An Invite to Karaoke

The past few days have been a mixture of logging in hours at the clinic and getting a chance to experience a few Filipino musts. On Monday mid afternoon the clinic was very quiet. Only Hilary and Maritess were on duty and Lindsay and I were helping out with prenatals. Prenatals finished at about 11 am and by noon a woman stepped out of a taxi, towel on her head and hunched over. She was already dilated to 5 cm and we were ready to go. Lindsay and I assisted with getting her ready for labor and helped her continue to exercise.
By 3pm she was in the delivery room with her sister yelling "JUST COME OUT" to her belly. Hilary and Maritess left Lindsay and I up in the delivery room with the woman and her sister while they completed a few routine check ups on patients downstairs. Within about 5 mins of their departure her pushing was getting much more extreme. We tried to stay calm. Her sister explained to us, "She thinks the head is about to come out and wants to get on the bed." Lindsay and I got her up on the bed, gave eachother a look of terror/excitement and rubbed her stomach as she pushed. Within a few minutes Maritess returned and the head was crowning. Hilary rushed up a minute later and with a few long pushes the baby girl was out. Just the four of us in the room allowed for Lindsay and me to have a lot of responsibilities. I suctioned the baby, clamped the umbilical cord and cut it. Meanwhile, Lindsay assisted with the woman who was hemorrhaging due to a uterine prolapse. We had to work quickly and efficiently to get the IV in, help stabilize the mom's uterus and handle the post birth workup for the baby. By 530 pm all was stable and despite the sweat dripping down our faces (and bodies) we felt accomplished and integral in the safe delivery and care of mom and baby. The baby was named Pinkie Pearl. Not kidding.

On Monday evening, Lindsay and I got a taste of home! Our good friend and neighbor from Santa Clara, Trisha Hall, is half Filipino. Her mom is from Cebu and her uncle and his wife and four children live here (only 5 mins from the clinic) and own a city wide catering company. He and his family invited us out of dinner on Monday night. Ironic to eat out with a family that cooks for a living but they like to call it"research" when they got to restaurants. It was a blast! Lindsay and I got to meet such a warm and welcoming family and understand where Trisha gets her love for music and her free spirit. The Maier family then totally won our hearts by taking us to the Desert Factory after dinner. We got Oreo cake and chocolate cookies and talked about our experiences in Cebu. It was very interesting to hear from locals about their opinions of the problems in the Philippines and how ineffective government legislation tries to alleviate problems while only creating more.

At the end of the evening, true to our analysis of Filipino culture, they invited us to a Karaoke bar for another night! Apparently this karaoke bar has private rooms for each group and big screen TVs for optimal Karaoke performances. Lindsay and I warned that we are not the best Karaoke singers but they insisted it doesn't matter. Hopefully we will find a time to go with them!

Today we experienced another Filipino must: buying pirated DVD's! John, our driver and good friend (and fan of all EMO bands), took us to the pirated DVD street where we were inundated with every movie we could hope to see. Each DVD costs 50 pesos (1 $) and we insured they were giving us the real price, as opposed to the white girl price. Lindsay and I toiled over what the get. The Reader, BrideWars, Slumdog Millionaire, Push, Gossip Girl, X-Men, Monsters Vs. Aliens you name it. To make sure that the quality is good, they have a TV and DVD player in their street side market so you can have them play the video before you buy it. If there is something wrong with it, you can return it! Nothing like illegal pirating industry having a return policy. We decided on Slumdog Millionaire (I just love it), Doubt, X Men 3 and Twilight. We will probably go back before our trip to Moalboal and stock up on some Gossip Girl.

It is now 3pm and we are patiently awaiting the 5cm patient at the clinic to go into active labor. In the meantime, I have finished reading Merle's Door and Dreams From My Father (Obama's Autobiography) and will now move onto the Soloist. We are happy to hear the protests have subsided n Thailand and we are still beach bound and ready for elephant riding!