From Sad to Sublime

It's been a few days so there is a lot to catch up on. Friday morning I did end up in labor and delivery. It was a humbling experience to say the least. These women are not aided in their labor at all. The cots are lined up side by side with no curtain or partition of any kind. They labor naked, and if told to switch position or walk, they are to do this on their own. I went over to one woman to assist her with standing up as she was clearly in quiet agony and needed to move from the cot to a gurney as she was headed for a c-section. I was told that she must do this without any assistance. I wanted to scream but, as with the Prime Directive (hello Star Trek fans) I am not allowed to interfere with their processes. Another woman came in, gave birth, cleaned herself up, rested for 4 hours, and was sent home with her baby. I watched the c-section, which was especially exciting as the electricity kept going out. Terrifying. I was handed her beautiful and healthy baby girl and brought her to a heater to await her mom's recovery, and that was lovely, but I saw her mother and many others that morning, treated so coldly, so unkindly, that I cried afterwords.

After that, thankfully, Betty, Linda and I headed to Mtubatuba in South Africa and I honestly have no words to describe what I encountered this weekend. I've been trying to upload some photographs but I'm having some trouble. We left, with our Safari guide, at 4:30 Saturday morning and, for the next 9 hours, I was engulfed in the most devastating, the most profound beauty, that I have ever experienced. Africa is unimaginably, almost painfully, beautiful. The contrasts that exist here are dizzying. For now, it is Sunday night and I'll be up at 6:00 tomorrow morning to go back to work. I'm exhausted. I will try to get pictures up tomorrow.