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Published: February 27th 2008
Baby Joanna!
2 days old (born February 16th)...with mum Deborah.On Monday February 18th, I was beginning my last week of work at Monkey Bay Community Hospital and preparing to leave Malawi. That same day, I found out that a few days earlier, another Joanna arrived. Deborah, who I worked with in the Pharmacy department, had given birth to a baby girl and named her after me. I feel pretty honoured! I now have a great excuse to go back to Malawi - i'll have to see how my Malawian counterpart is getting on! For now, she is happy and healthy.
I arrived back in bonnie Scotland today. I am absolutely freezing! I have just been looking at some of my videos, and texting friends back there to say that I arrived ok, and it already feels like Malawi is a million miles away.
I apologize as always for my lack of contact. I gave up on 6 hour trips to Mangochi for email access that wasn't even always accessible. As always, a lot happened since I last wrote. The weather changed from major floods to drought and scorching sunshine for my last few weeks. During the floods it was really difficult to get around. I had some fun
times getting to work in the backs of open pick-up trucks in the torential rain and I also had a particular fun time wading back to the house through knee high water, bringing a few leeches with me. I started swimming in the lake less and less frequently after learning that the rains had brought the crocodiles out. I wasn't sure how much of this to believe but when dog Benji freaked out and drew our attention to a set of eyes in the lake I thought I'd better. Oh - we also had a tornado over the lake (of course!).
Work was busy as usual. I helped with quite a few outreach clinics in various villages - weighing babies (and trying to prevent the mothers from knocking each other and their babies out in the line to get to the scales), giving immunizations and polio drops. I also spent a lot of time helping out in the pharmacy, which is now really busy whilst Deborah is out taking care of Joanna. A new initiative of myself and fellow volunteers Katherine and James has also started up. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but we were working
on getting a Field Dressings Clinic up and running. Anyone who visits the hospital to have a wound dressed is recommended to return for re-dressing, usually every day for a week. (This makes a lot of sense when people are roaming around in their bare feet). The problem is that it is really difficult for a lot of people to get to the hospital, so we used to see a lot of bad infections. We have now started a dressings clinic in the village where we lived, which is about 18km from the hospital. The clinic will be open 4 afternoons per week so that people can go and have their dressings changed for free. It will be staffed purely by volunteers, is using equipment bought by ourselves (fundraising money) and consumables provided by the hospital (as it is solely for patients who have been initially treated at the hospital). The hospital staff have now started referring patients to the clinic, and we have posters up also. Unfortunately, this Monday was probably the first day when patients were likely to turn up, so I have missed opening day. I will check up on it though and find out how it
went! Fingers crossed it will go really well. It is a service that is very much needed. For those of you who helped with fundraising, I will fill you in some more when I see you.
I can't believe I am finally home. All in all, I had an amazing trip. It definitely had it's ups and downs and I had some high and low points but I can honestly say that it was the best year of my life. I have no regrets and would do it all again in a heartbeat. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do next but I have some ideas and I do know that I want to return to the continent asap. I know that Africa, and the people who live there, have so many problems. I have learned so much about them, I wouldn't even know where to begin talking about it. I am glad that I did three completely different projects as it helped me learn more and gave me different experiences. I loved my time in Tanzania so much so that I stayed there an extra month and have already been back to visit. It is a
stunning country. It was my first experience of Africa and I still remember flying in over the wide open plains and being really excited. Leaving the airport and suddenly seeing proud Maasai in their traditional shukas walking along the side of the road is a surreal experience. Working at the day care center every day, I got to know all of the children really well. I also learned Kiswahili there and feel like it really helped me feel immersed in the community. I met some incredible people who will be friends forever and of course had that rather interesting trip to my Maasai friends' home village. I will never forget the experience of eating those goat intestines in the hut with my friend Paulo, his brother, father and grandfather, and I will never forget being in the bush a few hundred metres from his house and being very close to the giraffes. I hope to go back there one day. By the way - we bought and skinned another goat the other day in Malawi. This time we just barbecued the meat. It was delicious. I will also never forget seeing lines and lines of wildebeast during the annual migration
in the Serengeti, and lying on the beach in the paradise that is Zanzibar.
Uganda was a completely different experience altogether. I have to admit it was pretty rough. The situation was much worse than in Tanzania, or at least it was in the areas I visited. The Ugandans were different from Tanzanians. They seemed much more gentle. I am not sure if that was just the people I met or if it had something to do with what they had been through. The Tanzanians had no shame in asking you up front for money, or for your belongings. Ugandans told me their stories but never asked. I found them to be very good looking also! Most of the women and children were absolutely beautiful. A lot of people have told me that I have taken really good photos of the children too, but that had nothing to do with me. The pictures just capture the children as they are.
The poverty was shocking. The amount of sadness these people have experienced I can't even imagine. So so many grandparents who have lost all of their children, and so many children who have lost their parents, some old
Mvunguti fishermens' village
That's a baboon, not a chimney. enough to remember it all. I've also seen young children, born when their mothers had full blow AIDs (and who died just months after giving birth). Babies and young children covered in lesions, that I now recognize as a horrible sign. I've seen graves outside many homes and been to the funeral of a 36 year old man who died of HIV leaving a wife and 2 children. The entire community was there for support. I also remember seeing so so many people with polio. I had the relationship with little Oliver, Aivani and Davis. I will never forget them. I've seen the terrible conditions these people live in and met many people who are barely able to sustain themselves. Most people survive off the land - the crops they grow - matoke, cassava, potatoes, beans, tomato and maize. If they're lucky they have some coffee, which is the best one to sell. There is so much land and it's so fertile. Many people I met also didn't have easy access to clean water. Almost all of the boreholes seemed to be broken (not a government or local council priority) and so the children collected water from swamps instead. Even
the water that we had at our house was often off, or dark brown if we did have it. We also often didn't have electricity. The education system seemed hopeless. Primary education is 'free' but as uniforms, supplies, porridge and school building refurb funds had to be paid, many children couldn't go. These costs add up to less than a few dollars a month but the problem has led to their being 10 yr olds in P1 and P2 and 17 yr olds in P7. Secondary school seems to be a dream for most. There are so many problems that I could go on for ever (and this is a long entry already). The good thing is though, I have seen many people try to help. World Vision and many other charities and research centers, HIV education on boards inside and outside of schools, on big signs by the road, in speeches and even in a flip-book in the 'internet cafe'. I'm not sure how much is actually working though.
I will remember some incredible experiences in Uganda also. I will never forget the day that Josephine and her family entered their new house, and even the look on
Josephine Jr's face when she came out of one of the rooms.
I then moved on to Malawi. Like I had heard before I went there, I found Malawi to be absolutely beautiful, and the people to be incredibly friendly. Although I saw poverty, it was not nearly half as bad as what I saw in Uganda. People seemed happier. I worked at the hospital every day. I enjoyed going out to beautiful rural villages and working at the outreach clinics but also had the experiences of seeing horrific wounds, tropical ulcers and abscesses and working in the ARV clinic. I remember my first day in the weekly ARV clinic, standing in a room in front of over 50 people all HIV positive, there to collect their ARVs. I also remember being in the room with patients there for VCT (voluntary counselling and testing), where I assisted with registering of patients and the recording of results. The reactions from people when they learned of their status. You didn't have to know the language.
Like I said though, I had really enjoyable times also. Malawi is stunning, and I lived right on the lake. I got to see a
bit of the country on trips to Cape Maclear, Liwonde National Park and Zomba Plateau. In all 3 places too, I made some really great friends in locals and fellow volunteers.
Africa is an incredible place - the scenery, the people, the sky, the wildlife and even the insects. The other night as a few of us were leaving our house in Malawi, we felt a ringing in our ears similar to what you would get if you were leaving a very very loud concert. It was actually painful. We have been given different explanations but apparently we were hearing the noise of either tetse flies or circadia beetles.
It will take some time getting used to being back in Scotland! I got the last ferry of the day over to Arran yesterday. The rest of the sailings were cancelled due to 35mph winds! I then woke up this morning flailing my arms in the air in panic as I couldn't feel my mosquito net! I am already enjoying the food though that's for sure! Hopefully I will get over this dodgy stomach that I have, possibly from drinking real milk instead of powdered with my breakfast!
A little dancing before the training began....
...what initially sounded and looked like a fun song and dance was apparently all about STDs and HIV/AIDs. I could talk about things forever but hopefully this has helped explain a little bit about my experiences during my travels. I will hopefully be in touch with you all soon, to see if we can catch up, and to talk to anyone who donated funds to tell you a bit more about the places the funds went to (the day care center in Tanzania, Josephine's house in Uganda, and the hospital maternity ward, field dressings clinic and Home Based Care training in Malawi). I may try to clean up a bit first. The effects of almost 10 months of cold showers are beginning to show, as is no hair cut and lots and lots of sun damage.
If I know what I'm doing next anytime soon, I'll see if I can write one more blog.
Hope everyone is well. Thanks for following my travels!
Joanna x
P.S. Check out www.theeye.co.ug. My name is in print!
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Cindy Collins
non-member comment
welcome home, & thanks!
Hi Joanna, I am so happy that you made it home safely to Scotland, and that you had an overall positive experience. Thanks very much for posting your stories during your trip, I feel like I have learned so much about Africa through your descriptions. Plus the stories were very enjoyable to read - I'll miss checking in on your blog. Best of luck in determining where you go from here!!! :o) Cindy