Joy comes in the morning...

Usually when I dream, I go to a far off place. Because of the way I tend to jump in my sleep, my South African friends tell me that at that very moment (the jumping moment), I'm making that big leap across the Atlantic Ocean to an exotic location such as Atlanta or Chicago (hmm). Well, on the morning of December 19th at around 1:15 am, I'd long since crossed the pond when I was stirred from my sleep by a yelp (or was it a scream?!) in the next room. I asked, "Thuli, are you ok?" In a frantic and unexpected voice, Joyce (instead of Thuli) told me to come over in a double. As I opened the door to Thuli's room, I was met by Joyce kneeling on the floor clasping Thuli's hand as she was experiencing early labor pains. Because I haven't written in a while, and because pregnancy is not necessarily note worthy, I did not tell you that Saziso's Brother's girlfriend, Thuli is 7 months pregnant. FYI, Thuli is the mother of Tshepang (the cute little girl who is pinching Twobob's bum in the previous blog post). Joyce asked me to take over dula duty (i.e. comforting Thuli)while she and Saziso's mom where trying to arrange transport to take her to the clinic. Since I'm an expert on child labor, due to my over indulgence of TLC's The Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby and Big Mama's House, I knew that I was supposed to rub her back, hold her hand, and have plenty of towels. Tshepo (the father and Saziso's older brother) walked into the room and assumed his position of providing comfort as well. Not more than 15 minutes after I came in the room to help, Thuli started screaming in Setswana, a lanugage I'm not fluent in, however, knowing that labor transends language, knew that she was in serious pain. The pains seemed to be getting worse and all of a sudden her water broke... she needed to get somewhere medical soon! Water breaking, screaming, sqeezing hands, pulling down of pants, screaming, fluids spilling, out comes a baby boy, OH MY GOD! Yes, you read right, I was witness to the premature home birth of baby boy Kototsi! SHOCK! The three of us could not believe that this tiny little boy was just born on the floor at 1: thiry something in the morning! Saziso's mom rushed in the room to tell us that the transport had come, just to find that they baby had been delivered. Thuli and the baby (who was still attached) were transported in a neighbor's car to the clinic and then to the hospital. You might be wondering why we just didn't call the ambulance. Well, in Rustenburg and maybe the whole of South Africa, most times it's quicker to find your own transport. Back to the story, Thuli and baby (who is still not officially named, but Saziso and I can't decide to call him Speedy (Saziso) or "Comes early in the morning" (Me)) are doing well. The baby weighs in at 1.5kg. He'll have to stay until he reaches 1.6kg. I've gone to visit both mother and child twice.

Since I've been in Peace Corps, people keep asking me if there is anything "memorable" about my experience that particularly sticks out. I always say no...well, you've guessed it, I will remember this moment for the rest of my life! What a reason to write a blog post!