The Good Samaritan

Following on from last weeks upset with the death of little Chisomo, Beatrice telephoned the director of the hospital involved for an update on what was being done regarding the incident. Nothing had been done. The day Beatrice phoned which was last Tuesday and Election Day, no nurses had turned up in the hospital and only one doctor. Naturally he had other concerns on his mind.

I am learning all the time regarding the workings and frustrations you encounter here. An example of this is Dr Tarek Meguid is operating at the Central hospital with only two lights working of eighteen, on the circular theatre lights which guide him during surgery. He has asked and asked for a repair to be done or bulbs replaced and it has never happened. You don’t accept this, you try not to become indifferent but the simple answer is that you sometimes can do nothing about it and have to get on with your work.’ You can win some of the battles but you can’t win the war’.

A dear friend wrote to me after reading last week’s blog and wrote some very thought provoking theories which she is allowing me to share with you.

’When you described about the baby getting Malaria and yet a malaria net lying unopened, perhaps there is a type of natural euthanasia goes on when there is very little choice at the basic level of need. In our culture we are so lucky to be able to aspire to higher levels of need than purely survival. However in the poverty you are experiencing I guess they need to bring in another level within the basic food, shelter, water level and that is who survives and who doesn't.

In our culture we are imprisoned for using natural euthanasia- every thing is geared to save lives and that’s because in our culture we can provide basic needs for everyone. Perhaps if we couldn't, natural euthanasia would be a blessing? Perhaps it is not that life is cheap where you are, perhaps it is that survival is too expensive- way out of reach for the majority.’’

How true all this reads but when you see babies and children who are hungry and women who need medical attention, would you walk on the other side of the road when you know you can feed them and give them help?

Beatrice and I are going to the triplet’s village on Monday to hopefully take the remaining two triplets to the orphanage. This will be the only way they will have a chance of life. I am not looking forward to meeting the grandmother and suggesting the babies would be better off in the orphanage at the moment. I have no idea what sort of reception we will get from the chief and villagers and hopefully of course the babies will be alive. Beatrice has never known triplets to live without their mother.

This week Beatrice has done some visits without me as I will start to withdraw my role slowly and let her go back to the bicycle and minibus. All my descriptions over these last months describing the difficulties in driving that each season brings, confirms to me that Beatrice needs a car for her work not a bicycle.

Jennifer and Janet’s granny has got a new aluminium roof paid for by MUMs Recipes. We are visiting tomorrow because as with most projects in Malawi nothing is straight forward. Iain had borrowed a van and driver from work and with the carpenter bought all the timber, nails, and aluminium lengths etc. It has taken most of this week and a few bits have gone ‘missing’ However this I hope will be sorted soon.
The granny whose name is Veronica, is delighted and when ever I have visited and it is always unplanned, she is either bathing or feeding the girls. She is obviously very devoted to her babies and appears well organised.

We had our usual visit to ‘my ‘village’ this week. Beatrice did a cookery demonstration using their own local food, but included pumpkin leaves which she steamed, sieved and added to the phala. Beatrice is wonderful with the women and explains why adding ground nuts for protein and green vegetables will be much healthier for their children. Everyone devoured what was made and then devoured my banana loaf which I had made two of and sliced for the women to share. I usually bring the children biscuits as there are so many of them.

I went with Dorothy Ngomo who is the president of The Nurses Association of Malawi to visit Charity who was the only registered nurse/midwife practicing on her own. Charity had used her retirement money to start this clinic called ‘Chipatala’ in a very deprieved, densely populated area of Lilongwe. She has delivered safely 109 babies and lost no mothers since opening her clinic last August. I was honoured to meet her and was very impressed with her hygiene and professional care. The women and babies who had been her patients were there to meet us. I was delighted to be in a position, with help also from my Mum to buy her a much needed small drug fridge to keep the vaccines in for the under fives clinic she runs weekly. The fridge she had was well and truly very old and very broken!

We went to Likuni for the monthly weight check and of course it was a phala day. I picked up two nurses from NRU (The Nutrition Rehydration Unit) at Likuni Mission Hospital and along with Beatrice they weighed and did checks on all the children. Many of the mothers knew the nurses as this was their catchment area. I was delighted with the rapport within the group and I feel this monthly check will be continued and of great benefit. Many of the children had improved in weight and appearance but I am sure it will take a few months to see a big difference.

Finally this week I will tell you a little of what my husband Iain has been doing these last five months. Many of you have asked and I consciously let this blog be a MUMs blog and not personnel what Linda and Iain are doing in Malawi blog.
However Iain has been working so hard for MUMs Recipes that a mention of his work is necessary. Iain had volunteered his services as an engineer to help with the electrical side of the new hospital. He has worked voluntary, full time ( apart from two golf games on a Wednesday and a Friday) taken on more responsibility than he has ever known and enjoyed the challenge immensely. He has saved the project thousands of dollars and was like an angel arriving for the managers, this has been Iain’s baby!

When we arrived in Malawi neither of us really knew what direction we were taking but something, somewhere leads you to where you are now and looking back, I would never have believed we would have done what we have done.