Life and Death in Bastida

So I'd like to try to make it through this blog without melting into tears but that's NOT going to happen.   Preparalos!   And they aren't sad tears but maybe just tears of wonder or serious awe at what God chooses to hand to me on a daily basis.    Who knows how to describe these things in a way that you can relive today with me?   I don't know- I'll give it a whirl.

I set sail for Bastida with our medical group this morning.   We have an awesome team in town, med students from different colleges who are doing barrio clinics this week.    The students do intake, triage, and pharmacy and then we are traveling with Dr. Victor Perdomo who is seeing all the patients and writing the prescriptions.    We arrived in Bastida around 9:30 and some folks came running up to tell us that a woman was having her baby.....like...NOW.   And she wouldn't make it to the bus to get to town.   So off I went running with some of the students, uttering a small prayer, one of my favorite prayers.... "help me help me help me help me help me".  We trekked up a hill, through a garden, and small rock path to arrive at a small wooden house full of folks waiting.   There was no power and not much light but I stepped into the bedroom to see a small dark woman quiet on the bed.   I put my hand on her stomach and looked down and figured I had about 30 seconds.     I looked at her face for a moment and watched and boom, 30 seconds later I had a sweet little head in my hands.    I asked her to push one more time and hellloooo...out came the rest of sweet little baby girl with a double nucal cord.    Fortunately someone handed me a blanket and then a towel and we dried her off on her mommy's belly- she cried right away.

It was sort of a surreal moment, no gloves, no light, no scissors, no nothing.  Just me, a mama, a sweet babe, a few students, and about 40 neighbors staring in the windows, peering in the door.   Dr. Perdomo was right behind me and as soon as we knew the baby was fine, I ran back down to the church where we were setting up our clinic to grab some scissors, gloves, and suture (NOT for a repair, to use the string to tie the cord!).     Dr. Perdomo delivered the placenta and we tied off the cord and cut it and then wrapped up Baby Nicole (thats her name!) and handed her to mama.  She started nursing right away and all the women in the room started fussing about how wonderful that was.     I laughed with Dr. Perdomo and Nef and Jhonny about how I was sweating through my scrubs and my heart was POUNDING.  And Perdomo and I waited until after she breastfed and then took the baby outside to check her out in the light.   Beautiful.   Nueva vida.   Never gets old.   I haven't seen a delivery since mid December- I haven't even thought about missing it- my life is so full here- but today- I remembered just like I remembered the first time I saw a baby come out.    It IS precious.  It IS always a surprise, always a miracle, always exciting.   It never gets old.   Even after 10 years.

And today is the International Day of Women.   I'm glad it was a girl.

Here is the sweet mama- this was definitely NOT her first baby.  She was up out of bed in about 20 minutes- what a rock star.

Here's some of her other kids, as well as some neighbors who showed up for the fun.

So I wandered through my morning sort of in a blur of wonder.   The neighbor kids came to get me and show me where the woman and her baby had gone to wash up.   I gave her some tylenol and took some more pix and hung out with the family for a little while. 

I was just starting to eat my lunch around noon when I happened to glance out the window.  And this is what I saw.    

It was Julian.   And everyone who knows him or knows his story should know how I felt.   Julian.    Taller.   Maybe a little thinner.  But I still knew him right away.  Julian.  

I've been looking for him since the end of December, wondering where he was.  Asking the other boys, scanning the neighborhoods.   I've found a couple of the "lost boys", boys that used to live at the orphanage and don't anymore.   Last August I found Gary in Higuey and this year I've seen Ariel and Alejandro and Eury and Carlitos and Fanelli and Daison (I found him yesterday- screamed "stop" at the bus stop and dove off to talk to him)....but never a sign of Julian.   Until today.    I still can't believe God could love me this much......to let me have today.  

So we talked.   I asked him to take me to his house and we walked through town.  He told me his grandmother is dying and I asked if I could see her.   We went to her house and I sat on the bed with her and I could tell that it didn't look very good.   She was feverish and moaning and working to breathe and unable to eat and her family told me she had just been in the hospital for 3 days.   So I held her hand and prayed for her.  And I prayed for Julian.    And I thanked God that I was with both of them today.

And then I walked back to the clinic and got Dr. Perdomo and we looked at her together.   She can't eat so he had her family mash up some of her pills in water and take them in a syringe and change her position and try to prop her up a little.    And as we were sitting on that bed with her I thought about the fact that just a few hours earlier I was sitting on another bed in another house with my hands on a new baby's head.   Life.  For a minute it was so new....and now it's so old and it looks like it won't be long here.    And the neighbors were crowded around the window, just like this morning.   And we just sat quietly with them.   Then Victor gave them some more instructions and we sat outside and talked to Julian and Victor asked him some questions and encouraged him.   And I reminded him that he WAS a good boy, that I was so happy that I found him and that I hoped I could see him again.   

And when we were ready to drive away Julian was in the mamon tree, picking fruit to give to me.   And the kids were crowding around the bus yelling for us and the new baby's sister asked me which clinic I would be at so they could bring her to me in another couple weeks.   And Julian's mother brought us habichuelas.   And the sun was shining SO brightly.   And I snuck some lollipops to some cuties.  And one of the guys sang me a song on the way home.    And I hung out my laundry tonight.   And I think you all hopefully know by now that kiero quedar, no kiero salir.   I want to stay.   I don't want to leave.  

And my second favorite prayer is on my lips all of tonight and it's coming out like quick little breaths to God:  "thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you".