Loving life!

The church

I am settling in well and really enjoying my time here in Bangladesh.  I’ve officially been here for 1 month and time is flying!  Being here and doing what I’m doing is giving me great pleasure so far.  I work very hard 6 days a week from 9-4 and about every 4 days work on call.  These times at work are always filled with something challenging or “dramatic”, especially if I’m covering the labor room.  I had one on call that was full of a variety of particularly challenging cases.  All together, I have experienced a full term breech vaginal delivery, several antepartum hemorrhage patients who went into shock and I needed to act quickly so they wouldn’t bleed to death, eclampsia, several intrauterine fetal deaths including one cord prolapse, several emergency deliveries due to fetal bradycardia, and countless others I cannot recall at the moment!

the hospital (from behind)

I am also enjoying the community and time spent with others who live here.  From my perspective, I am getting along with everyone I’ve met and really enjoy the company of several people.  My friend Karen (an FP physician from Canada working on our OB/GYN team) and I exercise on a regular basis (although on-calls prevent a daily routine).  Rebecca (Anesthesiologist from Wales) has joined us several times as well.  We are still searching for the perfect location to exercise since the rooms are small, but the A/C in my room makes it desirable even if it’s a little constricted. Rebecca lives in one of the apartments (called “flats”) so she has living room space, but no A/C.  It’s a trade off.  We are doing P90X so also are still searching for something that will work as weights or bands. 

the waiting room

The Christian community here is also excellent.  We have prayer meeting on Tuesday, bible study on Friday, and church on Sunday each week as opportunities to fellowship with believers.  Church is in Bangla, so I don’t understand the sermon, but it’s still a wonderful experience.  They printed a generic service order in English so I can follow along somewhat the other parts of the service.  We had communion last Sunday, which was beautiful. 

Overall, I feel very happy with my work and with my down time.  It feels much different from the last 8 years of my life, when I was always waiting to get to the next step.  It feels so wonderful to be doing something with my life that I truly love. 

Again, thank you for reading and please keep me in prayer as I work to resolve an issue with my visa.  I have a plan, just pray that it executes smoothly!  Also pray for my continued health and that I will not get overwhelmed when I start taking on more responsibility as my supervisor is leaving for 4 months in mid October. 

Angela

Sunset view from our compund