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A little girl carrying firewood.
We met her crossing the railway tracks when we spent a day in Mchinji on Sunday. “That Leopard is a Charm Sister”
- this is what my colleague Aubrey said to me when I questioned the dead leopard that we passed. We were in a local market in Waliranji village, having just finished an outreach clinic there. This is just one of the many disturbing myths that people here seem to believe. Another example is that if you are HIV positive then sleeping with an albino will cure you. Oh - the “sister” part - Aubrey has taken to calling me this. He sometimes shortens it to “sisi” (pronounced CC). He is quite a character. Apparently he is quite a comedian also. We were in the back of the outreach truck (with 8 of our new colleagues, hospital equipment and a whole load of produce including the obligatory smelly dried fish) and he had everyone in hysterics, slapping their thighs, for the duration of the 40km journey. Unfortunately their conversation was in Chichewa. I only picked up “Lucius Banda”, the name of a local beer and “my wife”. One day I hope to understand!
We have been really busy working on some of the logistics that we need to figure out before the project starts.
A little bit of training....
My colleague Artem giving Aubrey a little training. My favourite phase right now is “we’ll figure it out”. We have been making sure we have everything we need, including the 20 Kwacha (15 cent) medical passports that record a patient’s history and that some patients can’t afford. We have been working out how referrals and follow-ups will be done (patients will be referred to the St Gabriel’s ARV clinic and, where necessary, education for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT). We have been preparing schedules. To start with, we have 14 locations to visit. Some will require half days, others full days (these will generally be the larger trading centers which have higher prevalence of HIV). We are also currently preparing a presentation that will be given at the hospital’s weekly ART meeting on Friday. Now that the project is about to start, we want to make sure as many people as possible are on board and understand what we are doing. I completed some of the documentation that the World Bank requires and took it to their very nice offices in Lilongwe. It took explanations to 3 levels of security but I was able to get the paperwork to Alfred.
Apart from working, I
have enjoyed several nice weekends here. A week past Saturday the hospital had their annual awards ceremony for employees who have served there for 5, 10 and 20 years. There was much drama (they manage to make HIV education highly entertaining) and singing and dancing. The always jovial Sister Justina jumped in whenever she had the slightest opportunity. Sister Justina is an Austrian lady who has been at the hospital for 40 years and is a bit like the larger nun in the film Sister Act. Actually, there are quite a lot of characters working at this hospital! Award winners were given your typical award of a clock (to remind them that they should be on time to work) and 10 kg of sugar (for energy to do that work)!
Last Sunday my German housemate Rudy and I visited the town of Mchinji, towards the Zambian border, and climbed a little into the Mchinji hills. It was beautiful. Once back on level ground we sat in a local bar. Two guys came out of the bar with two prostitutes (the profession of any Malawian ladies who spend any time in bars) and did an interesting back of acting to
ask us if we had any condoms. At least they asked I guess?!
This weekend I went to Senga bay. I thought I packed everything I needed but whilst waiting for the bus to leave I found out that some people thought I hadn’t and thought that I may need plates, a radio, a sponge, a copied dvd, a plastic Barbie bag, a candle and a pink lacy table cloth. As much as I was tempted, I politely passed up on these offers and two hours later, once the bus was full, I started my journey. Senga Bay is beautiful. It was really nice to be by the lake again.
As always, I hope you’re all well. We haven’t had internet access at the house for the past week so sorry if you’ve emailed me and I haven’t replied. We still have occasional hot water though so don’t worry about me - I am spoiled and very content
Talk soon,
Joanna.
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