Out Patient Department Picnic

Every year, in the cool/dry season, each department in the hospital has a picnic or outing.  This year the outpatient (clinic) department decided to go to St Martin's Island for lunch and to see the beach.  I must say it was quite an experience!

The day started off with an early morning bus ride to the ferry.  Here are the female medics all ready to get on the ferry:

 This was the first ferry ride for some of the medics  It turned out to be a really fun time to hang out together.  We had a good time talking and getting to know each other better, outside of work.

Then we arrived at St Martin's Island, an island known for fishing, coconuts and coral.  It is located on 8km from Myanmar, so we could see the Myanmar coast from the ferry. 

 

Next we were off for a nice rice and curry meal at one of the island's hotels!

 

After a quick meal, we were off in one of these bicycle taxis to go an see the beach.  

 

Going to the beach in Bangladesh is quite different!  You definitely don't wear a bathing suit, in fact most people wear nice outfits.  The main point was just to see it and get our pictures taken.  

 Then is was back to the ferry!  Here are some of the male medics, continuing to take advantage of more photo ops.

It was a long day and some were wiped out by the time we got back on the ferry!

 Even though it was a long day, but we had a great time together and I'm grateful to have gotten to know the medics better.  Please pray that I be able to continue to deepen the relationships that I have formed with them!

 Nomoshkar from Bangladesh!

Christel

Happy 2012!

Dear Family and Friends,
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that 2012 is off to a great start.  I had a wonderful Christmas.  My entire family was able to meet at my parents house in Taiwan.  It had been over two years since we had all been together, so it was so nice to see everyone (especially my niece)!

After a great break, I'm now back in Bangladesh!  January is typically a slower month in Bangladesh due to the colder weather, but so far this month has gotten off to a busy start.  I would appreciate your prayers as I continue to work with a high volume of patients.  Pray that I would find enough time to share with each patient our Father's love.

This is one of my patients who previously had 4 stillborn babies.  We were able to provide prenatal care and a safe and healthy delivery.  Now she has a beautiful baby girl!  We were also able to pray with her during her hospitalization and post partum check up!  Please pray that she will accept what she has heard.
Thanks again for all of your prayers, support and encouragement!
May this year be full of blessings in your life!
Christel

Merry Chistmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Bangladesh!!!

Dear friends and family,

                Greetings!  I hope you all are doing well as we come close to the end of 2011. I hope this past year has been filled with many blessings for you and your family!  I have definitely seen God’s blessings this past year, even in the midst of many challenges here in Bangladesh.  

                One of the challenges of living in Bangladesh is the enormous amount of rain!  I had no idea it could rain so much in one place.  This past Monsoon season brought a record amount of flooding to Bangladesh, as seen in this picture.  The heavy rains and swollen rivers prevented me from going on the traditional birth attendants training trip.  But hopefully I will be able to go on another one this winter, the dry season.  Please pray that these plans will all work out.

                Not only have we been flooded with water, but the hospital has also been flooded with babies!!!  During each of the last 4 months, we have had record number of births at the hospital.  We have been able to provide prenatal care and safe deliveries for women, such as Mrs A, who delivered triplets.   Not only were we able to help her with the delivery (by c-section), but while she was in the hospital waiting for the babies to start gaining weight, we were able to share the good news!  Please pray that she will remember the things that she heard and accept it.  Please pray for continued follow up in her community, where there are few believers.

                I’m so grateful that during the challenges of this past year, God has provided a wonderful group of coworkers!  Such as the women in this picture, they are the female medics at the hospital and clinic.  I also work with some pretty amazing midwives and nurses.  Please pray that they would be strengthened during this particularly busy time.  Also pray for those who have not yet accepted the good news!

                One of my favorite praise choruses is ‘Shout to the North’.  The second verse has been particularly encouraging for me this last year.  It says:

                  Rise up women of the truth,                       

Stand and sing to broken hearts,

Who can know the healing power

Of our glorious King of love.

                There are so many women with broken hearts here in Bangladesh, who have yet to know our King, the one who offers that true healing power.   I am so excited that I get to be a part of sharing this wonderful news.

                Thank you so much for all your prayers, encouragement, and support over the last year.   Thanks for being involved in what God is doing here in Bangladesh.  I definitely need your continued prayers as I work in the hospital and the community.  I could also use additional financial support.  If you would like to support the work here, you can do it online at https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/giving/wmm_doctors/

Or you can mail it to:                      

 Samaritan’s Purse

Attn: Post-Residency Program

P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607

    (828) 262-1980

On your check include Dr Christel Brabon Acct #003765

                        Thanks again for all your continued prayers.  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

Shubo Borodin (Merry Christmas in Bangla!)

Christel Brabon

Donate Medical Supplies

Hi, friends and family!
If you have access to any medical supplies, we could really use them in Bangladesh.  Right now we are especially in of suture for c-sections (I've been busy with lots of babies coming into the world)!  I could also really use more pessaries (lots of babies brought in to the world 30years ago!).  We are also trying to do laparoscopic surgery, so if you have any equipment, please let me know.  This is such a huge help!  Just email me or comment on the post and I'll give you directions of what to do with it.
Thanks!

Language Blunders!

Learning a new language can be quite frustrating.  However, at times it can also be hilarious!  For example, a couple weeks ago, I was counseling one of my prenatal patients about nutrition in pregnancy.  I decided to list some of the foods I had been learning to say in Bangla.  When I got to spinach, the medic and patient looked at me with confused looks on their faces.  Finally the medic said, "Do you really want her to eat more snakes?"

Not only is there confusion between Bangla and English, but also between American English and the British English that the Bengalis are taught in school.  This past week, I was working on handouts as a follow up to a lecture I had given on shoulder dystocias.  I had said to make sure you always have a stool in the room.  However, Bengali's learn that stool means poop.  So, apparently everyone thought I wanted poop in the room in case we had a shoulder dystocia!  That explains a lot of strange looks!

I'm sure I've made many other blunders, but those are the funniest.  And I'm sure there will be many more to come, but it does add a little humor to the day.  My language study is coming along slowly, but steady.  I have a test on June 13th, so I'd appreciate your prayers.  Also please continue to pray for the village midwife training course on June 10th up in the hill tracts.

Nomoshkar!

Here's a picture of me using a step (not stool) to deliver a baby during a c-section:

Here's another picture of Ajoy and the snake.  He's much more terrified than his face shows!

Six months & Prayer Requests

Hi, Friends and Family!
I can't believe it, but I have now been in Bangladesh for over 6 months!  I have learned so much about the Bangladeshi culture and am starting to pick up more of the language.  I've had to learn so much about practicing medicine in a limited resource area.  It's difficult as an OB/Gyn to see babies that would survive in a NICU in the US, die because we just don't have the necessary supplies and personnel.  Also, I've learned a lot about myself.  I've been reading Helen Roseveare's book "Living Sacrifice".  In the forward she says, "In comparison with the immeasurable sacrifices made by the Lord, anything that I may be asked to give up or do without seems infinitesimally small and not worthy of the name "sacrifice" at all!"  Instead we can come to see God's call as a privilege, even though others may call it a sacrifice.  If you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it.

At the hospital, we've been really busy.  Yesterday, I got to tell a young woman, "wait here's another baby," as she proceeded to deliver surprise twins!  Also, I just finished teaching my first set of midwife continuing education classes.  We focused on shoulder dystocias (when the shoulders get stuck during delivery).  It was so fun to see them learning and running drills with mannequins.  Hopefully this will be the first of many more training sessions that we can do to further their midwifery skills.
In June I'm hoping to go with one of the nurses to teach some training sessions with traditional birth attendants up in the hills.  The traditional birth attendants are the lay midwives that live in the villages and help with home births.  Only a small percentage of women in Bangladesh deliver in hospitals, so it is so important that there be trained birth attendants in the villages to help them out.  Please pray that we would be able to do this training next month and that the rains would hold off so we can get to them.

Life at home is going pretty well! I love my little apartment and it's starting to feel more like home.  I have a house helper named Ajoy, who helps me out around the house while I'm at the hospital all day.  He has been such a huge blessing since basic housework takes ten times as much time here.  Unfortunately, he is terrified of snakes (I'm not a huge fan either!).  Last week, one of the guards killed a 4 foot snake out behind my apartment.  Now Ajoy (who is not a Christian) is absolutely terrified.  Please pray that I would be able to share with him that only God can give us peace and help us not to be afraid.
Here's a picture of the snake:

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement over the last 6 months and please continue!

Once again here are some prayer requests:
     1. Tradition birth attendant class in the hills- June 10th.
     2. Ajoy- to find the only One who can calm his fears.
     3. My continued Bangla language study