Biweekly, St. Gabriel’s has a team that goes on outreach to rural villages. I was astounded by how efficient these projects are!  We drove about 30 minutes to a large village.  There we set up in 2 community rooms.  One was used for antenatal care and the other, larger building was used to vaccinate and weigh children.  Alexa took weights, while another volunteer and I took the blood pressures of the approximately 60 women who are pregnant in the village.  These women bring in their medical books where we record everything including their weight, fundal height, blood pressure and HIV status/treatments.  The women are also physically examined by a nurse to make sure they do not have TB, malaria, cardiac disease or numerous other illnesses.  If this is the first antenatal check up the mother is receiving, screened for HIV and syphilis, given an insecticide treated mosquito bed net to prevent malaria, supplied with albendazole to get rid of any parasitic infection she may have, and then proceeds to have a normal antenatal checkup.  Children are vaccinated against tetanus, measles, BCG, and polio.  Their nutritional statuses are recorded and their weights are tracked.  It went really smoothly and I enjoyed the experience.  At the end, we were able to play games with the children in the village!  The great number of pregnant women surprised me, but only until I learned that the goal in this village is to have 7-15 kids!