It's getting cold!

Oh my gosh- the weather has completely turned in the last week- there has been no rain for 3 weeks so the maize has dried out and is being reaped, the hills have turned brown again and it’s become freezing cold!! Well actually the day times are still really hot but at night it must go down to 15 degrees! Brrrr - I have to nestle in my sleeping bag! Crazy- never thought it about central Africa.

I apologise I have not written anything for almost 2 months! So much has happened that there will for sure not be enough space to write it all.

Most importantly the initial part of the project that I have been working on has been completed and now is slowly starting to function. If you can recall I received some funding from Irish Aid in order to build an emergency room and set up a triage system. Everything had to be completed by the beginning of April when Nigel, my old consultant, came out to assist with giving training using funds he’d raised back home (in Mangalande). So I was manically running around trying to hurry the builders, painters, carpenters, electricians up to finish on time. Which they eventually did!- not quite in time for Nigel but in time for the Irish Ambassador who came a week later to open the department and see what I’d done with his money. We had a great couple of weeks, initially giving training on triage to health workers in the hospital using manikins brought over from the UK and then preparing the emergency room for the Irish Ambassador. It was a seriously large job and I definitely could not have done it alone. The hospital organised an opening ceremony with speeches and chewy meat and it was a really wonderful moment knowing that all the hard work had achieved something. The challenges now are whether the triaging and emergency room will function as I want it to and continue to after I leave. However I went on holiday for 10 days immediately after the opening and when I got back I found that the clinicians are starting to get used to resuscitating patients in the emergency room and that the triaging is happening. There are a few minor adjustments that need to be made and a bit of encouragement but I really hope that the project is sustained- the biggest fear of any projects undertaken in such a resource lacking country.

Now I’m working on completing the treatment room for the OPD so that small procedures can be done in it instead of in theatre which contaminates and causes overcrowding. But I’m only here for another 2 and a half months! Time has flown! And still a lot to do before I leave.

Of course in between work I’ve managed a few holidays! My parents came out to visit and we visited the south of Malawi- beautiful Zomba Plateau, climbed mount Dedza (not very high), sunbathed and swam in the lake (hope I don’t start peeing blood) and ate fish on an island. We also went to South Luangwa, a national park in Zambia and very excitingly saw 3 leopards- one baiting a porcupine with all its spines erect and 2 lions. I highly recommend a visit there for anyone wanting safaris- the density of animals that get so close to you is brilliant! 


However we did make the mistake of hiring a saloon car instead of a 4 by 4. We ended up in several sticky situations such as on a road naming itself the M10 which in actual fact was a dirt track with pot holes filled with water. The saloon was not loving it- there were numerous back wheel sliding moments, screams of fear and the unnerving feeling that we were going to get stuck somewhere in the bush and get eaten alive by rabid dogs. Then there was the incident of coming across a 100 m stretch of solid water on the road and no way of passing other than paying some men to literally carry the car through. They removed the air filter and covered the exhaust pipe because at one point the water was up to my thighs! We definitely could not have got through without them!


My mother also decided to teach  me how to kill a chicken Malaysian style- which apparently is less traumatic for the chicken- I wish I could up load videos so you could see that it really was not quick and simple! It involved extending the poor chickens neck back behind it's wings, plucking the neck vigorously to expose the vessels and then attempting to slit the throat. Unfortunately the chicken wouldn't stay still, the plucking was not around the neck and the knife was not sharp enough. Nice.

Nigel and I travelled to Nyika where he developed a keen interest in jumping and mushrooms and then we headed up to Livingstonia (no prizes for guessing where the name came from)-Dr David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, settled and introduced colonialism and Christianity into Malawi. It’s up in the mountains with a university, a church of course and a hospital but the only way to get there is along a ridiculous ‘road’ aka dirt track full of rocks that you can only get up by using a 4 x 4 going 5 mph which winds around the mountain with no edges! Not great if you’re in labour. You can see why they settled there though - it’s cool in the summer and the views from the top are incredible.

We spent Easter at the lake and basically bought a lot of wooden stuff and partied. And we met these amazing Indian Malawians who gave Nigel a lift all the way back to Lilongwe- which was lucky as he had a bag of wood weighing 45kg! and even lent us money to pay bills we owed to wooden sellers when the money ran out and we couldn’t get any more as the only whole ATM machine had been stolen. It’s wonderful the generosity and kindness of people you meet and only have known for a couple of days.

Back in Rumphi now and was surprised to be greeted by my guard wearing all of the clothes Nigel left him-shirt, trousers and shoes! - not sure he’d even washed them. Weird. He has been avidly reading the guardian and really is an intelligent man who wants the best for his children so we have decided to support them through an education.

Since I’ve been back I have been trying to develop my culinary skills by learning from one of the health staff how to make samosas – seriously time consuming and not sure whether it’s worth the small profit they make when selling them! I’ve also been collecting an army of children- un-intentially. I was given 2 balls by the Irish Ambassador to give to the children and eventually decided to give it to a group of boys and a group of girls who live near my house. The day after I gave one ball to them a little girl said ‘please madam take the ball back- they are quarrelling’ so all the children grouped together and gave me the ball back! I couldn’t believe it. But I had to give it to someone so eventually I entrusted it in one of the patient attendants children. But since then my name is called all over Rumphi and children are gathering at my door asking ‘give me ball’. I don’t have any balls left so have been trying to fend them off with crayons and colouring books but the more I give the more children turn up! Argghh! Oh well it’s quite cute really. And I saw the sweetest thing when I was travelling on a minibus. A child who must have been about 9 years old leant out the window and gave some money to another child of the same age who was trying to sell cassava from a tray on her head. She was clearly more poor than the girl in the minibus, although they were both still a lot poorer than us, and this little girl recognised this and showed compassion. It brought tears to my eyes. However poor people are in this country they still seem to smile and be happy and show love.

Now I’m back to the usual work and it’s weird as Marianne has left, boo hoo, and I’m almost the only Mzungu in the town. She really has supported me so much especially when I first arrived so I will miss her- particularly for a greenie and pool partner!

I hope you all enjoyed the royal wedding! I listened to it all on the radio and I’m not really a royalist but it did make me shed a few tears, think of London and feel patriotic. Only 2 and a bit months to go now- the end is fast appoaching and the time has gone so quickly! Still so much to do but hopefully I will complete all that I want to before I leave.

I hope that everything is going well for people at home- seems to be a lot of babies popping out everywhere! Take care and not long until I get to see you again!

xxxx