E-3 Worldwide, Mobile Clinic, Nyalugwa

Today, Sat. the 30th, we had the privilege of joining E-3 at one of their mobile clinics. We traveled to the village of Nyalugwa, set up 'shop' and saw 571 patients in about 4 1/2 hours. The only way that could happen is the organization of Sam and Malla Kawale and the E-3 clinic. We had multiple nurses, assorted other helpers ('crowd control', chef, translators), and 9 'prescribing providers' (7 clinical officers, a 'just finished med school' doctor from UK and myself.)  Everything went very smoothly - Malla had the pharmacy organized, along with the triage station and the malaria testing area. Kelley McGowan and Joey Swartz did an amazing job with the malaria testing, and Joey even found time to take the photos!  We used the local school and the church. You can see how well worn the school is - pay special attention to the black boards! It is now the start of the dry season, but is warmer than usual and it rained today - a 'shower', not a true African rain, but still, it was strange. I had an amazing translator - Chikonde ('Chico') and he was quick to learn the 'follow up' questions. He was delightful.  We saw ~100 malaria cases, and used all the malaria tests (150). One very sick child was taken to the district hospital, but most of the others were easily treated by the well-stocked pharmacy.

Enjoy the photos!

Getting the pharmacy set up.

Boys being boys, note the galimoto (the home made car the boy is holding).

Hendrix (clinical officer) with a patient.

A couple more of the clinical officers with a patient.

Armando (facing forward) is another clinical officer, his patient has his back to the camera.

Here is my station. At least I got a real chair and table. You can barely seen Chikonde on my left.

Kelley McGowan at the malaria station, ready to prick some fingers!

Lines and lines! So many people

Patients seeing more clinical officers.

Me again, with another patient. Note the torn sign hanging from the rafters and the 'not so black' black board. 

Clara, doctor (just finished her last year) from the UK, with her translator, seeing a patient. What a great experience for her and what a nice help for the rest of us!

The usual chaos at the end of a clinic - everyone came to pharmacy to help get the meds out to the patients.

Kelley McGowan looking like she has spent the day pricking fingers! 

Chikonde and I, at the end of the day. He was great!

Thanks to all who have been keeping us in your prayers. Our plan tomorrow is to go to Pothawira in Salima. We may not have internet access (likely will not).  We should return Thursday PM.

Garden's Gate and Crisis Nursey

Today (Friday) we started the day at Michelle Clark's project, Garden's Gate. She is using and teaching permaculture to the women of the local village. She has reached out to men / women / couples from other areas that want to learn permaculture. She gardens and grows food to use and to demonstrate how it is done. She has been involved in a local feeding program due to the severe food shortages in Malawi at the present. She has also taken in a deaf village child who was being abused - she has hired teachers to teach her sign language. She needs prayer (both Michelle and little Awema) as this is a difficult task. Michelle also cares for her 87 year old Mother. If anyone is interested in donating to her, contact me!

We also went to Crisis Nursery (Ministry of Hope - ministryofhope.org) to see / feed / hold the babies. I found Chisomo who was there last year. She is quite the hand full this year! There were several 8 month old kids, one named 'My' (at least that is how it is pronounced) is tiny and only looks to be ~3-4 months old. She can barely hold her head up. There is also a precious child, Christina, with severe cerebral palsy who is there temporarily until the social worker system can place her with responsible relatives (the ones who were keeping her were abusing her). She will look at you and smile, but basically unable to communicate. We had a good time with the babies, although there are sad stories there - death, desertion, abuse, physical handicaps - but the 'aunties' seem to love them all. Any donations can be made through their website and earmarked for Crisis Nursery.

Enjoy the photos!

PLUMERIA

Michelle Clark, Donna Ivey and Kelley McGowan outside Michelle's house with her outside guard dogs.

Laying hens. She also has small quail, pigeons and pigs.

Sow and her piglets

I am not sure what was so funny, but Michelle, myself and Kelley were obviously amused!

The road by Michelles - the brick wall is around her yard / garden and the fence (electrified) encloses her 'food forest'.

This is the bunk house she is making for permaculture students that travel a far distance to spend a week or so learning at her house. The back wall is bags, packed with mud and then dried and stacked. This room was noticeably cooler than the outside. When finished it will give the 'students' a place to sleep.

Some of the maize harvest from the 'food forest', being cleaned by one of Michelle's workers

Scrap paper is soaked in water until soft, then molded / squeezed into balls and dried in the sun. They can be used for fuel for the fires, like bricquets. 

Crisis Nursery - Chisomo and I. She was there last year when we were here.

Crisis Nursery, Andrew sleeping. When he awoke, he was the most mellow little guy!

Crisis Nursery - I am playing with Chisomo. She was very active and very desirous of attention and activity!

Crisis Nursery - Kelley McGowan with little 'My', I am holding Dorene and little Sarah is chilling on the edge of the blanket!

Crisis Nursery, Joey Swartz feeding Chisomo - we fed the others while sitting on the floor, but Joey thought containing this little live wire in a high chair was a better idea - and we all agreed! That is one active kiddo!

Thanks to all for prayers for safety. Tomorrow we go out with E3 for a village clinic, if you see this in time, be in prayer for that (it is on Saturday).  Also, need some prayer coverage for car issues. And always, always that we seek God's will in our endeavors!

Seizure clinic - April 28, 2016

Thursday we had the privilege of assisting Kathy Bowler (Children of Blessing Trust), Dr. Diane Young and Dr. Kelly Hodges (ABC community clinic) with a team of other helpers, in the seizure clinic in area 25. I will be totally honest - I am NOT a seizure doctor! What I do is see the 'refills'. Occasionally I have to adjust the dosages due to break through seizures, but mainly just checking their recent hx, their weight, etc and refilling the meds. The smart doctors (Diane and Kelly) do the difficult patients and, along with Kathy Bowler, evaluate the new patients.  Some of the patients are heart - wrenching - a 4 year old who weighs 10 kg (~20 pounds), who cannot hold her head up or control her arms / legs. She has more problems that her seizure disorder, obviously, but we have no means to really address those problems (I don't think her outlook would be any better in any western country, either). However, in the midst of all these terribly sad cases, we had a young woman who apparently has only idiopathic epilepsy - she arrived to get a refill, no seizures since last visit and the cutest little baby that she had - so because of Kathy Bowler and her work, this young woman now has a normal life, with a baby! We also had a 'chunk' of a little girl who was also doing well. So in the midst of sadness, there are some bright spots.

After the clinic, we were treated to a delicious dinner at the newest Assembly of God missionaries: Nancy and Archies - it was delightful and I wish I had taken some photos!  Archie DOES make the best ice cream in all of Africa!

Enjoy the photos.

Mom is the patient, but her baby was just adorable!!

Joey with one of the patients. 

Kelley McGowan, Diane Young, and me after the clinic.

This chunk of a sweetheart was the patient - she is frowning now but was giggling at first!

Thanks to all of you who have supported with funds and items. If you are interested in supporting, let me know, I will be planning next year's trip with I get home!

Maula Prison, 2016

Today we did the first clinic of the trip - Maula Prison, the second largest prison in Malawi. Charles Msukwa of Amazing Grace Ministries, has worked hard to make a huge difference in these prisoners'  lives.  Joey Swartz and Kelley McGowan (both RNs) worked in pharmacy and wound care. Jollyn  Kumilonde was my translator. My dear Jones Tambula was still there, working hard. Doctors without Borders have been in Malawi for a couple of years, helping in the prisons and the refugee camps. They had their national team (i.e. Malawians) working along side of us today as clinical officers. All in all a very good clinic. The HIV and TB seems to be well treated at the moment. The nutritional  status of the inmates is always an issue, even more so with the food shortages dogging the country at the moment, but Charles has been busy raising funds to be sure they have something to eat (although it is one meal a day of nsima and occasionally with beans).  We saw some very sick patients today, one with what appears to be either decompensated Hep B and liver failure or liver cancer. His problems all started when he was bewitched and sticks were placed in his abdomen (he had surgery for bowel obstruction). His is now jaundiced ('yellow'), unable to eat and appeared quite ill. Another very pleasant gentleman was having pain when he rotated his head to the right or lifted / moved his right arm - he had a massive tumor in the right side of his neck - immobile and rock hard. I fear he has some very ugly cancer. Of course, we saw lots of  coughing and abdominal pain, skin rashes, GBP (general body pain) and dental issues. Pretty much like the average ED except for the large number of malaria cases!
Enjoy the photos!

Lining up to be seen

My 'office' with Jollyn and a patient. 

Prisoners waiting to be seen, to get their meds or to have tests (malaria, glucose, hemoglobin) done.

Joey ran between the wound care, the pharmacy and my room (trying to decipher my handwriting). Here she is in the wound care area with Smart, the medical assistant who helps with wound care.

Jones, Lydia and Joey working hard in the pharmacy.

Joey and Lydia, our pharmacy experts!

Kelley McGowan, deeply involved in wound care!

Pellagra - deficiency of niacin, brought about by a diet existing almost entirely of corn / maize.

The team - in the back from the left - Jones,  Joey (kneeling and trying to hide!), two clinical officers (one government, one Doctors without borders). On the bench in front: me, Jollyn and Charles.

A quick shout out to all the gracious folk who have donated supplies, cash, and medications: this was only the first of many clinics, and I promise we will be good stewards of your gifts. If I could ask one more thing: your prayers to keep up safe and let us reflect the Lord in all we do, that would be wonderful. Thanking you in advance for those prayers!

Malawi 2016

Leaving today (April 21), arriving April 23. My understanding is that the country has had multiple problems with water and the internet. Not to mention the REAL issues of starvation / malnutrition and the fact that the  hospitals have been stripped of medications and supplies due to corruption and theft. Keep us in your prayers.  I have an unlocked phone that I try to use there, and I did have What'sApp loaded on it. I am sure I will have to update all of that again, but if you use What'sapp, email me your phone # and perhaps I can send you some photos or messages if you are interested.  Remember there is a 7 hour time difference. I try to remember that but I have been known to What'sapp people at 3 AM, Sorry in advance!  Watch this blog for updates and thanks to all of you who have been donating, etc. and supporting in so many, many ways!