Through the Seasons

Doctor Checkup

Today our class assignment is that we go to town to take care of some sort of “business”… in Swahili of course.  So we took the opportunity to go to the doctor for a prenatal checkup.  It’s been 5 weeks since my last one.

I had a great report!  My last 2 checkups I’ve “gotten in trouble” for not drinking enough water so I have been vigilant about upping that and today I was in the clear.  My iron was low at my last appointment so I’ve been taking iron pills.  Today my iron levels were great.  My blood pressure is still normal and I still don’t have any swelling.  The only “bad” thing was my weight gain.  I’ve gained 4 kilos (almost 9 pounds) in 5 weeks.  That sweet nurse said, “Haiwezikani!”  That means, “It’s impossible!”  AH!  What?!  Well.  Not impossible apparently.  I joked with her that I needed to stop eating.  She got very serious on me then and told me that if I stop eating, the baby will stop growing.  Right.  It’s hard to joke in Swahili…  The baby’s heartbeat was good too.  I wasn’t much worried about that though as much as he moves around now!  So, overall I’m doing well.  I did email the doctor in Dar to see if she had any concern about my weight gain.  My body looks absolutely no different except my tummy.  Jonathan and I may fit another walk into our days.  It would be a nice time together anyway.  Otherwise, I’m just not going to overly worry about it.

This trip to the doctor was different than any of our others though because Jonathan didn’t handle anything for me.  I wouldn’t have let him because I need to practice my Swahili in real life situations… and he had the same idea so that’s good!  I handled the appointment with the receptionist and prepaid (of course).  I spoke to a nurse who was cleaning the waiting room.  I handled the lab time and then did the talking with the nurse during the checkup itself.  She had to ask me a million questions so that was really good practice.  I understood everyone pretty well and they understood me.  The last nurse said that I speak Swahili well.  Heehee…  (I really don’t but for an American I guess I’m doing okay.)  Now there were words here and there that I didn’t know and she would say them in English.  One time she said a word a couple times and I didn’t understand.  Then she said, “Pain.”  Yikes!  What!?  I’m glad she said it in English!  She put this metal funnel thing on my tummy using a little pressure then put her ear on it.  She was listening to the baby’s heartbeat.  Crazy!  Then she got out a little machine to listen to the heartbeat again.  I don’t know why she did it twice unless the little metal thing wasn’t working or something.  Anyway, it was a great time of practice and it really helped my confidence that I was able to communicate there because I can directly compare it to the last time we were there and could hardly say anything and could understand absolutely nothing.  Progress!!

Now we’re at the internet cafe because Jonathan wants to do something online.  I’m sure this is not exactly what the teachers had in mind as we’re just sitting here on our computers…and typing in English but hopefully we won’t be here too long.  We have a little shopping we’d like to get done before we head back for lunch.

Oh and maybe you’ve noticed…  Jonathan figured out how to connect to the internet via his cell phone so we’re able to get online at the campsite now.  That’s why I’ve been able to respond to email more quickly and blog more frequently.  We still have to come to town some though for the big projects because those sort of things are cheaper here.  I do hope to continue keeping you better updated now that I can.  Jonathan has posted a ton of pictures in the photo gallery on our main web page too so check it out!

Nitawaona sasa hivi.  (I will see you soon.)