The rainy season is over.

It has been two weeks since I gave you all an update of life here in Malawi. I have been blessed to have my sister, my niece and my youngest daughter staying over Easter. They came for a holiday but I know went back very tired. Life goes on despite a holiday feel. Babies still need care, mothers and families still need looked after.

With help from friends and input from the hospital staff the girls painted two murals. The first mural was painted behind the nursery reception desk of the new high risk wing. It is of the Malawi sunset which captures the warmth of Africa. This was depicted by using a blend of warm, rusty oranges and yellows. Dotted around the room in similar warm colours are all shapes and sizes of butterflies. The overall effect is beautiful and much more welcoming than a stark blank wall.

The second mural is in the Kangaroo Room( a room where mothers stay for a long time nursing their premature babies skin to skin 24 hours a day i.e. becoming the incubator) of the new district Bwaila Hospital which is replacing the existing Bwaila. On one side of the room the girls painted a large tree, with perfect leaves and an earthy trunk with branches overhanging. The branches have Chichewa words written along them, words which mean, life, love, children, happiness etc.

I went down to the old hospital and brought groups of staff up to place their hands in green paint and place their hand print on the wall beside the branches, which in turn became the green leaves. Each hand print has the initials of the owner beside it. Nurses, midwives, cleaners, administration staff and some of the builders of the hospital were part of the community input. There will be more hand prints to come when the hospital opens, which will include the official party and the District Health Officer.

The tree looks wonderful, big, dynamic and colourful with great meaning. Every one involved worked very hard and of course getting the paint donated was a great help.

During these two weeks Beatrice and I followed up the very new twins and hoped the father had been to the clinic. The babies called Florida and Florence were much improved. They had gained weight and everything was done we asked the father to do from our last visit. Baby Florida’s eye had cleared up and they had mosquito nets. We left the village with a huge bag of lemons as a gift. I was delighted as many who know me know how much I love lemons, better than a live chicken!

I took my family to meet the 10 month old beautiful twins Jennifer and Janet and the grandmother whose daughter of 20 years had died. This story gets sadder and sadder. The grandmother is very alone and isolated. We never see any one else in the village near her house. The villagers have ostracised her because of something her daughter had done and they think her death was caused by witchcraft.
The symptoms of what really happened sounded more like an embolism but of course no questions are asked so no one really knows.

The grandmother looks after these wee girls so well. She has no money and has no way of getting any. Beatrice is going to go some day on her own to have a long chat to find out how this grandmother can get support and help herself. I have a quote from a local man to build her a new aluminium roof as the roof which is just thatched at present leaks when it rains. I have given her enough maize to do her at least two months and the babies have milk which with the porridge will help for a while.

It is one of the many cases where you sit on the mat and look at these gorgeous girls and hard working grandmother and feel helpless.

Oscar is doing well. I have visited weekly since he was discharged. Yesterday he had put on weight, thank goodness. This was after encouraging the guardian to feed him more milk and showing her how to wind him, the week before. He had been starving. I feel sometimes the guardians don’t feed these babies enough but only give them what they feel is enough. This is shown by the exclamations of wonder as he drinks thirstily when offered more. Oscar’s skin is now a much deeper, normal colour and he is holding his head up with more control. We are still waiting for smiles though!

One of Oscar’s two brothers, 5year old Kennedy has malaria and looked miserable. There are many children in this village who suffer from malnutrition and anaemia. There is no feeding station here for any of these children. I could go on and on in the areas I touch and see what is so desperately needed. It is hard.

Baby Ivy went home today. Remember her mother had TB and was an inpatient for the last 8 weeks in the TB ward beside Bwaila? Last week the mother (I can never remember her name) asked me for shoes, she had none, soap and fizzy juice. She was being sick with all the medication and water did not help. I bought flip flops in the market I had soap from the kind people in Scotland and I bought lots of bottles of fanta. Naturally she was delighted. We are going to follow Ivy up when she goes home and gradually reduce the milk from us as now the mother is much better and producing more milk herself. Ivy looks so well and is also so beautiful.

Two babies on the feeding programme have died. One called Rose who had the cleft palate. It sounded like aspiration. This is when some food gets into the lungs. It happened over 3 days, so sudden, so sad. We visited the mother after the funeral. She was in her hut with an opened bible on the floor. We said ‘papanni’ (sorry) and listened as she told us what happened. No one told her really what happened only that when she took the baby to the clinic it was dead. They told her it was anaemia- seemingly that is what is said all the time. No explanation just an acceptance.

The other older child had been on the programme before I came, I had not met him. Beatrice went to visit and discovered he had died a few weeks before. He was HIV positive and had TB. Naturally Beatrice was very upset.

There are two more orphans in the nursery, one is discharged and we will visit the guardians next week.

The first feeding station will start on Wednesday, very exciting. I still need to buy some of the equipment, Beatrice is organising the maize, soya beans and ground nuts. I need to order T shirts for the volunteers. I have 50 kilos of sugar lying on the floor of the living room in bags and the 200 IKEA bowls and spoons are sitting on my chest of drawers.

I am enjoying a quiet weekend, recharging the batteries and planning the week ahead- I think I might squeeze in a neck and shoulder massage. The driving does take its toll.