Things that are different: Neighborhood baby clinic

One thing that is special here is that each neighborhood has special ways of taking care of it's own.  It's a government system, but it works very well.  There is a neighborhood man (elected but unpaid) who heads over 15-30 families.  Everyone who moves into the neighborhood or even visits for more than 24 hours is supposed to report to him, just so he knows what is going on.  We also have a neighborhood guard duty, made up of men from the neighborhood, who patrol every night to make sure all is well and safe.  The women and the men in the neighborhood each meet monthly to take care of business.  Each group has it's own bank account, from which members can take out small loans if needed, or get some money for medical care if someone is sick. 

All neighborhoods also have "Posyandu" or neighborhood  baby clinic, every month.   I used to help with the Posyandus when I was single working as a nurse in Kalimantan.   The Posyandu here is quite abbreviated compared to the ones I used to work with.  It goes like this:  On the 15th of every month, at 4:30 pm, all of the mommies in the neighborhood pack up their babies and toddlers (up to age 5) and head over to the house where Posyandu is.   A lady with a bar scale and a sling weighs all of the babies and the weight is recorded.  Baby and mommy are given a snack (a banana or candy or cake or soybean porridge), and then they head home.  Babies that are not gaining weight properly are referred to the nearest government health clinic.  A couple of times a year, mega dose vitamin A is administered to prevent vision problems. 

So Jonathan and I have been attending for several months now.  It's nice to be able to keep track of Jonathan's weight, and to get to know the other mommies in the neighborhood.  At his last weighing he was 9.9 kg (21.8 lbs).  His birth weight was 7.3 lbs (7 lbs 5 oz) so yep, he's tripled his birth weight in a year.

Here's a couple of pictures of Jonathan at Posyandu

A bar scale (like what they use in the market to weigh goods) and a sling are used to weigh every child in the village under the age of 5.  Here Jonathan is taking his turn.

Close up view:  This is fun mom!  (Note: this kid has got a lot of teeth!)