Midwives

Oh the things I am learning here! I spent the past 2 days in a conference for midwives in the area. Two women from the States, a doctor and midwife, are here to learn from and teach midwives here. The majority of babies here are delivered by midwives as most people cannot afford to go to the hospital for delivery. Midwifery is very much seen as a calling by God here – you do not choose it. The midwives have servant hearts as much of the time they get paid very little for their services. And here’s something I didn’t expect – there are male midwives! It was very fascinating to observe the meeting and see how much experience and wisdom was in the room of 20 people - one woman said that the first baby she delivered is now 50 years old!

This past weekend I did something that I thought I wouldn’t do for a very long time. I went to the beach, but I did not swim because it was too cold! It wasn’t so much the cold, but the wind was horrendous and the ocean was “mad” as Manno would say. It’s still fun to be at the beach, even if you don’t swim.

My Creole is coming along slowly. I am spoiled here with quite a few people that speak English, so I’m not forced to use my Creole all the time. I guess I’ll soon have to have an “only Creole” day.

School is finishing up here at the university. It’s exam week so the students are busy studying and looking forward to going home for the Christmas break. They get the whole month of January off. So it will be quieter here around my office for awhile. We do have a few visiting groups coming over the next few weeks, so that will keep me busy over the holidays.

Thinking of all of you back in the very cold weather – I’ll try to send some warmth your way!