Macdauds and the widows clinic

We had a busy day today - went to the ABC clinic to put in an order for additional meds for the afternoon village clinic, then to get more $$, a prescription for Lariam (malaria medications). I usually take the cheaper stuff but it doesn't have quite the protection as Lariam, and this year I have seen quite a bit of malaria even this late in the 'season'. We decided to eat lunch at 'Macdaud's' - sort of a McDonalds - well, not exactly.. well, not even really close, but they do have arches on their sign: reddish arches. It is probably about as close to 'fast food' as you will get there. Inside they have two big pictures of Obama along with quotes from him, a poster of Islamic prayers and a couple of signs for no smoking or drinking. Take that for whatever you wish. We just thought it was interesting to see Obama's picture and quotes in a Muslim resturant along with Islamic prayers. I had curry chicken, rice and chips, and Jose had crumbed chicken pieces with chips and rice. We both survived! Actually the curry was pretty good!

We got to the feeding village, Mtsiliza, at 2 PM. The other team from COTN (with a dentist) came shortly thereafter and checked children's teeth. COTN not only does children, but also has an outreach to widows - they teach new skills, have sewing machines for them to use, do Bible studies and offer general support. They have a little shop in their meeting place where you can buy their handiwork! You can see some of their stuff in the background of the photos. Every year they graduate that particular group and take on another group. Widows in this country do not do well. There is no 'community property' and when the husband dies, his family (parents, uncles, brothers, etc) can come and take everything - food, clothes, money, even children if they want them. The widow is left with nothing. We had agreed to examine the ladies in the widow's project, screening for blood pressure and treating any illnesses that we could. There were only 27 of them, plus the workers that assisted in the program, plus the two girls that translated for us and also one of their friends that they sort of 'slipped' into the line! So maybe 35 total. We found a couple of high blood pressures, lots of eye complaints - cataracts are a terrible problem here, and most people can neither pay for the surgery or get transport to the few places that do that surgery. So they slowly go blind. Some of the ladies probably just needed glasses, but those are hard to acquire, also. We saw tons of coughs, and just about everyone had 'general body pain' - I think it comes from years and years of hard work combined with poor nutrition. A couple of the ladies had malaria, one nasty rash, a burn, and assorted other things. The other team brought over a couple of the kids they saw that had more than dental problems - these two little ones both had very nasty rashes, and fortunately we had some medication for them! We had two young ladies to work as translators - Cecilia and Eddah. We were so busy I did not get a photo of them. They are students at one of the universities, studying nutrition, and are spending 2 months as 'interns' in the home for teenage girl orphans, so I am sure we will see them again. They were delightful.

We finished and got home to NO WATER!! And we really, really want to take a shower! And washing my 'white' coat would be a good idea, too! Oh well, maybe it will be on later tonight.

The pictures: the kids dancing around outside the dental clinic area, Jose and I with the 'head widow' (helps run the program) and one of her helpers where we had the clinic. Macdaud's - inside and outside. Enjoy!

Prayer requests: a piece of luggage that was supposed to come with a team on Monday still has not arrived (none of their luggage has arrived). It contains many of the medications that we need here, plus some of the medical supplies. Pray that it arrives intact and soon.

Also pray for our strength. For some reason, both Jose and I seem to be constantly tired this trip. By 7 or 8 PM we are worn out!

Thursday - clinic and pill counting

Today I did the morning clinic at ABC. Not too busy, but one pretty sick guy. It is hard here - no home health, no nursing homes.... if you are chronically ill or disabled, your family must tend to you, often with not much support. He did seem to have a loving family, so he is probably getting the best there is available here!

Medically it can be the little things that get to you. Today we needed to put in a foley catheter. No kits, of course, so off to the store room to rummage around and see what was available! Finally we found enough of the right things in the right size.. then to find someone to insert it! Turns out the nurses don't insert foley catheters in men, only the male clinical officiers. They were busy. BUT the American nurse, Becky, who is essentially managing the clinic now, does insert catheters so it 'got done'. Oops, the connections to the collection bag were so old they split and leaked. Fortunately another collection bag was found. It is the little things.

Jose was busy in the clinic pharmacy this morning. Becky is doing pharmacy inventory and they are counting the pills... thousands and thousands of pills. Jose, Becky and another American nurse spent the morning counting and recording pills. (I think they liked the break for the foley catheter!!)

In the afternoon we got our photos taken for a visa - we are planning on going to Mozambique this weekend and need a visa to cross over the border. We also visited Anne Brown at COTN (Children of the Nations) to arrange a village clinic with the team currently at COTN. We ended up in the feeding village at Mtsiliza, where we will return tomorrow afternoon to help with the clinic. When we were leaving the village there was a whole road full of kids following three gulu wamkulu (fetish or spirit dancers). We didn't get a picture of them, but did get one of the kids.

Then on to the usual chores, including grocery shopping (always an experience). It was near dark by the time we got home. On the road to ABC we came upon a minibus that had broken down and was being pushed by two guys. By the time we could get a photo, there was only one guy left pushing... ha, I guess that is having a 'HIM i' engine!!

Photos today: two of the road to the village (one with the mass of kids), and the minibus and HIM i. Enjoy!

Today (Sunday) we went to 'our' church while we are here in Malawi - Flood. An awesome church! The preacher, Sean, is a national and a graduate of African Bible College. The band is mostly Malawian, but with expats that join in, too. The sermon was great (as usual), with Sean's theme being God's Winning Team - he has been preaching on this for a few sermons, it seems. With the coach being Jesus, the ball being the Gospel, that we through out to others, the uniform is the uniform of a servant, as Christ came as a servant, and the field is the dark and perverted land of the 'world' (that was the sermon today). He made one really great point that I wanted to share - that 'church' on Sundays is like half time in a game - it is the place you rejoice over the successes and plan the future, but not the place you make touchdowns / goals - that is done 'on the field'. I think sometimes Christians think that church on Sundays is all they need to do.. as Sean said, people don't come down from the stadium to join in half time talks, it is the players.. something for all of us to think about! We also met some old friends at church and are getting lined up to do more work in the villages! Seems like God puts just the right people where we can met them!

We then decided to go to Buchanan's for lunch. It is located in the Four seasons shop area. We have heard about Buchanan's for years but never have been before. The food was great and they had a 'band' of 3 Malawians on guitars - playing (and singing) such songs as Down Home Alabama, Hotel California, Knocking on Heaven's Door, and other unexpected songs. We had a great time and Jose will be posting some videos on his facebook. If any of you are following this but not on facebook, we will try to get some videos on Youtube - just search my name and look for the Malawi mission one to pop up. Uploading videos here is a wee bit challenging at times!

We drove around Lilongwe a little - there is a new section of road that is modern, 4 lane, and very nice - built by the Chinese. I took a photo because it was amazing! I am sure this only means something to those who have driven here, or on other third world country road! I will try to post a photo of the new road, and some of the older roads (which is a main road and actually looks better in this photo than it is!) and the entrance to Buchanan's. We came home to no internet for hours, but it is obviously fixed now! We planned to both do some studying for upcoming clinics, but ended up taking a nap! Thanks for all the prayers, we can feel God's protective hand on us while we are here!

Lazy day

Saturday we had a lazy day - as both of us had worked very long and hard, right up to the moment we left, and 'hit the ground running' (especially Jose), we realized Friday night that we were both totally done in. We decided to take a day off on Saturday. That is the great luxury of being here two months instead of two weeks - you can actually take a day off to rest. We read, walked around the campus and cooked dinner -with Jose making his famous chocolate chip cookies! If you are on facebook, you can see more photos on either my or Jose's site. Even the video from the Ministry of Hope Village clinic. For some reason I can upload a video to facebook but have not had any luck uploading them here!

Today (Sunday) we will be leaving in a bit for church at the Flood church here in Lilongwe. We are looking forward to being back there!

I have decided to introduce you to a couple of folks from ABC campus. We are staying in duplex 3 (the Hiroto's duplex) and Jamu is their gardener. He is here while we are here, too. A sweet friendly man with a huge smile! The picture is of Jamu and his son. We also have night guards here. They have a rotation system that I have not figured out yet, but we have one assigned to our duplex every night. Last night we had Wongi. He is going to be a sophmore at African Bible College. We try to feed 'our' guards, even if it is just a sandwich! Last night we had plenty of left overs, so fixed Wongi a plate while we chatted with him. He is seated at the little table on the back kondi while Jose is talking to him. Wongi is a charming young man and I pray that he will continue to do well at ABC. And, of course, a photo of Jose making cookies in 'our' kitchen!

Ministry of Hope village clinic and ABC clinic

Thursday, the 24th, I started in the ABC clinic. I have now spent two days in the clinic, with the usual interesting variety of patients. Today, Friday, we were without power all morning. Fortunately the lab has their own generator so we were still able to do labs on patients. The generator for the rest of the clinic - for lights, computers, etc. is not working, so we were not able to find old charts on folks. And the xray department cannot do any of their xrays - even with the main clinic generator, as it takes too much power. After lunch time, though, the power was restored. My patients have included the worried well, the 'I think I have malaria' folks, the sick kids WITH malaria, and the just generally sick people. One elderly village lady with probable metastatic cancer came in - how can I diagnosis that? And what treatment is available for her here? None of those questions have good answers. As I looked into her eyes and her daughter translated my concerns, I seemed to be able to read understanding and resignation in her face. Hers is a heartbreaking case, here or in the US.

Joseph (aka Jose) had an incredibly busy day on Thursday, when he went with a group, including Becky, the American nurse helping to run the ABC clinic, to a village clinic. It is run by Ministry of Hope, the same group that has the crisis nursery. They have an organized village clinic set up, and they saw over 200 people in one day. Joseph said it was busy, busy. They had two clinical officers, 4 people taking vital signs, a pharmacy,and a lab. They even had their own generator for the lab! He didn't get home until after 5 that evening. And I had agreed to a dinner invitation!! He was totally exhausted, but went to dinner (he is such a good sport!)

Our dinner invitation was with the Browns (Gaylord, Fredna and visiting daughter Adrianne). Gaylord and Fredna are missionaries with Assembly of God and are from Texas! Their cook, Watson, prepared a wonderful southern style meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and ICE TEA!! With chocolate cake for dessert! The food and fellowship was great.

Tonight we are meeting with a mission team from Oklahoma for dinner. Jimmie May comes every year to Malawi. He has carried a bag full of medical supplies for us for the last two years, for which we are very grateful! It will be nice to meet the rest of his team.

I am going to post some photos from the village clinic. I will try to add a video that Joseph took towards the end of the day, with the people still lined up for medications, lab work and to see the clinical officers. It gives you an idea of the noise level that he endured all day long.

Ambulance

This morning we went to the clinic and met up with Becky. She showed us some of the changes they have made to the clinic since the last year. I will start work there tomorrow. She also showed us the new ambulance they have - as you can see in the posted pictures (somehow I posted the photos before I got to do the actual writing!) the inside is just a bench, an area for the stretcher and a 'first aid' type box. Becky has asked Jose to help her outfit the ambulance more appropriately. They have already done one emergency transfer and found it was more difficult than expected and she is hoping Jose will have some useful suggestions. She also has a relatively new (relative being the operative term) heart defibrillator that she has asked Jose to help with. However, tomorrow he is headed out at 6:30 AM to accompany Becky to the Ministry of Hope village clinic. Should be an interesting day for him!

The pictures from the last post included Becky and Jose checking out the ambulance, the inside of the ambulance, the 'hut' where Jose is staying and the duplex where I am staying. Today we also did the serious grocery shopping, bought Jose his own phone, tried to get mine working (no luck so far- I may have to buy another one, thank goodness they are cheap for the simple ones!) and did some other minor errands. The weather is gorgeous with a cool breeze, some clouds but no rain.

We are looking forward to an exciting day tomorrow! As we both woke up in the wee hours of the morning, we are looking forward to a full night's sleep tonight, too!

Ambulance

We arrived safely in Lilongwe after an incredibly long flight. Only event was an ill person on the long portion of the flight (Washington DC to Addis Ababa). Some poor man had flown in from Oregon, then developed diarrhea - he became volume depleted and passed out. We couldn't believe it when they called for medical personnel less than a hour after we took off! He was pretty sick, but we were lucky in that a nurse traveling on the same flight had a whole pharmacy with her (she was going to climb Kilimanjaro) so we used her Imodium and a pedialyte replacement, got him to drink fluids and the stewardesses made a little place to lie down. He ended up doing OK.

We arrived with all our luggage!! yea!!

I am staying in one side of Duplex 3, Jose is in the huts for a couple nights, then he will move into the other side of duplex 3. We even had enough energy when we got here to go to the money bureau, get some dinner out and go to the grocery store for some very basic items. Today we have a full day of getting unpacked, oriented to the clinic again and doing some serious grocery shopping! Thanks for all the prayers for safe travel.