Ahh....clean clothes

Yes, I finally have on clean clothes. After wearing the same pants from Friday afternoon until Monday morning, I finally have on clean clothes, and man, does it feel good! With all the dust everywhere, though, I'm sure they won't be clean for long.
Today was a good day. We woke up to mini pancakes for breakfast and peanut butter - what a nice surprise. Then, we were off in search of hospitals serving women. The one that proved most helpful for me was one that we were not originally planning on going to. It is close to the school and one of the teachers at the school works there occasionally as a midwife. The sister of our dentist here also works there as a nurse. It is a comprehensive hospital, but has a significant OB/GYN ward. We were introduced to some of the midwives as well as the head physician, who was so welcoming. We talked to them about how they do things and what the biggest problems they see are. They were very willing to talk and eager to learn things from us. This particular hospital is supported by an Italian organization and are not lacking for much. (For the medical bunch among you, their biggest problem is pre-eclampsia/eclampsia.) We then went to Malalai hospital, which is a government-run hospital. They do between 80-120 deliveries/day! They have VERY limited funding and are supported only by the national Ministry of Public Health, which does not have much to give them. They are hurting badly for supplies. We started to go on a tour and talk to more people, but were cut short as we were informed that we needed a letter from the Ministry of Public Health in order to be there. So, we are working on that now.
We are coming up with ideas and are starting to think that the area we might best be involved in would be in training midwives, as they are key in serving women here. We are looking into how we could best do this.
Tomorrow we will be headed about one hour north of here to a village community that has started an outpatient clinic that has OB services. I'm excited for this.
One close call today - we were riding in a van and got pulled over by the police. Thankfully, I think it was just a traffic stop, but boy was I praying! Praise the Lord for His protection.
One more prayer request - pray for protection of my GI tract. I forgot to use bottled water to brush my teeth today :)