Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Still sick, still home in my bathrobe. The weather is gorgeous and I'm having a hell of a time staying inside.

My dining room table looks like a very small relief center-mosquito netting, serious nerdy sun hat, 50 block sunscreen, nasty meds for malaria and traveler's diarrhea, immunization records including Hep A, water purifying tablets, a pile of baby clothes, money belt and small bag for passport. Oh, Ambien for sleep, which doesn't work for me. I have yet to lay in meds for hemorrhage, suture material or spare scrubs. A midwife I talked with this morning said she even left her bras behind and her spare shoes.

A mom came to the hospital where I will be working with her young baby. She offered the baby in exchange for a tent (it's now the rainy season). Gawd. I'm leaving my tent behind when I go and everything else I can think of.

I'm eating a big bowl of hijiki-the Japanese call it 'black rice'.

Abundance-that's what we have. Abundance. And luck.

I watched this BBC thing last night about the salmon run in the Northwest. It made me weep and think about Martha. The salmon are like saints. They benefit all beings, every part of their lives. And it's visible. Some of them swim 3000 miles to their spawning ground, to breed, die and feed all life around them, even the trees.

The drugs you take for malaria can give you bad dreams. Groovy.

1 comment:

Valerie Loveland said...

That story about the mother is heartbreaking.