Under the Malawian Sky

It has been a beautiful day, warm, balmy, it is hard to believe it was raining so hard yesterday. This morning was spent doing inventory on all the drugs and making sure all our stuff was removed from the church. The hired movers arrived 10 minutes early which is highly unusual for Africa. The funny part was how they loaded the truck.

"Madame, we must make another trip, the truck is full." They had all the tables and chairs upright on the truck bed. They couldn't figure out how to stack things to fit. There was Elaine out there telling them how to stack the tables and chairs. I should have taken a picture, it was pretty funny. It was only one load and we were able to send a lot of our boxed medications with the truck.

We finished the inventory, packed up the rest in a bus owned by one of the volunteers and took them to the doctor's home in Malawi. The bus driver who is the husband of one of the main volunteers drove the four of us around in this big bus, to a wood carver store and then we took him lunch at one of the hotels. He then drove us home. He solved our transportation problem so we didn't have to bother the ROS at Rafiki. Fuel has been easier to obtain, but the price increased about 50 cents a liter. I think that makes it about 8$ a gallon.

We rested and packed for the trip home. The Rafiki head quarter team arrived in the afternoon. I also met the former mayor of Malawi, who is the one who was instrumental in providing the land for the Village. It is a beautiful setting for the orphanage. The sunsets and sunrises are incredible. Tonight there is a beautiful full moon. Malawi is a very beautiful country.

We were all invited to dinner with the head quarter team and the Samartian's Purse's pilots. It was interesting to met and talk to them about the work they do in Africa.

Tomorrow we head for home. It's will be 4:57 before I know it. The sun rises and the roaster's crows.

Almost Done

Despite being short one doctor, we successfully completed the final two days of the clinic. We really did not have any sick people, only minor complaints. What I see most here is that the people need to be educated in taking care of themselves. There really is limited common sense when it comes to doing things that are harmful to their body. They don't seem to think that there may be simple things that they could do to improve the quality of their life. The older people seem to complain less and are just happy that we can give them medicine for their body aches.

Tomorrow we are going back to the church to finish the drug inventory. I don't know how we will spend the afternoon. We leave friday morning for Lilongwe to begin the long journey home.

I am tired but the clinic went well. In some ways it was the best clinic I have helped at. We were a small team and the volunteers worked hard and we didn't "sweat the small stuff." We have had a lot of laughs at the strange complaints. The translation adds to the humor.

As always the AIDS epidemic and the treatment of AIDS was represented in many of those who came to the clinic. Many were just people getting a second opinion on the care they are getting here. There is medical care here, but I think there is little focus on the education of the people of their care, no followup, no blood pressure follow up. People go on and off their blood pressure medications. They die young here, the average age is in the 40's. If they don't die of AIDS, they must die of strokes.

The fuel shortage has given me an interesting look into how it can affect a country. It just isn't waiting in line for fuel. It affects everything.

We have been having a lot of rain and the nights are cool. It was really cold last night and I got a blanket out of the closet, as I snuggled in it, I was reminded of how fortunate I was to have warmth. Being here reminds me of how blessed I am.

In all we have seen God's grace upon us. I doubt any of us would fare too well without our dependence on Him.

Thunder, Rain and No Electriciy

I think we all are getting pretty tired. Today the head doctor had to make the decision to return to the USA because of his father-in-law's health. He and his daughter leave tomorrow leaving 2 doctors and 2 nurses to finish the clinic. We are cutting the clinic by a half day, then have to inventory and pack up. Today, we saw a lot of people with minor complaints.

Our day started without electricity. It was cool and rainy most of the day. Someone borrowed the tent over the weekend and didn't return it so when we arrived at the clinic it looked like we had no patients. We were to go to a different church a little way out of Malawi, but it was decided that it logistically difficult to move and not practical in light of the fuel shortage. We thought the message hadn't got out that we were staying at the original church.

When I went with the Malawian lady that helps us run the clinic to the area everyone was waiting, I thought we were going to have a riot. The natives were restless. Everything settled out but for the life of me I couldn't understand why they acted like it was life or death to get a ticket to see the doctors. We saw pretty much everyone despite the fact we were essentially down a doctor.

The day was complicated by thunder, heavy rain, and no electricity. To add to it, no tent for shelter for the people. To start we were short of volunteers meaning not enough translators. No electricity also meant the clinic had insufficient light, the computer battery ran down. It was not a fun morning.

Only 2 more days!

If I Wasn't So Sad

A day in the life of retired nurse in an African Medical Clinic is enough to make anyone crazy. It is difficult to outsmart a Malawian, they always can come up with something you did not anticipate. My main job has been to keeping some semblance order. I get to go out and tell them that we can not see anymore patients. Today, I spent 20 minutes outside the clinic with my Malawian assistant trying to make them understand we needed to close.

Each morning we give out a certain number of tickets and leave some for add ons. We had added 7 more patients and 3 for glasses. This gave us a total of 140 people to be seen. I sent the 3 for glasses only plus 2 others to register. The next thing I see the registration people packing up and I ask them did you register 140 people. "Yes." Then I find out they were missing 5 people. Nobody asked where the other 5 were. In the confusion no one sent them in to register.

I couldn't help but think I must be losing my mind as I did preliminary intakes. They seem to all think were are going to cure them of a lifetime of problems. Sometimes they have headaches, sometimes a stomach ache, they all have pain that starts somewhere and causes a whole host of problems elsewhere. When you ask them when their symptoms started it could be months or years ago, like 1972 or when my last child was born, 4 years ago. A lot gets lost in the translation. They tell you some pretty strange things and you never know what it will turn into by the time the doctor sees them.

Most of the people here look old beyond their years. It is strange to see people the age of my children that look older than me. It is a very hard life for these people. Most of the complaints they have are a result of the environment they live in. My head and whole body would hurt too if I carried heavy things on my head. On the side of the road you see women carrying huge logs on their heads. Today we saw a lady carrying a suitcase on her head. The suit case had wheels.

The first day of the clinic we saw those who were the better off than most of the population. One of the days it seemed that a large percentage of people that came in had been seen at the hospital within hours or 2-3 days. It all seems so insane. They tell us the medicine from the hospital didn't work and we have the same stuff as the hospital. They probably go to the hospital and tell them our medicine didn't work.

Here in Malawi they are required to have a health passbook, without it they can't be seen. If they forget it they are told to buy another one. So what if their whole health history is in the one at home. The word must have gotten out that we wanted them to bring in their pass book as today the percentage of those without books went drastically down.

There is so much these people do not understand about taking care of themselves, but in all these that pass through our clinics are some of those delightful old people who beat the odds and are in their 80's and just need glasses and some medicine to help with their aches and pains.

A Jewel in the Mountains

It is always a delight and a surprise to be taken to some out of the way spot and find something beautiful. Saturday, one of the missionary couples took us to a recently discovered restaurant.

The restaurant was on a ridge on top of one of the mountains about 15 minutes out of Mzuzu. The road to the restaurant was a dirt road.

We were greeted by the owner who gave us a tour of the grounds. He was British but lived in Malawi 12 years. He acquired this piece of land and is building a resort. He was in the process of putting in a swimming pool and beach volley ball courts.

What was amazing were the terraced gardens. The flowers were beautiful. I didn't take my camera. I was bummed. Apparently on a clear day you can see Lake Malawi, but it is very smoky because of fires burning all around.

Sunday , we went to church. They had several choirs there. Some of them were really good. The Africans are wonderful singers. They have great voices and really get into their singing.

Sunday afternoon was spent getting ready for today, our first clinic day which went rather smoothly. It can be frustrating working with the Malawians as there work ethic is so different. Maybe we are starting to Americanize them. It is hard to get them to follow instructions. I am learning to just go with whatever. Hopefully the rest of the week will go well. Next week we will be doing a clinic outside of Mzuzu. I suspect it will be much harder.

The fuel shortage does not help those of us that must get around. We were taken home on black market petroleum. The doctor got it from one of the volunteers, he said it was probably better not to know how it was acquired.

It is very hot here. The sun rises and sunsets are spectacular. It gets warm here very early and does not cool off too much at night.

Saturday

It is a beautiful morning here. It is much greener here than when I was here 2 years ago. The Village grounds are beautiful. The sunsets here are simply magnificent. Elaine and I have been going for walks in the morning before it gets hot. We are entering the Hot Rainy season. As I understand it, the seasons are cold, cold rainy, hot, hot/rainy. They apparently had 3 days of heavy rain before we arrived.

Petroleum is in shortage, this has lead to a host of problems, especially in meeting food needs.

There is fuel on the black market but it is apparently diluted and cost four times as much. To add to the problems here there is hoof and mouth disease in the cattle so they can't get good beef. The lack of fuel means they can't bring beef in from neighboring countries which means that chicken is also in shortage because everybody is buying chicken. They can't get regular milk so they have to use powdered milk. Peanut butter that they buy in large containers and is a food staple has to be bought in small jars which adds greatly to the cost. In all of this God continues to provide for needs of the Village.

Elaine is giving the young ladies a sex education talk this morning. I am having some quiet time before we head out to the church to start organizing the clinic. I expect to be very busy this afternoon.

Our head doctor is ill And he is to give a guest sermon at the church where we are setting up the clinic. He is in a lot of pain . A little improvised care was established, IV fluids and IV medication. We did not have an IV pole so we took a picture off the wall and used the picture hanger. We are all praying he will be better by tomorrow.

There have been many gliches trying to set up this clinic. Tomorrow afternoon we will have to work in order to be ready by Monday.

The work begins

Yesterday and this morning were spent completing children's physicals. The children are always the most fun. Elaine was enjoying the opportunity to tell some of the older children the story of how they came to the village. She was here from the start and has some great stories. She needs to write a book.

This afternoon we organized medications for the clinic. This the 3rd time I have set up a pharmacy. It doesn't get any easier as many drugs that are the same have different names. After a year I have to re-orientate myself to their use.

Tomorrow we will go to the church to organize what we organized. It will be a busy day. Monday is the first clinic day so time is of the essence.

I am looking at my swollen feet. Time to rest.

Answered Prayers

Travel to Africa is never an uneventful experience for me. Something always happens at the airport

Kathy prayed that I would have a comfortable flight to Malawi. She knew how I dreaded the long journey into Malawi.

This time I found myself on an overbooked flight. My ticket said I had to go to the airport to get seat assignment on the plane. I was not allowed to check in on line. I did not question that because that is not unusual because of the many plane changes. I had all my seat assignments except the Denver to Minneapolis flight. I had a confirmed flight! I did not think that there was any possibility that I might not get on the flight.

I checked in. They could not give me a seat assignment. I was sent to the boarding area for my seating assignment. Others were showing up without seat assignments. It soon became apparent that all of us were not going to get on that plane. Then the announcement came asking for individuals willing to give up their seat in exchange for a $400 dollar flight voucher. Several who had come to the boarding area after me got seats on the plane, I got the last seat on the plane. A very nice gentleman gave up his seat. Was he an angel? Too me, yes!

Minneapolis to Amsterdam was comfortable. I was in an aisle seat in the middle row with no one in the middle seat.

Amsterdam is a huge airport and Elaine and I had not determined where to meet. The last couple of hours we finally connected. We had to check in for our Nairobi / Malawi connection.

Elaine got her boarding pass and the agent gave me mine. Elaine was in business class for the Amsterdam/Nairobi flight, the agent asked me for my ticket and said, "I can do better for you" and gave me a business seat. WOW! Prayers answered.

We arrived in Lilongwe about 2 pm. We stayed overnight and headed for Mzuzu late morning after some shopping.

There is a major gas shortage here. The government has not been paying it's bills so most of the countries are not giving them petroleum. This is a major hardship on an already impoverished country. People are waiting for days to get fuel. A supply came in the day we arrived. The staff here was spending the afternoon getting fuel for all the vehicles. The present prime minister who apparently was very well liked in his first term has become very corrupt. The political environment is not good.

Today and tomorrow we are doing the children's physicals. I think the afternoon will be spent getting ready for next weeks clinic in the community.

On a lighter topic, when we entered the Village, the children mamas and staff were all waving as we drove into the compound. They are always so excited when we arrive. It makes all this so worthwhile. Africa is like coming home.

Everything Takes Longer Than I Think!

I am as ready as I am going to be. I keep remembering one more thing. One way another, with or without everything I think I need I will be on that plane.

It is a beautiful Fall day here. I have been up since 5:30 this morning after getting to bed at 1 am. I should have just gone to bed earlier, when 5 am came I could not go back to sleep. I am finishing up a few things and hopefully will be able to relax before Kathy comes to pick me up.

I leave Denver at 3:32 pm to begin that long, long, long trip to Malawi. I have 4 plane changes. I got a flu shot this year, the first in 6 years. My body was not too happy.

I covet your prayers for good health, safe travel, energy, wisdom in dealing all I will be confronted with. (I have been a bit testy recently.) I need a rest from Weight Watchers. Oh, yes, that my luggage gets there in one piece.

THE ETERNAL GOD IS YOUR REFUGE, AND UNDERNEATH ARE THE EVERLASTING ARMS. ---- DEUTERONOMY 33:25 ( my flying verse, I am depend on those big arms keeping me together.)

It's a long way to Lilongwe

I didn't think that I would be going to Africa this year, but here I am making final preparations for another journey into Africa. This will be my sixth trip.

I leave on Sunday October 23rd for Malawi to do 2 medical clinics. We will be doing clinics one in Mzuzu and one about an hour out of Mzuzu. We are a team of 6, 3 doctors, 2 nurses and the daughter of one of the doctors.

I am anticipating a challenging 2 weeks, having been to Malawi 2 years ago. I am not sure I have really gotten over that clinic. It was definitely the most difficult one I had helped at. This a very impoverished country where most people live on less than a dollar a day. besides that this is a country where AIDS has ravished the country. Last year I heard that at least half the people they saw had AIDS.

On the bright side. I am taking in the beautiful fall weather and colors. I have missed the last two fall seasons . Last year I left on October 12 th so I got a glimpse of fall, the previous year I missed fall altogether. I returned home on October 12 following a early fall snow. This year fall is beautiful, the colors are magnificent. Truly, a blessing from God!