Mission Malawi: Prison clinic and Crisis Nursery

Our Black Friday consisted of two trips to the pharmacy company - Intermed. When we first went, I loaded up and what extra meds I thought I would need for the prison clinic, then we met Charles at Papaya's resturant (the Malawian version of fast food - but not too fast because the power was still off!) for a planning session. He thought we should go to the prison to check the women and children before the actual clinic. After our lunch, we went to the prison, and the, seeing how many little babies were there, I went back to Intermed to resupply for children's meds! Somehow, that seemed to take up the entire day - oh, we did go to the grocery store for some perishable items (lettuce, etc).

Today, Saturday, we left for the prison, arriving about 8:15. Our team was Charles (the lead man as it is his ministry), myself, Dr. Jessica Best, Laci Butler, RN; Lucky Nyirenda, Clinical officer; Selina, pharmacist; and translators Clifford and Jolyn. The clinic went very well, with the patients not nearly as ill as they have been in the past. The Norweigan scabies is still present, but less intense. I saw no Kaposi's sarcoma (a major issue 3 years ago), no obviously active TB (pulmonary or otherwise) - but a few I referred for TB testing. Most of the HIV/AIDs patients were in pretty good shape, although a few said their medications did not 'come in' yesterday. Again, I referred some patients for HIV testing - they now have a VCT clinic on the grounds of the prison, staffed week-days for HIV testing, giving out meds, etc. They owe Charles a huge 'Thank you' for raising the funds to make that happen!! We saw many of the babies, but again, they looked generally well. There were some wounds and abscesses in the male population, and we were able to do a little for them. The prisoners now make soap and sell it - we bought 350 bars and gave a bar to each of the patients. We had a few left over - Charles will make sure any HIV/AIDs patients that did not come to the clinic will each get a bar. It was a good day!

After the prison clinic, we had time to go home, get cleaned up, and then go to the Crisis Nursery - sort of a 'must see' for any medical teams. They do awesome work with those little ones. Jessica and Laci played with the babies (ok, so did I) for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow - church at Flood, then Laci will take a minibus back to Salima while we prepare to start our last week at Daeyang Luke Hospital.

Praise /thanksgiving / prayers
Thanksgiving for a good, non-eventful time at the prison, for the fact that we had enough medications and hopefully showed the love of Christ to these people.
Thanksgiving for continued safety and wellness with us.
Prayers for the children at Crisis Nursery, that if they cannot be returned to extended family, someone will adopt them; prayers for their health.
Thanksgiving for Meredith Cantrell, who left some kwacha for some of the soap bought today.
Thanksgiving as always to those that have donated supplies, meds and money to make these clinics happen. When we do a clinic, not only do we supply the meds and medical supplies, but also food and drink for the team; then I am expected to pay the Malawians for spending their Saturday working instead of 'off'. All of this adds up, and I just want to make sure that people who have invested in this mission trip know just how valuable their donations are!!

Pre-clinic logistic meeting, at Papaya's with Laci Butler, Charles Msukwa, and Jessica Best.

The group - main guard who helped us (sorry, but I don't remember his name, but he has been there for other clinics and is always most helpful, and gets any 'referrals' taken care of) Jessica Best, Jolyn, me, Charles, Clifford, Lucky Nyirenda, Selina and Laci