Baby #20

This was the 20th baby I have delivered in the nine months since I have been in Nigeria at Faith Alive. There is always much joy when it is a safe delivery because there is a high mother mortality rate here. Approximately 800 deaths/100,000 live births.( UNICEF). This is a staggering number so there is much joy when the delivery is safe!

It was a baby girl!

Questions that I have been asked....

I have been in Nigeria for about eight months now. I have been asked many different questions during this time. Here are some of them:
-"Are you married?" This is the number one question I get here. Depending on where I am I will answer differently. In the taxi I will say yes I am married....hopefully then they won't ask me to go on a date with them or for them to ask me I'm not married and then start listing why I should marry them

-I get asked for my phone number a lot by many different people. If I don't know the people I tell them to come to Faith Alive to talk to me.

-"Are you from Kenya?" Yes, a guy asked me this. "No" I said. ( In my head I was thinking "Do I look like I'm from Kenya?")

-"Is that your real hair?" asked as I was walking down the street.

-"Are you from the United States?" "Nope, I'm from Canada," I reply. Then the question is, "Canada is in Europe right?" Or " Canada is by California right?" "No!!" And then I try to explain where Canada is in the world.

-" You Canadians love to eat chicken right?" This question was in response to having told someone I was from Canada and this was their impression of Canada. :)

-"What has brought you to Nigeria?" many people ask. This question is really great because then i can share with them the work that Faith Alive is doing and the work that Mennonite Central Committee is doing in Nigeria.

Wedding

The wedding of CID and Naomi. CID is a staff member of MCC and has become like a brother here to us.

Me, Tessa, Gina

Lots of dancing throughout the day.

The happy couple and the wedding cake.

Assop Falls

On our way back from Abuja in January we stopped at Assop Falls. This picture is taken during the dry season so in rainy season there would be much more water.

Pictures tell a thousand words....

The above two pictures were taken at Faith Alive. Faith Alive is very involved in the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) for mothers who are HIV+.  So at 6 weeks babies and mothers need to come for a checkup. At this point we weigh and measure the babies and refer them to a doctor if there are problems. After that babies come back every two months for follow up. These babies were very happy and full of life on this day and it gave me joy to know that they were doing so well.

This is the MCC Nigeria team and their families at our retreat in  December. They have  been a huge blessing and  encouragement this year. I am very thankful to God that our paths crossed this year.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year! Yes I have not posted anything for a while so I will try to do more this year. Time has been going really fast here it seems. It feels like just a short while ago that I got on the plane to come to Nigeria. I spent a good Christmas and new year here with my host family. It was great to see some of the traditions that they have. On New Years Eve we stayed up till midnight and then did some devotions and singing, so that was nice. In December we also had an MCC retreat. It was nice to relax from work for a week and to get to know the MCC staff and their families better. Since the New Year I have been busy at work. There is always lots to do and learn.

In December we also had a Christmas Carol at work. Each department got a different song to sing and were supposed to dress up. We, as nurses, sang "O Holy Night" and dressed up like shepards. It was tons of fun singing with colleagues!! Below are some pics from the carol.

Faith Alive

Mission Statement of Faith Alive: To serve humanity by expressing God’s love through compassionate voluntary services and the provision of free holistic healthcare and social serves for improved quality of life.

The three-floor Faith Alive hospital cares for about 10,000 patients a month and provides ongoing care for HIV/AIDS patients, as well as care for emergencies, opportunistic infections such as TB and Malaria, and surgery and birthing services. 

Learning to be a nurse in Nigeria has brought both joys and challenges in these past few months. I never expected to be delivering babies but here I am doing just that! It was some quick learning that I had to do and now it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming anymore.

 Joys of being a nurse here:

-I love the joy the mothers and family have for their newborns

-I love the family support that most of the patients have at the hospital

-it gives me joy to see the work of Faith Alive and how much of a family atmosphere it is

-interactions I have daily with patients and staff

-learning about HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis etc. There are definetly no hip or knee surgeries out here!!

Challenges:

-sometimes knowing my place at the hospital and what is expected of me

-language barriers

But I think the basics of nursing are the same throughout the world. That would be things like sterility, cleanliness, hand hygiene, caring for the patient in a holistic way. I love that Faith Alive doesn't just stop at the hospital. They carry out home visits, have skill acquisition centres, medical outreaches, counselling services, daily devotions for staff and patients etc. You can check out more at 

www.faithalivenigeria.org

The nurses desk.

The ward has five beds. There is a separate ICU room and one private room.

This is the labour and delivery room.