"Good-morning, scrubs. I hope you have more energy than I do at two o'clock in the morning. Because I hear Anita calling me on the radio." It's Thursday, and there's a lady at the clinic waiting to welcome a baby into the dark world. I grab a flashlight.
    Then the scrubs and I walk out to join Anita in the courtyard. There are plenty of people talking and sleeping in the clinic entrance. They wait and watch with us until the baby comes about three-thirty in the morning. The little girl is decidedly cute to compensate for our lack of sleep. She is a good six pounds plus an ounce. Janell and Elissa bathe her and bundle her up. We are glad for their help as we get the mom back on her feet. Anita is just putting the last odds and ends away from the birth when the mom comes back in. She tweaks Anita and I under the chin and thinks she is ready to walk the four or more hours home with her friends. "Thank-you," she says.

The nurses, assistants, and the new little baby

    Anita and I shake our heads. But why not? If she's feeling up to it, what white people can stop her? As for us, five-thirty sounds like a good time to go back to bed.


    Later on, during our calm clinic day on Thursday, Breanna was shaking her head over an ugly elbow abscess. Mis Leda had lanced it open on Wednesday, but it was still looking rather angry. Something needed to be done. Mis Leda kindly came over and helped Breanna cut away some of the awful infection covering the deep bottom side of the hole. Although you see only the elbow on the picture, you can imagine how the face of someone with a knife carving into their flesh could look...

Breanna working at the infected elbow

   
As the clinic day comes to end, we have time to think about the lady who came to the clinic earlier this week. As she lounged around on the hospital bed waiting for delivery, we began to suspicion that something was strange about this case. Twins? Maybe? Possibly?
    After more inspection and more questions, the lady told us that she was indeed having twins. Interesting news at this point of the game. We decided it was a good time to send her out to the hospital down at T-Goave.


     Friday ended our official clinic week with Michael and Virginia back on staff. We just about needed to ask them to introduce themselves, after their long absence with the mobile clinic and hurricane.

All in all you can see we've had a very full week!

~Mis Rhoda

Just a snap shot of a stretcher being carried in to the clinic on Fri

 with an older man who was too weak to walk