This is my second blog, the first one never made it to the page I think lost in siber space somewhere, very frustrating.
The rain is torrential at the moment and very noisy on the aluminium roof. The 9 apartments or units as some people call are them are built in a square each with a tiled terrace and a couple of worn wicker chairs to sit on while looking across a small well kept garden with dotted palm trees. All the houses in Lilongwe are behind high walls, have electric fences and have two guards on the gate.

The front door opens into an open plan living area with a leather suite, a large wooden dining room table and six chairs. The walls are white washed and all the light is via 2 strip lights. The kitchen has dark varnished wooden units, wooden work surfaces and a double stainless steel sink with a back window looking out to a lane were the staff hangs the washing and where a small washing and ironing room is situated.

We have a working cooker and fridge freezer, microwave, a dinner set for six with cutlery. There are three pans and that is it. The bathroom is spacious as are the bedrooms. Everywhere is tiled and everyday the floors are washed, our bed is made and washing is done.

It has been a very hard 12 days since arriving, mostly adjusting to the culture, the environment and the cost of living and I suppose coming off the rollercoaster of a busy time in Edinburgh.

A supermarket shop is more expensive than home and petrol is £1 a litre. Mobiles, landlines and internet are very expensive and there is a charge for everything. However if you can live on cigarettes at £1 a packet, beer and fresh fruit and vegetables from the market you are laughing. And of course the Malawian gin.

We are slowly trying to make the stark apartment a place you want to come back to at the end of the day- our home. This is difficult because everything is so expensive. After spending a very stressful 6 hours at the customs and excise at the airport cargo two days ago trying to claim our boxes from home, a story for another day that I really want to forget we eventually got the boxes home and we now have a few comforts dotted about the apartment, including my own bed linen- bliss.
.
Iain has a role now looking over the electrics at the new hospital wing which I will refer to as KCH which stands for Kamuzu Central Hospital. This is where the new high risk maternity wing is being built. Iain went to a shirt and tie meeting on Friday chaired by David the site manager and went on a site tour. He was very impressed. There is no date for opening yet. However as we all know human resources are the biggest issues with so few staff now never mind when there are two new maternity hospitals open.

Iain has enjoyed three games of golf so far with David who has lived in Malawi for 15 years and friends and this will become a regular thing which is great for us both as there is a social side.

It is good having Rachel, whom we are sharing sponsorship with SOS Malawi in Spain this next 6 months, living in the same complex. Rachel is doing great work as a midwife and working also with The Rose Project in facilitating the changes.

I have made a new friend called Jean. Jean is a nurse / midwife and has been working in Malawi as a missionary over the last five years. Jean spent her first 30 years in Britain and then moved to New Zealand. Her work is mostly done in the villages, health care, planting advice, building stoves in fact all sorts of things. We have lots to talk about including food, as she enjoys baking and I have already sampled and have some new recipes, surprise surprise! Jean invited me to go out with her on visits so I doing this once a week. We were meant to have gone today but the rains are horrendous and last week she got stuck in mud even in her four wheel drive so today was cancelled.

Last week we visited ABC (African Bible College) clinic, where Jean used to work. There is a private side which then pays for the less able side. Unfortunately Jean is going back to New Zealand in February so meanwhile I am learning all about the Malawian ways which is great. For example we wear skirts when visiting the villages out of respect.


I had my first day at Bwaila yesterday. Very little had changed and the smell is as strong as ever. This I know I will get used to. I was shown round by the matron because the first two weeks are supposed to be orientation,- that is a laugh- and then I get a form signed after I have been in each area to take back to The Nurses Council where I had to pay 28,000, kwatcha , £112 to register along with all the other paraphernalia.

Women sitting on benches, lying on the floors in the corridors and in the wards where every available space is used by a mother, many lying under beds or sharing. For no other reason but for space these women need a bigger hospital.

The labour ward was in full swing and I teamed up with a lovely Norwegian midwife who had been there for two months. There were a few student clinical officers who do three year training and three Malawian midwives, one other medical student from Dundee and one other volunteer from Norway. The one Norwegian doctor and midwives are paid by their country to come to Bwaila.

Everyone was busy so I just followed and joined in. I can’t tell you how many babies were delivered before I went off at 4pm. Many babies need resuscitated, that is given suction and oxygen. The women have amazingly high pain thresholds. There is no pain relief, they lie and suffer the pain. The equipment is grim. They do have three CTG machines which are used to monitor the babys heart beat and contractions. Only one worked and I was told to use it only for a short while on a mum because they run out of paper.

The sluice, the patient’s one toilet ,I have no words to describe.

There are two angled poised lamps in the ward and when I was using one to assist a perineal repair it sparked from a damaged flex and didn’t work. I phoned Iain at 9.30 who was free to come down because the men on the building site were on strike and there was no work going on there. He picked up the lamp and delivered it back a couple of hours later repaired. It was only two months old. The other lamp came home with us for big repairs it was dangerous and Iain would have condemned it however it is now looking much better and safer, he is a gem and very much appreciated by the staff. It would have taken weeks to have been repaired if left.


I was hot, sticky, and exhausted after my first day, no babies or mums had died and I worked mostly on my own but because you are in such small proximity you can usually ask for help.

My emotions these last 12 days have taken me over. We have felt very vulnerable in this new unknown culture which is not a very pleasant feeling. When I wake in the morning I feel unhappy and heavy hearted .I strangely didn’t find work yesterday too distressing as I had been there before so the shock was not as great as the first time, mind you time will tell. I know it will take a lot more time to feel settled here and when I am doing I am always happier.