Blogs from Southern, Malawi, Africa - page 2

Feeling nervous and excited - less than 24 hours until take off! Malawi, here I come.... read more

This is really long again! I would recommend a pot of tea and a packet of biscuits..... Jessica, Laci and I went to Mount Mulanje over the easter weekend. This is our story: Part one: The unexpected Journey. It was Thursday afternoon when I had finished packing for our wonderful weekend ahead, Laci came at around 2:30 in her big car, she had brought lots of things like coffee, pumpkins and food for camping, she had filled up the car with anything we could possibly need, (I think she took one of the Peace Corps's sayings quite literally on this occasion.) We all jumped into the car in high spirits and left on our hopefully 4 hour journey to Blantyre. Where the only cinema in the whole of Malawi is and according to Laci the most ... read more

It's hard to imagine, but this week actually marks the final days of my time in Malawi. The past nine months have been filled with some of the most memorable experiences of my life. Many, particularly the challenges I faced at work, will no doubt continue to inspire me for years to come. Others, such as Arthur's funeral a few weeks ago, will likely serve as a painful reminder of the hardships that so many people on this planet still face. Despite my admittedly bittersweet feelings about leaving Malawi, I have no doubt that I will look back on this period as one of immense personal and professional growth. Personally, this experience has provided me with a new 'home' and a community of friends that has shown me how easy it is to appreciate the little ... read more

Last week marked probably the lowest part of my time thus far in Malawi. While on a weekend vacation to Blantyre for some iced coffee and pizza, I got a phone call from one of my supervisors informing me that my co-worker, Arthur Chidote, had passed away unexpectedly due to an HIV-related infection. As someone who had never lost a good friend before, the news came as quite a shock. While I had not seen Arthur in a few weeks, he and I were pretty close when I first arrived (he was actually the person who trained me back in September, as he had the same job that I have, but in a different hospital). He and I had also bonded over the fact that we were both the same age (28), and enjoyed occasional jaunts ... read more

Alas, after a very relaxing and much-needed break back in San Francisco, I have returned to Malawi to begin the second half of my post with Partners In Health. My time in SF was mostly spent finishing the last quarter of my Global Health program, which actually provided me with the perfect opportunity to dig deeper into some of the issues that I faced during my first four months here. For my "Communicable Diseases" class, for instance, I focused on the interaction between HIV and PCP (pneumocystis pneumonia) - a common co-infection in HIV+ children; and, in my "Social and Economic Determinants of Health" course, I analyzed the effectiveness of PIH's "POSER" program, which provides economic support to some of the hospital's most at-risk patients. While I had some mixed feelings about returning to Malawi for ... read more