I could get used to this...

 Each morning this week, at 7:30, I've gone over to the clinic with Sarah. Most of the women come in for their pre-natal "rendez-vous" in the morning. When they come in, I take their hand-held record, open up their file from our cabinet and start filling in a new visit record on their forms. I take and record their blood pressure, pulse and weight, and calculate the gestational age of their pregnancy. Then I often go into the pre-natal consultation room during the check-up  and I get to feel the women's bellies for the baby's position, listen to and count the baby's heart rate and measure the fundal height. Today we had a visit from a woman expecting twins! I sit and listen to rest of the consultation.

I understand most of what I hear in Creole, but no one understands me when I try to use simple phrases I've picked up, or when I speak French. Talking to people usually degenerates into a confusing back and-forth in three languages, all we've established by the end of which is that I don't speak Creole. Hopefully I will be able to figure out some important phrases in Creole and the differences from French which are confusing people most.

I could get used to this... Not the language barrier, the clinic work. It's really amazing how quickly something totally exotic and foreign can become normal. I've said this a about a million times regarding Ambue Ari; It's kind of the same thing here. At first I was so nervous that maybe I shouldn't be trusted to do the fundal height measurements or blood pressures (silly on that count since I know very well how to do those)... "Oh my God, what if I get it wrong and they all find realise I'm a fraud!?"  But I've already become so much more comfortable with all the skills I've talked about. "Of course Maria asks me to take the intake observations! Why shouldn't she trust me? ... Of course I can take that fetal heart tone, Sarah... it's 140." It helps that I have been so effortlessly accepted by the staff here- No one makes a fuss about my doing things around the clinic, David and Ghislaine are all like, "Hey, are you cool to stay here by yourself while we run out for a minute?" and Sarah leaves me to my own devices a lot too.

Being thrown in the deep end is my favourite way to learn, but that does't mean there isn't some associated anxiety. Thankfully, I always seem to  get over it quickly.

I haven't attended my first birth yet. By Maria's calculations there are still 12 women due this month!those babies have to come sometime... seems like we may be in the calm before the storm. I am happy to have had at least these few days to adjust before that long-awaited experience begins.

The only thing I am impatiently awaiting right now is a chance to go for a swim in that gorgeous sea. The nearest shore is an hour's walk away, but the beach where you can swim is even farther- ten minutes' drive, apparently. Maybe Saturday I will try to get out there.