Friday

I walked into the labor room first thing this morning with all 4 beds full of laboring women! How fun! The one nurse said, I pick bed 2 to deliver and I said, Ok, I pick bed 1and the student said I'll take bed 3! Well birth really can't be planned out that way. The student, Kaytlen and I ended up caring for bed 2 while she labored and the nurse did come in to deliver, but we all got to work together. We also took care of baby who was a little slow starting!

My "bed one" girl was only 16 yrs old, and was such a sweet, strong girl. It made me wonder if they have any childbirth education. Or education about birth from their Mom's or sisters etc. I had to go to lunch as I was invited to a special lunch, so I had to leave my sweet girl in others hands and she delivered just before I got back. So glad to get her cuddling with her sweet baby while she drank her orange pop and ate a piece of bread to give her some strength.

Since the other girl in bed 3, who also was only 16 yrs old, was progressing a bit slow I thought I would take the chance to go to town and get some toilet paper. It cost 30 shillings or about .30 cents a roll and it's not nice and soft like American TP. As I walk in the store, the man sitting at the counter says "hi Joyce". I'm so shocked again that he remembers my name! He says, do you remember my name? As I hesitate he says "remember you told me it was in the Bible!" Oh yes, it was Titus! Next time I go in, I'm going to make a special point to say hi to Titus by name!

Once I got back, I sat and visited with the students and they were asking me all sorts of questions about America. One of them asked me, "is it true strangers don't say hello to each other in America?" Everyone here says hello to each other, everyone shakes hands. Even real little children will come up and shake your hand. It's so cute! People are very friendly. There is a peace and contentment that you don't see in America in general. They are so blown away that we can make so much money, so I tried to explain the costs of things too. I think they have a hard time imagining.