Geyman Steps

Always so clean and fresh... Just kidding!  They had escaped outside, emptied the dogs water dish and then crawled across the gravel to the yard. Totally filthy and having a blast! When it was time to get cleaned up, I started their bath and went to get clean pjs... came back to guilty girls who hadn't waited for me to get them undressed. As the first picture shows, all that dirt was eventually gone! A chameleon we found by our gate on the way to school the other morning. The fact that they can move their eyes 360 degrees in DIFFERENT directions from one another is a bit freaky to watch! They hiss too when they think you are a little to close.  For those of you have not heard we have both good and bad news.  Good news first. Baby Esta stayed two nights with us after being released from the hospital. She is  eating, gaining weight, and currently being cared for by her aunt.  Bernadetta, however, has been on the decline ...

On November 20th, only a few weeks ago, what began as a joyful welcoming of child into the world quickly turned into a terrible nightmare. One of which we would find ourselves caught in middle of. Helping a Friend My friend, Bernadetta was due and as a midwife, I regularly visited her for checkups and to help her with labour education. Unfortunately she knew very little as there are no checkups during the last 4-6 weeks of pregnancy and there are no childbirth education classes. Historically, giving birth to a child is the number one cause of death of women in Tanzania. As such, there is also a lot fear surrounding child birth.  It was 11:30pm when I received a call from Bernadetta's husband. Her water had broken and I had agreed to drive them to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital it was determined she would likely need a cesarean but they agreed to start with a pitocin induction. It was getting late (or early) and not being allowed to be with her I returned h...