Arriving in the Philippines
Hey Everyone! So here I am in the Philippines :) I've been here 5 days now and I have already experienced and seen so much. Firstly I need to tell you about my journey and how God definitely looked after me above and beyond what I hoped...
On the 14th July I left my parents and sister at Birmingham airport and headed through security with the crowd to start my adventure. After buying a tacky magazine, a cheap Sudoku puzzle book and some cherry drops I found my gate where I was to board my plane to Dubai, gate 44. I waited and queued there for about 20 mins until I got to the front of the line. A man scanned my boarding pass, like he had successfully for everyone before me, but my pass came up as an error on the computer. Poop. He tried again. Nothing. He started muttering to other staff who he had called over and kept repeating my name to them whilst still trying to scan my boarding pass. Palpitations began as I wondered what the problem was. The man then crossed off my seat number on my ticket and wrote another in its place; after this he asked me to go to gate 46 and wait for him there. Eeeeek! My nerves then turned to excitement as I knew what this meant. I arrived at gate 46 to see a room full of Emirates air hostesses and stewards. I waited outside for a short while until another man came to see me. He called me in and explained the situation... "the man who checked you in thought you were really nice so he upgraded to business class". Woooooo :D I was so excited! He then went on to ask if I was from Stourbridge as he recognised my accent and went on to explain that he went to Dudley College. Weird!
It was the fastest 7 hours of my life on that plane journey as I was playing around with my chair that could lie back and massage me, eating amazing food, being served free drinks constantly by my own personal waitress, and watching Disney films whilst I snuggled with my free pillow, blanket and cosy socks. It was amazeballs! God is very good :)
I eventually arrived in Manila at 11:30pm on the 15th where I was greeted by one of my house mates, Annette, one of the midwives from Shalom, Carmen, a missionary who lives out here, Mila, and Benjy, who was the driver. My room in the apartment is small with no drawers for clothes, but I wasn't expecting a holiday villa. Annette is from California and is a student nurse, and my other house mate, Emily, is a missionary nurse from New Zealand. We're getting along great at the moment and are having lots of fun adventures together. Our little apartment is on the first floor of the Shalom Christian Birthing Centre which is very handy when we're on shift. All the staff are lovely and think we are amazingly beautiful because of our white skin (the only time ever I've been pleased to be pale) haha.
Working at Shalom has been an experience too... culturally in the Philippines, women shouldn't be seen to be in pain when in labour and giving birth, and for this reason there is no option to have any pain relief at all! This isn't just the case at Shalom, but is also the same for other hospitals here too. Family members who accompany the women even shout at them or hit them if they make a sound during birth. This kind of 'practice' would also be shown to the women if they were to go to another hospital by the staff who are meant to be caring for them. Another thing which has stood out to me here is how all women here really have no option but to breastfeed their baby as the water here is dirty and contaminated with pesticides, so would therefore make their newborn ill if they used the water to make up a bottle of formula. Also, when a woman comes in to deliver, they have to bring all resources with them to give birth such as sheets, towels, wipes and even their own hot water in a flask and bin liners! Only 1 pair of gloves can be used per woman too which I've found really hard as I'm used to grabbing gloves at the hospital whenever and wherever I need them. This also means that gloves aren't always sterile when performing, shall we say, intimate tasks!
Hope you've had a little insight into what type of environment I'm living in here and I hope to share lots of stories on here as the days and weeks progress. Thanks so much for reading and for your continued prayers and support.
Lots of Love,
The Travelling Midwife x
Love that you're blogging! Enjoy your adventure. You're amazing! Xxxxxxxxx
ReplyDeleteWow Beth sounds like your having a great time. Enjoy every moment your doing something amazing! Looking forward to you next blog post already xx
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