Bringing something we must learn,
And we are led to those who help us most to grow,
If we let them,
And we help them in return.
-Wicked
This past week has been a bit sad, but also sort of marks the end of another part of my time in Malawi. Let's see if I can back up and fill you in on some of the stories:
Wednesday, 3/12 - Hannah treated the entire research team to lunch at the Hippo View Lodge, an incredible spot right on the Shire River. The place sort of reminded me of the African attempt at a theme park lodge or something. There are large hippo statues at the gates and enormous eagle statues all over that actually are sinks (the water comes out of the eagle's beak!). Lunch was nice, and then we headed up to the village. Unfortunately, the baboon baby that Hannah got so attached to the week before died while we ate dinner. It was really sad, and the Father was really upset. It was so malnourished and probably wasn't old enough to be away from it's mom. Poor thing.
Then in our bedroom that night there was a SCORPION! Scary...Vegas killed it for us! eeek.
Friday, 3/14 - I had to deal with one of those African tragedies that you hope is just a terrible generalization: A young girl showed up very late for our clinic with a baby strapped to her back. Rosemary, our nurse, asked if the child was her sister and of course it was her daughter. The girl was just 16 years old, the baby 8 months. This means she potentially could have gotten pregnant as young as 14 years old. At the time she was in grade 5 in Blantyre, living with a relative. She stayed next to a more wealthy Malawian man, who often commented to her that she looked thin, that her clothes seemed worn and pointed out how well dressed his wife and children were. He promised he could provide for her, and she says she was "tricked" into marrying him. I needn't explain what happened between this young girl and some pedophile-type man but now this 16 year old mom is desperately trying to take care of her son, and has just learned that she is HIV+. The baby as of now is not infected, but he will need to be retested at 9 months and 1 year. It was a pretty rough story to hear. I gave her some gifts and a bit of cash to help her in some small way. I'll bring some clothes donated by Hannah for her next visit.
The afternoon was bittersweet as well. We had a going away party for Hannah and the nurses gave us each a lovely ivory wrap skirt with the project logo stamped along the bottom. They sang a beautiful goodbye song and presented the gifts in very traditional Malawian style - on their knees in front of us. It was actually really special and incredibly thoughtful.
Saturday, 3/15 - In the morning, Hannah, Kathleen and I went to the market and bought gifts for Hannah to bring back home, new chitenje skirts, and some paintings for the bare walls in my house. Then we picked up the little boys that live at my house and took a field trip to the airport to see Hannah off. We all sat on the veranda of the airport and watched the plane land at the airport. The boys were so excited and I bought them all ice cream as a special trip. They were wearing their church clothes and were so well behaved. Saying goodbye to Hannah was awful, I cried. She was so wonderful, I am so glad that she joined me these past two months. Now I have a friend in Australia... guess where I wish my next vacation to be?
Sunday, 3/16 - I went for a run, by myself (JCF, MAM - don't worry. It was lovely!). I ran out to the President's house, talked with the army guy (a little Chichewa even!) and felt great. Kathleen and I met up with Liz and her parents for a really great dinner. Liz's parents are visiting Malawi for 2 weeks and treated us at the Italian restaurant in Blantyre. After, Kathleen stayed over at my house for the night.
Monday, 3/17 - No notice of St. Patty's Day whatsoever. Work was icky because it was raining and I was at a center with very little shelter. Then more bad news came - way, way back I wrote about a little girl named Margaret whose mother passed away at the Makhwila health center. She has stayed in our program since then as her aunt has no way to feed her. She has been doing so well, her weight has reached normal levels and she looks beautiful. Unfortunately, her HIV status changed this past week and she has seroconverted. I was really upset about this too. It is heart breaking, and in some way I feel very attached to this little girl. I hope she gets ARVs and I will continue to help her aunt care for her as best as she can.
28 Days til my mom and brother come to Africa!!! Whoo hooo. That's the benchmark to look forward to :)
-dkm
Monday, March 17, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Just for a laugh
Transporting charcoal is apparently illegal in Malawi, although the majority of the country relies on it for cooking and warming water.
As we are driving, we pass a huge truck carrying something under a tarp. My driver honks, waves and smiles.
Me: "Vegas, do you know him?"
Vegas: "Yes. I give him money, he bring me charcoal."
Hmm...it was funnier in person.
As we are driving, we pass a huge truck carrying something under a tarp. My driver honks, waves and smiles.
Me: "Vegas, do you know him?"
Vegas: "Yes. I give him money, he bring me charcoal."
Hmm...it was funnier in person.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
How many times have you gone to a zoo, held your nose, and spent a while in the primate house before then moving on to the area of the great apes? You've pointed to their opposable thumbs, their nearly human ears, their tiny fingernails. Maybe you even took a class with Prof. Smith, Sussman, or Rasmussen and had to memorize who ate what, where and with whom. Yet, though nearly human, you never really, really want to touch one. So what happens when a Catholic mission Father decides to adopt an orphaned baboon infant, one barely two pounds, visibly malnourished, dehydrated, and abandoned? You get the experience of Hannah and my Wednesday afternoon.
Hannah arrived first to find the baby baboon sprawled out on the cool cement floor, barely able to walk yet. I got a text message requesting infant formula or powdered milk- for a monkey! When I pulled up a bit later, baby Jaye was sleeping on Hannah's belly. When I walked into the room, the infant woke, cried a bit, pooped all over Hannah's white t-shirt, and then peed all over me. It was at this point that we found some cloth, folded it into a triangle, cut a hole for Jaye's tail, and tied on the diaper. Just like a human baby, the baboon would cry when left alone, wanted to be held very securely, and obviously wanted to suckle. We tried to feed it milk, but it seemed unsure of how to drink from a spoon. Hopefully, by next week's visit, Jaye will have learned.
In the spirit of fun weekends, Hannah and I headed out to Mulanje Mountain (3000 meters, the highest point in Malawi and al of Southern Africa north of the Drakensberg). We didn't climb all the way to the top (such a trip can take 3 days of hiking with stops at small huts stationed along the route), but we walked up quite a bit. The views were spectacular, and more impressive still were the men carrying huge planks of wood down insanely steep, wet paths. The timbers easily weighed 50kg or more (>100lbs) and the path was very narrow, very very steep, and the rocks were covered with moss. We took pictures, and I will post a link for photos shortly. We played on some boulders, sat at the waterfall, and imagined swimming in the 64 meter pond below the waterfall. It was all incredible, and great cardio too!
In the evening, we went out to celebrate a friends birthday. We ended up dancing all night long at a crazy Malawi bar with lots of techno and house music before heading back to my house where we stayed up far too late for me to be blogging before 6am on this Sunday morning. All in all, a great weekend so far! Now if only I didn't have to do data entry...
-dkm
Hannah arrived first to find the baby baboon sprawled out on the cool cement floor, barely able to walk yet. I got a text message requesting infant formula or powdered milk- for a monkey! When I pulled up a bit later, baby Jaye was sleeping on Hannah's belly. When I walked into the room, the infant woke, cried a bit, pooped all over Hannah's white t-shirt, and then peed all over me. It was at this point that we found some cloth, folded it into a triangle, cut a hole for Jaye's tail, and tied on the diaper. Just like a human baby, the baboon would cry when left alone, wanted to be held very securely, and obviously wanted to suckle. We tried to feed it milk, but it seemed unsure of how to drink from a spoon. Hopefully, by next week's visit, Jaye will have learned.
In the spirit of fun weekends, Hannah and I headed out to Mulanje Mountain (3000 meters, the highest point in Malawi and al of Southern Africa north of the Drakensberg). We didn't climb all the way to the top (such a trip can take 3 days of hiking with stops at small huts stationed along the route), but we walked up quite a bit. The views were spectacular, and more impressive still were the men carrying huge planks of wood down insanely steep, wet paths. The timbers easily weighed 50kg or more (>100lbs) and the path was very narrow, very very steep, and the rocks were covered with moss. We took pictures, and I will post a link for photos shortly. We played on some boulders, sat at the waterfall, and imagined swimming in the 64 meter pond below the waterfall. It was all incredible, and great cardio too!
In the evening, we went out to celebrate a friends birthday. We ended up dancing all night long at a crazy Malawi bar with lots of techno and house music before heading back to my house where we stayed up far too late for me to be blogging before 6am on this Sunday morning. All in all, a great weekend so far! Now if only I didn't have to do data entry...
-dkm
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Naked Jane and other anecdotes
On this fine March 4th, my mom's birthday in fact, I reflected on the number of interesting anecdotes that made the long hours of work today seem manageable, and at times, laughable.
The morning started with me having to haul two 50kg sacks of flour from my house down to the cars, no small feat. Fifty kilos of dead-weight flour is damn heavy. I tried to pretend that I was just carrying a 110 pound person, but given that the flour does not "hold on tight" and wrap its arms around you, it really is quite different. Nothing like a quick pre-5am workout to start the day off right.
In the car on the way to pick up my staff, I got a chance to talk to my brother and some friends. (This was very exciting; thanks for the chatting/texting to those involved.) However, what really made the morning drive special was the double rainbow. The first rainbow looked just like the pictures I drew in second grade - clouds on either side of a perfect semi-circle. The second rainbow was just 1/2, but the colors were just as vibrant as the complete rainbow. The background sky was periwinkle/purple and made a striking background for ROYGBIV. Very special indeed.
We had to load the chiponde into the cars in the morning, as yesterday was yet another public holiday, and thus everything was closed. After loading more than 600 kg of milk chiponde and about half as much soy chiponde, our caravan set off for our sites in the foothills of Mt. Mulanje. Unfortunately, a few hours later we'd realize that 600 kg of food wasn't even enough!
Next, I met up with a woman whose child I transported to the district hospital two weeks ago. Her child was incredible anemic at the time, and subsequently had a blood transfusion. The mother was so grateful that she brought us a gift of several really nice pumpkins (squashes or gourds... everything here is called pumpkin). It was such a generous thanks.
Then, midway through screening another several hundred children (seriously, there is an endless supply of children aged 6 months to 5 years in this tiny country), all of a sudden the school children were all stampeding down the road. At first, I thought nothing of it. But when the stampede abruptly turned back and went running in the other direction, all the mom's at my clinic started to turn and look at the commotion. My staff even turned to see what was causing these children to run wildly up and down the street. So what was it? I was told it was a "mad person." I figured a drunk or a schizophrenic man, typical "mad" people in Malawi. I was wrong. I looked up to see a woman walking around with a very loose piece of fabric (chitenje) wrapped at her waist and not a stitch of clothing more. She was gesturing to the trees and then to the children, walking very deliberately in all different directions. I continued to work. But then, she decided it would be off with her chitenje - a much better place for a skirt is clearly on one's head! So, there she was, stark naked with her skirt on her head. You better believe the school children were laughing. Although I do feel bad for this woman, I also had to bite my tongue and concentrate to not laugh myself. Who knows where she was headed, but eventually she disappeared.
When we finally finished work, we headed back to Blantyre and had a quick stop to buy pineapples (4 pineapples for less than $1). Next to the pineapples we saw a woman selling bananas with a very marasmic child on her back. We couldn't help ourselves, so the nurses and I set up shop on the side of the road. We did the measurements, checked for edema, took the child's history and taught the mom how to feed the child chiponde. Our final enrollment of the day, at the market.
To finish the day off, Liz and I went for a bit of a jog in the backyard and then we made a great dinner - egg whites with tomato and feta, pumpkin with brown sugar and ginger, a huge salad, and even a G&T. Good ending to a long, but fun day. Hope all is well at home - send some emails!
-dkm
The morning started with me having to haul two 50kg sacks of flour from my house down to the cars, no small feat. Fifty kilos of dead-weight flour is damn heavy. I tried to pretend that I was just carrying a 110 pound person, but given that the flour does not "hold on tight" and wrap its arms around you, it really is quite different. Nothing like a quick pre-5am workout to start the day off right.
In the car on the way to pick up my staff, I got a chance to talk to my brother and some friends. (This was very exciting; thanks for the chatting/texting to those involved.) However, what really made the morning drive special was the double rainbow. The first rainbow looked just like the pictures I drew in second grade - clouds on either side of a perfect semi-circle. The second rainbow was just 1/2, but the colors were just as vibrant as the complete rainbow. The background sky was periwinkle/purple and made a striking background for ROYGBIV. Very special indeed.
We had to load the chiponde into the cars in the morning, as yesterday was yet another public holiday, and thus everything was closed. After loading more than 600 kg of milk chiponde and about half as much soy chiponde, our caravan set off for our sites in the foothills of Mt. Mulanje. Unfortunately, a few hours later we'd realize that 600 kg of food wasn't even enough!
Next, I met up with a woman whose child I transported to the district hospital two weeks ago. Her child was incredible anemic at the time, and subsequently had a blood transfusion. The mother was so grateful that she brought us a gift of several really nice pumpkins (squashes or gourds... everything here is called pumpkin). It was such a generous thanks.
Then, midway through screening another several hundred children (seriously, there is an endless supply of children aged 6 months to 5 years in this tiny country), all of a sudden the school children were all stampeding down the road. At first, I thought nothing of it. But when the stampede abruptly turned back and went running in the other direction, all the mom's at my clinic started to turn and look at the commotion. My staff even turned to see what was causing these children to run wildly up and down the street. So what was it? I was told it was a "mad person." I figured a drunk or a schizophrenic man, typical "mad" people in Malawi. I was wrong. I looked up to see a woman walking around with a very loose piece of fabric (chitenje) wrapped at her waist and not a stitch of clothing more. She was gesturing to the trees and then to the children, walking very deliberately in all different directions. I continued to work. But then, she decided it would be off with her chitenje - a much better place for a skirt is clearly on one's head! So, there she was, stark naked with her skirt on her head. You better believe the school children were laughing. Although I do feel bad for this woman, I also had to bite my tongue and concentrate to not laugh myself. Who knows where she was headed, but eventually she disappeared.
When we finally finished work, we headed back to Blantyre and had a quick stop to buy pineapples (4 pineapples for less than $1). Next to the pineapples we saw a woman selling bananas with a very marasmic child on her back. We couldn't help ourselves, so the nurses and I set up shop on the side of the road. We did the measurements, checked for edema, took the child's history and taught the mom how to feed the child chiponde. Our final enrollment of the day, at the market.
To finish the day off, Liz and I went for a bit of a jog in the backyard and then we made a great dinner - egg whites with tomato and feta, pumpkin with brown sugar and ginger, a huge salad, and even a G&T. Good ending to a long, but fun day. Hope all is well at home - send some emails!
-dkm
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