Longing

Homesickness is the wrong term... but the longing to see loved ones and be in familiar surroundings, sure there are those moments.

Being together with other people 24/7, living and sleeping with them, and never being able to simply close the door behind you, it's just unfamiliar. I'm glad to have dear people around me here. I believe that humans are not meant to navigate through life alone. But there are also discussions and disagreements sometimes.

Today, 'my' midwifery students are celebrating their graduation back home, for example, and I'm thinking of them. It's been three years since that moment for me, and I still remember exactly how it feels.

'Families need midwives!' And I'm happy that the world now has more amazing midwives.

I would have loved to celebrate with them, but unfortunately, that's a sacrifice I have to make.

The right time never comes.

And there was no right time for my journey either, without missing important days, like upcoming birthdays in my family.

But

'Distance can separate two bodies, but not two hearts.'

In that spirit, I'm thinking of you, and we'll hold our celebrations at a later time!

I'm already looking forward to good food again 😅

For dinner, I'm having maize tortillas tonight. I'm hungry, we had a tiring day at the clinic.

There are hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Today, I had to care for a woman with significantly elevated blood pressure, massive fluid retention, headaches, and nausea. These are some of the main symptoms of such a (dangerous) condition. I called a doctor, and he asked me: So what do we do now?

I don't want to accuse anyone, but I suspect that the approach here should really be to impart more knowledge during education and studies. In my opinion, the time until graduation is clearly too short... Becoming a specialist in three years? It's simply not possible to have learned everything.

I was allowed to treat the woman, luckily we had some medications available, and I even found a procedure guideline in English, which I printed out and now hangs on the wall.

There are always new situations, but what I perceive as positive is the increasing trust that is being shown towards me. It seems like the first week was the 'trial' period, where I had to show that I do have some knowledge and experience, and today, the doctor was grateful for my advice.

It's nice to have the feeling at the end of the day that it's worth it. Worth it to be here. For the women and newborns.