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
