On Holiday and Home!
It’s crazy to think that seven months has passed so quickly and that here I am, sat in Harrietcfield, writing my final blog entry. My overall experience had been incredible and settling back into life in the UK has had easy and challenging moments. Family life and home life seems oh-so-natural, but going into Perth and going to the shops is all a bit daunting! I’m sure I will get used to it in time; it’s just so strange that a week ago I was on my final Malawian bus ride…time flies.
Leaving Nchalo and the family was a very strange experience. I was very sad to say goodbye to the community which we had become so used to and especially sad to say goodbye to the Phiri family. Phoebe and Ignatius really were so good to us and what was bizarre was not knowing when we would meet again. While I fully intend on returning to Nchalo, I have no idea when, or if they will still be there. Even so, in living with the family we experienced Malawian life first-hand and built relationships which I hope will stay alive for years to come.
First stop after Nchalo was Blantyre, where we stayed with friends, went to church for the final time and were treated to lunch at a brilliant “English country pub”, called “Village Green”, in the city-a definite recommendation for anyone in Blantyre any time soon! At the same time we had to say goodbye to Tony, someone else who was so, so good to us in Nchalo. Unfortunately the “thank you and goodbye” was quite rushed and sudden and I didn’t feel that we conveyed our gratitude quite well enough, so (I’m hoping that Tony may read this) Thank You So Much, Tony!!!
From Blantyre Sophie and I went to Dedza where we met Mum, Dad and Jenny for one final night before they flew home the following day. Dedza is a very cold town up in the mountains, so we were very chilly, however pretty pottery and cheesecake served as good distractions! Once my family had left, we really began our travel time and were in Lilongwe, where we had never been before, to meet up with the other volunteers for a few nights. There were political protests lasting a couple of days which delayed our itinerary by one day, but in the grand scheme of things that’s not too bad at all! Drew, Sophie’s boyfriend, came out to visit and travel with us and we spent a lot of time travelling with Isla (another PT volunteer) and Lucia (Glasgow Uni med student who we met).
First stop was Senga Bay, our first glimpse of the lake since April. The sun was deceptively cruel and the wind made the weather seem cooler, so most of us ended up a little pink after day one, but learned to apply sun-cream every hour (at least). One of the funniest parts of our time in Senga Bay was when the owner of the place we were staying said that we could have a pan of boiling water when we asked if we could self-cater. We said “Yes, please!” and later that night were presented with a pan of water which had just come off the stove. He wouldn’t let us use the kitchen so we were stumped as to how we would cook our pasta. Luckily, Family Lovegrove had brought me some instant custard to which you just add boiling water, so we certainly did not go hungry. I think the owner was a bit disappointed that his joke hadn’t worked, but we were very smug!
From Senga Bay, Sophie and Drew went to Cape Maclear while Isla, Lucia and I went north. My trip up the lakeshore road on a coach was quite something. Picture a normal, UK sized bus, crammed with as many people on seats as possible, luggage everywhere and the isle full of people too. This journey lasted 10 hours and I couldn’t help but think how boring and uneventful public transport will be now that I am home.
We spent a few nights in the Livingstonia area, visiting the mission and the huge waterfalls. While buying a slice of banana cake in the little craft shop in the town, I spied a shop-bag with “Steenson’s” written on it. I asked if I could see it: “But it’s my bag, Madam.” “Yes, that’s not a problem, I just wonder could I see all the writing on it more closely please?” Sure enough, it was a bag from Steenson’s Jewellers, Glenarm, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland! (A jeweller very near my family in Ireland, which has sold several rings or bangles to us over the years). It was very strange but was a reminder as to how small the world can be!
After Livingstonia, the three of us hit the lakeshore, meeting Drew and Sophie off the Illala Ferry in Nkhata Bay and then spending time at Kande Beach, where we did horse riding through forest, on the beach and in the lake. From Kande we went to Nkhotakota, Dedza Pottery’s sister outlet, where again, cheesecake featured heavily and so did pottery. This time we were able to paint pottery and have it glazed and fired; a brilliant memento of my travels. Heading back to Lilongwe before flying home, everyone’s bags were more heavily laden, mainly with pottery and chitenjes. Our final weekend in Lilongwe was quite surreal but enjoyable nonetheless and on Monday morning we made our way (via matola!) to the airport.
Our journey was uneventful and after saying goodbye to everyone at Heathrow, I continued on up to Edinburgh to meet Dad and Jenny. Being home is strange; on the one hand, nothing has changed, but then again, so much is different. I have learned so much from my time away and I am very excited about university in September. I cannot put into words how grateful I am for all my family and friends being so behind me in everything that I have done, to my sponsors for helping me get to Malawi, and to everyone who has taken an interest in my Gap Year. All the emails and post brought a smile and it’s saddening to think that most of my post will now be bank statements, not hand-written cards and letters!
So, I guess it’s time to sign off and say “The End”. It’s strange to think that two years ago I signed up for my PT selection course and here I am about to go to my debriefing course, having had an incredible experience. All the fundraising, training and preparations were well worth it and given the chance, I would do it all again.
Thank you for all the support, both moral and financial and I hope to see lots of people in the not too distant future.
Tionana! (Goodbye in Chichewa)
Lots of love,
Catherine
Xxx
THE END
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Thursday 30th June 2011-Thursday 14th July 2011
The Lovegroves are in Malawi!...what?!...seriously?!
These last two weeks have been really, really different, in a good way though. By the end of June I couldn’t believe that it was finally time for the Lovegroves to visit Nchalo. How is it suddenly July and they have been and gone?! The night before Sophie and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Jenny just outside Blantyre I got very little sleep and kept expecting to wake up and find that it was still February! We had a great few days together and did some shopping in Blantyre (getting there by hitching a lift on the back of a matola (pick up truck) due to fuel issues in Malawi!) but were much happier when we were back down in the Shire Valley showing them where we had spent the last 6 months or so. Driving down with them was surreal, not only because my family were in Malawi with me, but also because it was the last time that we will drive down the Escarpment Road during our Gap Year in Malawi. While I have hopes of returning, I don’t know when and it was sad to see the view of the whole Shire Valley as we descended from Blantyre for the final time.
The Lovegrove family visit also included a day at Nyala Park, Illovo’s game park, spotting zebra, impala and giraffes, some time looking for chitenjes in Nchalo market and a morning exploring the hospital. Jenny was keen to see more of the hospital so she and I spent time in the paeds ward with burns patients and actually ended up in theatre together watching a hernia repair. The Phiri family joined us for dinner one night and we spent time introducing my family to all the friends that we have made during our time in Nchalo. I find it hard to believe that they have now been and gone, though we have plans to meet up for one day before they fly home, and it’s even harder to believe that this is the end of our final week in Nchalo.
While I asked Mum and Dad to bring me out a few supplies, both for fun and for my travels, they appear to have brought something that I would rather they had left in Harrietfield; the weather! It’s now winter in Nchalo which means that it is cloudy and a little drizzly. I know that I moaned about the heat when we first came, but I am not equipped to deal with this cold! At least at home when it’s cold I have lots of socks, tights and jumpers…I didn’t expect to need those in Malawi! Not only is it cooler than it has been for a long time, but I am now much more used to Malawian heat, so the “cold snap” really does feel wintery. It’s worrying that from now until February the weather will just keep getting colder for me as I leave Malawi in winter, arriving home as summer ends and Scotland heads into winter…I think I will be investing in thermals!
More seriously though (but not much) seeing Nchalo in cloud is very odd and women are now wrapped in knitted cardigans, jackets and jumpers have come out of the wardrobe and the babies at NRU are swathed in countless chitenjes and blankets. There are more cases of burns in the hospital, especially on children, too. Because for 10 out of 12 months of the year (roughly) Nchalo is so hot, there is little need for fires. This means that children rarely come across them and then when it is cold and they are gathered around the fire or the stove for heat, they do not realise the dangers. Kids have been playing near the baulas, knocking over pans of boiling water or jumping over the fire, playing with their friends. The burns are so widespread on their legs or torsos and while in the UK there are specialised units to deal with this, at St Montfort Hospital they are just admitted to the paeds ward. Because there is none of the sterility that there is in UK burns’ units, often the children catch infections and recovery is not painless or smooth. I’ve spent time watching and helping to dress the wounds, and it is another side of medicine which I am so grateful to have had the chance to see.
This Tuesday we had our final HBC training session. It was brilliant and after a couple of hours of questions and discussions we gave the volunteers and Never a few things, both to help them in their villages and to say thank you. The volunteers were adamant that the sessions we have done have been useful and from their continuous questions and stories, I do think that we have helped them in a very small way to detect and deal with sick villagers. As we left, after photos, singing and dancing, I was really sad to go. I doubt that I will see the volunteers again, even if I do return to Nchalo in the near future, but I feel so privileged to have been a part of their programme. How many other azungu have been able to become part of their work in remote Malawian villages? Probably very few, if any, and I doubt that there will be many more in the immediate future. We have had an amazing insight to their work in the community and have been lucky enough to have some involvement in basic African healthcare; something that I am now more interested in than ever, hence my hope to return!
Our last week in Nchalo has been spent, in general, preparing for departure. We’ve stripped the walls of photos (they now look horribly bare and threatening!) and gathered together our travel supplies.
Today we went to the hospital with our fridge, some toys that Sophie brought back from England with her and some medical supplies too. They were really well received and the hospital administrator couldn’t believe me when I told him that I have benefitted much more from the hospital in the last 6 months than it has from me. I have a little book which all our friends have been writing messages in and the final goodbye will be said to all the hospital staff tomorrow morning.
We also went back to Sekeni to visit our old neighbours and give them some of our clothes. It was amazing wandering through the village and there was no “Azungu” chanting, instead it was “Catherine!” “Sophie!” It was amazing to be remembered and greeted so warmly. The smiles on their faces were brilliant and they were dressing up in the clothes and putting stickers all over the place. I couldn’t help but wonder at how different life would have been for us in Sekeni if we had been able to stay. It would have been different, no doubt, but I don’t think it would have been harder or easier, but the good points and bad points would just have been like chalk and cheese to those that we have had living on the sugar estate. I don’t see the point in wondering “what if” for too long because we have played the cards that have been dealt to us and had the most incredible time in doing so. It’s sad to be leaving the Phiri family. They have been amazing to us and we had no idea how to thank them for all that they have done. Last night we cooked a family meal for the final time and in doing so learned to make Malawian beans and made them brownies too, which were scoffed up no bother, though salt was still added by the family to their portions of beans!
I am reluctant to leave Nchalo and all the friends that we have made. I will especially miss all the friendly waves, smiles and laughs that are part of everyday life here and have become so normal. While I am sad to be leaving, I am excited to be spending 4 weeks travelling in Malawi and have hopes of exploring the north with Isla and then making the most of the lake; after all, that is what Malawi prides itself on!
Because I have little idea of internet access as I’m travelling, this will probably be my last blog for a while, possibly until I’m home, but I cannot be sure! So, I just want to say a huge thank you to anybody who has been reading my blog, sending letters and encouraging texts (*cough* Grandma! *cough*) and who helped me fundraise in the first place to come to Malawi. My time in Nchalo has been unbelievable and I’m not leaving Malawi yet; I’m sure the next 4 weeks will be full of fun and finding out more about the country while meeting new people. Thanks for all the support and I’ll try to keep in touch over the next month, but if that fails I hope to see as many people as possible before I head to uni in September (2 months’ time…scary!).
Hope that everyone is well and enjoying their summer,
See you soon,
Tionana,
Catherine
xxx
These last two weeks have been really, really different, in a good way though. By the end of June I couldn’t believe that it was finally time for the Lovegroves to visit Nchalo. How is it suddenly July and they have been and gone?! The night before Sophie and I went to meet Mum, Dad and Jenny just outside Blantyre I got very little sleep and kept expecting to wake up and find that it was still February! We had a great few days together and did some shopping in Blantyre (getting there by hitching a lift on the back of a matola (pick up truck) due to fuel issues in Malawi!) but were much happier when we were back down in the Shire Valley showing them where we had spent the last 6 months or so. Driving down with them was surreal, not only because my family were in Malawi with me, but also because it was the last time that we will drive down the Escarpment Road during our Gap Year in Malawi. While I have hopes of returning, I don’t know when and it was sad to see the view of the whole Shire Valley as we descended from Blantyre for the final time.
The Lovegrove family visit also included a day at Nyala Park, Illovo’s game park, spotting zebra, impala and giraffes, some time looking for chitenjes in Nchalo market and a morning exploring the hospital. Jenny was keen to see more of the hospital so she and I spent time in the paeds ward with burns patients and actually ended up in theatre together watching a hernia repair. The Phiri family joined us for dinner one night and we spent time introducing my family to all the friends that we have made during our time in Nchalo. I find it hard to believe that they have now been and gone, though we have plans to meet up for one day before they fly home, and it’s even harder to believe that this is the end of our final week in Nchalo.
While I asked Mum and Dad to bring me out a few supplies, both for fun and for my travels, they appear to have brought something that I would rather they had left in Harrietfield; the weather! It’s now winter in Nchalo which means that it is cloudy and a little drizzly. I know that I moaned about the heat when we first came, but I am not equipped to deal with this cold! At least at home when it’s cold I have lots of socks, tights and jumpers…I didn’t expect to need those in Malawi! Not only is it cooler than it has been for a long time, but I am now much more used to Malawian heat, so the “cold snap” really does feel wintery. It’s worrying that from now until February the weather will just keep getting colder for me as I leave Malawi in winter, arriving home as summer ends and Scotland heads into winter…I think I will be investing in thermals!
More seriously though (but not much) seeing Nchalo in cloud is very odd and women are now wrapped in knitted cardigans, jackets and jumpers have come out of the wardrobe and the babies at NRU are swathed in countless chitenjes and blankets. There are more cases of burns in the hospital, especially on children, too. Because for 10 out of 12 months of the year (roughly) Nchalo is so hot, there is little need for fires. This means that children rarely come across them and then when it is cold and they are gathered around the fire or the stove for heat, they do not realise the dangers. Kids have been playing near the baulas, knocking over pans of boiling water or jumping over the fire, playing with their friends. The burns are so widespread on their legs or torsos and while in the UK there are specialised units to deal with this, at St Montfort Hospital they are just admitted to the paeds ward. Because there is none of the sterility that there is in UK burns’ units, often the children catch infections and recovery is not painless or smooth. I’ve spent time watching and helping to dress the wounds, and it is another side of medicine which I am so grateful to have had the chance to see.
This Tuesday we had our final HBC training session. It was brilliant and after a couple of hours of questions and discussions we gave the volunteers and Never a few things, both to help them in their villages and to say thank you. The volunteers were adamant that the sessions we have done have been useful and from their continuous questions and stories, I do think that we have helped them in a very small way to detect and deal with sick villagers. As we left, after photos, singing and dancing, I was really sad to go. I doubt that I will see the volunteers again, even if I do return to Nchalo in the near future, but I feel so privileged to have been a part of their programme. How many other azungu have been able to become part of their work in remote Malawian villages? Probably very few, if any, and I doubt that there will be many more in the immediate future. We have had an amazing insight to their work in the community and have been lucky enough to have some involvement in basic African healthcare; something that I am now more interested in than ever, hence my hope to return!
Our last week in Nchalo has been spent, in general, preparing for departure. We’ve stripped the walls of photos (they now look horribly bare and threatening!) and gathered together our travel supplies.
Today we went to the hospital with our fridge, some toys that Sophie brought back from England with her and some medical supplies too. They were really well received and the hospital administrator couldn’t believe me when I told him that I have benefitted much more from the hospital in the last 6 months than it has from me. I have a little book which all our friends have been writing messages in and the final goodbye will be said to all the hospital staff tomorrow morning.
We also went back to Sekeni to visit our old neighbours and give them some of our clothes. It was amazing wandering through the village and there was no “Azungu” chanting, instead it was “Catherine!” “Sophie!” It was amazing to be remembered and greeted so warmly. The smiles on their faces were brilliant and they were dressing up in the clothes and putting stickers all over the place. I couldn’t help but wonder at how different life would have been for us in Sekeni if we had been able to stay. It would have been different, no doubt, but I don’t think it would have been harder or easier, but the good points and bad points would just have been like chalk and cheese to those that we have had living on the sugar estate. I don’t see the point in wondering “what if” for too long because we have played the cards that have been dealt to us and had the most incredible time in doing so. It’s sad to be leaving the Phiri family. They have been amazing to us and we had no idea how to thank them for all that they have done. Last night we cooked a family meal for the final time and in doing so learned to make Malawian beans and made them brownies too, which were scoffed up no bother, though salt was still added by the family to their portions of beans!
I am reluctant to leave Nchalo and all the friends that we have made. I will especially miss all the friendly waves, smiles and laughs that are part of everyday life here and have become so normal. While I am sad to be leaving, I am excited to be spending 4 weeks travelling in Malawi and have hopes of exploring the north with Isla and then making the most of the lake; after all, that is what Malawi prides itself on!
Because I have little idea of internet access as I’m travelling, this will probably be my last blog for a while, possibly until I’m home, but I cannot be sure! So, I just want to say a huge thank you to anybody who has been reading my blog, sending letters and encouraging texts (*cough* Grandma! *cough*) and who helped me fundraise in the first place to come to Malawi. My time in Nchalo has been unbelievable and I’m not leaving Malawi yet; I’m sure the next 4 weeks will be full of fun and finding out more about the country while meeting new people. Thanks for all the support and I’ll try to keep in touch over the next month, but if that fails I hope to see as many people as possible before I head to uni in September (2 months’ time…scary!).
Hope that everyone is well and enjoying their summer,
See you soon,
Tionana,
Catherine
xxx
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Monday 20h June 2011-Wednesday 29th June 2011
Night-Shift, Needles and Nearing the End
It’s been quite a week and I cannot believe that we have only two and a half weeks left in Nchalo before setting off for a month of travelling in Malawi. One of those weeks will be spent showing Mum, Dada and Jenny around Nchalo and the project, so really there’s only one and a half weeks of work left. Scary! Because we re so near to the end of our time in Nchalo we have just been seizing all the opportunities possible.
Last Wednesday night we did a 12 hour night shift at the hospital. In total contrast to when we arrived in January, we felt cold throughout the night and I was in woolly tights, skirt, top, cardigan and hoodie-who’d have thought it! It was a good night in the maternity ward, though quite quiet. Just before midnight Sophie delivered a baby which I received and then cleaned, weighed and wrapped while she finished the delivery. It was really special to do a team delivery and compared to how scared we were at first it’s amazing to see how much we have grown in enthusiasm and confidence to just get stuck in. Later in the night I also delivered a baby, just before the end of the shift and we then went home for some much needed sleep! I reckon that that will probably be the easiest night shift that I will ever have to do; there being few patients and no official role for me (we could have slept if we had liked but I refused to on principle-it’s a night shift!) but I am really glad that we took the chance to see another side to the hospital. It was great to experience the pure health-care side, without all the other paperwork and administration that happens during the day.
This week at the hospital I have been in the male and female general wards. On Monday I had a lesson in cannula insertion and managed to correctly insert one on my second attempt. I cannot believe how willing the nurses and patients are for us to be active and clinical-it’s a totally different ball game to the UK! I also have been giving intra-muscular injections, both in arms and legs and giving injections into already-inserted cannula. I feel like we really are making as much as we can of our time here and I have no intention of wasting a minute that I have left in Nchalo.
This week’s HBC training session went particularly well I felt. Last week we focussed on childcare and set the volunteers a challenge; to convince as many patients (adults or children) to go for HIV testing. We found out this week that in total about 30 or so patients have been persuaded to take a test, which is great. It’s very good news, not only for the patients who will either have a weight taken off their mind or they can begin treatment earlier than they would have, but also for the HBC volunteers. It shows them what potential they have to make an active difference in their communities and what an opportunity they have to help. We focussed on their role as volunteers today and gave them advice on how they should continue when we leave. I was worried when one volunteer began a question with the words “Because you are leaving soon…do you think that when you leave, perhaps you would be able to leave us with…”, but my anxiety was quickly turned into a smile when he finished with “notes on the HBC training?” Their enthusiasm to continue their roles and to develop their skills too is great and I hope that it continues for a while to come. As much as I am excited to see more of Malawi, times like today, with the opportunities and friends at the hospital and the contributions at HBC training, make me sad at the thought of leaving Nchalo so soon.
Not only have we been taking advantage of opportunities at work, but last week Sophie decided to go for it and get braids; not cornrows which are braided to the scalp, but loose braids. We went after NRU on Friday afternoon and sat for a good two hours as two, sometimes three, women’s hands moved incredibly quickly through her hair. We got a lot of smiles from the locals a the azungu getting her hair braided and when she was done the “hair-dresser” made her promise to return in 3 weeks for a new hair-do! I came into our bedroom on Saturday afternoon to find Soph unpicking all the braids: “I have a constant headache!” They were cool while they lasted, but the volumous hair once they were all out also looked particularly good. The braids weren’t in long enough to give an afro, but there was a certain “je ne sais quoi” about the unbraided style.
Finally, we’ve also had a couple of cooking lessons from Phoebe. She makes the most amazing scones with no recipe and we asked her to show us how. We made them together one evening and there were none left the following morning. They will definitely make the cut when I get home and I just hope that I can re-create them just as well as she makes them. Somehow, I doubt it. She also taught us to cook cassava properly and showed us the difference between cassava when it is cooked from being fresh to when it’s cooked from having been out of the ground for a few days. The fresh one is much softer, whiter and tastier whereas the other is yellow and more fibrous…we’ll stick to the fresh stuff.
Now is probably the time where I have to say fro sure, please stop sending post. I really don’t want to have to say that, but there’s now a chance that things will arrive once we have left. If that happens, a friend says that they will forward anything track to us in the UK, but that puts pressure on him and requires more faith in the Malawi postal system. To be fair, the post has been incredible and thank you for all the cards and photos and letters. They have always given me a smile when I see that I have post and I really am grateful!
Well, have a good last week of school to everyone who’s just finishing and a great start to the summer. I hope that everybody is well and though post is a no-go-zone, I should be able to send an email or two occasionally. In the meantime enjoy whatever is happening with you and I will see you in August.
Lots of love,
Catherine
xxx
It’s been quite a week and I cannot believe that we have only two and a half weeks left in Nchalo before setting off for a month of travelling in Malawi. One of those weeks will be spent showing Mum, Dada and Jenny around Nchalo and the project, so really there’s only one and a half weeks of work left. Scary! Because we re so near to the end of our time in Nchalo we have just been seizing all the opportunities possible.
Last Wednesday night we did a 12 hour night shift at the hospital. In total contrast to when we arrived in January, we felt cold throughout the night and I was in woolly tights, skirt, top, cardigan and hoodie-who’d have thought it! It was a good night in the maternity ward, though quite quiet. Just before midnight Sophie delivered a baby which I received and then cleaned, weighed and wrapped while she finished the delivery. It was really special to do a team delivery and compared to how scared we were at first it’s amazing to see how much we have grown in enthusiasm and confidence to just get stuck in. Later in the night I also delivered a baby, just before the end of the shift and we then went home for some much needed sleep! I reckon that that will probably be the easiest night shift that I will ever have to do; there being few patients and no official role for me (we could have slept if we had liked but I refused to on principle-it’s a night shift!) but I am really glad that we took the chance to see another side to the hospital. It was great to experience the pure health-care side, without all the other paperwork and administration that happens during the day.
This week at the hospital I have been in the male and female general wards. On Monday I had a lesson in cannula insertion and managed to correctly insert one on my second attempt. I cannot believe how willing the nurses and patients are for us to be active and clinical-it’s a totally different ball game to the UK! I also have been giving intra-muscular injections, both in arms and legs and giving injections into already-inserted cannula. I feel like we really are making as much as we can of our time here and I have no intention of wasting a minute that I have left in Nchalo.
This week’s HBC training session went particularly well I felt. Last week we focussed on childcare and set the volunteers a challenge; to convince as many patients (adults or children) to go for HIV testing. We found out this week that in total about 30 or so patients have been persuaded to take a test, which is great. It’s very good news, not only for the patients who will either have a weight taken off their mind or they can begin treatment earlier than they would have, but also for the HBC volunteers. It shows them what potential they have to make an active difference in their communities and what an opportunity they have to help. We focussed on their role as volunteers today and gave them advice on how they should continue when we leave. I was worried when one volunteer began a question with the words “Because you are leaving soon…do you think that when you leave, perhaps you would be able to leave us with…”, but my anxiety was quickly turned into a smile when he finished with “notes on the HBC training?” Their enthusiasm to continue their roles and to develop their skills too is great and I hope that it continues for a while to come. As much as I am excited to see more of Malawi, times like today, with the opportunities and friends at the hospital and the contributions at HBC training, make me sad at the thought of leaving Nchalo so soon.
Not only have we been taking advantage of opportunities at work, but last week Sophie decided to go for it and get braids; not cornrows which are braided to the scalp, but loose braids. We went after NRU on Friday afternoon and sat for a good two hours as two, sometimes three, women’s hands moved incredibly quickly through her hair. We got a lot of smiles from the locals a the azungu getting her hair braided and when she was done the “hair-dresser” made her promise to return in 3 weeks for a new hair-do! I came into our bedroom on Saturday afternoon to find Soph unpicking all the braids: “I have a constant headache!” They were cool while they lasted, but the volumous hair once they were all out also looked particularly good. The braids weren’t in long enough to give an afro, but there was a certain “je ne sais quoi” about the unbraided style.
Finally, we’ve also had a couple of cooking lessons from Phoebe. She makes the most amazing scones with no recipe and we asked her to show us how. We made them together one evening and there were none left the following morning. They will definitely make the cut when I get home and I just hope that I can re-create them just as well as she makes them. Somehow, I doubt it. She also taught us to cook cassava properly and showed us the difference between cassava when it is cooked from being fresh to when it’s cooked from having been out of the ground for a few days. The fresh one is much softer, whiter and tastier whereas the other is yellow and more fibrous…we’ll stick to the fresh stuff.
Now is probably the time where I have to say fro sure, please stop sending post. I really don’t want to have to say that, but there’s now a chance that things will arrive once we have left. If that happens, a friend says that they will forward anything track to us in the UK, but that puts pressure on him and requires more faith in the Malawi postal system. To be fair, the post has been incredible and thank you for all the cards and photos and letters. They have always given me a smile when I see that I have post and I really am grateful!
Well, have a good last week of school to everyone who’s just finishing and a great start to the summer. I hope that everybody is well and though post is a no-go-zone, I should be able to send an email or two occasionally. In the meantime enjoy whatever is happening with you and I will see you in August.
Lots of love,
Catherine
xxx
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Monday 23rd May 2011-Sunday 19th June 2011
Malawi, Malawi, Malawi!
I cannot believe how time flies and apologize for not having updated my blog sooner. The last few weeks have been pretty eventful, mainly in a good way, so I’ll cut to the chase!
To start with, Sophie is now back with me in Nchalo. Unfortunately at the beginning of May she had to fly home to England to get diagnosis and treatment for her wrists which had been incredibly sore since January. At the time we were keeping it quiet, but now that she is back and it is not too serious we can celebrate her return! Life in Malawi without Soph was pretty tough; one of the best things about having a partner is that you can be honest with them and discuss your situation openly, knowing that they will understand because they are experiencing the same situations. Without that to fall back on, life at home was chaotic and, despite the fact that there were 11 people in the house, it was quite lonely. Spending a month in Malawi, alone, was difficult but I believe that it was good for me and that I became more outgoing (having to work harder in social situations) and independent at the same time.
What didn’t help was catching labarynthitis while Sophie was in England! Being quite a distance from the lake and very far from any ocean, the feeling of having sea-sickness was very strange and I was off work for a week. At first we wondered if I had malaria and Phoebe and Ignatius insisted on having a blood test. I am very happy that not only did I not have malaria but I also have a Malawian Health Passport! Admittedly the name on it is “Catherine Rovegrove”, but with “R” and “L” being interchangeable in Chichewa we’ll let that one slide!
NRU continues the same as ever, though we arrived on Friday to find a new BP machine-a battery operated one too! That will not only be good for our ears, as using the old, broken stethoscopes was really sore, but now the nurses have more chance of finding possible cases of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy early and acting to prevent harm to mother or baby. The weather in Nchalo has become significantly cooler in the mornings, never fear, it’s still hot by 10am, and so the mothers come to the clinic a lot later than they do during the hot season. Nevertheless, we continue to register new clients who are either very young or have given birth many times before. I came across a woman on her 11th pregnancy the other day-wow!
Recently, home based care training sessions have been going well. We still have a strong turn-out of about 20 volunteers (though there are still a couple who turn up in the last 5 minutes-Malawi!) and they are very enthusiastic and willing to learn. We have done a couple of sessions on nutrition and HIV, using activities and diagrams to illustrate the lessons and get the volunteers involved. This week they were particularly excited when we had them moving around while discussing HIV/Aids; they were like school children and we had to keep telling them to please be quiet and listen to the explanation! Their animation shows enthusiasm and that they are not only enjoying the morning, but that they are interested and gaining something from the session. We keep encouraging them to apply what we tell them in the sessions to the patients who they visit in their villages. Both Sophie, Never, the volunteers and I feel very positively about how this part of our project is going.
As always, the hospital has been very interesting and in the last few weeks I spent time in theatre watching a hernia repair. It was really interesting to learn how common hernias are in the population around Nchalo. It turns out that they are quite prevalent; both because of genetic pre-dispositions but also because of how much manual labour people do to earn a living. Having seen hernia repairs in the UK, it was also great to see how they deal with them in Malawi. Because there is less up-to-date technology and fewer specialized tools, the hernia was repaired using sutures. At home there is a specific mesh which surgeons incorporate into the patient’s tissue, but that isn’t an option here, so they make do with what supplies are relatively plentiful. Unfortunately, a lot of surgery has had to be postponed because the hospital’s autoclave has broken so equipment cannot be sterilized. Any emergencies are referred 30km north to Chikwawa and all elective procedures are put on hold, so if anyone has an autoclave spare or knows where to find one, I can think of a good home for it!
All in all the project is going well though we haven’t seen Paul, our host in over two months now. For a while I felt a little confused because of how much has turned out differently to what I expected (no youth group running or drumming clubs and outreach clinics) and I wondered if my being in Nchalo was doing good. However, I feel that we are helping the HBC volunteers and therefore the patients in villages because they seem to be learning new things which they can apply to their roles within FHECC. At NRU we have encouraged efficiency and give the nurses more time to spend with clients as we handle formalities and they examine them. At the hospital, though we aren’t qualified, for many patients, seeing a white face gives them confidence that they are receiving good treatment. We have been busy in the maternity ward discharging patients and I even removed one mother’s c-section sutures; that was amazing. What I have realized is that we are being useful to the community despite not being essential, and this is the best way to have it. If we were essential then when we leave in 4 weeks’ time for travelling and then home (scary!) we would leave a hole in the community and the projects would suffer. As it is, when we leave, the community will be more than capable of continuing the good work that they do and what we are contributing now will still be of use to them when we leave.
So much of our project has involved us scouting out where and how we can be involved and though PT aren’t sending volunteers to Nchalo next year, I still see this as a positive experience. We have used a lot of initiative so far and learned masses about healthcare, Africa and ourselves. I was probably naïve when I came to Malawi, but I now see that I can make a small positive impact on the Nchalo community, but it will make far more of a difference to me and I am so grateful for that; so thank you to everyone who helped me get here!
Just after Sophie came back it was time for our first family visit. Her Mum, Dad and sister came out and we spent a five days with them, both in Nchalo, Blantyre and in Thyolo. It was Phil’s birthday and we had a very special celebration on an old colonial tea estate with some incredible food, lovely tea, brilliant games and great company. It was a very successful visit and now we’re looking forward to our next guests; the Lovegroves! I can’t believe it’s 2 weeks until my family arrive in Malawi and also how close it is to the middle of August. I am very excited about the coming weeks, especially seeing Mum, Dad and Jen, but also reluctant to leave Nchalo and the Phiri family because I have grown into Nchalo life so much in the last 5 months.
Ok, nearly done, but I realize that I have barely mentioned food in this blog. I have discovered that maize flour (a Malawian family’s staple food, used to make nsima) can be used successfully to make pancakes! Soph brought back a few treats from England and we are looking forward to some risotto and parmesan for the first time since January! What I will ask is this: does anybody know if you can get or grow cassava in the UK? It’s a root vegetable a bit like potato but it is an actual root and it has been brilliant while I have been here and Sophie and I are worried about missing cassava when we return home and venture off to university. So, if anybody could let us know, that would be great!
In the mean time, love to all, have a good end of term and start to the summer. Post is still amazing and please keep it coming but I would recommend not sending anything after the beginning of July because we’ll leave Nchalo soon after and there’s a strong possibility that letters would arrive after our departure. In saying that, we do have a possible solution as to how to retrieve any late post, so don’t feel completely deterred!
Enjoy Wimbledon, Greese and the end of exams. I’ll see you all soon.
Lots of love,
Catherine
xxx
I cannot believe how time flies and apologize for not having updated my blog sooner. The last few weeks have been pretty eventful, mainly in a good way, so I’ll cut to the chase!
To start with, Sophie is now back with me in Nchalo. Unfortunately at the beginning of May she had to fly home to England to get diagnosis and treatment for her wrists which had been incredibly sore since January. At the time we were keeping it quiet, but now that she is back and it is not too serious we can celebrate her return! Life in Malawi without Soph was pretty tough; one of the best things about having a partner is that you can be honest with them and discuss your situation openly, knowing that they will understand because they are experiencing the same situations. Without that to fall back on, life at home was chaotic and, despite the fact that there were 11 people in the house, it was quite lonely. Spending a month in Malawi, alone, was difficult but I believe that it was good for me and that I became more outgoing (having to work harder in social situations) and independent at the same time.
What didn’t help was catching labarynthitis while Sophie was in England! Being quite a distance from the lake and very far from any ocean, the feeling of having sea-sickness was very strange and I was off work for a week. At first we wondered if I had malaria and Phoebe and Ignatius insisted on having a blood test. I am very happy that not only did I not have malaria but I also have a Malawian Health Passport! Admittedly the name on it is “Catherine Rovegrove”, but with “R” and “L” being interchangeable in Chichewa we’ll let that one slide!
NRU continues the same as ever, though we arrived on Friday to find a new BP machine-a battery operated one too! That will not only be good for our ears, as using the old, broken stethoscopes was really sore, but now the nurses have more chance of finding possible cases of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy early and acting to prevent harm to mother or baby. The weather in Nchalo has become significantly cooler in the mornings, never fear, it’s still hot by 10am, and so the mothers come to the clinic a lot later than they do during the hot season. Nevertheless, we continue to register new clients who are either very young or have given birth many times before. I came across a woman on her 11th pregnancy the other day-wow!
Recently, home based care training sessions have been going well. We still have a strong turn-out of about 20 volunteers (though there are still a couple who turn up in the last 5 minutes-Malawi!) and they are very enthusiastic and willing to learn. We have done a couple of sessions on nutrition and HIV, using activities and diagrams to illustrate the lessons and get the volunteers involved. This week they were particularly excited when we had them moving around while discussing HIV/Aids; they were like school children and we had to keep telling them to please be quiet and listen to the explanation! Their animation shows enthusiasm and that they are not only enjoying the morning, but that they are interested and gaining something from the session. We keep encouraging them to apply what we tell them in the sessions to the patients who they visit in their villages. Both Sophie, Never, the volunteers and I feel very positively about how this part of our project is going.
As always, the hospital has been very interesting and in the last few weeks I spent time in theatre watching a hernia repair. It was really interesting to learn how common hernias are in the population around Nchalo. It turns out that they are quite prevalent; both because of genetic pre-dispositions but also because of how much manual labour people do to earn a living. Having seen hernia repairs in the UK, it was also great to see how they deal with them in Malawi. Because there is less up-to-date technology and fewer specialized tools, the hernia was repaired using sutures. At home there is a specific mesh which surgeons incorporate into the patient’s tissue, but that isn’t an option here, so they make do with what supplies are relatively plentiful. Unfortunately, a lot of surgery has had to be postponed because the hospital’s autoclave has broken so equipment cannot be sterilized. Any emergencies are referred 30km north to Chikwawa and all elective procedures are put on hold, so if anyone has an autoclave spare or knows where to find one, I can think of a good home for it!
All in all the project is going well though we haven’t seen Paul, our host in over two months now. For a while I felt a little confused because of how much has turned out differently to what I expected (no youth group running or drumming clubs and outreach clinics) and I wondered if my being in Nchalo was doing good. However, I feel that we are helping the HBC volunteers and therefore the patients in villages because they seem to be learning new things which they can apply to their roles within FHECC. At NRU we have encouraged efficiency and give the nurses more time to spend with clients as we handle formalities and they examine them. At the hospital, though we aren’t qualified, for many patients, seeing a white face gives them confidence that they are receiving good treatment. We have been busy in the maternity ward discharging patients and I even removed one mother’s c-section sutures; that was amazing. What I have realized is that we are being useful to the community despite not being essential, and this is the best way to have it. If we were essential then when we leave in 4 weeks’ time for travelling and then home (scary!) we would leave a hole in the community and the projects would suffer. As it is, when we leave, the community will be more than capable of continuing the good work that they do and what we are contributing now will still be of use to them when we leave.
So much of our project has involved us scouting out where and how we can be involved and though PT aren’t sending volunteers to Nchalo next year, I still see this as a positive experience. We have used a lot of initiative so far and learned masses about healthcare, Africa and ourselves. I was probably naïve when I came to Malawi, but I now see that I can make a small positive impact on the Nchalo community, but it will make far more of a difference to me and I am so grateful for that; so thank you to everyone who helped me get here!
Just after Sophie came back it was time for our first family visit. Her Mum, Dad and sister came out and we spent a five days with them, both in Nchalo, Blantyre and in Thyolo. It was Phil’s birthday and we had a very special celebration on an old colonial tea estate with some incredible food, lovely tea, brilliant games and great company. It was a very successful visit and now we’re looking forward to our next guests; the Lovegroves! I can’t believe it’s 2 weeks until my family arrive in Malawi and also how close it is to the middle of August. I am very excited about the coming weeks, especially seeing Mum, Dad and Jen, but also reluctant to leave Nchalo and the Phiri family because I have grown into Nchalo life so much in the last 5 months.
Ok, nearly done, but I realize that I have barely mentioned food in this blog. I have discovered that maize flour (a Malawian family’s staple food, used to make nsima) can be used successfully to make pancakes! Soph brought back a few treats from England and we are looking forward to some risotto and parmesan for the first time since January! What I will ask is this: does anybody know if you can get or grow cassava in the UK? It’s a root vegetable a bit like potato but it is an actual root and it has been brilliant while I have been here and Sophie and I are worried about missing cassava when we return home and venture off to university. So, if anybody could let us know, that would be great!
In the mean time, love to all, have a good end of term and start to the summer. Post is still amazing and please keep it coming but I would recommend not sending anything after the beginning of July because we’ll leave Nchalo soon after and there’s a strong possibility that letters would arrive after our departure. In saying that, we do have a possible solution as to how to retrieve any late post, so don’t feel completely deterred!
Enjoy Wimbledon, Greese and the end of exams. I’ll see you all soon.
Lots of love,
Catherine
xxx
Thursday, 26 May 2011
You Learn Something New Every Day
Monday 2nd May 2011-Sunday 22nd May 2011
Lack of internet access in a while means that this blog will be posted at the same time as the previous one, so I’ll try and keep it brief! The last three weeks have been both eventful and uneventful but the non-events have almost been the biggest part.
Before our Easter holiday we had one week where turn-out to CBCC caregiver training was particularly low and we were forced to abandon the session. Unfortunately this trend has continued and despite our visits into villages to promote the scheme there has been no increase in attendance. We have had to accept that the community are not interested in receiving training with no obvious financial or materialistic gain and so the training sessions have come to an end. This is really disappointing because now only three elements remain to the project; Home Based Care Training, NRU antenatal clinics and hospital experience. We really hoped that the CBCC training would work out but part of living in a different community is accepting the differences in opinions and after fighting a losing battle we have accepted defeat. In addition, Paul, our host and co-ordinator of FHECC, has now found a job on the sugar estate and effectively left FHECC. Unfortunately I feel that this will lead to the charity fizzling out in years to come, but for now there are still volunteers working and participating in the community, carrying out worthwhile activities.
On a more positive note we have begun to run the Home Based Care Volunteer Training. There have been three sessions so far, focussing on personal and food hygiene and malaria. Each week on a Tuesday morning there is a healthy turn out of about 23 volunteers from neighbouring villages and what is so encouraging is that they are enthusiastic. We are asked all manner of questions about caring for patients and their families and, though we cannot help them with resources and money, they are really grateful for what they are learning. Focussing on hygiene brought to their attention the importance of washing children when they have an accident and the session on malaria brought many questions too, from “Can mosquitoes transmit HIV?” to “When do you use a mosquito net; when you are sick or when you are not sick?” I am so glad that the volunteers are so eager to learn and will readily ask questions; it shows dedication to their role and genuine care too.
Still, the antenatal clinic has no blood pressure cuff and they are also out of iron tablets; such is medical care in the Lower Shire Valley! What has become apparent in the last few weeks is that the women have started to turn up later. In March and April about 50 mothers-to-be would appear between 8 and 9 in the morning, now they don’t come until about 9.30 and apparently it’s due to the cooler temperatures. It’s not that much cooler-I’m still in vest tops, a skirt and flip flops, but it is noticeably cooler in the mornings before 8.30. With the fall in early morning temperatures mothers in the villages don’t get up as early, and so by the time the morning chores are complete they arrive at NRU later. I can’t say that this makes any significant difference to the clinic, it just starts later and finishes later, but then in Malawi time is not important!
With the CBCC programme falling through a lot more time has been spent at the hospital. Unfortunately despite all the hours I have sat in the labour ward I have seen remarkably few deliveries-why don’t Malawian women give birth in May?! The few that I have seen have been interesting though-there’s been a breech delivery and a twin delivery. I am happy to say that both were successful but what was interesting was that the mother giving birth to twins had no idea, until she was in labour and giving birth, that she was expecting twins. Because the ultrasound machine is almost never used antenatal care is all done on listening and feeling. According to the midwife it is hard to feel two heads or hear two foetal heart rates and when someone has a big bump they normally assume that it’s just a big baby. That’s quite a surprise for the mother! I have become more hands on in the hospital and last week had the chance to be a theatre assistant. I helped the clinician in 5 operations; an abscess drain, 3 hydroceles and the removal of a mass from a lady’s back. It was quite surreal being in a sterile apron and gloves swabbing at blood vessels, cutting stitches and collecting fluids with just me, the clinician and the patient at times!
What I’ve realised recently is that firstly, we have made a strong attempt to make the FHECC project work, but, with the failure of the CBCC plan and Paul finding a job, we need to accept that parts are not working and make the most of the rest of our time here. If that means spending more time at the hospital, gaining personal experience, then so be it-whatever we do will be totally different from anything we would experience in the UK. Also I have realised that although we are not needed at the hospital, we can be helpful. There are theatre assistants who could have been in the operations that I participated in, but as it happened they were particularly busy, rushed and short staffed that day, so my input was of some use. Finally I have realised that the project is not about being essential to the community; if we were needed there would be a reliance on us and when we leave problems would arise (PT have decided not to send vols to Nchalo next year). As it is we are helping to develop small parts of the community in a non-vital way which means that, come August, they will be more than capable of continuing, hopefully with more ideas and having learned a little too. Being in Malawi involves not only learning about the local environment and myself, but also what is important. I think what is important is to give as much as we can, but also to take as much as we can and right now I think we’re doing pretty well at that!
There’s not a lot to report on, food-wise, except that avocadoes are now out of season. This is particularly upsetting because one of our staple meals (guacamole and flatbread) is no longer an option. On the plus side, tangerines are plentiful, though they aren’t orange, but green. I made the mistake of taking a green fruit, thinking it was an orange, peeling it and then proceeded to tuck in to a lemon. Seeing as I ate the lemon on the day that the world was predicted to end it was a pretty minor tragedy compared to what may have happened but I won’t be repeating the experience!
From what I gather, exams are now in full swing and I hope that they go well for everybody. For everybody who has a birthday in May, (there are many of you) Happy Birthday! Things are going well here in Nchalo and I love hearing everyone’s news from home, be it in text form, email, Facebook or the amazing postal service!
Take lots of care and please keep in touch,
All the best,
Catherine
xxx
Lack of internet access in a while means that this blog will be posted at the same time as the previous one, so I’ll try and keep it brief! The last three weeks have been both eventful and uneventful but the non-events have almost been the biggest part.
Before our Easter holiday we had one week where turn-out to CBCC caregiver training was particularly low and we were forced to abandon the session. Unfortunately this trend has continued and despite our visits into villages to promote the scheme there has been no increase in attendance. We have had to accept that the community are not interested in receiving training with no obvious financial or materialistic gain and so the training sessions have come to an end. This is really disappointing because now only three elements remain to the project; Home Based Care Training, NRU antenatal clinics and hospital experience. We really hoped that the CBCC training would work out but part of living in a different community is accepting the differences in opinions and after fighting a losing battle we have accepted defeat. In addition, Paul, our host and co-ordinator of FHECC, has now found a job on the sugar estate and effectively left FHECC. Unfortunately I feel that this will lead to the charity fizzling out in years to come, but for now there are still volunteers working and participating in the community, carrying out worthwhile activities.
On a more positive note we have begun to run the Home Based Care Volunteer Training. There have been three sessions so far, focussing on personal and food hygiene and malaria. Each week on a Tuesday morning there is a healthy turn out of about 23 volunteers from neighbouring villages and what is so encouraging is that they are enthusiastic. We are asked all manner of questions about caring for patients and their families and, though we cannot help them with resources and money, they are really grateful for what they are learning. Focussing on hygiene brought to their attention the importance of washing children when they have an accident and the session on malaria brought many questions too, from “Can mosquitoes transmit HIV?” to “When do you use a mosquito net; when you are sick or when you are not sick?” I am so glad that the volunteers are so eager to learn and will readily ask questions; it shows dedication to their role and genuine care too.
Still, the antenatal clinic has no blood pressure cuff and they are also out of iron tablets; such is medical care in the Lower Shire Valley! What has become apparent in the last few weeks is that the women have started to turn up later. In March and April about 50 mothers-to-be would appear between 8 and 9 in the morning, now they don’t come until about 9.30 and apparently it’s due to the cooler temperatures. It’s not that much cooler-I’m still in vest tops, a skirt and flip flops, but it is noticeably cooler in the mornings before 8.30. With the fall in early morning temperatures mothers in the villages don’t get up as early, and so by the time the morning chores are complete they arrive at NRU later. I can’t say that this makes any significant difference to the clinic, it just starts later and finishes later, but then in Malawi time is not important!
With the CBCC programme falling through a lot more time has been spent at the hospital. Unfortunately despite all the hours I have sat in the labour ward I have seen remarkably few deliveries-why don’t Malawian women give birth in May?! The few that I have seen have been interesting though-there’s been a breech delivery and a twin delivery. I am happy to say that both were successful but what was interesting was that the mother giving birth to twins had no idea, until she was in labour and giving birth, that she was expecting twins. Because the ultrasound machine is almost never used antenatal care is all done on listening and feeling. According to the midwife it is hard to feel two heads or hear two foetal heart rates and when someone has a big bump they normally assume that it’s just a big baby. That’s quite a surprise for the mother! I have become more hands on in the hospital and last week had the chance to be a theatre assistant. I helped the clinician in 5 operations; an abscess drain, 3 hydroceles and the removal of a mass from a lady’s back. It was quite surreal being in a sterile apron and gloves swabbing at blood vessels, cutting stitches and collecting fluids with just me, the clinician and the patient at times!
What I’ve realised recently is that firstly, we have made a strong attempt to make the FHECC project work, but, with the failure of the CBCC plan and Paul finding a job, we need to accept that parts are not working and make the most of the rest of our time here. If that means spending more time at the hospital, gaining personal experience, then so be it-whatever we do will be totally different from anything we would experience in the UK. Also I have realised that although we are not needed at the hospital, we can be helpful. There are theatre assistants who could have been in the operations that I participated in, but as it happened they were particularly busy, rushed and short staffed that day, so my input was of some use. Finally I have realised that the project is not about being essential to the community; if we were needed there would be a reliance on us and when we leave problems would arise (PT have decided not to send vols to Nchalo next year). As it is we are helping to develop small parts of the community in a non-vital way which means that, come August, they will be more than capable of continuing, hopefully with more ideas and having learned a little too. Being in Malawi involves not only learning about the local environment and myself, but also what is important. I think what is important is to give as much as we can, but also to take as much as we can and right now I think we’re doing pretty well at that!
There’s not a lot to report on, food-wise, except that avocadoes are now out of season. This is particularly upsetting because one of our staple meals (guacamole and flatbread) is no longer an option. On the plus side, tangerines are plentiful, though they aren’t orange, but green. I made the mistake of taking a green fruit, thinking it was an orange, peeling it and then proceeded to tuck in to a lemon. Seeing as I ate the lemon on the day that the world was predicted to end it was a pretty minor tragedy compared to what may have happened but I won’t be repeating the experience!
From what I gather, exams are now in full swing and I hope that they go well for everybody. For everybody who has a birthday in May, (there are many of you) Happy Birthday! Things are going well here in Nchalo and I love hearing everyone’s news from home, be it in text form, email, Facebook or the amazing postal service!
Take lots of care and please keep in touch,
All the best,
Catherine
xxx
Three Weeks of Work, Wildlife and Water
Monday 11th April 2011-Sunday 1st May 2011
Well, it has been a while since I’ve blogged and, as always there are new experiences to report and updates to be made! As I write this blog it is our Half-Way Anniversary in Malawi-we’re 3 ½ months into our project and the time has just flown so far. The project has had some successes and problems in recent weeks but what I have learned is to accept a situation when there’s nothing more that can be done to change it and with this in mind I am excited about the next half of the project.
A couple of weeks ago we held our first CBCC training session with an aim in mind-the focus of the lesson was teaching not by repetition. As I’ve mentioned before, I think, the care-givers tend to shout “A-E-I-O-U” at the children, who shout it back, however they have no idea that A is the first letter of the alphabet, that it is a vowel, that it can be joined with other letters to form words, etc. The first session was successful we felt; about 20 care-givers showed up and by the end they were enthusiastic, had listened to what we had said and were asking us more questions, so we were really pleased. What did go down well was our illustration of how if a message is passed on through repetition and mistakes are made and not corrected the message changes and is wrong. We played Chinese Whispers to show this and the message certainly changed by the end of the line!
Unfortunately, the second training session was less successful-we had a total of 3 people turn up and with an important lesson to teach and 45 minutes left (after we’d waited, optimistic that the no-show was due to Malawian timing!) Never agreed that the session should be postponed. We were disappointed, especially because the day before we’d spent 2 hours on bikes, spreading the word about the session. One of the struggles is that in Malawi, if you go on a training course, you expect to receive something in return, be it money or refreshments. This is strange for us to get used to because in the UK, people pay to go on the course and it works the other way around. We hope that this week will bring more people to the training and I’ll keep you posted!
NRU continues to be busy, especially on Friday mornings when the new mothers come to be registered at the clinic. Unfortunately the BP cuff no longer works so no measurement of blood pressure can be taken and risk of pre-eclampsia cannot be recognised. I don’t know how common a problem it is in Malawi, but it is just another example of African medicine and using the resources that are available to maximise the service that you can provide.
We spent an amazing morning in theatre, watching a very gruesome operation-I won’t go into too much detail! During the operation the patient began to wake up but the anaesthetist was putting another patient to sleep in the other theatre and said that it wasn’t possible for him to come through and attend to the patient undergoing the operation. Thankfully, a nurse came through very shortly afterwards and gave more anaesthetic but when it happened again Edwin, the clinical officer/surgeon, told me to administer the anaesthetic! I know that drawing up anaesthetic into a syringe and then injecting it into a cannula is not anywhere near to actually carrying out clinical work, but it was on opportunity that a 19 year old gap year student would never have been given the chance to do in Scotland. The operation had so many differences to theatre in the UK and both Sophie and I came away deep in thought and amazed too. What was very reassuring was that during the whole procedure we both felt entirely comfortable and at ease watching Edwin’s work. When we first came to Nchalo and spent time at the hospital I would feel queasy from the heat and doubts were forming as to whether or not I would be OK at medical school (even though I have been in theatre many times in Perth) so it was great to come out knowing with more certainty that medicine is what I want to do and also that we are adjusting to the temperature in the Lower Shire Valley. It was an amazing morning and one that has made me very excited for university in September.
Unfortunately, Sophie’s repetitive-strain-injury in both wrists has become very painful, so a trip to a physiotherapist in Blantyre was called for. We decided to see how far we could hitchhike there and ended up in the back of a pick up truck going up the Escarpment Road-please look at the road going from Blantyre to Chikwawa/Nchalo on Google Earth if the resolution is good enough! On the way up, we passed a 16 wheeler drinks lorry that had taken a corner too fast and tumbled off the side, spreading glass Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and Fanta bottles everywhere. The matola ride was an experience that we don’t mind doing around Nchalo or on straight, flat roads, but we have vowed not to go up the hair-pinned, twisting road to Blantyre in any form of open-aired vehicle ever again.
Over the last 3 weeks we have seen a lot of wildlife in Malawi. Firstly, our friend, Tony, took us and his two children to a friend’s crocodile farm. It’s about 12 miles south of us and the crocs are bred and then sold for their skins to dealers who then sell on to the designers in London, Paris, Rome, New York, etc. There were hundreds of them, from 6 inches long to huge fat ones that were 3m long. It was a great chance to see the farm and to touch a baby crocodile but I am still not a fan of snakeskin clothing or accessories!
Over the Easter week we took our first visit to Lake Malawi-beautiful isn’t a good enough word to describe it. We spent time with friends who volunteer by the lake, went to a concert by the Black Missionaries (a brilliant Malawian Reggae band) and at Cape Maclear we went on a boat trip to the nearby island. We snorkelled and saw the famous Lake Malawi fish, had barbequed fish for lunch on the island, watched fish eagles swooping around and then jumped off huge rocks into the clear blue water. It was stunning and at night, when everywhere else is dark, there’s a line of lights on the horizon from the lanterns on the fishing boats out on the lake; it’s easy to see why Livingstone nicknamed it “Lake of Stars”.
On the day of the Royal Wedding, while the UK watched TV, we took a boat safari up and down the Shire in Liwonde National Park and sat 5m away from a 15 year old elephant eating grass by the riverside. It was fantastic and our guide, Jimmy, said that we had a very diverse safari; from elephants to hippos, to crocs, to fish eagles, malachite kingfishers and a whole host of other bird life (the full list is very long). The experience was so special and that, along with a successful curios shopping trip, more than compensated for the sketchy accommodation that we had at Warthog’s Wallow in Liwonde town. We’ve renamed it Cockroach’s Wallow, much more accurate.
Finally, of course, the food instalment! I’ve already mentioned the fish at the Lake that we had and I have said to Sophie many times just how fresh and delicious it was. Sitting on the rocks, in the sun, in Malawi, on my Gap Year, was just great. Before Sophie’s wrists became very sore she made em a birthday cake in a true Malawian style (i.e. no measurements used). It was a lovely coffee cake (our favourite) in the shape of a heart and there were three layers. It went down a treat and was gone very quickly! She also made an incredible, gooey banana cake with some old, black bananas-what a good use of over-ripe fruit! That cake, and the brownies that we baked for the family too, did not last long and I think that our baking skills are much appreciated.
I taught Prudence to make pancakes one Sunday, and was delighted to walk into the kitchen later in the week to find her making them all by herself. I made me feel part of the family and that we have settled in very well. We were so warmly welcomed home on our return from the lake and I am excited about spending the coming weekends in Nchalo, spending quality time with the girls and being a part of the family that have been so good to us. When we came home both Sophie and I were so happy to be back and it felt right!
April has been an interesting month and I’m sure that May with bring more developments and news-this is Malawi after all! I’m having an amazing time, am very happy and thoroughly enjoying the whole experience.
I hope that everyone’s well and that the Easter holidays were good. To everyone with exams; Good Luck! Let me know all the news from home and please keep post coming!
Lots of love and I’ll see you soon,
Catherine
xxx
Well, it has been a while since I’ve blogged and, as always there are new experiences to report and updates to be made! As I write this blog it is our Half-Way Anniversary in Malawi-we’re 3 ½ months into our project and the time has just flown so far. The project has had some successes and problems in recent weeks but what I have learned is to accept a situation when there’s nothing more that can be done to change it and with this in mind I am excited about the next half of the project.
A couple of weeks ago we held our first CBCC training session with an aim in mind-the focus of the lesson was teaching not by repetition. As I’ve mentioned before, I think, the care-givers tend to shout “A-E-I-O-U” at the children, who shout it back, however they have no idea that A is the first letter of the alphabet, that it is a vowel, that it can be joined with other letters to form words, etc. The first session was successful we felt; about 20 care-givers showed up and by the end they were enthusiastic, had listened to what we had said and were asking us more questions, so we were really pleased. What did go down well was our illustration of how if a message is passed on through repetition and mistakes are made and not corrected the message changes and is wrong. We played Chinese Whispers to show this and the message certainly changed by the end of the line!
Unfortunately, the second training session was less successful-we had a total of 3 people turn up and with an important lesson to teach and 45 minutes left (after we’d waited, optimistic that the no-show was due to Malawian timing!) Never agreed that the session should be postponed. We were disappointed, especially because the day before we’d spent 2 hours on bikes, spreading the word about the session. One of the struggles is that in Malawi, if you go on a training course, you expect to receive something in return, be it money or refreshments. This is strange for us to get used to because in the UK, people pay to go on the course and it works the other way around. We hope that this week will bring more people to the training and I’ll keep you posted!
NRU continues to be busy, especially on Friday mornings when the new mothers come to be registered at the clinic. Unfortunately the BP cuff no longer works so no measurement of blood pressure can be taken and risk of pre-eclampsia cannot be recognised. I don’t know how common a problem it is in Malawi, but it is just another example of African medicine and using the resources that are available to maximise the service that you can provide.
We spent an amazing morning in theatre, watching a very gruesome operation-I won’t go into too much detail! During the operation the patient began to wake up but the anaesthetist was putting another patient to sleep in the other theatre and said that it wasn’t possible for him to come through and attend to the patient undergoing the operation. Thankfully, a nurse came through very shortly afterwards and gave more anaesthetic but when it happened again Edwin, the clinical officer/surgeon, told me to administer the anaesthetic! I know that drawing up anaesthetic into a syringe and then injecting it into a cannula is not anywhere near to actually carrying out clinical work, but it was on opportunity that a 19 year old gap year student would never have been given the chance to do in Scotland. The operation had so many differences to theatre in the UK and both Sophie and I came away deep in thought and amazed too. What was very reassuring was that during the whole procedure we both felt entirely comfortable and at ease watching Edwin’s work. When we first came to Nchalo and spent time at the hospital I would feel queasy from the heat and doubts were forming as to whether or not I would be OK at medical school (even though I have been in theatre many times in Perth) so it was great to come out knowing with more certainty that medicine is what I want to do and also that we are adjusting to the temperature in the Lower Shire Valley. It was an amazing morning and one that has made me very excited for university in September.
Unfortunately, Sophie’s repetitive-strain-injury in both wrists has become very painful, so a trip to a physiotherapist in Blantyre was called for. We decided to see how far we could hitchhike there and ended up in the back of a pick up truck going up the Escarpment Road-please look at the road going from Blantyre to Chikwawa/Nchalo on Google Earth if the resolution is good enough! On the way up, we passed a 16 wheeler drinks lorry that had taken a corner too fast and tumbled off the side, spreading glass Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and Fanta bottles everywhere. The matola ride was an experience that we don’t mind doing around Nchalo or on straight, flat roads, but we have vowed not to go up the hair-pinned, twisting road to Blantyre in any form of open-aired vehicle ever again.
Over the last 3 weeks we have seen a lot of wildlife in Malawi. Firstly, our friend, Tony, took us and his two children to a friend’s crocodile farm. It’s about 12 miles south of us and the crocs are bred and then sold for their skins to dealers who then sell on to the designers in London, Paris, Rome, New York, etc. There were hundreds of them, from 6 inches long to huge fat ones that were 3m long. It was a great chance to see the farm and to touch a baby crocodile but I am still not a fan of snakeskin clothing or accessories!
Over the Easter week we took our first visit to Lake Malawi-beautiful isn’t a good enough word to describe it. We spent time with friends who volunteer by the lake, went to a concert by the Black Missionaries (a brilliant Malawian Reggae band) and at Cape Maclear we went on a boat trip to the nearby island. We snorkelled and saw the famous Lake Malawi fish, had barbequed fish for lunch on the island, watched fish eagles swooping around and then jumped off huge rocks into the clear blue water. It was stunning and at night, when everywhere else is dark, there’s a line of lights on the horizon from the lanterns on the fishing boats out on the lake; it’s easy to see why Livingstone nicknamed it “Lake of Stars”.
On the day of the Royal Wedding, while the UK watched TV, we took a boat safari up and down the Shire in Liwonde National Park and sat 5m away from a 15 year old elephant eating grass by the riverside. It was fantastic and our guide, Jimmy, said that we had a very diverse safari; from elephants to hippos, to crocs, to fish eagles, malachite kingfishers and a whole host of other bird life (the full list is very long). The experience was so special and that, along with a successful curios shopping trip, more than compensated for the sketchy accommodation that we had at Warthog’s Wallow in Liwonde town. We’ve renamed it Cockroach’s Wallow, much more accurate.
Finally, of course, the food instalment! I’ve already mentioned the fish at the Lake that we had and I have said to Sophie many times just how fresh and delicious it was. Sitting on the rocks, in the sun, in Malawi, on my Gap Year, was just great. Before Sophie’s wrists became very sore she made em a birthday cake in a true Malawian style (i.e. no measurements used). It was a lovely coffee cake (our favourite) in the shape of a heart and there were three layers. It went down a treat and was gone very quickly! She also made an incredible, gooey banana cake with some old, black bananas-what a good use of over-ripe fruit! That cake, and the brownies that we baked for the family too, did not last long and I think that our baking skills are much appreciated.
I taught Prudence to make pancakes one Sunday, and was delighted to walk into the kitchen later in the week to find her making them all by herself. I made me feel part of the family and that we have settled in very well. We were so warmly welcomed home on our return from the lake and I am excited about spending the coming weekends in Nchalo, spending quality time with the girls and being a part of the family that have been so good to us. When we came home both Sophie and I were so happy to be back and it felt right!
April has been an interesting month and I’m sure that May with bring more developments and news-this is Malawi after all! I’m having an amazing time, am very happy and thoroughly enjoying the whole experience.
I hope that everyone’s well and that the Easter holidays were good. To everyone with exams; Good Luck! Let me know all the news from home and please keep post coming!
Lots of love and I’ll see you soon,
Catherine
xxx
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Three Days on Mount Mulanje-Definitely Not Enough.
Sunday 28th March 2011-Sunday 10th April 2011
We are now back from our first holiday in Malawi and it was incredible! Over my birthday week we climbed Mount Mulanje and words cannot describe how beautiful it was. I felt very at home, back among mountains, because Nchalo is so flat and I am used to being in hilly surroundings! Sophie and I stocked up on provisions before meeting Sarah and Tammy (two other volunteers) and catching the minibus to Chitakale, a small town at the base of the mountain. We hadn’t been long in driving out of Limbe before we could see the enormous Massif in front of us and we felt quite daunted by its sheer size. Chitakale is about 11km from Likhubula House, the project that school fundraise for, and I am pleased to say that I did manage to squeeze in a visit to meet Nancy and Mr Nyambalo and also see the pavilion that was built. Nancy could recognise me when I told her who I was (Dad was there over New Year and she could see the resemblance), and Mr Nyambalo didn’t even need to be introduced to me; he walked towards me saying “Catherine, I must be dreaming!” as though we had met before or he had known that I was coming that day, which he hadn’t! it was really strange to be recognised as Dad’s daughter out in Malawi of all places and I was so warmly welcomed; I only wish that I could have spent longer than I did at the project. That evening we went to a great pizzeria for what was an early birthday meal. Walking back to the rest house, cloud had descended over Mulanje Mountain and the top was invisible but it still seemed so high!
I was awake really early the next morning, full of excitement at hiking up and after some last minute stocking up and waiting an hour and a half for a minibus to fill up, we met our guide and porters at the base of the mountain. As we walked up the path to Likhubula forestry office we were surrounded by other guides and porters who were very irate that we had organised our trip in Mulanje town and not through the forestry office, even though we were perfectly justified in doing so. Their anger actually lead to a fight breaking our between our porters and the others so to keep the peace we went to the forestry office and were made to change our guide and porters, but by 10am we were on our way up the mountain. You don’t have to walk for very long uphill before the views over Malawi become spectacular. Peter, our guide, led us up to Lichenya Plateau on the first day, across to Chambe Basin on the second day and down the mountain on the third day. We stayed in the mountain huts with their open fires and the whole trip was brilliant. We felt really small and insignificant on the plateau, looking down on Malawi and looking up to the peaks.
My birthday was spent walking from Lichenya to Chambe and I have to say that, though I didn’t have signal to speak to home, it was a great day. Waking up in the morning, the clouds were below us and completely covered all of Malawi so that it seemed that we were looking out of an airplane and I could imaging jumping on them, they looked that bouncy! I could see where the Chichewa name for Mulanje (Chilumba mum mlengalenga-meaning “Island in the Sky”) came from. It was amazing, also, how the vegetation was so changeable on the mountain. When we left Lichenya Plateau it looked very like the Perthshire highlands, all that was missing were sheep, but by lunch time we were walking through rainforest with Tarzan-esque vines dangling and damp leaves about our ankles. Overall, it was an amazing day; I had birthday cards, it was a pleasant temperature, the sun was out, monkeys swung from trees for us at lunch time, we arrived at our hut with time to bathe in the river and the sunset was stunning. Every minute that we watched, it just became more beautiful and required another picture to be taken. My birthday dinner was also quite an event, with sausages barbequed over an open fire with baked beans and a nice glass of rosé wine! It was a day quite unlike any other and all four of us keep thinking back to the whole trip and remembering how incredible it was. It was also really special to spend time on the mountain that I know Mum and Dad used to escape to at weekends when they lived in Malawi, so it was lovely to spend somewhere that is so special to them too.
After a weekend in Blantyre, in which Sophie and some others got ears and noses pierced (but not me!) we returned to Nchalo. Just descending the Escarpment road we could already feel our surroundings warming up. The last week had been so cold in comparison to the Shire Valley, to the extent that Sophie has had a cold which she is blaming on the cold climate of Mount Mulanje!
This week back at work has been a positive one and progress has been made in several parts of our project. We have both been more hands on at the hospital, carrying our physical examinations on mothers in labour and we also had our second visit to theatre. We watched a caesarean section and also had the chance to watch a leg abscess being drained. What was reassuring was that neither of us felt at all ill form the heat when in theatre which reinforced that the heat is a massive contributor to how we react in clinical situations and also that we have adjusted a bit to the climate, though it’s still crazy hot! Being in theatre again was a great experience and every day at the hospital does shed light on a new aspect of Malawian healthcare and how it differs from the UK in both good and bad ways.
Our FHECC work has also moved forwards. We have had a meeting to discuss Home Base Care Volunteer Training and we have agreed to start that up at the beginning of May. Our aim is to cover basic healthcare issues, such as hygiene, nutrition, malaria prevention, HIV Aids awareness and support and any other issues that we come across in the villages in the coming months. We also had our first CBCC caregiver training meeting, where we discussed our plan and asked the caregivers what they would like to gain from the sessions. We are still battling with the image that we are here to provide material goods or financial help, but I think that we are beginning to make progress with helping by using our skills and knowledge and I am looking forward to the coming weeks to the training sessions starting up properly and spending more time working at our project, now that it has taken on a clearer form.
And so, it is time for the food update! This week we made fajitas for the family. We mow have an older sister and brother also living in the house, so the population had risen to 11. I am delighted to say that the meal was a success and there were no leftovers because they kept coming back for more! I think we will stick to fajitas in future and scrap the risotto. Nobody even added salt; we were really chuffed!
The whole Malawian experience continues to be an amazing learning curve which we are both enjoying so much. I hope that everyone at home is enjoying their Easter holidays and as always, I will make a plea for post; we love post! I’m going to keep writing and in the mean-time have an enjoyable break from school or work.
Take care and see you in August,
Love
Catherine
xxx
We are now back from our first holiday in Malawi and it was incredible! Over my birthday week we climbed Mount Mulanje and words cannot describe how beautiful it was. I felt very at home, back among mountains, because Nchalo is so flat and I am used to being in hilly surroundings! Sophie and I stocked up on provisions before meeting Sarah and Tammy (two other volunteers) and catching the minibus to Chitakale, a small town at the base of the mountain. We hadn’t been long in driving out of Limbe before we could see the enormous Massif in front of us and we felt quite daunted by its sheer size. Chitakale is about 11km from Likhubula House, the project that school fundraise for, and I am pleased to say that I did manage to squeeze in a visit to meet Nancy and Mr Nyambalo and also see the pavilion that was built. Nancy could recognise me when I told her who I was (Dad was there over New Year and she could see the resemblance), and Mr Nyambalo didn’t even need to be introduced to me; he walked towards me saying “Catherine, I must be dreaming!” as though we had met before or he had known that I was coming that day, which he hadn’t! it was really strange to be recognised as Dad’s daughter out in Malawi of all places and I was so warmly welcomed; I only wish that I could have spent longer than I did at the project. That evening we went to a great pizzeria for what was an early birthday meal. Walking back to the rest house, cloud had descended over Mulanje Mountain and the top was invisible but it still seemed so high!
I was awake really early the next morning, full of excitement at hiking up and after some last minute stocking up and waiting an hour and a half for a minibus to fill up, we met our guide and porters at the base of the mountain. As we walked up the path to Likhubula forestry office we were surrounded by other guides and porters who were very irate that we had organised our trip in Mulanje town and not through the forestry office, even though we were perfectly justified in doing so. Their anger actually lead to a fight breaking our between our porters and the others so to keep the peace we went to the forestry office and were made to change our guide and porters, but by 10am we were on our way up the mountain. You don’t have to walk for very long uphill before the views over Malawi become spectacular. Peter, our guide, led us up to Lichenya Plateau on the first day, across to Chambe Basin on the second day and down the mountain on the third day. We stayed in the mountain huts with their open fires and the whole trip was brilliant. We felt really small and insignificant on the plateau, looking down on Malawi and looking up to the peaks.
My birthday was spent walking from Lichenya to Chambe and I have to say that, though I didn’t have signal to speak to home, it was a great day. Waking up in the morning, the clouds were below us and completely covered all of Malawi so that it seemed that we were looking out of an airplane and I could imaging jumping on them, they looked that bouncy! I could see where the Chichewa name for Mulanje (Chilumba mum mlengalenga-meaning “Island in the Sky”) came from. It was amazing, also, how the vegetation was so changeable on the mountain. When we left Lichenya Plateau it looked very like the Perthshire highlands, all that was missing were sheep, but by lunch time we were walking through rainforest with Tarzan-esque vines dangling and damp leaves about our ankles. Overall, it was an amazing day; I had birthday cards, it was a pleasant temperature, the sun was out, monkeys swung from trees for us at lunch time, we arrived at our hut with time to bathe in the river and the sunset was stunning. Every minute that we watched, it just became more beautiful and required another picture to be taken. My birthday dinner was also quite an event, with sausages barbequed over an open fire with baked beans and a nice glass of rosé wine! It was a day quite unlike any other and all four of us keep thinking back to the whole trip and remembering how incredible it was. It was also really special to spend time on the mountain that I know Mum and Dad used to escape to at weekends when they lived in Malawi, so it was lovely to spend somewhere that is so special to them too.
After a weekend in Blantyre, in which Sophie and some others got ears and noses pierced (but not me!) we returned to Nchalo. Just descending the Escarpment road we could already feel our surroundings warming up. The last week had been so cold in comparison to the Shire Valley, to the extent that Sophie has had a cold which she is blaming on the cold climate of Mount Mulanje!
This week back at work has been a positive one and progress has been made in several parts of our project. We have both been more hands on at the hospital, carrying our physical examinations on mothers in labour and we also had our second visit to theatre. We watched a caesarean section and also had the chance to watch a leg abscess being drained. What was reassuring was that neither of us felt at all ill form the heat when in theatre which reinforced that the heat is a massive contributor to how we react in clinical situations and also that we have adjusted a bit to the climate, though it’s still crazy hot! Being in theatre again was a great experience and every day at the hospital does shed light on a new aspect of Malawian healthcare and how it differs from the UK in both good and bad ways.
Our FHECC work has also moved forwards. We have had a meeting to discuss Home Base Care Volunteer Training and we have agreed to start that up at the beginning of May. Our aim is to cover basic healthcare issues, such as hygiene, nutrition, malaria prevention, HIV Aids awareness and support and any other issues that we come across in the villages in the coming months. We also had our first CBCC caregiver training meeting, where we discussed our plan and asked the caregivers what they would like to gain from the sessions. We are still battling with the image that we are here to provide material goods or financial help, but I think that we are beginning to make progress with helping by using our skills and knowledge and I am looking forward to the coming weeks to the training sessions starting up properly and spending more time working at our project, now that it has taken on a clearer form.
And so, it is time for the food update! This week we made fajitas for the family. We mow have an older sister and brother also living in the house, so the population had risen to 11. I am delighted to say that the meal was a success and there were no leftovers because they kept coming back for more! I think we will stick to fajitas in future and scrap the risotto. Nobody even added salt; we were really chuffed!
The whole Malawian experience continues to be an amazing learning curve which we are both enjoying so much. I hope that everyone at home is enjoying their Easter holidays and as always, I will make a plea for post; we love post! I’m going to keep writing and in the mean-time have an enjoyable break from school or work.
Take care and see you in August,
Love
Catherine
xxx
Monday, 28 March 2011
British Summertime Begins-I’m an Hour Nearer to Home!
Monday 14th March 2011-Sunday 27th March 2011
It is totally crazy that since my last blog we have passed three important timeline markers; two months in Malawi, two months in Nchalo and I am one third through my time in Malawi. Please don’t get the wrong impression-I’m not wishing away my time but I am amazed at how quickly the time has passed! It’s the last week in March already, how did that happen?! I wish that I could say that because we are two months down the line, the temperature is gradually dropping-unfortunately not! This last week in particular has been a scorcher and every day has been about 40-45 degrees Celsius...all that can be done is to wait and see and hope that in time the temperatures will fall to a more manageable level. In the mean-time I am learning to accept that I have no control over the weather and I have become significantly more appreciative of being at the right temperature (mainly when in Blantyre).
Nadia, our Desk Officer from Coll, came out to visit and we went up to Blantyre to meet her and enjoy a St Patrick’s Day party. I don’t quite know where from, but all the azungu seemed to emerge that night and gather at Doogle’s youth hostel and it was a very good event. The whole weekend was great actually and it was strange to think that I am on my Gap Year and my desk officer has visited. As I say so often, the planning and preparation for this time away has been so long that I cannot believe that it’s over and I am actually living in Malawi!
The morning of the day that Nadia was due in Nchalo, we had an office meeting with Paul. It was another of those meetings where there were a lot of misunderstandings and repetition, but it was very interesting. We discovered more about what Paul saw as our role in FHECC; he was under the impression that we are in Nchalo to re-invent FHECC, find them funding and get them back on their feet (they were funded by Family Health International until 3 years ago and now they receive nothing). As you know, we feel that we have come to Malawi for a totally different reason-to use our skills and knowledge to help a part of a community- and it was an interesting conversation when we discovered the differences in understanding but it did make sense of a lot of confusion that had been around. We have been confused as to why we are still visiting quite so many villages and why FHECC are reluctant for us to focus on one CBCC, support group or village but it’s because Paul thought that for January, February and March we would get an idea of what the organisation is about before then deciding how to recreate it. When Nadia arrived, she agreed that we were not in Nchalo to spend 7 months at the internet cafe researching grant making organisations-we did that as part of fundraising! It did all work out in the end as now at least everybody knows where they stand and we have agreed with Paul what we are here to do. Hopefully this means that the project can move forwards and develop. Sophie and I have also had the idea of starting to train FHECC volunteers on how to deliver Home Based Care. Again, we felt that our visiting patients once will help them while we are here, but there will be no lasting effect when we leave in August, whereas if we train the volunteers, what we teach can be continued once we are gone. This also makes the project more concrete in structure. Nadia has been looking at potential new projects in Malawi and soon has to decide what existing projects will continue and which won’t. Because ours has taken so long to get off the ground we are unsure of what will happen, but if it does continue we will have helped to establish a really different and exciting project, and if it doesn’t then we will have been some of the few people in the world who have ever taken the opportunity to visit Nchalo and spend time getting to know the community. Either way, it’s pretty special!
Hospital work continues to be interesting and we have appointed ourselves new roles within the hospital-infection prevention monitors! We attended an Infection Prevention session run by the staff, for the staff and it s good that we now know that the staff are aware of what good and bad practice is and we can now pick up on mistakes, knowing that they have been made through carelessness rather than not knowing. I have seen an improvement since the session and have also been more confident in discussing the issue with the nurses as I feel less likely to be judged as the azungu who is here picking flaws seeing as we attended the same day of training and we have built up good friendships with them too.
The maternity ward has brought a few interesting cases this week; firstly there was an 18 year old mother who, due to her HIV medication, gave birth 7 weeks prematurely to a tiny, tiny baby. It was so small that its ears were not properly formed but I am happy to say that it was otherwise healthy and managed the knack of breastfeeding without any problems. The young age of the mother was not new, but this was the first time that I had heard of ARVs causing premature delivery. Through other work I have learned more problems that ARVs cause and being in Malawi is certainly still a learning experience. I doubt that that will change!
A second mother, in the ward, was in the second stage of labour and the midwife told me that because of the size of the fundus, they suspected that she was expecting twins. However, after palpating and listening for a foetal heart sound he decided that actually she wasn’t expecting twins, she was just obese! This is the first time I have encountered the concept while in Malawi. Sure, there are overweight people, but there are many more that are underweight. What really struck me was the difference in techniques between here and the UK. At home, and ultrasound would have been done very early on in the pregnancy and twins would have been confirmed or eliminated well before the day of delivery! Here, because the gestation age is measured according to fundal height, nobody was very sure of what to expect until she was delivering. Fundal height is a variable that is controlled by so many factors and isn’t a totally reliable measurement. Though the hospital has one brand new ultrasound machine, it is too expensive to run regularly and patients cannot afford to pay for its use either. St Montfort is a mission hospital, as opposed to a government hospital, so patients pay for treatment. The healthcare dilemmas that I come across are always really interesting for me and I have started to think about my Community Report for Project Trust-the problem is that there is so much I could include! I’ve accepted my place at Edinburgh to study medicine next year and I keep thinking about what a totally different experience it will be to learn about medicine in the UK in comparison to Malawi.
Of course, my blog would be incomplete without some food news...we have made some really good, cheese-less pizza to celebrate our 2 month anniversary. As we keep saying, flatbread has become one of our staples and has so many uses. Jen, you really will thank me! We cooked risotto for the family too...what a debacle! For every meal they usually have three or four insulated dishes on the table, each with something different in it, so when we set the table and there was one pot in the middle it was very different. Seeing as we measure the success of the meal on how much salt is added, this dish was a total disaster. Sophie and I were happy with the seasoning, but the family each had repeated servings of salt on their portions! We are in need of some new ideas of recipes to cook for them, so if anyone has ideas (that don’t include pork or alcohol) please let me know!
Finally, in the past fortnight we have officially sold all the furniture that we had so source for our house in Sekeni Village. Mphatso, the landlord, bought it from us and we are now fully untied from the rent agreement. This is a good weight off our shoulders and what’s even better is that we are now on holiday! Having worked for two months solid we are both tired but excited about going to climb Mount Mulanje for my birthday this week. We’re currently in Blantyre, enjoying cool weather and preparing, but I’ll let everyone know how it goes and hopefully have some good photos of the stunning views to upload at some point in the future. Malawi is a stunning country and we witnessed the most amazing lightning storm when coming down the Escarpment Road last weekend. The forks of lightning were illuminating the whole sky-it was just breathtaking and I cannot believe that I have this chance to spend time living in such an amazing part of the world.
All in all life is good and I am very excited about our impending holiday and spending my birthday in Africa! I hope that things are all well at home and I send lots of love to everyone,
Take care and keep in touch,
Catherine
xxx
It is totally crazy that since my last blog we have passed three important timeline markers; two months in Malawi, two months in Nchalo and I am one third through my time in Malawi. Please don’t get the wrong impression-I’m not wishing away my time but I am amazed at how quickly the time has passed! It’s the last week in March already, how did that happen?! I wish that I could say that because we are two months down the line, the temperature is gradually dropping-unfortunately not! This last week in particular has been a scorcher and every day has been about 40-45 degrees Celsius...all that can be done is to wait and see and hope that in time the temperatures will fall to a more manageable level. In the mean-time I am learning to accept that I have no control over the weather and I have become significantly more appreciative of being at the right temperature (mainly when in Blantyre).
Nadia, our Desk Officer from Coll, came out to visit and we went up to Blantyre to meet her and enjoy a St Patrick’s Day party. I don’t quite know where from, but all the azungu seemed to emerge that night and gather at Doogle’s youth hostel and it was a very good event. The whole weekend was great actually and it was strange to think that I am on my Gap Year and my desk officer has visited. As I say so often, the planning and preparation for this time away has been so long that I cannot believe that it’s over and I am actually living in Malawi!
The morning of the day that Nadia was due in Nchalo, we had an office meeting with Paul. It was another of those meetings where there were a lot of misunderstandings and repetition, but it was very interesting. We discovered more about what Paul saw as our role in FHECC; he was under the impression that we are in Nchalo to re-invent FHECC, find them funding and get them back on their feet (they were funded by Family Health International until 3 years ago and now they receive nothing). As you know, we feel that we have come to Malawi for a totally different reason-to use our skills and knowledge to help a part of a community- and it was an interesting conversation when we discovered the differences in understanding but it did make sense of a lot of confusion that had been around. We have been confused as to why we are still visiting quite so many villages and why FHECC are reluctant for us to focus on one CBCC, support group or village but it’s because Paul thought that for January, February and March we would get an idea of what the organisation is about before then deciding how to recreate it. When Nadia arrived, she agreed that we were not in Nchalo to spend 7 months at the internet cafe researching grant making organisations-we did that as part of fundraising! It did all work out in the end as now at least everybody knows where they stand and we have agreed with Paul what we are here to do. Hopefully this means that the project can move forwards and develop. Sophie and I have also had the idea of starting to train FHECC volunteers on how to deliver Home Based Care. Again, we felt that our visiting patients once will help them while we are here, but there will be no lasting effect when we leave in August, whereas if we train the volunteers, what we teach can be continued once we are gone. This also makes the project more concrete in structure. Nadia has been looking at potential new projects in Malawi and soon has to decide what existing projects will continue and which won’t. Because ours has taken so long to get off the ground we are unsure of what will happen, but if it does continue we will have helped to establish a really different and exciting project, and if it doesn’t then we will have been some of the few people in the world who have ever taken the opportunity to visit Nchalo and spend time getting to know the community. Either way, it’s pretty special!
Hospital work continues to be interesting and we have appointed ourselves new roles within the hospital-infection prevention monitors! We attended an Infection Prevention session run by the staff, for the staff and it s good that we now know that the staff are aware of what good and bad practice is and we can now pick up on mistakes, knowing that they have been made through carelessness rather than not knowing. I have seen an improvement since the session and have also been more confident in discussing the issue with the nurses as I feel less likely to be judged as the azungu who is here picking flaws seeing as we attended the same day of training and we have built up good friendships with them too.
The maternity ward has brought a few interesting cases this week; firstly there was an 18 year old mother who, due to her HIV medication, gave birth 7 weeks prematurely to a tiny, tiny baby. It was so small that its ears were not properly formed but I am happy to say that it was otherwise healthy and managed the knack of breastfeeding without any problems. The young age of the mother was not new, but this was the first time that I had heard of ARVs causing premature delivery. Through other work I have learned more problems that ARVs cause and being in Malawi is certainly still a learning experience. I doubt that that will change!
A second mother, in the ward, was in the second stage of labour and the midwife told me that because of the size of the fundus, they suspected that she was expecting twins. However, after palpating and listening for a foetal heart sound he decided that actually she wasn’t expecting twins, she was just obese! This is the first time I have encountered the concept while in Malawi. Sure, there are overweight people, but there are many more that are underweight. What really struck me was the difference in techniques between here and the UK. At home, and ultrasound would have been done very early on in the pregnancy and twins would have been confirmed or eliminated well before the day of delivery! Here, because the gestation age is measured according to fundal height, nobody was very sure of what to expect until she was delivering. Fundal height is a variable that is controlled by so many factors and isn’t a totally reliable measurement. Though the hospital has one brand new ultrasound machine, it is too expensive to run regularly and patients cannot afford to pay for its use either. St Montfort is a mission hospital, as opposed to a government hospital, so patients pay for treatment. The healthcare dilemmas that I come across are always really interesting for me and I have started to think about my Community Report for Project Trust-the problem is that there is so much I could include! I’ve accepted my place at Edinburgh to study medicine next year and I keep thinking about what a totally different experience it will be to learn about medicine in the UK in comparison to Malawi.
Of course, my blog would be incomplete without some food news...we have made some really good, cheese-less pizza to celebrate our 2 month anniversary. As we keep saying, flatbread has become one of our staples and has so many uses. Jen, you really will thank me! We cooked risotto for the family too...what a debacle! For every meal they usually have three or four insulated dishes on the table, each with something different in it, so when we set the table and there was one pot in the middle it was very different. Seeing as we measure the success of the meal on how much salt is added, this dish was a total disaster. Sophie and I were happy with the seasoning, but the family each had repeated servings of salt on their portions! We are in need of some new ideas of recipes to cook for them, so if anyone has ideas (that don’t include pork or alcohol) please let me know!
Finally, in the past fortnight we have officially sold all the furniture that we had so source for our house in Sekeni Village. Mphatso, the landlord, bought it from us and we are now fully untied from the rent agreement. This is a good weight off our shoulders and what’s even better is that we are now on holiday! Having worked for two months solid we are both tired but excited about going to climb Mount Mulanje for my birthday this week. We’re currently in Blantyre, enjoying cool weather and preparing, but I’ll let everyone know how it goes and hopefully have some good photos of the stunning views to upload at some point in the future. Malawi is a stunning country and we witnessed the most amazing lightning storm when coming down the Escarpment Road last weekend. The forks of lightning were illuminating the whole sky-it was just breathtaking and I cannot believe that I have this chance to spend time living in such an amazing part of the world.
All in all life is good and I am very excited about our impending holiday and spending my birthday in Africa! I hope that things are all well at home and I send lots of love to everyone,
Take care and keep in touch,
Catherine
xxx
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Nchalo...it now resembles a swamp!
Friday 4th March2011-Friday 11th March 2011
Another week in Nchalo, another week of new experiences…I hope that this won’t change anytime soon! The January rains have finally arrived, two months late (standard Malawian delays), and have reduced the dusty roads to mud. In Chichewa, the word for mud is the same as the word for rain (mvula) and there is an old proverb “Mukufuna mvula, mukufuna mvula.”-You want rain, you want mud. There is no chance of having one without the other as we have learned this week. We were caught in a particularly heavy downpour one afternoon. Between the FHECC office and the hospital we managed to get totally drenched, even with an umbrella, and we ended up splashing mud at each other, much to the amusement of all the hospital staff. Those azungu…a constant source of entertainment! The advantage of rain is that it significantly lowers the temperature and crops can grow. The disadvantages…roads to villages become impassable by Sherpa and my phone is too soggy to work! Luckily Ignatius has a spare one that I can use until I can find a new one. As a result of the weather, a lot of our village visits didn’t go ahead this week so we’ve been at the hospital a lot.
On Tuesday, Sophie went to maternity while I went to the paediatric ward. We noticed later that the 5 hours that we spent in different areas of the hospital is the longest that we have been apart in 8 weeks…wow. Paediatrics has been very interesting, but there are so many cases of severe malaria, especially in young children. The sad thing is that they rarely sleep under nets because they don’t have them, but if a parent takes their child to the Under 5s’ clinic, they can be given a free one. Unfortunately there is no scheme in place for children over the age of 5. There aren’t many other illnesses on the ward, so cannula insertion to set up IV quinine is the standard procedure. The nurses were all for me having a go, but if I am going to try cannulation, I will definitely not start on children! Firstly, their veins are nearly impossible to see and secondly, they are more resistant to needles and often two fully grown Malawian men are needed to restrain him or her. I have learned to set up the IV drip though and had a hand in helping with dressing the burns on the little girl that fell on the boiling water. I am happy to say that the wounds are healing much better and she has been discharged! I really hope that the wounds stay clean and continue to heal well in a dusty village environment.
The most exciting medical new of the week comes from Sophie who, in the maternity ward, helped to deliver a baby. All week at the ward the nurses have been teaching her and today (because nothing was happening at paediatrics) I went to maternity and watched her clamp and cut the umbilical cord, give an injection and deliver the placenta! It was great to watch and she went about the whole procedure with so much confidence and it was so smoothly done. The patient’s records officially say that the baby girl was delivered by Sophie-how amazing is that? What an amazing opportunity for her!
We’ve been at the ante-natal clinics too and my news is that I am now able to use a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to measure blood pressure! We were sitting, having weighed everyone, waiting for another nurse to come and measure the BPs when Sophie said “Do you want to just have a go at doing their BPs?” Before I knew it I had really sore ears from having used a really old stethoscope to measure 30 women’s blood pressures! I feel like we are now even more useful because we weigh, register and take blood pressure, so it is definite progress, both for the clinic and my personal skills too!
In other FHECC news: we are going to start teaching one morning a week at a Community Based Child-Care Centre (a bit like pre-school) in a small village called Dzilonzo. We introduced ourselves this week and set up a timetable-they have never had one before-and have come up with a list of topics that we will try and teach. The struggle will be teaching the children to learn. Up until now they just repeat what the teacher says; she says “silence” and they all shout “silence” and then sit quietly for a while; they can sing the alphabet song but they don’t know what the letters are. We’re going to try and teach the alphabet, letter by letter, maybe some animals and basic personal hygiene too e.g. hand washing. We’ve also established our role with the youth groups. We’ve been uncertain for a while about what we will actually be doing with them, but we had a meeting with one of the local groups this week and our role is an advisory one. We suggested activities that they could do and new methods of teaching about HIV in the community. They want to apply for funding for their community pre-school, so we have given them a plan of action to try and increase the chances of success. All in all, despite the rain, it has been another week where our role in Nchalo and the neighbouring villages has become clearer, so we’re happy!
Again, we cooked a meal for everybody in the family. We have now made them Toad in the Hole with onion gravy, chocolate cake and, of course, pancakes, for Pancake Day! They all went down quite well we think, especially because not a single person added salt to our Toad in the Hole meal-quite an achievement in Malawi. We have now tried maize porridge, phala, which all the children eat. It is a bit like sweet nsima, only the consistency of custard. It’s not too bad, but a little goes a long way for us! We were handed a bowl each but we asked to share. We only ate about a quarter of the bowl and the village chief had the rest, after having had a huge bowl herself. I think we’ll stick to muesli in the mornings from mow on!
Having visited Blantyre immigration last weekend we are now allowed in the country for a further 30 days. We spent the night and met with some of the other PT volunteers. We had some great food, from several outlets, and a good party at the youth hostel, featuring a drummer who turned his bike into a drum kit! It was the first chance that we have had to dance at a reasonable temperature and we were pleased to feel cool in Blantyre while others said they were hot-we must be adapting to the Nchalo heat. Success! This weekend we have been chilling our after a busy few weeks and the next few weekends are looking packed too; next weekend we’ll meet up with everyone in Blantyre as Nadia, our Desk Officer from Coll will be visiting. We’ve also arranged to climb Mount Mulanje for my birthday with some other volunteers, so that will be Sophie’s and my first holiday since coming to Nchalo. I’m really excited about spending my birthday in Malawi! So, to have down time this weekend we’ve swum with Prudence and Nema, watched a film with all three girls and eaten fresh coconut! After uploading this blog, we’re going to go to the Sports’ Club and watch the England Vs Scotland Six Nations’ match…come on Scotland!
Post has been amazing this week too, so please keep it coming; we love going to the hospital administrator and them handing us a big pile of letters between us. I hope that all my letters have been making it to the UK, or Namibia, and that everybody is well. I can’t believe that we are now a quarter of the way through our time in Malawi. Each week flies by, but at the same time I can never remember what I did yesterday-each day is so long, full-on and packed with new experiences, but I like it that way!
All in all, a good week and hopefully there's another one to come. Thank you so much for all the encouraging messages and support-I love receiving them and they do mean a lot. I trust that everyone is well and look forward to hearing the news from home.
Take care and keep in touch,
Love
Catherine
xxx
Another week in Nchalo, another week of new experiences…I hope that this won’t change anytime soon! The January rains have finally arrived, two months late (standard Malawian delays), and have reduced the dusty roads to mud. In Chichewa, the word for mud is the same as the word for rain (mvula) and there is an old proverb “Mukufuna mvula, mukufuna mvula.”-You want rain, you want mud. There is no chance of having one without the other as we have learned this week. We were caught in a particularly heavy downpour one afternoon. Between the FHECC office and the hospital we managed to get totally drenched, even with an umbrella, and we ended up splashing mud at each other, much to the amusement of all the hospital staff. Those azungu…a constant source of entertainment! The advantage of rain is that it significantly lowers the temperature and crops can grow. The disadvantages…roads to villages become impassable by Sherpa and my phone is too soggy to work! Luckily Ignatius has a spare one that I can use until I can find a new one. As a result of the weather, a lot of our village visits didn’t go ahead this week so we’ve been at the hospital a lot.
On Tuesday, Sophie went to maternity while I went to the paediatric ward. We noticed later that the 5 hours that we spent in different areas of the hospital is the longest that we have been apart in 8 weeks…wow. Paediatrics has been very interesting, but there are so many cases of severe malaria, especially in young children. The sad thing is that they rarely sleep under nets because they don’t have them, but if a parent takes their child to the Under 5s’ clinic, they can be given a free one. Unfortunately there is no scheme in place for children over the age of 5. There aren’t many other illnesses on the ward, so cannula insertion to set up IV quinine is the standard procedure. The nurses were all for me having a go, but if I am going to try cannulation, I will definitely not start on children! Firstly, their veins are nearly impossible to see and secondly, they are more resistant to needles and often two fully grown Malawian men are needed to restrain him or her. I have learned to set up the IV drip though and had a hand in helping with dressing the burns on the little girl that fell on the boiling water. I am happy to say that the wounds are healing much better and she has been discharged! I really hope that the wounds stay clean and continue to heal well in a dusty village environment.
The most exciting medical new of the week comes from Sophie who, in the maternity ward, helped to deliver a baby. All week at the ward the nurses have been teaching her and today (because nothing was happening at paediatrics) I went to maternity and watched her clamp and cut the umbilical cord, give an injection and deliver the placenta! It was great to watch and she went about the whole procedure with so much confidence and it was so smoothly done. The patient’s records officially say that the baby girl was delivered by Sophie-how amazing is that? What an amazing opportunity for her!
We’ve been at the ante-natal clinics too and my news is that I am now able to use a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to measure blood pressure! We were sitting, having weighed everyone, waiting for another nurse to come and measure the BPs when Sophie said “Do you want to just have a go at doing their BPs?” Before I knew it I had really sore ears from having used a really old stethoscope to measure 30 women’s blood pressures! I feel like we are now even more useful because we weigh, register and take blood pressure, so it is definite progress, both for the clinic and my personal skills too!
In other FHECC news: we are going to start teaching one morning a week at a Community Based Child-Care Centre (a bit like pre-school) in a small village called Dzilonzo. We introduced ourselves this week and set up a timetable-they have never had one before-and have come up with a list of topics that we will try and teach. The struggle will be teaching the children to learn. Up until now they just repeat what the teacher says; she says “silence” and they all shout “silence” and then sit quietly for a while; they can sing the alphabet song but they don’t know what the letters are. We’re going to try and teach the alphabet, letter by letter, maybe some animals and basic personal hygiene too e.g. hand washing. We’ve also established our role with the youth groups. We’ve been uncertain for a while about what we will actually be doing with them, but we had a meeting with one of the local groups this week and our role is an advisory one. We suggested activities that they could do and new methods of teaching about HIV in the community. They want to apply for funding for their community pre-school, so we have given them a plan of action to try and increase the chances of success. All in all, despite the rain, it has been another week where our role in Nchalo and the neighbouring villages has become clearer, so we’re happy!
Again, we cooked a meal for everybody in the family. We have now made them Toad in the Hole with onion gravy, chocolate cake and, of course, pancakes, for Pancake Day! They all went down quite well we think, especially because not a single person added salt to our Toad in the Hole meal-quite an achievement in Malawi. We have now tried maize porridge, phala, which all the children eat. It is a bit like sweet nsima, only the consistency of custard. It’s not too bad, but a little goes a long way for us! We were handed a bowl each but we asked to share. We only ate about a quarter of the bowl and the village chief had the rest, after having had a huge bowl herself. I think we’ll stick to muesli in the mornings from mow on!
Having visited Blantyre immigration last weekend we are now allowed in the country for a further 30 days. We spent the night and met with some of the other PT volunteers. We had some great food, from several outlets, and a good party at the youth hostel, featuring a drummer who turned his bike into a drum kit! It was the first chance that we have had to dance at a reasonable temperature and we were pleased to feel cool in Blantyre while others said they were hot-we must be adapting to the Nchalo heat. Success! This weekend we have been chilling our after a busy few weeks and the next few weekends are looking packed too; next weekend we’ll meet up with everyone in Blantyre as Nadia, our Desk Officer from Coll will be visiting. We’ve also arranged to climb Mount Mulanje for my birthday with some other volunteers, so that will be Sophie’s and my first holiday since coming to Nchalo. I’m really excited about spending my birthday in Malawi! So, to have down time this weekend we’ve swum with Prudence and Nema, watched a film with all three girls and eaten fresh coconut! After uploading this blog, we’re going to go to the Sports’ Club and watch the England Vs Scotland Six Nations’ match…come on Scotland!
Post has been amazing this week too, so please keep it coming; we love going to the hospital administrator and them handing us a big pile of letters between us. I hope that all my letters have been making it to the UK, or Namibia, and that everybody is well. I can’t believe that we are now a quarter of the way through our time in Malawi. Each week flies by, but at the same time I can never remember what I did yesterday-each day is so long, full-on and packed with new experiences, but I like it that way!
All in all, a good week and hopefully there's another one to come. Thank you so much for all the encouraging messages and support-I love receiving them and they do mean a lot. I trust that everyone is well and look forward to hearing the news from home.
Take care and keep in touch,
Love
Catherine
xxx
Thursday, 3 March 2011
One Month in the Hottest Part of the Warm Heart of Africa!
19th February - 3rd March 2011
Sophie and I were really amazed to look at our diaries this week, on Thursday, and to realise that we have been in Nchalo for a whole month! Remembering back to those first few days in the area, we wondered where on earth we would be one month on, how we would be coping and how life would be going. The answer to all of that is; it’s all pretty good actually!
Progress has been made regarding the FHECC project! We had a meeting one afternoon (we were supposed to visit a village but there was a mix up, so we’ll go next week) with Paul and Never. It was a two hour meeting full of misunderstandings and miscommunication, but in the end, both sides have compromised and we have a successful outcome! Sophie and I wanted to have a weekly timetable that would always be the same so that each week we would visit the same village and build a relationship with the community. Paul disagreed-he thought that was unfair and villages would feel let out. We felt that it was unrealistic for us to include all 60 villages in the FHECC catchment area, and then I asked “What do you want us to do? What do you hope to achieve by our being here?” Now, this is a question that we should have asked a long time ago! We had never actually asked and so we had assumed that they wanted our skills and a direct input into specific projects or youth groups. In actual fact, what they want is our advice I think. We have set up a timetable where we have a few fixed items per week (antenatal clinics and hospital work) and then there are days or afternoons that will change every week where we will visit different communities and see what programmes are in place, listen to their situation and offer guidance on how to move forwards (whether this is a Home Based Care patient, youth group or a preschool). We feel a lot more comfortable in knowing what is being asked of us and are really looking forward to starting to offer our advice. It’s not what we expected, but as Mum reminded me, that’s part of the Malawian experience-too true!
Work this has been very enjoyable and, as always, very educational for both of us. We spent two days in the Maternity ward and as a result, I have held even more new born babies born to remarkably young girls. Every day there are 17 or 18 year old girls in the labour ward, giving birth, and I can’t help but try to imagine myself in their position. I really cannot imagine being married and having my first or second child by the age I am now. It’s one of the differences in culture between home and Malawi which constantly amazes me, probably because of the similarity in ages, and I will probably get used to it in time, but right now, every time a teenager is in the ward I try to put myself in their shoes.
One specific case stood out for me this week; a woman in her early 20s came in with contractions. Now, gestation age is measured by fundal height here, and it was indicating a gestation age of just 20 weeks. The lady was very malnourished and unfortunately the baby had died, hence the contractions at 20 weeks. What struck me was that she had attended 3 antenatal sessions at a clinic and her weight had been noted each time and each time it was clear that she was very malnourished. I wondered why nothing had been done to help her, or whether advice had been given to her to increase her body weight and improve her health, both for herself and for her baby. I guess that she probably was advised to increase her food intake and encouraged to gain weight, but it is more than possible that she lacked the funding to get food or coal to cook, or perhaps she had no support at home. There are plenty of comparable cases, but this was the first unsuccessful pregnancy that I have encountered, so it specifically stood out for me.
We spent some time watching stitches from c-section scars being removed. The midwife was all for me having a go, but I assured him that I would watch for now, but in the future I would love to. What an opportunity, it’s something that would never be offered to me in PRI, and we have been surrounded by similar offers to undertake clinical procedures. We would love to, in time, but for now it is important that we learn how the staff go about the procedures and we observe techniques first! Nevertheless, learning has taken place this week and we can now both take blood pressure using a stethoscope and BP cuff! (Assuming the surroundings are relatively quiet!). Once we practise a bit more and are more confident in our abilities, this will come in handy at the antenatal clinics.
We’ve been to paediatrics and seen a 2 year old girl with burns all over the front and back of her torso. She fell onto a pan of boiling water and with baulas being the normal mode of cooking here, it is too common an injury. There were quite a few burns victims and because there isn’t a separate burns unit, infection is easily caught, so the children have to stay in even longer as they become more ill. I’m looking forwards to returning to the paed ward and getting involved in dressings and getting to know the children there, but also seeing how the staff deal with the different cases.
For the first time at the NRU, we were involved in the Under 5s clinic. This was quite a manic morning. We arrived at about 7.30 and there were already tens of women and their babies or toddlers at the centre. We were quickly roped into weighing the children using a hook weighing scale and the children were dangled form the hook in chitenges. It was quite scary when you had wriggling babies trying to escape the chitenge that was suspending them 4 feet off the ground! We took it in turns, one of us getting the chitenge onto the hook and reading off the weight, while the other wrote the weight in the chart in the health passport. There were women everywhere and we were totally surrounded by so many noises and everybody wanted to know how their child was doing. I was pleased to see that so many women were interested in the health of their children because, until now, it has appeared that having children is a duty rather than a choice or opportunity in Malawian culture. In the labour ward I am yet to come across a smiling mother or an encouraging relative or friend, which is very odd. What is also strange about the labour ward is the pain aspect. In all the work experience that I have done, if a patient is in pain the clinician will try to reduce that instantly and make the patient comfortable and also combat the source of the pain. So, it is very odd for me to be in a maternity ward where it is normal for women to be in pain and they are supposed to be in pain, so nothing is done to reduce it. It is just so different to anything I have come across before, but then so is the Malawian experience!
Village visits have also become a semi-regular part of our project. I say semi-regular because about half the time they are postponed due to communication breakdown, transport issues, or the village is closed because there is a funeral. I really enjoyed the visit to Besta village, where we went to the homes of Home Based Care patients. Never acted as translator and would tell us the patient and guardian’s side of the story, then we would ask questions about the symptoms of their illness and give our advice. It was also important for us the make sure that the patient was receiving adequate care from the guardian, but also that the guardian themselves had enough time and support to care for the patient. We came across one patient who looked elderly and complained of pain in her arms and legs which had begun 3 years ago. She had been on ART (Anti-Retroviral Treatment) for 3 years, so we put the two together and said that it was a side effect of the medication-ART has many side effects. After asking a few more questions we changed our diagnosis and decided that we thought she had osteo-arthritis. Because Malawians don’t have a high life expectancy, arthritis is virtually unheard of (Several times people have asked what kind of nurse Mum is and it has taken a while to explain. The concept of an old people’s home is also totally alien!) and it was strange to be giving advice to a lady living in poverty in central Africa which was (hopefully) similar to that which Mum gives out to her patients who also have osteo-arthritis. The experience was great and I cannot wait to be involved in more HBC-we feel that we can really bring something to the patients and make a valid contribution, so it’s a positive experience both ways!
We have also learned a lot more about the sugar estate from Ignatius. He took us on a tour of it and it is enormous! Within the estate, there are 7 villages, the factory and plant, masses of sugar cane and schools, clinics and the sports club. We have been to the pool a couple of times and made friends with a young South African lady who is new to the estate too. We joined her at the bar one night and met a lot of South African expats and there’s also a Scot! He came out for 3 months, 12 years ago, and is still here…We will definitely be coming home in August for university, the thought of the October heat is too much to bear!
We’re gradually getting used to moulding to an African family’s way of life. It’s challenging as there are always people everywhere but it is good in that we are able to learn a lot from them too. We went to Blantyre to one of Ignatius’s churches and then had lunch at his “brother’s” (very close friend) house. It is perfectly normal to refer to close friends as relatives here, so that’s causing a little confusion! We cooked for the family again and we think that they enjoyed it…we did fajitas and Monica (who is very picky with food) thoroughly enjoyed it, so we count that as a success! We have also been developing our friendships with the locals, and Edwin (the surgeon/doctor) asked us if we would be his “Pennipols”. After a lot of laughter and confusion we realised that he wants us to be pen-pals, and we have agreed, though we now refer to “pen-pals” as “Pennipols”, just for the comedy.
My final piece of good news is that I received a parcel, as did Sophie! (Thanks, Claire!) We love when letters arrive and love reading emails reminding us of home life and keeping in touch with everyone and their news. Everyone says that nothing is changing at home, but that is comforting to know, seeing as everything always changes here! All in all, things have been going relatively well and we are very proud to have survived a month in Nchalo. We didn’t think it was possible when we first arrived, but I think that it proves that if something seems totally unachievable, it may not be!
Missing everybody at home lots, but not enough to bring me home before August (especially now that our project appears to be making progress). I can’t believe that it is now March and I am living in Malawi. The reality still hasn’t sunk in and I’m nearly 7 weeks in! I wonder if it will ever seem real…
Please keep letters and emails coming, I really enjoy reading them,
Take care and love to all,
Catherine
xxx
Sophie and I were really amazed to look at our diaries this week, on Thursday, and to realise that we have been in Nchalo for a whole month! Remembering back to those first few days in the area, we wondered where on earth we would be one month on, how we would be coping and how life would be going. The answer to all of that is; it’s all pretty good actually!
Progress has been made regarding the FHECC project! We had a meeting one afternoon (we were supposed to visit a village but there was a mix up, so we’ll go next week) with Paul and Never. It was a two hour meeting full of misunderstandings and miscommunication, but in the end, both sides have compromised and we have a successful outcome! Sophie and I wanted to have a weekly timetable that would always be the same so that each week we would visit the same village and build a relationship with the community. Paul disagreed-he thought that was unfair and villages would feel let out. We felt that it was unrealistic for us to include all 60 villages in the FHECC catchment area, and then I asked “What do you want us to do? What do you hope to achieve by our being here?” Now, this is a question that we should have asked a long time ago! We had never actually asked and so we had assumed that they wanted our skills and a direct input into specific projects or youth groups. In actual fact, what they want is our advice I think. We have set up a timetable where we have a few fixed items per week (antenatal clinics and hospital work) and then there are days or afternoons that will change every week where we will visit different communities and see what programmes are in place, listen to their situation and offer guidance on how to move forwards (whether this is a Home Based Care patient, youth group or a preschool). We feel a lot more comfortable in knowing what is being asked of us and are really looking forward to starting to offer our advice. It’s not what we expected, but as Mum reminded me, that’s part of the Malawian experience-too true!
Work this has been very enjoyable and, as always, very educational for both of us. We spent two days in the Maternity ward and as a result, I have held even more new born babies born to remarkably young girls. Every day there are 17 or 18 year old girls in the labour ward, giving birth, and I can’t help but try to imagine myself in their position. I really cannot imagine being married and having my first or second child by the age I am now. It’s one of the differences in culture between home and Malawi which constantly amazes me, probably because of the similarity in ages, and I will probably get used to it in time, but right now, every time a teenager is in the ward I try to put myself in their shoes.
One specific case stood out for me this week; a woman in her early 20s came in with contractions. Now, gestation age is measured by fundal height here, and it was indicating a gestation age of just 20 weeks. The lady was very malnourished and unfortunately the baby had died, hence the contractions at 20 weeks. What struck me was that she had attended 3 antenatal sessions at a clinic and her weight had been noted each time and each time it was clear that she was very malnourished. I wondered why nothing had been done to help her, or whether advice had been given to her to increase her body weight and improve her health, both for herself and for her baby. I guess that she probably was advised to increase her food intake and encouraged to gain weight, but it is more than possible that she lacked the funding to get food or coal to cook, or perhaps she had no support at home. There are plenty of comparable cases, but this was the first unsuccessful pregnancy that I have encountered, so it specifically stood out for me.
We spent some time watching stitches from c-section scars being removed. The midwife was all for me having a go, but I assured him that I would watch for now, but in the future I would love to. What an opportunity, it’s something that would never be offered to me in PRI, and we have been surrounded by similar offers to undertake clinical procedures. We would love to, in time, but for now it is important that we learn how the staff go about the procedures and we observe techniques first! Nevertheless, learning has taken place this week and we can now both take blood pressure using a stethoscope and BP cuff! (Assuming the surroundings are relatively quiet!). Once we practise a bit more and are more confident in our abilities, this will come in handy at the antenatal clinics.
We’ve been to paediatrics and seen a 2 year old girl with burns all over the front and back of her torso. She fell onto a pan of boiling water and with baulas being the normal mode of cooking here, it is too common an injury. There were quite a few burns victims and because there isn’t a separate burns unit, infection is easily caught, so the children have to stay in even longer as they become more ill. I’m looking forwards to returning to the paed ward and getting involved in dressings and getting to know the children there, but also seeing how the staff deal with the different cases.
For the first time at the NRU, we were involved in the Under 5s clinic. This was quite a manic morning. We arrived at about 7.30 and there were already tens of women and their babies or toddlers at the centre. We were quickly roped into weighing the children using a hook weighing scale and the children were dangled form the hook in chitenges. It was quite scary when you had wriggling babies trying to escape the chitenge that was suspending them 4 feet off the ground! We took it in turns, one of us getting the chitenge onto the hook and reading off the weight, while the other wrote the weight in the chart in the health passport. There were women everywhere and we were totally surrounded by so many noises and everybody wanted to know how their child was doing. I was pleased to see that so many women were interested in the health of their children because, until now, it has appeared that having children is a duty rather than a choice or opportunity in Malawian culture. In the labour ward I am yet to come across a smiling mother or an encouraging relative or friend, which is very odd. What is also strange about the labour ward is the pain aspect. In all the work experience that I have done, if a patient is in pain the clinician will try to reduce that instantly and make the patient comfortable and also combat the source of the pain. So, it is very odd for me to be in a maternity ward where it is normal for women to be in pain and they are supposed to be in pain, so nothing is done to reduce it. It is just so different to anything I have come across before, but then so is the Malawian experience!
Village visits have also become a semi-regular part of our project. I say semi-regular because about half the time they are postponed due to communication breakdown, transport issues, or the village is closed because there is a funeral. I really enjoyed the visit to Besta village, where we went to the homes of Home Based Care patients. Never acted as translator and would tell us the patient and guardian’s side of the story, then we would ask questions about the symptoms of their illness and give our advice. It was also important for us the make sure that the patient was receiving adequate care from the guardian, but also that the guardian themselves had enough time and support to care for the patient. We came across one patient who looked elderly and complained of pain in her arms and legs which had begun 3 years ago. She had been on ART (Anti-Retroviral Treatment) for 3 years, so we put the two together and said that it was a side effect of the medication-ART has many side effects. After asking a few more questions we changed our diagnosis and decided that we thought she had osteo-arthritis. Because Malawians don’t have a high life expectancy, arthritis is virtually unheard of (Several times people have asked what kind of nurse Mum is and it has taken a while to explain. The concept of an old people’s home is also totally alien!) and it was strange to be giving advice to a lady living in poverty in central Africa which was (hopefully) similar to that which Mum gives out to her patients who also have osteo-arthritis. The experience was great and I cannot wait to be involved in more HBC-we feel that we can really bring something to the patients and make a valid contribution, so it’s a positive experience both ways!
We have also learned a lot more about the sugar estate from Ignatius. He took us on a tour of it and it is enormous! Within the estate, there are 7 villages, the factory and plant, masses of sugar cane and schools, clinics and the sports club. We have been to the pool a couple of times and made friends with a young South African lady who is new to the estate too. We joined her at the bar one night and met a lot of South African expats and there’s also a Scot! He came out for 3 months, 12 years ago, and is still here…We will definitely be coming home in August for university, the thought of the October heat is too much to bear!
We’re gradually getting used to moulding to an African family’s way of life. It’s challenging as there are always people everywhere but it is good in that we are able to learn a lot from them too. We went to Blantyre to one of Ignatius’s churches and then had lunch at his “brother’s” (very close friend) house. It is perfectly normal to refer to close friends as relatives here, so that’s causing a little confusion! We cooked for the family again and we think that they enjoyed it…we did fajitas and Monica (who is very picky with food) thoroughly enjoyed it, so we count that as a success! We have also been developing our friendships with the locals, and Edwin (the surgeon/doctor) asked us if we would be his “Pennipols”. After a lot of laughter and confusion we realised that he wants us to be pen-pals, and we have agreed, though we now refer to “pen-pals” as “Pennipols”, just for the comedy.
My final piece of good news is that I received a parcel, as did Sophie! (Thanks, Claire!) We love when letters arrive and love reading emails reminding us of home life and keeping in touch with everyone and their news. Everyone says that nothing is changing at home, but that is comforting to know, seeing as everything always changes here! All in all, things have been going relatively well and we are very proud to have survived a month in Nchalo. We didn’t think it was possible when we first arrived, but I think that it proves that if something seems totally unachievable, it may not be!
Missing everybody at home lots, but not enough to bring me home before August (especially now that our project appears to be making progress). I can’t believe that it is now March and I am living in Malawi. The reality still hasn’t sunk in and I’m nearly 7 weeks in! I wonder if it will ever seem real…
Please keep letters and emails coming, I really enjoy reading them,
Take care and love to all,
Catherine
xxx
Sunday, 20 February 2011
It’s Our 1 Month Anniversary-“The Uterus Looks Like A Chicken Breast!”
4th February -19th February 2011
Well, it’s official. I have been in Malawi for one month now. On the one hand, time has flown and we have jammed so much into the last month, but at the same time I can’t help but still not feel set up. I guess that it’s wishful thinking to presume that after a month in a country I would be established and settled. As time goes on in Malawi, it has become apparent to us that life moves at a much slower pace. I suppose that this is because of the heat and also the culture of being more laid back about life in general. As a result, very little progress had been made project wise this week, but we have used our British “must-do-something” attitude to organise our own timetable for some days and we will speak to Paul about what he would like us to do on other days. One morning we waited around for him to arrive at 9…and we waited some more…eventually, at 10.30, Patrick appeared with his bike. We asked why he was here- “transport” was the reply…we were somewhat confused as firstly, there was only one of him and two of us, and he then took the cushion off the back of his bike and put it in our store room. What followed was a hilarious exchange where we asked questions in very slow Chichewa or English, and he relied in a rapid stream of unintelligible Chichewa. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing-if I hadn’t, I would probably have jumped up and down in frustration, as it was we just fell about in fits of giggles, and then Patrick joined in. Then I decided to pose a simple Yes/No question- “Patrick, have you seen Paul today?” The five minute thinking time that followed was enough for Sophie to fall about in hysterics and I had to join in when he answered “No idea”. Sorry, Patrick, that wasn’t one of the options!
We did return to the maternity ward one morning though. We were just about to examine someone in the early stages of labour when a woman fell off the hospital bed in one of the cubicles. Looking through, we could see her having a fit and Sophie and I were both concerned about just how hard she had hit the floor. The midwife explained that due to pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure), she was convulsing and her brain had shut down. It was really important that she be taken on to surgery for a caesarean section, but everybody seemed to move so slowly. We were invited in to help, but still being new to the hospital and Malawian practices, as well as not being qualifies, we declined. I hope that in time to come we will have the skills and knowledge to chip in, but for now it’s safer that we get used to such a different way of handling healthcare. I can’t work out the reason why, but there appeared to be no urgency despite the fact that the placenta was becoming distanced from the baby and it would be denied of oxygen. Eventually she was wheeled off to the operating theatre and everybody else went for lunch. I suppose that even the pace of healthcare in Malawi is slower, I just didn’t expect such important matters to be looked on so causally. I wish we could have followed her progress in theatre, but as yet I still don’t know the outcome.
We’ve also spent time at the NRU near FHECC doing antenatal clinics and we have arranged to spend Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings there. Sophie and I weighed the women and then joined Etulis in one of the cubicles where she was examining the ladies. Etulis and Catherine, the community nurses who work at NRU are great, very friendly and enthusiastic for us to spend more time with them. Etulis has even invited us for dinner and agreed to teach us how to give injections providing that we bring a tomato or orange as practise material! We acted secretarially, at the clinic, increasing the efficiency of the whole process, and wrote fundal height, how many weeks pregnant the lady must therefore be, what position the baby was in, what drugs had been given and when the patient should return. It was great and we both learned so much, but also felt like we were being of use and helping in a small way. Another morning was spent filling in the register as mothers came for the first time to the clinic. It was nothing advanced or scientific, but we were just making the current situation a bit more efficient so we did feel like our contribution was valid-always a bonus! There were some very young mothers-to-be and I wondered about their home lives. Were they married? In a stable relationship? Or had they been abused? There are so many possibilities for so many people and I think that there are probably far too many cases of fathers not being there to help or abusing young girls.
I have had many great opportunities already, here in Malawi, but the most recent and the one which has left me totally speechless for longest was witnessing a caesarean section. We had visited a village in the morning and seen a couple of preschools, but we were back at the hospital earlier than we had anticipated. We sat on my favourite bench-prime position for meeting people and having conversations- and Edwin, one of the doctors walked past. We were talking and he mentioned that he was just off to do a c section. We asked if we could observe and he was more than happy for us to accompany him. We changed into scrubs (I have been in theatre in the UK before, but this was Sophie’s first time so I was keeping an eye on her) and went into the theatre. In many respects it was similar to home-the importance of sterility was still paramount, the equipment was similar, though it is a few years behind the UK. Edwin talked us through what he was doing-cutting the woman’s skin, through fat and muscle (sorry to anybody who is squeamish!) and he then cut into the uterus and brought out a baby boy! It was amazing to see a new life come into the world and Sophie and I were both completely in awe of the whole situation. How amazing is that-we saw a baby being brought into the world! He was a healthy 3.5kg and the mother was fine too. I had been wary when we went in because in the UK, there’s quite a high chance of success, but I wasn’t sure about the chances in Malawi. Edwin was very good and the theatre staff were really informative, explaining the whole procedure, they were so friendly. One thing that was different to the UK was that Edwin answered his mobile as it rang. The first time was quite funny, but Sophie and I thought it was hilarious when the second time that he answered it he said “I’m in surgery”-I wonder what the reply was on the other line!
We’ve also been to Blantyre for a day trip in order to buy a fridge and also renew our 30 day tourist visa. We set our alarms for 4am and we were walking down the dark road to Nchalo by 4.30 with Patrick. Even at 4.30 it is still hot in Nchalo! We were lucky in that we found a minibus which was ¾ full and we were quickly trundling up the hill to Blantyre. We had caught such an early minibus that we arrived in Blantyre at 6.30, a whole hour before immigration opened. Even so, we relished the fact that we felt cool and would quite happily have worn a cardigan if either of us had thought to bring one! Immigration was an interesting experience. What really need only have taken half an hour ended up taking two hours, mainly because we didn’t know what we were supposed to do and nobody really told us! Anyway, by 9 we were legally allowed to stay in the country until mid March, at which point we will have to return to Blantyre for some cool air and another trip to immigration-what a shame! Once immigration was out of the way, we headed to the Chichiri shopping mall (the westernised out of town one) where we quickly bought a fridge! We were both really happy at the thought of having a fridge that we could put water in and have cold drinks. It was amazing, the total contrast between Blantyre and Nchalo. Firstly, the temperature was totally different, but as we sat at the shopping centre, having an amazing lunch, we noticed how different the levels of wealth are too. I suppose it is the same in the UK, there are poor areas and then areas where everything is very built up and cosmopolitan, it was just strange to see it in Malawi. We people watched, one of my favourite hobbies, and watched all the well dressed, well off Malawians walk past going about their errands. Being next to two very British supermarkets, we stocked up on some luxuries to put in our fridge, like a supply of chocolate and some tuna tins and mayonnaise too! Buying them isn’t sustainable on our PT budget, but once in a while as a treat I think we may be OK!
Luckily one of Michelle’s friends was passing through Blantyre on his way to Nsanje and so gave us a lift, with our new fridge, to Nchalo. This was really helpful; the thought of getting the fridge from the shopping mall to the bus station and then on a minibus to Nchalo and then a Sherpa to Sekeni was not the ideal delivery method. Instead, we had a car, trundling down the beautiful Escarpment Road, back into the heat, which managed to drive through the narrow mud lanes of Sekeni and right to our gate. Having been up so early and not being hungry due to a large but delicious lunch we plugged the fridge in, stocked it up and collapsed into bed for an early night!
We also arranged to go south, to Nsanje and visit Chloe and Nancy and stay at Michelle’s house. The plan was for us to meet Grey-a VSO health assistant-as he passed through Nchalo in his car. The car had a slight problem and we ended up waiting in Nchalo town until 8.30 pm before we were on the non-tarmac ked, pothole ridden road to Nsanje! The suspension on these cars must be amazing! We spent a weekend at Michelle’s, in a climate slightly cooler than Nchalo but with many more mozzies, just relaxing and socializing with people in a similar situation to ourselves-i.e. British, young, away from home, working in Malawi. It was great fun and we saw their houses, their colleagues and friends and a bit of a drama production that one of their youth groups is doing about HIV/AIDS awareness. It’s really encouraging to know that they have been through similar experiences to us and we have taken advice on board, but also seen how other PT volunteers live.
I have also now made pancakes for the first time in Malawi. At home, Jen and I make them every Sunday morning, so it was comforting to eat such a homely food. Also, because life in Malawi runs a few hours earlier to Britain, when we were eating lunch, I guess Jen was making pancakes at the same time. Assuming that she has kept up the tradition that is!
We also now have the chance to have cold milk with cornflakes or muesli in the morning! I’m actually ok with powdered milk, though it does taste a lot better cold. Many of you will know that cereal is going to be a main staple for me during my student life, and milk is has been a huge part of my daily routine for years. I’m not quite at the stage of having a glass of powdered milk, but the ability to have cereal is very comforting!
Now, Sophie and I consider ourselves OK cooks; we enjoy cooking at home and are enjoying the opportunity to experiment with local ingredients. However, there have been a few mishaps. One night we decided to have scrambled eggs and make popcorn to have while watching a film. When Sophie went to crack the eggs into a bowl to whisk, we discovered that these eggs didn’t crack very easily…we had bought hard boiled eggs! Never mind, we can still have hard boiled eggs on toast followed by popcorn…let’s just say that the popcorn wasn’t very successful, at least the first batch wasn’t, but luckily Sfero came to the rescue as he passed by on his way back from work and he showed us how we were supposed to do it. We spent the evening sitting outside, chatting to him and eating popcorn while he told us the best places in Malawi to visit, so it certainly wasn’t a wasted evening. We have also bought some rather odd ingredients accidentally-the other day we went to buy a bunch of bananas and thought that we would be clever and buy a green bunch-surely they will last longer. Turns out they aren’t bananas-Gloria and Catherine say you have to boil them first, I think they are plantains or something, but if anybody at home has any ideas of what they are or what to do with them, we would appreciate it! We had to buy another bunch of bananas in the end, seeing as the green things were inedible and there has been another disappearance of pineapples in the market and mangoes have gone too. I hope that this doesn’t last too long, though I have been promised that oranges are on their way in (oranges which are green in colour).
Our other big news is that after having lived in Sekeni for 3 weeks and having really started to get used to it, we’re moving house. Paul and FHECC aren’t happy with us living in Sekeni. Mainly because we are so far away from the office, but also we have no way of getting to the office and they would prefer somewhere closer for security reasons too.
The Doctor in charge of the hospital came and searched us out to show us a room that he thought we could maybe have. We were somewhat confused when the Matron then showed us to a private patient room in the private wing of the hospital. We asked where we would cook and she agreed that the doctor had been somewhat confused and thought we just needed somewhere to rest. The thought of spending the next 6 months in a hospital room and sleeping in a hospital bed wasn’t that appealing, and she agreed, as well as the fact that there’s nowhere to cook!
The matron has taken us into her family. She’s already adopted 5 or 6 of her nieces/ nephews who are orphans, but she was so motherly and welcoming and invited us for lunch the next day to see the house and meet the family. Her house is a far cry from Sekeni. The sugar estate is lush with vegetation and her house is very comfortable, with fans and AC and amazing food! Her husband, Ignatius, is so welcoming and I was really humbled by just how much they genuinely want us to be part of their family. Phoebe and Ignatius also have Phoebe’s brother and a cousin living with them and there are several children-Michael’s 2, Monica’s about 4, Prudence is 9 and Grace is 11 and there are other children who go to university in Blantyre and Zomba. We felt so welcome and have accepted the offer of sharing a room with Prudence and Grace. It is odd, to live somewhere that is such a contrast from Sekeni, especially as we have grown used to it over the last few weeks. On the other hand, I am so excited about living as part of a family, building relationships with the parents and children and experiencing Malawian life first hand. We’ve agreed that we will still cook for ourselves some nights in the week, but we will join the rest of the family at other times and we will definitely be learning Malawian recipes and teaching some British ones too! This does mean, however, that we now need to go about selling the furniture that we bought for our Sekeni house. The beautiful table and chairs will have to go, and the beds, fan –we’re keeping the brand new fridge! I’m sure it will all work out. Living at the Matron’s will still have challenges; we will share a room so we wonder how much alone time and personal space we will end up having, but I’m sure we will sort something out-the family are just so welcoming and understanding and I am so appreciative of that. So, we have now packed up the house, taken photos down, put our clothes in our rucksacks for a fourth time in just over a month and said bye to the neighbours. I wrote Gloria and Catherine a letter in my best Chichewa thanking them for their help and generosity and we have promised that we will come back and visit. It is odd to leave Sekeni, but we’re on for a different type of adventure now!
We’ve now been living in the Phiri house for 4 days and already we have cooked a meal for the whole family. We made vegetarian chilli, beans, guacamole, rice and flatbread on Thursday night. We think that they enjoyed it-Ignatius certainly did- but next time we cook we will make something requiring a little less labour- maybe shepherd’s pie?! I am really enjoying being here and learning about Malawian family life, Malawian traditions, trying to learn Chichewa and bawo (a Malawian game) and we have such an amazing opportunity to really live as Malawians for the next 6 months!
I hope that everyone is well and that the family at Grandma’s birthday celebrations enjoyed themselves; I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there, but it was great to chat to you. Love to all, take care and keep in touch,
See you soon,
Catherine
xxx
PS. Due to living with Phoebe and Ignatius, mu postal address is now:
Catherine Lovegrove
C/O Matron,
PO Box 68
Nchalo
Chikwawa
Malawi
Central Africa
Well, it’s official. I have been in Malawi for one month now. On the one hand, time has flown and we have jammed so much into the last month, but at the same time I can’t help but still not feel set up. I guess that it’s wishful thinking to presume that after a month in a country I would be established and settled. As time goes on in Malawi, it has become apparent to us that life moves at a much slower pace. I suppose that this is because of the heat and also the culture of being more laid back about life in general. As a result, very little progress had been made project wise this week, but we have used our British “must-do-something” attitude to organise our own timetable for some days and we will speak to Paul about what he would like us to do on other days. One morning we waited around for him to arrive at 9…and we waited some more…eventually, at 10.30, Patrick appeared with his bike. We asked why he was here- “transport” was the reply…we were somewhat confused as firstly, there was only one of him and two of us, and he then took the cushion off the back of his bike and put it in our store room. What followed was a hilarious exchange where we asked questions in very slow Chichewa or English, and he relied in a rapid stream of unintelligible Chichewa. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing-if I hadn’t, I would probably have jumped up and down in frustration, as it was we just fell about in fits of giggles, and then Patrick joined in. Then I decided to pose a simple Yes/No question- “Patrick, have you seen Paul today?” The five minute thinking time that followed was enough for Sophie to fall about in hysterics and I had to join in when he answered “No idea”. Sorry, Patrick, that wasn’t one of the options!
We did return to the maternity ward one morning though. We were just about to examine someone in the early stages of labour when a woman fell off the hospital bed in one of the cubicles. Looking through, we could see her having a fit and Sophie and I were both concerned about just how hard she had hit the floor. The midwife explained that due to pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure), she was convulsing and her brain had shut down. It was really important that she be taken on to surgery for a caesarean section, but everybody seemed to move so slowly. We were invited in to help, but still being new to the hospital and Malawian practices, as well as not being qualifies, we declined. I hope that in time to come we will have the skills and knowledge to chip in, but for now it’s safer that we get used to such a different way of handling healthcare. I can’t work out the reason why, but there appeared to be no urgency despite the fact that the placenta was becoming distanced from the baby and it would be denied of oxygen. Eventually she was wheeled off to the operating theatre and everybody else went for lunch. I suppose that even the pace of healthcare in Malawi is slower, I just didn’t expect such important matters to be looked on so causally. I wish we could have followed her progress in theatre, but as yet I still don’t know the outcome.
We’ve also spent time at the NRU near FHECC doing antenatal clinics and we have arranged to spend Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings there. Sophie and I weighed the women and then joined Etulis in one of the cubicles where she was examining the ladies. Etulis and Catherine, the community nurses who work at NRU are great, very friendly and enthusiastic for us to spend more time with them. Etulis has even invited us for dinner and agreed to teach us how to give injections providing that we bring a tomato or orange as practise material! We acted secretarially, at the clinic, increasing the efficiency of the whole process, and wrote fundal height, how many weeks pregnant the lady must therefore be, what position the baby was in, what drugs had been given and when the patient should return. It was great and we both learned so much, but also felt like we were being of use and helping in a small way. Another morning was spent filling in the register as mothers came for the first time to the clinic. It was nothing advanced or scientific, but we were just making the current situation a bit more efficient so we did feel like our contribution was valid-always a bonus! There were some very young mothers-to-be and I wondered about their home lives. Were they married? In a stable relationship? Or had they been abused? There are so many possibilities for so many people and I think that there are probably far too many cases of fathers not being there to help or abusing young girls.
I have had many great opportunities already, here in Malawi, but the most recent and the one which has left me totally speechless for longest was witnessing a caesarean section. We had visited a village in the morning and seen a couple of preschools, but we were back at the hospital earlier than we had anticipated. We sat on my favourite bench-prime position for meeting people and having conversations- and Edwin, one of the doctors walked past. We were talking and he mentioned that he was just off to do a c section. We asked if we could observe and he was more than happy for us to accompany him. We changed into scrubs (I have been in theatre in the UK before, but this was Sophie’s first time so I was keeping an eye on her) and went into the theatre. In many respects it was similar to home-the importance of sterility was still paramount, the equipment was similar, though it is a few years behind the UK. Edwin talked us through what he was doing-cutting the woman’s skin, through fat and muscle (sorry to anybody who is squeamish!) and he then cut into the uterus and brought out a baby boy! It was amazing to see a new life come into the world and Sophie and I were both completely in awe of the whole situation. How amazing is that-we saw a baby being brought into the world! He was a healthy 3.5kg and the mother was fine too. I had been wary when we went in because in the UK, there’s quite a high chance of success, but I wasn’t sure about the chances in Malawi. Edwin was very good and the theatre staff were really informative, explaining the whole procedure, they were so friendly. One thing that was different to the UK was that Edwin answered his mobile as it rang. The first time was quite funny, but Sophie and I thought it was hilarious when the second time that he answered it he said “I’m in surgery”-I wonder what the reply was on the other line!
We’ve also been to Blantyre for a day trip in order to buy a fridge and also renew our 30 day tourist visa. We set our alarms for 4am and we were walking down the dark road to Nchalo by 4.30 with Patrick. Even at 4.30 it is still hot in Nchalo! We were lucky in that we found a minibus which was ¾ full and we were quickly trundling up the hill to Blantyre. We had caught such an early minibus that we arrived in Blantyre at 6.30, a whole hour before immigration opened. Even so, we relished the fact that we felt cool and would quite happily have worn a cardigan if either of us had thought to bring one! Immigration was an interesting experience. What really need only have taken half an hour ended up taking two hours, mainly because we didn’t know what we were supposed to do and nobody really told us! Anyway, by 9 we were legally allowed to stay in the country until mid March, at which point we will have to return to Blantyre for some cool air and another trip to immigration-what a shame! Once immigration was out of the way, we headed to the Chichiri shopping mall (the westernised out of town one) where we quickly bought a fridge! We were both really happy at the thought of having a fridge that we could put water in and have cold drinks. It was amazing, the total contrast between Blantyre and Nchalo. Firstly, the temperature was totally different, but as we sat at the shopping centre, having an amazing lunch, we noticed how different the levels of wealth are too. I suppose it is the same in the UK, there are poor areas and then areas where everything is very built up and cosmopolitan, it was just strange to see it in Malawi. We people watched, one of my favourite hobbies, and watched all the well dressed, well off Malawians walk past going about their errands. Being next to two very British supermarkets, we stocked up on some luxuries to put in our fridge, like a supply of chocolate and some tuna tins and mayonnaise too! Buying them isn’t sustainable on our PT budget, but once in a while as a treat I think we may be OK!
Luckily one of Michelle’s friends was passing through Blantyre on his way to Nsanje and so gave us a lift, with our new fridge, to Nchalo. This was really helpful; the thought of getting the fridge from the shopping mall to the bus station and then on a minibus to Nchalo and then a Sherpa to Sekeni was not the ideal delivery method. Instead, we had a car, trundling down the beautiful Escarpment Road, back into the heat, which managed to drive through the narrow mud lanes of Sekeni and right to our gate. Having been up so early and not being hungry due to a large but delicious lunch we plugged the fridge in, stocked it up and collapsed into bed for an early night!
We also arranged to go south, to Nsanje and visit Chloe and Nancy and stay at Michelle’s house. The plan was for us to meet Grey-a VSO health assistant-as he passed through Nchalo in his car. The car had a slight problem and we ended up waiting in Nchalo town until 8.30 pm before we were on the non-tarmac ked, pothole ridden road to Nsanje! The suspension on these cars must be amazing! We spent a weekend at Michelle’s, in a climate slightly cooler than Nchalo but with many more mozzies, just relaxing and socializing with people in a similar situation to ourselves-i.e. British, young, away from home, working in Malawi. It was great fun and we saw their houses, their colleagues and friends and a bit of a drama production that one of their youth groups is doing about HIV/AIDS awareness. It’s really encouraging to know that they have been through similar experiences to us and we have taken advice on board, but also seen how other PT volunteers live.
I have also now made pancakes for the first time in Malawi. At home, Jen and I make them every Sunday morning, so it was comforting to eat such a homely food. Also, because life in Malawi runs a few hours earlier to Britain, when we were eating lunch, I guess Jen was making pancakes at the same time. Assuming that she has kept up the tradition that is!
We also now have the chance to have cold milk with cornflakes or muesli in the morning! I’m actually ok with powdered milk, though it does taste a lot better cold. Many of you will know that cereal is going to be a main staple for me during my student life, and milk is has been a huge part of my daily routine for years. I’m not quite at the stage of having a glass of powdered milk, but the ability to have cereal is very comforting!
Now, Sophie and I consider ourselves OK cooks; we enjoy cooking at home and are enjoying the opportunity to experiment with local ingredients. However, there have been a few mishaps. One night we decided to have scrambled eggs and make popcorn to have while watching a film. When Sophie went to crack the eggs into a bowl to whisk, we discovered that these eggs didn’t crack very easily…we had bought hard boiled eggs! Never mind, we can still have hard boiled eggs on toast followed by popcorn…let’s just say that the popcorn wasn’t very successful, at least the first batch wasn’t, but luckily Sfero came to the rescue as he passed by on his way back from work and he showed us how we were supposed to do it. We spent the evening sitting outside, chatting to him and eating popcorn while he told us the best places in Malawi to visit, so it certainly wasn’t a wasted evening. We have also bought some rather odd ingredients accidentally-the other day we went to buy a bunch of bananas and thought that we would be clever and buy a green bunch-surely they will last longer. Turns out they aren’t bananas-Gloria and Catherine say you have to boil them first, I think they are plantains or something, but if anybody at home has any ideas of what they are or what to do with them, we would appreciate it! We had to buy another bunch of bananas in the end, seeing as the green things were inedible and there has been another disappearance of pineapples in the market and mangoes have gone too. I hope that this doesn’t last too long, though I have been promised that oranges are on their way in (oranges which are green in colour).
Our other big news is that after having lived in Sekeni for 3 weeks and having really started to get used to it, we’re moving house. Paul and FHECC aren’t happy with us living in Sekeni. Mainly because we are so far away from the office, but also we have no way of getting to the office and they would prefer somewhere closer for security reasons too.
The Doctor in charge of the hospital came and searched us out to show us a room that he thought we could maybe have. We were somewhat confused when the Matron then showed us to a private patient room in the private wing of the hospital. We asked where we would cook and she agreed that the doctor had been somewhat confused and thought we just needed somewhere to rest. The thought of spending the next 6 months in a hospital room and sleeping in a hospital bed wasn’t that appealing, and she agreed, as well as the fact that there’s nowhere to cook!
The matron has taken us into her family. She’s already adopted 5 or 6 of her nieces/ nephews who are orphans, but she was so motherly and welcoming and invited us for lunch the next day to see the house and meet the family. Her house is a far cry from Sekeni. The sugar estate is lush with vegetation and her house is very comfortable, with fans and AC and amazing food! Her husband, Ignatius, is so welcoming and I was really humbled by just how much they genuinely want us to be part of their family. Phoebe and Ignatius also have Phoebe’s brother and a cousin living with them and there are several children-Michael’s 2, Monica’s about 4, Prudence is 9 and Grace is 11 and there are other children who go to university in Blantyre and Zomba. We felt so welcome and have accepted the offer of sharing a room with Prudence and Grace. It is odd, to live somewhere that is such a contrast from Sekeni, especially as we have grown used to it over the last few weeks. On the other hand, I am so excited about living as part of a family, building relationships with the parents and children and experiencing Malawian life first hand. We’ve agreed that we will still cook for ourselves some nights in the week, but we will join the rest of the family at other times and we will definitely be learning Malawian recipes and teaching some British ones too! This does mean, however, that we now need to go about selling the furniture that we bought for our Sekeni house. The beautiful table and chairs will have to go, and the beds, fan –we’re keeping the brand new fridge! I’m sure it will all work out. Living at the Matron’s will still have challenges; we will share a room so we wonder how much alone time and personal space we will end up having, but I’m sure we will sort something out-the family are just so welcoming and understanding and I am so appreciative of that. So, we have now packed up the house, taken photos down, put our clothes in our rucksacks for a fourth time in just over a month and said bye to the neighbours. I wrote Gloria and Catherine a letter in my best Chichewa thanking them for their help and generosity and we have promised that we will come back and visit. It is odd to leave Sekeni, but we’re on for a different type of adventure now!
We’ve now been living in the Phiri house for 4 days and already we have cooked a meal for the whole family. We made vegetarian chilli, beans, guacamole, rice and flatbread on Thursday night. We think that they enjoyed it-Ignatius certainly did- but next time we cook we will make something requiring a little less labour- maybe shepherd’s pie?! I am really enjoying being here and learning about Malawian family life, Malawian traditions, trying to learn Chichewa and bawo (a Malawian game) and we have such an amazing opportunity to really live as Malawians for the next 6 months!
I hope that everyone is well and that the family at Grandma’s birthday celebrations enjoyed themselves; I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there, but it was great to chat to you. Love to all, take care and keep in touch,
See you soon,
Catherine
xxx
PS. Due to living with Phoebe and Ignatius, mu postal address is now:
Catherine Lovegrove
C/O Matron,
PO Box 68
Nchalo
Chikwawa
Malawi
Central Africa
Friday, 4 February 2011
And So To Nchalo
23rd January-3rd Febnruary 2011
Well, this has been quite one week! I hardly know quite where to start, but I will start where I left off. Last Sunday Sophie and I went to church with Ruth, Steve and the girls. We met Tamsin and Sarah there and they were in Blantyre Malawi
Monday morning at 7, we left Ruth’s and went to the bus station laden with all our katundu to find a bus bound for Nchalo. It took us less than a minute to find one and the bus-men kindly helped load our 2 rucksacks, 2 day sacks, buckets, cushions and extra holdall into the minibus. In accordance with Malawi
Our house has one main room, 2 bedrooms, a small kitchen and a toilet and shower. We are lucky enough to have running water and electricity-both slightly sporadic. The village is called Sekeni I, apparently there’s a Sekeni II somewhere, and there are loads of little winding roads and alleys. Sophie and I have still to make our way to the main road by the same route! We asked Paul on day 1 if it was safe for us to drink the tap water. He said that the locals do and that it would be fine. We “weaned” ourselves onto the chlorine tasting, room temperature water by starting to drink it immediately (to the horror of both our Mums)! We’ve since decided that we will stick to bottled water for now after having drunk it for a few days and not having felt great some of the time.
Tuesday morning was hot and we found it very hard, mainly due to sleep deprivation and the temperature. We were shown around the office and the Mothers to Mothers clinic and some of the local area. By midday, Paul could see that we were clearly exhausted and we cam back to the house and collapsed. It was too hot to do anything at all, and we sat, contemplating 7 months of 36 degree Celsius. By some complete fluke, there was a sudden thunderstorm all afternoon. All at once the heavens just opened and we went outside in chitenjes and just stood in the rain, relishing the feeling of being cold! I have to say that that thunderstorm has been the highlight of my gap year so far. The transformation in our moods was amazing. In the space of an hour, we went from being thoroughly upset and bleak to dancing around in the rain and treasuring the goose bumps on our arms! With much higher morale, we moved both the beds into the main room for company and comfort and that night we slept!
A lot more refreshed, on Wednesday morning we went on a mission with Paul to find a fan. In the same day we managed to find a saucepan! After having searched out all of Blantyre
Thursday was spent at the office and then gathering some more supplies, meeting more people whose names we have forgotten and trying to stay cool and away from the heat. It is amazing how much the temperature can affect you; between sleep, appetite, mood energy…We hope that in time we will adjust and get more used to it and we are so happy to have a fan too!
Friday morning we went to Jasi I (apparently there’s also a Jasi II). Jasi I is a 12km bike ride, on mud roads, into the countryside. We were Sherpa-ed there (rode on the back of the bikes). This is OK for short distances, but for a good hour it can be painful! Malawian bikes are also not exactly the kind that you would find in the Tour De France or Etape Caledonia. The one I was on had to stop every 5 minutes to pump up the flat tyre and it also had no brakes-luckily the Shire Valley is quite flat, so no excessive speeds were reached. I can’t quite get over the physical strength of the guys though. Cycling 12 km on a dodgy bike on a mud road at 35 degrees is hard enough, before you put a passenger on the back too! Eat your heart out Mark Beaumont! At Jasi we were greeted with poems and songs and drama sketches which the youth group had put on, all centred around the topic of HIV/AIDS awareness and testing. It is clearly a worthwhile project and the community enjoyed it, as did we. We chatted to the group about their work and what they hope to achieve in the future. They have genuine hopes and ambitions for their community (e.g. to develop the water supply and enter the football team into a league, etc) but we can see that their problems are not unique and so many communities have the same issues. Nevertheless, we hope to be able to do what we can to help and develop what is now the community and area that we’re living in.
We spent the weekend getting to know Nchalo a little and meeting the village chief- sadly he had no feathered headdress, much to my disappointment. Unfortunately Sophie wasn’t feeling great (suspected cause: tap water, hence why we’ve reverted to bottled water), so some bed rest was prescribed and I made myself useful by cleaning the house out and doing hand washing. By the time I’m home in August, I hope to be a pro when it comes to fire lighting and also hand washing. It’s surprisingly sore on your hands, what with all the rubbing and wringing!
We had a visit from Chloe and Nancy from Nsanje and they promised us that we would get used to the pointing and staring and the heat. Whatever we’re doing, the local children sit perched on our wall and watch-even when we’re being really boring and playing cards or reading or eating, they’re there without fail! To be fair, the kids aren’t the only ones-some ladies were trying to get in the gate while I was doing our clothes washing but I stubbornly refused to let them have a hold of our laundry! Wherever we go, when we walk through or ride through Sekeni I, we are followed by some little ones and they run about, chanting “Azungu” over and over. I thought one boy was going to hyperventilate the other day, he was so excited! I guess for the local children, who have probably never left Nchalo or Sekeni I, we are the first time they have ever seen a white person and maybe even the first time they’ve heard of one. That’s something which is quite hard to get my head around, seeing as in the UK we are constantly exposed to so many different races both in towns, but also in the media, and I guess that’s what makes Malawi
We spent a few days at Montfort Hospital UK Britain Ireland
Overall we’re settling in slowly and trying to adapt to life in the hot district of Chikwawa. Every day has its ups and downs but we’re taking it slowly and looking forward to some cooler weather! I hope that everyone is well and please do write to me! Take care and love to everybody,
See you in August,
Catherine
xxx
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