A Day Out On My Own

Oh my Goli! (oh my goodness in tagalong) where do I even began…First off, I am feeling much better(thanks for all the prayers!) So my day began with this morning doing checkups on our moms in Iram, and coming home realizing I really needed to go grocery shopping. Since I have been here for 3 weeks, I decided that I should be confident enough to go out on my own for the very first time and go grocery shopping myself, right? Boy was that a mistake! Now, in order to get to Royal (the grocery store) I have to take the brown jeepney with the white top to the market(15 min. ride) then hop on a yellow jeepney to the Subic Bay gate(15 min ride) then walk to this parking lot and hop on a bus which takes me to Royal(5 min ride). Easy enough, right? Well I got to the grocery store just fine and was all proud of myself(I even stopped in Starbucks, it reminded me soo much of home, I almost cried!) but on my back, well, that is a total different story….So, I was on the yellow jeepney needing to get off to switch to the brown jeepney with the white top, when I totally realized that I had no clue when to get off to get to their terminal. By this time, I knew I had already totally missed it, because I had been in this yellow jeepney for quite a while, and he was driving in an area I did not even recognize at all. To make things worse, it was also getting very dark outside! So I prayed that the driver would know english and surprisingly he knew enough to understand that I needed to get to the brown Jeepney with the white top. He informs me that we had passed that stop a long time ago! Ugh! Right after he tells me that he would turn around and take me to where I needed to go, I got a random txt message from Vicki saying “hey Alyssa, where are you!?  How would you like to go to a birth right now!” Well, of course I told her I would love too, and I would try to get there ASAP! While thinking to myself, “Shoot, what a great day Alyssa to think that you were able to go out on your own!” LOL!  Traffic was crazy, but I told the jeepney driver to drive fast because I needed to get to a birth! So, I finally got to a brown jeepney with a white top to take me to Kalapati and arrived in this health center right when the mom was pushing, like 10 minutes before the baby was born! I was able to assist this “government” midwife for the delivery and after. To fill you in about this midwife…Our Mercy In Action team had introduced ourselves to her awhile ago and she informed us that if she had a birth she would call us so that I could assist her, she is also open to learning some new things from us to improve her quality of care... The baby was a girl, weighing about 6 ½ pounds, which is considered “big” here in the Philippines, she was healthy and oh so cute! And the mom did so well. I was able to initiate breastfeeding and basically I wasable to "protect” the baby from being taken away from the mother hehe… It was great! I stayed there for about an hour and a half after the baby was born, and then had to get my groceries in the refrigerator, so I said my goodbyes and took a tricy home. Wow, what a day! 

Yes, Starbucks has made it all the way to the Philippines!! 

So happy!! Every sip reminded me of home!...okay maybe I am a little too
excited about this whole Starbucks thing hehe

Mom, dad, and their new baby girl...my first birth in the Philippines!