January 11, 2011
I woke up with my back aching like it usually does after a long day of doing extractions. Lol. I couldn’t do it for a living, but for now dental is okay. There were two screaming children and a crying child. My worst nightmare when it comes to doing an extraction. I got a little bit of anesthesia into the two children before they starting screaming, but the poke of the needle was too much for them. I felt really bad. I tried to make it hurt as little as possible, but they were scared to start out with. Tomorrow, their parents are going to bring them back and hopefully I can try a different technique that might hurt less. Today, in total, there were 38 cleanings and 10 extractions. I couldn’t have done it today without Rebecca’s help with the cleanings. Everyone is starting to get tired, and by the end of the week we are all going to just crash! One of the little boys that I met yesterday came back today to give me a little flower and a small vile of perfume. A little bit later, he asked me to be his godmother. At first I didn’t understand the word for grandmother, and I told him so, and he went to get someone who would understand him. I felt so honored that he would ask, but it would be impossible since I live in the states and I kind of think that a godmother should have known you for a little longer than one day. I had a second little boy decide that I was going to be his godmother too. Hehe.
January 14, 2011
I cut my finger yesterday trying to open up a vile to prepare a shot for someone. It slashed right across the knuckle on my middle finger. Hanna had to do dental for me today. She was so awesome! I know she was really nervous, and I talked her through the morning extractions, but she had it down to a science for the afternoon! She did 13 or 14 patients, and on my longest day this week, I think I only did 15. Praise the Lord that she trained with us or there wouldn’t have been dental today!
January 21, 2011
I saw a baby being born this morning!! And I helped with the delivery! I have never even seen a birth on an educational video in science class! The mom and the dad came around 5:30am this morning. We were still sleeping, but they managed to wake us up with a “Doctora, doctora!” and a “oooo!” The mom had been having contractions all night, and when Cecilia had seen her yesterday she told her to come when she was having three contractions within ten minutes. We waited a total of about two hours for little Diamela to make her entrance into the world. The mother also has a five-year-old son, which made this her second child. The parents didn’t know the sex of the baby, but I guess the son told his mom yesterday that it was going to be a girl. And it was. The first thing we did was to sit the mother in the birthing chair, and while Cecilia checked the cervix, Rachel and I started getting the Consultorio room ready for the birth and Rachel also attempted to get an IV started in between contractions. Rachel had a little bit of a hard time because the contractions were starting to come faster and harder. I boiled water, haha, just like you read about in the Little House on the Prairie type books. The mom was a very strong lady! It was and wasn’t what I expected to see at a birth. During the contractions she didn’t ever scream or cry out, but once, and it was more like a grunt. She was obviously in pain, but you wouldn’t ever know how much pain she was in. All of the things I observed, of course, are coming through the eyes of someone who has absolutely no idea what it is like to give birth. Since it was going to be another hour before the baby came we started getting ready for the day, brushing our teeth and stuff and I decided to eat a granola bar because I was starving and I remembered my dad saying that you should eat something before a surgery to help nausea, and I thought that would apply here. I definitely did not want to miss out on this! The contractions soon became one or two every minute and they were coming A LOT stronger than before. Pretty soon it was time for her to start pushing, and very soon after we saw a little tuft of hair. Within three pushes una mujercita, Diamela Lisbeth Falcón Barrera made her appearance in the world at 7:59am on January 21, 2011, weighing 3.800 kg, and 50 cm long. Quickly, we moved to making sure she was breathing, and I was responsible for using a bulb syringe to suck out all of the baby gunk out of her mouth and nose. It was a little nerve-wrecking because after the first try, she didn’t cry, so I suctioned stuff out of her throat a second and third time and she still wasn’t crying! She started to turn a little blue and finally after the fourth try she let out a small cry. That small cry quickly got stronger as we carried her over to the table to clean her off after cutting the umbilical cord. Rachel and I set to cleaning her up while Cecilia waited for the placenta. The baby gunk didn’t come off of Diamela very easily. We spent quite awhile cleaning her up and finally we were able to dress her and present her to mom and dad. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! I know it hurts a lot, but what a miracle and what an experience. God designed us in a truly marvelous way!
Monday, January 31, 2011
a couple weeks worth of blog. :)
January 3, 2011
After two weeks in the states for Christmas, I arrived back in Pucallpa this morning around 5:15am. It’s now 9:30pm and I haven’t slept since 11am yesterday morning. I’ve had a mini naps in the airport and on the planes, but that’s about it. Coming back is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve really missed family and Jacob a lot, and in a lot of respects going home made it worse. I’m so grateful to have been able to go home, but I don’t think I would advise other SMs to do the same thing; it’s too hard to leave the states again. I’m okay with being back, and will be interested to see how this semester goes. I lost my debit card today! Thankfully, I was able to cancel it before someone was able to withdraw any money from it. It’s going to be a little hard to live on twenty bucks for the next three weeks though. Here goes Peru, round 2!
January 4, 2011
We ate a regional food today, that is absolutely yummy! They call it Guanes (not sure on the spelling, but it’s spelled gwah-nays), and it is best described to be like a tamale except rice is used instead of the corn and it is wrapped in a banana leaf with chicken and a greek olive in the center. It has to be one of my favorites that I have tried so far. First, they cook the rice and then mix it with garlic and other seasonings. After that they wrap the rice, along with an olive and a piece of chicken, in the banana leaf and boil it the rest of the way. Que rico! I spent a good majority of today cleaning up the dental instruments and figuring out what supplies need replenished before the big medical campaign next week. There’s quite a bit missing, and since I lost my debit card as soon as I got back In Peru, I won’t be able to help replenish is. Haha. I left my debit card in an ATM in the Pucallpa airport, and when I went back to retrieve it, it wasn’t to be found. Fortunately, I was able to get it cancelled, but for the next three weeks I’ll be rather poor until my new card gets here. Rachel has been very kind, and will be spotting me for food until I have money again. We will start the campaign next week with eight of the original eleven missionaries. Laura was only planning on being here until January and then the two boys Caleb and Chris have decided it would be best for them to not come back. We’re going to miss them terribly! This next week will be quite the test of endurance. Praying for God’s strength.
January 5, 2011
We came back to Km 38 today on our day off. I found a lot of supplies in the boxes here for the clinic next week. I’m a little worried about next week just because I’m the only one from the original dental team. It won’t be too bad though, because Caleb and Chris taught Jonathan a little bit about dental and Hanna trained with us at the very beginning. I got a message from one of my professors today, and I possibly have a job next semester! That’s good news, I was a little worried about finding a job next year with so many students at Southern competing for jobs. The rest of the day today, Rachel made pumpkin cookies and bread. (yum!) And we just hung out the rest of the day.
January 10, 2011
Today wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be. We started our medical campaign this week at kilometer 6, in a little village called La Gran Via de Manantay or Los Mangos. This campaign is different than other campaigns that we have done in the past. This time we have an evangelistic team that will be going to the houses of the people here talking to them and offering Bible studies. In the evenings we have meetings for the kids and for the adults separately. We didn’t have a great turn out tonight of adults, but there were at least sixty kids. I guess that this is how campaigns at AMOR Projects are suppose to be. We use the medical campaign to get to know the people and that way they feel more comfortable coming to the meetings in the evenings with us. The kids are going to be really fun to do VBS with. We are going to be doing VBS for about 3 weeks with them, I hope that we don’t run out of activities for them! This week will probably be one of my most prayer filled weeks that I’ve ever had. I’m really scared that something will happen while I’m doing an extraction that I can’t fix. Fortunately, Dr. Matthews can pull out pretty much any tooth, so if I get stuck he can help me. I’m tired at the end of the day, but I’m not worn out or super stressed. Praise God that today went well!
After two weeks in the states for Christmas, I arrived back in Pucallpa this morning around 5:15am. It’s now 9:30pm and I haven’t slept since 11am yesterday morning. I’ve had a mini naps in the airport and on the planes, but that’s about it. Coming back is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve really missed family and Jacob a lot, and in a lot of respects going home made it worse. I’m so grateful to have been able to go home, but I don’t think I would advise other SMs to do the same thing; it’s too hard to leave the states again. I’m okay with being back, and will be interested to see how this semester goes. I lost my debit card today! Thankfully, I was able to cancel it before someone was able to withdraw any money from it. It’s going to be a little hard to live on twenty bucks for the next three weeks though. Here goes Peru, round 2!
January 4, 2011
We ate a regional food today, that is absolutely yummy! They call it Guanes (not sure on the spelling, but it’s spelled gwah-nays), and it is best described to be like a tamale except rice is used instead of the corn and it is wrapped in a banana leaf with chicken and a greek olive in the center. It has to be one of my favorites that I have tried so far. First, they cook the rice and then mix it with garlic and other seasonings. After that they wrap the rice, along with an olive and a piece of chicken, in the banana leaf and boil it the rest of the way. Que rico! I spent a good majority of today cleaning up the dental instruments and figuring out what supplies need replenished before the big medical campaign next week. There’s quite a bit missing, and since I lost my debit card as soon as I got back In Peru, I won’t be able to help replenish is. Haha. I left my debit card in an ATM in the Pucallpa airport, and when I went back to retrieve it, it wasn’t to be found. Fortunately, I was able to get it cancelled, but for the next three weeks I’ll be rather poor until my new card gets here. Rachel has been very kind, and will be spotting me for food until I have money again. We will start the campaign next week with eight of the original eleven missionaries. Laura was only planning on being here until January and then the two boys Caleb and Chris have decided it would be best for them to not come back. We’re going to miss them terribly! This next week will be quite the test of endurance. Praying for God’s strength.
January 5, 2011
We came back to Km 38 today on our day off. I found a lot of supplies in the boxes here for the clinic next week. I’m a little worried about next week just because I’m the only one from the original dental team. It won’t be too bad though, because Caleb and Chris taught Jonathan a little bit about dental and Hanna trained with us at the very beginning. I got a message from one of my professors today, and I possibly have a job next semester! That’s good news, I was a little worried about finding a job next year with so many students at Southern competing for jobs. The rest of the day today, Rachel made pumpkin cookies and bread. (yum!) And we just hung out the rest of the day.
January 10, 2011
Today wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be. We started our medical campaign this week at kilometer 6, in a little village called La Gran Via de Manantay or Los Mangos. This campaign is different than other campaigns that we have done in the past. This time we have an evangelistic team that will be going to the houses of the people here talking to them and offering Bible studies. In the evenings we have meetings for the kids and for the adults separately. We didn’t have a great turn out tonight of adults, but there were at least sixty kids. I guess that this is how campaigns at AMOR Projects are suppose to be. We use the medical campaign to get to know the people and that way they feel more comfortable coming to the meetings in the evenings with us. The kids are going to be really fun to do VBS with. We are going to be doing VBS for about 3 weeks with them, I hope that we don’t run out of activities for them! This week will probably be one of my most prayer filled weeks that I’ve ever had. I’m really scared that something will happen while I’m doing an extraction that I can’t fix. Fortunately, Dr. Matthews can pull out pretty much any tooth, so if I get stuck he can help me. I’m tired at the end of the day, but I’m not worn out or super stressed. Praise God that today went well!
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