The kind of day that makes me think I could stay forever...

I had the most incredible day today! I worked in the Ante-Natal Clinic (for pregnant mothers). I helped check all the women in, took their height, weight, temperature and blood pressure, and filled the syringes for the injections. I was in there with the nurse, and we would take in two patients at a time and each take one. i had my own patients!! aahh!! after i got their history an took their vitals, the nurse checked them out - gave them a physical. She let me palpate the breast for lumps, measure the baby in their belly, then listen to the fetal heart beat! it was sooooo great!! i felt like i was really contributing today. after tea, i went with the same nurse to the PMTCT room (prevention of mother to child transmission), where they take blood from the mothers to see if they are HIV+, then counsel them either way. evey day they let me do a little more. although, i think they might be figuring out i don't have any real medical training, (even though i kinda told them i was a nursing student, oops). my goal before i leave the clinic to give at least one injection. i can't make any promises, but i sure am gonna try my hardest!

after the PMTCT room, i went up front to help with booking as they were short staffed. the first week i worked there i was sooo nervous to take the names and check the people in cause i was having a really hard time understanding them, and they sure couldn't understand me. but now i can do it all on my own! it's the greatest feeling. even though i still don't really know swahili, you'd think i did if you saw me have pseudo-conversations with the patients. its wonderful.

right before i left, i went to the back to get my water bottle, and decided to stop by the maternity ward for a quick second, and right when i poked my head in... a baby was poking her head out!! eww... awesome!! the woman delivered her baby right then, so i threw some gloves on and after she cut the cord, the nurse let me take the baby and weigh it and then clean it off and wrap it up. it was soooooo awesome!!! soooooo awesome!!!

it is quite common for goats and sheep to be wandering the streets or to be tied up to something. today i passed a sheep that was really tangled bad, the rope was wrapped around it's leg several times, and stuck around its neck and it could barely move. now, i have been told that even if there's no one around for miles and it looks like the sheep/goat is alone, it's not; and if you touch the sheep/goat the owner will jump out of nowhere and yell at you for trying to steel it! well, lucky for the sheep i was having one of the best days since i've been here, and was feeling somewhat invincible, so i decided to walk over to it and untangle it. i walked up to it and said "look sheep. i'm gonna help you out, but you gotta help me help you, and not bite me. we cool?" it was totally cooperative. i untangled it, it kept eating grass and smelling just as nasty as ever, and i went on my way. it was wonderful.

oh, and the other really great thing that happened today...
yesterday morning i was weighing babies. the first baby i put on the scale was crying (as most of them do when the mom puts them down on the cold scale and steps away), so i did what i normally do - used my pen to distract him, give him something to look at. well, this little sneaky baby grabbed the top of my pen and never gave it back. i didn't realize it til the little perp was long gone. now mind you, this would have been no big deal, except it was my favorite pen! why do i use my favorite pen you might ask? well... it's my Chapel Hill nursing school pen. it's kind of like inspiration. anyway... i'm embarassed to admit that i was a little sad for the rest of the day cause my pen was gonna dry up and i couldn't use it anymore. well, just before i left the clinic today, a woman came up to the window and handed me the top to my pen! she said she found it when she got home yesterday, and came all the way back today just to give it to me! is that incredible or what? she is gonna have some seriously good karma!

sounds like a pretty great day, huh? it was!