BALUT and BABIES

Hi All!
On Monday, Kinshasa and I went to the hospital to visit a patient we had to transport on Friday. She came in with premature rupture of membranes due to a UTI that had not been treated. I will never forget the look on the parents' faces when Kinshasa told them they would have to be transported. I told this story in the last blog. Anyway, we pulled up to the hospital and had to get through a set of guards. Good thing Kinshasa could speak the language! The guards said visiting hours were over. Kinshasa just kept saying, "No it's ok, we will go. No really, we are just going to go." They finally let us. Then we came to another set of guards to get into the room where the patient was. They did not want to let us in either. She said the same thing to them and told them who we were there to see. They wanted to let us in one at a time. Kinshasa pointed and me and said, "Oh, no! We will go in together, it is her first time ok." Then they finally let us in. She said you just have to be a pushy American and act like you know it is ok. She is Canadian though, so I don't know what she meant by pushy American... haha! I will never forget what the place was like. The room was the size of a gym and was lined and filled with beds. There were two moms to a bed which left husbands and visitors in the aisles or sometimes on the bed as well. Needless to say, it was extremely hot, and extremely cramped in there. It smelled absolutely terrible right next to the bathroom. Kinshasa and I started walking the aisles looking for our patient. As we walked, everyone, and I mean everyone stopped every conversations to stare at us. Most smiled as us as we walked by hoping we would stop to talk to them. A lot of people pointed and said to the person next to them, "Mercy!" Any time a white girl goes into the hospital, they know we are associated with Mercy Maternity Center. I wanted so badly to stop and visit each patient, however we would have been there for at least four days. We finally found our girl and were greeted with the biggest smile ever. She proudly showed us her baby girl which she had delivered Saturday evening. They named her Shanna Pearl. Overall the hospital was extremely cramped and understaffed. Kinshasa said none of the moms there have been able to shower since delivering and sometimes they are there for a week because the nurses get so busy and forget who is where and how long they have been there and such. She also said sometimes they have outrageous infections from not being able to wash properly, especially if they tear. A lot of the times when she goes to visit, the mom's will not have even seen their baby or know the sex, even if they delivered two days ago. It was sad to leave them, but we left them with a bag of clothes and soaps that people from Kinshasa's hometown put together. We prayed over them and sadly said goodbye.


When we got home, Chantel was in the living room, so I sat down to tell her about it. Not ten minutes later, Kinshasa comes running in the house and says, "Perfect, you two are here! Have you ever had balut??" Chantel and I look at each other and then back at her and said, "No, do we want to?" She led us out to the street where Genevive (a Filipino midwife) was ordering balut from a boy on a bicycle. She was so excited that we were going to try it. I purchased an egg for 15 pesos not really knowing what I was getting myself into. We were told it was a chicken fetus 16 days old. Genevive showed us how to open the egg by cracking the top and peeling the shell away. We added salt and vinegar to the juices inside and then drank it. Disgusting. Then, we had to take a bite. I'm sorry, but it was looking at me I think. I timidly bit into it but did not rip any off. I said, "That was a bite of bones and feathers, this is so gross." Amber came out to watch us and said, "Ha! You got the wing!" She pointed out where a good bite to take would be. However, I don't think it was that great of a bite. I took a bite, definitely got more bone, feather, and some yoke. It was gross. I was able to swallow. Chantel had it in her mouth and spit it out. I can't say that I blame her. It is a Filipino delicacy. Mom always says, "We eat pig, and it doesn't get much worse than that..." Apparently, it does.
I worked a double shift again, swing and night. There was one baby born during the swing shift and three in the night. None of them had decided on a name however when I had to leave. They were all very normal births. I got to chart for all of them. I absolutely love charting!

This was baby number one, born to LiliBeth.

He was born sometime in the evening...all the times seem to run together.

His footprint is below.

This is baby number two. She was born late in the night a bit prematurely. She was covered in vernix, making her a pretty gross and sticky baby. We rubbed the vernix into her skin and then gave her a bath. However, she was still very sticky.

Same baby, all ready for her footprints!

These are the proud parents.