Very hard to leave

What a great day I had! Labor room was very busy, plus the side room busy ( moms having to stay for one reason or another) , students in the nursery asked me to teach them some classes, needed to make sure twins were breastfeeding well, including cleft lip baby, still trying to track down my boxes of supplies by running to the post office twice, buying a few last minute items, pack up my stuff, return my dummy babies, help OB track down labs and say good bye to so many wonderful people I've gotten to know. All day I was hearing all the kind words and encouragement to come back soon.

I visited with 2 of the teachers at the school of nursing and we discussed me planning to teach more next time. So I have my work cut out for me taking some classes that are specific for developing countries.

We ended the day with one of the hospital staff having all us volunteers over for dinner. They gave us gifts of an African purse and shawl. I got a lovely maroon one!

This morning then, I figured out how much money was left from all the incredible donations you all put in and I was able to give Mike enough for a huge water filter for the kitchen. With this they can fill all the jugs for all the wards with out having to collect wood and boil all the water first. We got a filter specifically for the labor room, so that will be available at any time to encourage the mom's to drink more.

Then we gave a huge donation to the education fund. When I gave it to Laura, the one who is in charge of this fund, and is personally involved in the children lives, she got very excited and said "that will pay for 6 kids to go to high school for a whole year!!!" It made me want to cry knowing how much this means to kids in the childrens home and other needy families. I trust Laura to pick the children that really need it and that will appreciate it. She has been here for over 20 yrs and sees this as the most important need for long term changes.