January 2, 2008
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Christmas Eve Turns into Christmas Day
Well….to finish the story….Sal picked up Doricah who was three months pregnant and bleeding heavily. She needed to be admitted and have a drip (IV) started. That’s what they call an IV here… “a drip” Janet reached the clinic in beginning labor so he had two patients admitted. Since it was already 11pm I just fell asleep (remember I’m back at the hotel where we were going to have a one night getaway.) At 6am when I woke up, Sal still was not back, so I called him for a status report. He told me Doricah’s bleeding had stopped and her vital signs were returning to normal. Janet, he said was going to deliver any minute now so once she did he would drive back and meet me for the breakfast buffet included with the room. The breakfast buffet was only until 10:30am, so at 9:30 I called again for a report….He said “Things are not going as quickly as I thought, so you better eat without me.” So I proceeded to go alone to the buffet and while out of my room asked for a late checkout around 12noon. I found out the hotel was having a Christmas luncheon buffet with turkey and cranberry sauce etc at 12:30pm so I thought maybe Sal could at least make it for that. I sat in the room until 12 talking with the maid and clicking channels….at 12 noon I called the porter to help me with my bags and went to the lobby. I proceeded to checkout and then plopped onto one of the couches in the lobby to read a book while I waited for Sal. After many phone calls, Janet still had not had her “any minute” baby at 2pm. There was no one else to come and rescue me…all the other missionaries went to spend Christmas day with friends….Herod and Mwanza were celebrating Christmas at the church with their families….Mwanza was even in charge of skits. So being the problem solver I am, I decided to take a taxi back to the farm which is exactly what I did.
Once back at the farm, I went in to see Janet who had a very relieved look on her face when I walked into the room. As I looked around the room and later talked with Sal, I found out she had only allowed two people in the room…two older bush women who were friends. Her family was not with her, nor would she let the other workers in. So I decided to stay with her for the duration….scared first time mom that needed support and encouragement…a lot of talking things through. At last at 7:45pm, out came a healthy baby boy…3.3kg or 7,3lb. So our first Christmas baby born here at Sons of Thunder!!!!
Well….you think the story ends here but no, not quite. At 4am Mercy’s husband called….Mercy was in labor and it was decided they would meet Sal “at the Hill.” You see it is rainy season here and most of the bush roads are impassable or under water or full of sinking mud….so even with the Rover some places are out of reach. So Sal got in the vehicle to meet them except he couldn’t find them….after two hours and multiple phone calls to different people, he found them at one of the schoolteacher’s houses. He drove her back to the clinic where twenty minutes later she delivered a baby girl!!
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