Wow, I cannot believe it is already October!! The time is FLYING by! We are in our 6th month here now, so basically about a fourth of the way through our 2 years here in Uganda. At first I thought 2 years sounded like a long time, but now I am really realizing that it will be over before we know it. There are still so many things that we need/want to do, but we are also trying to enjoy the ride each day as much as possible.
September...wow...definitely the most challenging month we've had so far. We did get to go on a really sweet and quick vacation, which was so nice, but as soon as we returned it was a roller coaster of ups and downs. We were mainly doing a lot of hustling around, organizing, and making final arrangements for the new wards to open and (as always) there were many many obstacles to overcome along the way. We really had to lean on God for our strength and for wisdom like never before. We are learning a lot about how to work with a different culture, but it can really be a challenge at times. Things that would not be considered acceptable excuses for work not done at home, are completely acceptable here such as, "It was raining," or "I had to harvest this week," or "I had no power so my phone was dead for 3 days". Now I'm not talking about our staff, they work really hard. I am talking more about other people we hire for different jobs such as construction and things. Newman I thought was going to pull all of his hair out at one point this month, but instead, he just shaved it this weekend. I was very proud of him for not getting visibly upset with people when I knew he really wanted to at times. I told him, "Newman, I think you are being tested right now" and he agreed. We both came to the conclusion that although painful at times, we are really learning and growing a lot from these experiences. I think God is preparing us for whatever is going to come along in our future, near or distant. Its a scary thought, but I think he is trying to equip us for more challenges...Yikes!
In the last blog I mentioned the twins that were on their way. Well they arrived, and they are both healthy and beautiful baby girls, but it didn't exactly happen as planned as usual. (I don't even know why we make plans any more, but I guess its good to have a goal) Their mother was contracting for over 24hours and was not progressing beyond 2cm, so our Medical Officer, Dan, made the call that we would need to do a c-section. We ended up having to do it at Masindi Hospital because of a few small items that we did not have yet in our surgical theater. We wanted to do it at our clinic, but we also needed to keep the mother and babies' outcome the priority. We were able to do the c-section at Masindi Hospital using all of our staff. We brought the mother via ambulance straight back to our clinic for recovery along with the babies. They all recovered very well and the family was extremely pleased with our staff and clinic even though we had to transport her. They ended up naming the oldest twin Margaret after me, (that's my 1st name, and they have a really hard time saying Trish) and they named the second baby after another one of our volunteers, Sarah. It was really sweet and I have been able to spend a good bit of time loving on these babies. Below are some pictures of Margaret. Sorry the one of me and her is blurry but she really didn't like it when I stopped moving.
So although these little ones were not technically our 1st deliveries, they were our 1st maternity patients. We were however very blessed and excited to welcome our 1st actual MKMC baby into the world last Monday night! A beautiful baby boy, who had not yet been named, was born to Amina Kaahwa at 10pm. She arrived at the clinic the morning of October 1st and progressed really well all day. She delivered without complications in our maternity ward that evening. The baby boy was a little thing, only weighing 4lbs 13.6oz, but he was in good health. Below are some pictures of him with his mother and proud older sister.
Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for us throughout this month. Please continue to as we welcome more patients and continue to grow and learn. This is an exciting time for our clinic and for PMI, and we could use all of your support. For all of you who pray for and give to PMI, know that it is because of you and God that these families here now have a safe place to bring their children into the world. We hear stories all the time of babies and mothers who die every day in these villages because of their lack of access to adequate care, but now they have a great place to come and at a price they can afford.
Well, my next update will most likely be welcoming Lynn and Bob Lawrence to Uganda next weekend!!!! We are so excited to have our 1st family members come visit us. We are taking a quick trip to Burundi with them which I am so excited about because I have never been and if any of you know the Lawrence family, you know they LOVE Burundi. I cannot wait to share the experience with them.
Love to you all!
Trish
