It Takes a Village

I never thought that I would be leading an ambulance to a villagers house at 12 am in the morning with my head lamp...

The day was relatively pretty good. Busy but good. I had just finished teaching the girls a little bit about volleyball and went to take dinner when Major sir called me to run up the hill. Whenever the boss calls, I always think I'm in trouble just because it's the boss. However our director is probably the best person to work for. I got to his office and he told me to go meet Ms. Leishimi for a delivery. "Whoops!" I thought, I was supposed to tell her about that delivery when it was told me a couple hours ago. But she found out. Alabanza. 

I knew this would be a long night, and so I had the girls take dinner for me. I grabbed all my stuff and sister Rinki sat in back and we were off as the sun went down. Two things I have never done before here in India: ride the motorcycle at night and ride the motorcycle at night with someone on the back. I will admit, deep down, I was afraid. But I kept my cool. 

We arrived on the scene. I thought I was going to be able to go but then I remembered that I had to take sister Rinki back because Ms. Leishimi came with another midwife. And so this began part 2 of sitting for two hours in someone's yard while I didn't know the language. But this time it wasn't as bad.

I noticed lots of things this time. The men sat on one side of the fire waiting while the women and children sat on the other side of the fire. Family and neighbors and even ppl afar off were there waiting for this baby. Then I thought to myself, "it takes a village to raise a child." The baby wasn't even born yet and he already had so many loved ones backing him up. He had a mother and grandmother and aunts and uncles and friends and cousins. He would have many influences and would be raised by the villages. How exciting! I thought to myself how I would like that for my children. To be raised by a group of people who loved him/her and would teach him the ways of the Lord and so much more. 

I passed the time staring back at the children, showing them my light, pretending to speak a little garo. I talked with Ms. Leishimi and Ms. Lilu whenever they came out of the house. Slowly things progressed. I made the silly mistake of saying I was hungry in garo. Next thing I knew, this family that didn't have a lot of money or food made me a whole meal. The father called me into one of the houses-- it took me forever to figure out what he wanted. One of the sisters had made me rice and potato curry. It was so nice of them. Because it's rude to say no to food especially in this instance where I already felt bad for making them slave over for me, I ate all the food. I told the sister I knew a little garo and that I was learning very slowly. She caught on and taught me some things. She also kept giving me more food. Finally I stopped her and ate what I had. After late dinner, around 9, I went out to the fire again. Back to my seat to look like a lost space cadet. One of the men called me to come close to the fire. It was really nice. Then Ms. Leishimi called me in distress. 

When I walked into the house, the first thing I noticed was a high pitched grunting sound coming frome the baby. This is never a good sign. This combined with noticeable retractions in the stomach and deep visible pulling of neck muscles told me that the baby was struggling for air. After a quick assessment, I told Ms Leishimi that we need to give oxygen manually or this baby would tire quickly. She gave the ambu bag and I put to use with the little knowledge I could remember from nursing school. A breath from the ambu every couple of seconds, not pressing the bag fully. 3 secs, breath, 3 secs, breath. Looking at the color of the baby and other signs, things kinda seemed to be going no where. And so I went outside to call Auntie Lois. 

It's times like this that I wished I had a phone. Getting ahold of auntie Lois was painstaking as each call dropped and the phone balance was getting lower. I just need this to work this one time. The whole time I was praying to myself. I finally reached auntie and she told us to give actual oxygen to the baby. Major Sir brought the oxygen tank 

Good thing I paid enough attention in nursing school cause I was able to put together the oxygen tank and mask and make everything work. It's times like this where Ms. Leishimi doesn't know what to do that I start to freak out as she questions me about every unknown thing to her. I just pray and go back in my mind and think of some kind of sound advice from a teacher, a nurse, a doctor. 

After successfully applying oxygen with no sufficient help, we decided to take the baby to the hospital. And that's how i found myself riding the motorcycle through the night again, with a boy on the back who didn't speak English. Never in my 21 years of life would I have imagined myself driving a motorcycle on a super rocky road at 11 at night to get money to take a baby to the hospital. Never. But God is funny like that. We made it to the compound to get some money. Then we made it back. I didn't crash the bike. Alabanza. 

 

And then we waited for the ambulance. The midwives weren't quite oxygenating the baby correctly, so I took the child in my arms and made sure he could get as much help as he could get. I named him. Just because it was easier to call him that name instead of "baby". I won't say yet unless the mother allows me to actually name him. I rocked him and gave him oxygen and thought about how much he was fighting. Fighting for life. He needed the Lord. For every breath. Just like me. Just like us. 

Then I saw the ambulance near and went to lead him to the house with my head lamp. After the ambulance arrived, we tried with much struggle to get the weak mother into the ambulance. Baby, Ms. Leishimi and Rinki sister went as well. We closed the ambulance and they were off. Then I had Lilu gather the village together, that was to raise this child, so that we could pray. We then said our goodbyes and left. 

Found out just now as I write that the mother is fine but the baby is still in the ICU with respiratory distress. Must continue to pray for him. 

I'm thankful we made the right decision. And now one the boys is sick and calls. Nurse Kam on the go. Keep praying for that baby. I want the village to raise him

 

Mmm