Lola's are Universal

Submitted On July 20, 2008
Posted When the Electricity Was Back On!






Ok, the electricity was not off the whole time....but it is a regular occurrence here. It is amazing that I can be on the Internet at all, so I am thankful for what we do have. And I am thankful for the generator, even if it is a noisy beast!

We have the "Ministry of the Cell Phone Charging" when the power is down too long. We fire up our generator every few hours to save the food in the frig, and everyone in the neighborhood comes to plug in their mobile phones.

To put it in perspective: There are very very few landline phones here, and cell phones are relatively cheap if you do all texting and no voice communication. ......plus you pay as you go and do not have "contracts". Some things are very good compared to what I used to have!

What I DO have is a granddaughter! And it is a blessing to be able to see her every day as she grows and learns. It is an awesome position, yet the responsibility belongs to her parents. They are doing a good job - she is happy and healthy and has manners. She knows several words in sign language and so can usually tell you what she wants....quite smart. And cute, of course!

I just get to love her. Lola means grandmother in Tagalog, and it is what Vicki's grandchildren mostly call her (top pic is of Vicki and Selah). Maia mostly calls me "Up" with her hands raised.

And of course I pick her up, whatever she will end up calling me!
Wherever in the World she is, I will answer.
Because I am in the Grandmother Club.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

Please Send Prenatal Vitamins

July 9th, 2008 Prenatal Examination Day
Top: Class & Worship & Prayer
Middle: Almost Time!
Bottom: Pastor Ernie Helping Out


Written July 13, 2008

Picture this: A Birthing Center in a rural village on a Philippines island. It is Wednesday morning, and the pregnant women are gathering on the porch for a class on Breastfeeding, taught by Filipina Licensed Midwives. The class is followed by singing worship songs with Pastor Ernie. Children play, roosters squawk, and more women arrive. It is the day for prenatal examinations at the Mercy In Action Maternity Clinic, where all services are provided free of charge to the patients and their young children. Blood pressure, pulse,weight, interviews on the porch--examinations inside--
but wait,
we are almost out of donated prenatal vitamins! Twenty-eight women got enough today...
but tomorrow?

I measure out what is left. Instructions are given on how to take them and on how to obtain vitamins from a healthy diet. I wipe the humidity off of my face and lift up short prayers that this woman, and this one, and this one,
will be able to afford eggs this week, or meat or something other than rice or noodles.

Without the vitamins?
These high-risk women have an even higher risk of hemorrhage.
Their babies are at higher risk of fetal distress.
Anemia keeps your body from carrying enough oxygen or iron. Not good.

Can you help?
Be a Mercy In Action Vitamin Angel?
If everyone reading this blog would go buy one bottle of 100 Prenatal Vitamins,any brand,
and mail them
We would be able to give 3000 individual vitamins per month for 3 months.

That would tide us over until Vicki is able to obtain more in the States and bring them when she returns to the Philippines the end of October.

If you cannot help with this project, no worries. I may come up with another that fits you!
If you want to try to help, read on.........

Thanks!

Hey, you are still reading! Here is what to do to make it easy. Get bottle(s) of vitamins, empty them into a ziplock bag and put them into a mailing envelope. Add the label from the bottle or put in a note that they are prenatal vitamins for donation to charity.
Address the envelope:
Terri Woods
Mercy In Action
PO Box 30714
Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro 5203
Philippines

Fill out a small, index card size customs form at the Post Office. Note the contents as prenatal vitamins for donation, value -0-.
This size envelope should not cost as much as a box or package, so please mail at the lowest airmail price. (The boat takes months!).

OR
go to http://www.mercyinaction.org
donation page
you can put vitamin money on a credit card or out of your checking account
and Vicki will buy them and bring back with her.
Of course, you can also become a monthly partner with us on this website ;-)

OR
if you are very very very generous or have a contact who manufactures vitamins
the Post Office has $39.00 flat rate boxes you can condense the bottles down and send.

thanks. you are an angel.

Celebrations!

Top: July 4th = July 4th
Bottom: June 29th Baptism

Celebrations mean food! So for the 4th of July, we (Only Scott, Vicki and I; as the Hendersons were in Manila) scored some Australian beef to BBQ, made a big potato salad, and pulled out the blue corn chips where Vic had hidden them away for a special occasion! Avocados grow here, and tomatoes, so we were good to go for guacamole and salsa. Very Southwest American. Followed by an All-American Apple Pie. A very good Feast!

And although I am happy to honor Independence, I was even happier to celebrate Mildred's choice of Dependence on God. One of our young Filipina midwives decided that she wanted to publicly demonstrate her inward faith by being baptized. Pastor Toto is a long-time friend of Mercy In Action, and is pastor of the Baptist Bible Church just up the road from us. Mildred is in his congregation. We had a great service in Tagalog and English; and I was able to follow the lesson about Jesus choosing His disciples. And the little children singing is precious - so very cute! Then we all walked to the beach, where the waves were wild and it was starting to rain. It was a beautiful and inspiring time.

Then we went back to the church and celebrated with food! Kate made white carbonara sauce spaghetti, there was the Filipino sweet red spagetti, and I made a banana/mango/pineapple bread.

Yum.

Strategies for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Survival

Posted Sunday, July 6, 2008

A Poster on the Wall

So, I've been in the Birth Center a lot lately; days, nights, overnights...... There is the time with the laboring women, of course, and their families and the midwives, but there is also time to just stare at the wall waiting for time to pass and for contractions to get stronger.

There is a poster on the wall to look at. A picture does not do it justice, although there are pictures on it of Mercy In Actions moms and babies. There is a classic pose of Vicki Penwell talking to a newborn baby with such love on her face and with absolute interest on the face of the infant. Really. I think they know what all she does to help bring them into the world safely.

And the graphics. Scott Penwell still had them on his computer, so I will share them with you.
They are sobering.

The Title of the Poster is:
Strategies for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Survival

The Problem: 1/2 million women die in childbirth each year, and
more than 2 million newborns die each year

The Strategy:

• Small free-standing birth centers staffed by licensed midwives; no costs to patients for maternity care--funded by private donations and outreach to the poorest of the poor
• Clean, well-stocked facilities, evidence based practices
• Immediate and exclusive breastfeeding; skin to skin warming
• Kind, gentle, sensitive attitude toward women & the birth process
• No drugs and no intervention in normally progressing labor
• Emergency drugs and skills for handling complications, less than 10% referral to hospital

The Outcome:

Both newborn and maternal mortality are extremely low; less than 1/4 the rate of the surrounding region. Satisfaction is high with this community-based, culturally sensitive maternity care. Women are empowered and children are healthier having gotten a drug-free start and breastfeeding immediately at birth. Midwives also educate families in basic child survival principles.

We Follow:
WHO-UNICEF Mother-Friendly Baby Friendly Initiatives for Birth


http://www.who.int/topics/maternal_health/en/