Laura...so I will now. She got here a few days ago, fourth year med student from Nebraska studying OB-GYN! We love her so much. She´s here for two months! We´re planning on spending a lot of time at the maternity hospital, so on Thursday morning we caught a cab, yep by ourselves!, and went to the hospital around 830am. There are so many people that go there, the lines start so early in the morning because they know there are only so many workers, exam rooms, perscriptions, and hours in the day. We met our contact person, Sister Lily, and she assigned us to our duties. Laura went right to the delivery room, lucky!, and I was assigned to pre-natal exams and pap smears. The women and her assistant in the room did not speak english, surprise surprise, so I stood the whole time and just observed. We saw about 20 women from 830-130, all seemed to be having healthy pregnancies as far as I could tell. I helped the women ¨keep their privacy¨¨ I soppose I could say. I was also fortunate enough to listen to many babies heartbeats! It was a really interesting experience, and I would really love to have a chat with them about their HORRIBLE sanitation problem. Every women examined laid on the same sheet, used the same towel to cover up with, the medical examiner did not where gloves everytime, nor did she always wash her hands with soap, and all the instruments were thrown into a bucket with water. Yikes. Needless to say, I felt pretty gross after that. But I was very fortunate to have had that experience. I was beat by the end though, standing for 6 hours was not the most fun thing I´ve ever done, especially with sunburned, swollen feet squeezed into tennis shoes. haha oh well, it could be worse! Later that day, after a lot of rest took place, we went to mass at 730pm down the road in a small garage. It was crazy. They left the doors open, so gangs would come in and be loud, dogs run up and down the asiles, kids are restless, and it´s so hot! But it ment a lot to the people we´re staying with. THEN we took a very big adventure...to downtown Chimbote with some fun Peruvians! The Tommerdahls were with, don´t worry. We caught a cab and went to Don Ramons...for Kareoke! I had my first Peruvian beer...mmmmm! haha. I also had this other drink that was so delicious. We obviously had to sing...since we would probably never see these other people again...so Alysha, Laura, and I sang songs like, I´ve got you babe, Always be my Baby by Mariah Carey, Killing me Softly. It was hailrious!!!!!!!! We had such a great time, even learned to dance a little bit! But We were so exhausted by the time we got back. My head hit the pillow at midnight and I was out. Friday morning I woke up to start another day at the maternity hospital. One of my favorite parts about it is that I get to wear scrubs...hehe. Laura and I had a harder time getting a cab this morning but we made it. Today we BOTH got to be in labor and delivery, woop woop! We first went around and checked all the women that had just delivered, as well as the ones who thought they would deliver soon. There were probably 20 women who had had babies in the last 2 days, all lined up in two rows. No privacy at all! The two women who were close took awhile to finally get there, so Laura and I went to the orphanage. There we held the babies, some were handicapped or retarded, others just wanted attention. But the young kids just climbed all over us the whole time just craving our attention and time. It was hard, but great making them smile! Finally the first woman went into the delivery room. Keep in mind here that men are not allowed in the delivery room, and there are no drugs for the pain. So the women are alone and in so much pain, not fun. I stood by this womans head and held her hand through most of it which was such an amazing feeling. THe delivery was smooth, and she never screamed. What the heck. She had a beautiful, healthy baby boy who came out lookin´ kinda gross, no lie, but he was crying which was great! I got to help measure him and dress him, although they don´t wash the baby before they dress them. Gross. The mom was happy, but not as excited as I expected. Still, it was so wonderful to be a part of that! We went outside to eat our lunch after that. We have to pack our lunches, because who knows what they´re serving in that kitchen. We came back in and went to the orphanage again, but soon after the next women was going to deliver. This woman was exhausted and in so much pain. I felt so bad for her! For her too I was near her head holding her hand. She grabbed me in so many wierd ways, and started just freaking out for awhile because of the pain. We think she was saying she wanted to be killed it was so bad. She was flailing and screaming, kinda freaky. But finally the baby was delivered, another boy, and she calmed down. This baby had a pretty rapid heard rate for awhile, so they took him to another room to monitor him. We went home around 2pm, after seeing two births, not a shabby day at all!!! The Tommerdahl adults have left for Lima now, so it´s just us college kids. Who knows what that holds in store! Tomorrow we are climbing a small mountain...hooray. Hope all is well back home, talk to you soon!!