This week our visitors are two senior Obstetricians from Simpsons. This is their holiday time and they wanted to visit Bwaila to experience a little of how they could help, with perhaps someday coming back for a longer term. We visited the orphanage and had a cuddle with many of the children. We appear and [...]
I was glad when Friday arrived this week. I spent every day in the car, out and about in villages. The driving I find, actually the most difficult and the most exhausting part of the day. The villages and areas of Lilongwe district naturally are not designed for cars, just bicycles. The environment changes daily [...]
It is hot! The door is open and I can see a corner of the palm tree on the front green, very gently moving in the very welcome breeze. The fan is purring above me and Iain is in the kitchen making marmalade. This paints a picture of one life, a very different one to [...]
Monday morning was warm but the sky was grey and cloudy. This was a good day for driving the long distance, although there was always a threat of rain. I arrived at Bwaila in Rachel’s four wheel drive at around 8.30am. Grandmother was in the nursery feeding the triplets and the midwife greeted me with [...]
Last years maize crop is finished and many people are hungry. Children have swollen bellies a sure sign of malnutrition. The night security man often gets our left over supper. People have no money to buy maize or porridge. The poverty in Malawi is obvious, not hidden as in many countries. The poverty is with [...]
Saturday and off to the airport to collect our first visitors. Two of my work colleagues from Edinburgh have arrived for a two week Malawi experience. After the girls freshened up we went to visit the orphans in the nursery and for the girls to have their first taste of Bwaila. While looking at the [...]
This week has been very varied with visits to the village and some hospital activity. I have committed to working with Beatrix one or two days a week. Beatrix is a retired nurse/midwife and works for a feeding programme for orphans started by an American midwife Joanne whom I had met on my first visit [...]
I spent the beginning of the week at the Anti natal clinic as part of my orientation programme of two weeks! The anti natal block also comprises of a Family Planning Clinic, an Under Fives Clinic and a UNC Clinic (University of Northern California) who do HIV testing on pregnant mothers. This has got to [...]
The week started by going with Jean and Victor to teach the women in a village how to build a wood burning stove and to check the maize which they had helped and advised with planting. The wood burning stove was being constructed because so many trees were being cut down for fuel and not [...]
I didn’t think I would be writing before next week but then after a day in Bwaila like today, I felt justified in telling you a little. I felt frustrated, numb, and tired. The labour ward never stopped all day. Women came and delivered left and more came. Few trained staff, a midwife and doctor [...]
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