Cannibals, Chirstmas, Ugly Dresses and Babies

Whoops this whole blogging business has kind of been neglected, meh, I seem to update photos and stories more often on facebook so if your interested just add me as a friend on fb. Well, so so so much has happened in since I moved here 5 months ago that I could pretty much write a book. Actually, speaking of books, our last research assignment on Labor Provision Care turned out to be a book, I wrote 89 pages and 48,585 words! Hovering on the same theme, the most recent book I read for our monthly book report was "Peace Child". Incredible, I highly recommend it. One man, called by God to evangelize the cannibalistic Sawi tribe in former Netherlands New Guinea, and One God, who laid the allegorical foundation for their understanding of the gospel generations ago through the parallelism between their Peace Child and His Jesus Christ. Here is a picture from our tribal birthday in January...I think it may adequately resemble a cannibal!
This past month, being it was December, we also celebrated Christmas:P It was my first Christmas away from home and it was such a joyous occasion I think I will stick around for another year, (I wish you could read the humor in my voice!). During prenatals for the week before Christmas we handed out presents of rice and noodles and some canned food to each of the buntis-pregnant women.Christmas Eve a bunch of us went over to the birthroom and had a candlelight service. My beautiful mom and dad sent me a honking huge package across the Pacific Ocean and it was so awesome to experience some of home. Proud to say, I made it like 2 weeks without peeking in the slightest. I didn't actually realize how much I missed them until I read my Dad's stellar tear-jerking letter and began to bawl, and so did nearly every other girl as the red letter complete with cartoons was passes around the circle. (Ya I am a beaker, I asked for a Taber's Medical Dictionary for Christmas!)

Christmas dinner was over at the green house, a mere jump over the cement wall, except it is actually too tall to jump so we are downgraded to the use of gates :)

Then Sarah and Serena were taken out by some of our Filipino friends to a Christmas musical that evening. As the sun set and darkness blanketed us, it found Sarah and I dog-piled on the couch watching "Holiday Inn" and drinking oober fresh buko(coconut) juice.

Well then, being that the end of December marked the end of 2008, we celebrated the New Year with an outrageously ugly dress party complete with horrendous makeup and ridiculous hairstyles. If you ever get the urge for a genuine, knee-slapping, head-bonking good time, gather together 20 midwives in ugly dresses who love Jesus and throw a party!
Well now to the climax of my story and the focus of my life, midwifery, babies, women, new families, placentas, IVs, Fetoscopes, scrubs, and lots and lots of prayer.