Moose is Down

Today was a grade A day. Since there’s not really any hospital work left the day was open and full of possibility. And Cake!

Well first I started the day with a phone call in the brisk morning air so that was a really nice morning. Breakfast is always great because I know all the staff’s names now so it feels familiar and warm. I even had Mzuzu coffee which is so good. I decided I would get off the bus at Melemia and help my T&L friends paint the blackboards there, which was their project for the day.

On the bus ride over though, I was listening to some music saved on my phone, and the song “Greater” by Mercyme came on. I think I’m quite emotionally unstable at this point because this super happy song made me really cry on the bus. The sun was shining, the bus was full of laughter, and I was just losing it. I think the thing that did it was the lyric “There are days that I lose the battle, grace says that doesn’t matter ‘cause the cross already won the war”

I think it got me because it feels like you lose a lot in Malawi (and keep in mind I’m an optimist)- each problem leads to new problems and aid often feels like a band-aid; it’s hard to know you’re working towards the right, lasting, sustaining solution. Though now that I come to think of it, that’s probably the case everywhere and Malawi is the only place I’m trying to make a difference. But also in the world right now, with all forms of hate surrounding what happened in Orlando, the war between love and hate seems to be raging more visibly than usual.

It’s comforting then to believe that I was created beautifully and intentionally solely to do what I can, you know? I need to do that to my best ability but I needn’t be discouraged if it feels like I haven’t won the battle, Love will always win the war.

So after I pieced myself back together we arrived at Melemia to the usual horde of children running along side the bus. When the door opened they were actually changing “Azungu” which means “white people” which I was told was abnormally tactless of them. It was mostly funny though, and they were even chirping the names of all the T&L girls, which they seemed to have learned pretty well. We retreated into the teachers’ office to wait for Sammy to bring the blackboard paint. We talked about the emotional instability thing which I confessed to, and people agreed they were feeling similarly. We talked about home too and the people and things we missed about it.

We also snacked on the lunches we packed. I realized that none of the food I brought for lunch was food that I brought from the states, I acquired it all in Malawi. I then decided the mark of really living someplace is being able to pack a lunch. Peanut butter sandwich with bread I swiped from breakfast, passion fruits from the mountain, banana from the market- so Malawian. Just kidding a Malawian would never eat that for lunch they’d eat nshima and greens and chicken like every other meal.

Then when Sammy arrived it was time to paint. We just painted over the old chalk board which the teachers had cleaned the day before, but it looked much better and it was really fast with so many of us. We also got covered in black spots splashing off the brushes.

photo credit to Emily!

There were also kids crowding in all the doorways and reaching through the windows, chirping more names to get us to wave at them. Few knew my name since I had only been one day before, and those who did know it said “Maureen” but I was still really excited when they did.

Near 11:30 I had to walk to Domasi Rural so that I could join Penny and Jess to give the staff the cake we ordered. Jennifer (the new T&L leader since Patti left, she’s so sweet) and Lindsey J walked with me. It was a really nice walk mostly on a dirt path and it took about 40 minutes. At Domasi Rural I went straight to the NRU where Jess was talking to a rep from World Vision, a massive NGO. It’s seriously enormous, it’s hard to believe they can do very effective things on the ground with 38,000 employees to pay, and in fact I don’t believe they do. I’ve heard really bad stories about the quality of their work, actually. Then I met Symington, a lead administrator for Domasi Rural and also a midwife and also just a really cool guy. He was surprisingly interested in my ambitions and I understood why Ashley always had such great things to say about him, he was just really really nice.

Anyways, Eunice was finishing up some work stuff so I played with a little girl that has been in the NRU the last few days while her sister was treated, her name actually IS Maureen. We played peek-a-boo and the best was when Jess gave her a hard candy. She opened the wrapper, took out the candy, and then threw it in my lap. I tried to put it back in the wrapper because it was really sticky, and she tried to help but she’d just touch the candy, be grossed out by how sticky it was, and then wipe her fingers on my hand. She did that like 8 times. Then she grabbed the candy and put it in her mouth and ran away. Gross Maureen.

When Eunice was done she had us bring the cake onto the porch where all the NRU staff and Symington were sitting. We said some words of thanks for welcoming us, and how happy we were to have a relationship with the hospital. Eunice said incredibly nice things to us on behalf of the hospital, and told us to consider Domasi our second home. Most Malawians are nice but this was beyond welcoming, it was familiar. I wanted to cry. I’m surprised I didn’t actually, with the frequency of my unwarranted tears lately. Then we cut the cake and passed it around and ate with our hands the true Malawian way.

After we were all done we said more goodbyes and went to the bus, where the T&L girls were already waiting since they finished painting so fast. The bus stopped a ton of places on the way home but I was asleep for all of them because I was suddenly so tired. I think I’m quite dehydrated because I’ve had a headache for a couple days and I rarely drink water because I’m always with Malawians who I have never ever seen drink water. Or go to the bathroom for that matter. But I drank lots when I got home and had a bit of a lie down and then got ready for our big dinner plans.

At 5, all the T&L girls and Jennifer plus me and Jess got in the bus with Sammy to head up the mountain to an Italian restaurant that’s there. It was a beautiful place and we stuck some tables together so that most of us youngins were in this boothy alcove and I was at the very head of the table, looking straight at our driver, Wellington, at the other end. Wellington is a man of few words so I got a kick out of all the eye contact.

that's Rebecca looking all happy and Wellington at the end

We were all quite goofy at dinner. It was so nice because it’s easy for me to feel out-of-body here doing so much thinking and observing, so when I can just laugh ridiculously with all the girls I feel well and still in touch with normal me. Also we made plans to do things after we get back which is so wonderful, to make lasting relationships that will help Malawi last in the states. We laughed at everything and played with bread and things like that. Also we have been enjoying the magic of Apple Airdrop and would randomly airdrop things to each other. Also they had ice cream! So that was Malawi dessert number 4. We took this ace selfie on our way back to the bus.

I didn't mean to make that face but Abby really really liked it

The bus ride home was one to remember. I’m going to have to quote some of the conversation to convey how great it was so this may be sub-par story telling. Abby had been on her phone at the restaurant, where there was wifi, and saw that Andrew, one of the lodge staff, posted a status to facebook that some animal had been killed and that it was in front of the police station. He posted a picture but wifi here can rarely load pictures so we had no idea what the animal was. We were all taking guesses, and also Sammy and Wellington were having a separate conversation in Chichewa. Wellington said something that sounded like Chichewa Chichewa “moose” Chichewa Chichewa so I asked him “It’s a moose?” and he said “no, moose is ‘down’” meaning that’s the translation, so Abby said “what kind of moose” to which Wellington responded “an elephant.” I have no idea what he meant by that but we all lost it. We kept driving along and we realized that we never really drove after dark before so everything looked really different. Abby commented that Zomba was like a whole new world after dark, and that she’s going to refuse to go out after sunset at home because it will just be so weird. Emily stated her new philosophy for staying in at night as “The sun is moose; I am moose.” It was Sammy that really laughed at that because apparently it was quite a magnificent misuse of moose. But THEN we drove by the police station and we saw the animal that was in fact NOT a moose but an ENORMOUS CROCODILE. We crowded to the windows and Wellington excitedly suggested we stop the bus so we could all get out and see.

It was the WEIRDEST scene. There were about 6 Malawians crowded around it in the dark, and one guy was using a giant machete to hack off parts of the crocodile. The skin is super thick though so he just had to keep beating it with the knife to get pieces off.  And this was a massive animal. The tail was gone, allegedly up to the restaurant we had just come from, but the guys there said it was 7 meters with the tail. I don’t know how that can be possible but if it was, that was a monstrous animal. Its head was giant. It was just so big and so dead. We were all sort of giddy with disbelief that we were actually seeing it, and we had to keep fleeing pieces of crocodile that were flying everywhere.

So that was a crazy night. It’s now Friday morning. The plan is to give Zomba Central a cake today and then pack, because we are leaving around 6 for Cape Maclear in the morning. I don’t know what internet will be like until I get home so just in case I’ll fill you in with the plan: Cape Maclear tomorrow night, which is on Lake Malawi and should be really beautiful. Then Sunday we will drive to Lilongwe with a stop at Mua Mission, a museum about Malawi’s history. Sunday night and Monday night will be in Lilongwe, with meetings for us med team people on Monday, and then we start the flights home on Tuesday at 1:45 pm our time, for me to arrive at Dulles 8 am Wednesday. The flights home are much longer, about 6 and then 19 hours rather than 2.5 and 13. But it’ll just be more hours of aviating fun! I will try to blog amid all this weekend stuff though because that would be a pain in the butt to remember and blog about all at once!

With love and crocodile parts,

Lauren

I am grateful for…

Phone calls with loved ones

Shortbread

The luxury of giving gifts

What will I do to make today great?

Help paint Melemia

Give people some cake

Eat some Italian food! Power permitting

Daily affirmations. I am…

“A raging ball of empathy”

3 Amazing things that happened today…

Painting at Melemia

Such loving goodbyes from the Domasi Rural NRU

Dinner laughter and the croc!

How could I have made today even better?

Fewer carbs

Village Healing

Since Jess’s focus is malnutrition and that is really a problem in the villages, we asked around the hospital earlier in the week and found the people who go out to the villages to check on the children and administer vaccines. They’re called Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) and we met one named Pearson who invited us to come to an outreach clinic. So Wednesday morning Felix picked us up and brought us to meet Pearson at Songani Market, which is a market on either side of the road that leads to Domasi. When we got there, Pearson asked if Felix could drive all of us to the village to save time so Penny hopped in the back and we all bounced along to the village, Mkwera.

When we got there it looked like most of the villages I’ve seen- really dusty, out in the bushes and trees, with small cement or brick homes with tin or thatched roof scattered around, none very close to each other. There was one small cement building with a sort of porch which is where we stopped. While all the mothers were assembling, Pearson and another HSA that met us there named Ackim, filled us in.

The Mkwera outreach clinic services 6 villages: Mkwera, Misi, Masapi, Musula, Myam, and Kapile. Pearson is in charge of the first 4 and Ackim the last 2. The tribal language of these villages is Yao, so most of the children didn’t speak English or Chichewa, as they weren’t far enough along in school, or in some cases in school at all. Speaking of which, 8 and 9 year olds were quickly assembling to watch us. Here, being white seems to intrigue all children, so they gather around and slowly inch closer and closer to us in a big group any time we are around lots of them. One of the moms grabbed a stick and waved it at them so they’d disperse. Then it was their turn to entertain us. All the boys started giving each other piggy back rides and then waving at us, until I waved back at which point they’d all collapse laughing. Then they started doing what looked like action movie karate.

Also Ackim taught us how to say good morning in Yao, “Ajimachi uli” but whenever I said it to a kid they smiled bashfully and ran away. Points for trying though. Oh also Pearson had an Engish quirk common in Malawi, but it made Jess crack up which is why I remembered to include it in the blog. He said “okay fine” a lot, which in the U.S. would indicate mild displeasure, no one really says fine unless things are really medium or they’re a little mad. But Malawians say “okayfine” as all one word and as frequently as someone would say “okay” or “yeah” when they’re listening to someone talk. Jess is right it’s pretty funny.”

At the clinic, soon the walls of the porch were lined with mothers with babies and toddlers. The big kids stayed to watch outside the porch. While we and the HSAs were still waiting for another guy to show up to help, one of the moms (who I later found out was the Mkwera mom-health leader type of person) stood up and started clapping. She led all the moms in a song they all knew, and the HSAs obviously knew it too because they were clapping and singing along. It was in Chichewa but I heard “bwanji” in it and found out that it was a song to welcome us! It was so nice. Then they kept singing more songs and Ackim even led one and I found out those were lessons in song form about different principles of health. For example, one song that Ackim led, he started dancing where he lifted up one leg and patted his um gentleman’s area. Pearson told us the song said “if you have too many partners you’ll catch diseases that hurt your genitals.” Straight to the point. Then they asked if we wanted to say anything and Penny spoke a bit with Ackim’s translation and then Jess did too, while holding a chubby baby.

Then the clinic started. Penny helped weigh the babies with Ackim, using a hanging scale we tied up with some rope like you use to weigh veggies at a store. Moms would just hang their baby in a chitenji on the scale. Penny would plot it in a little chart in the child’s health passport. Oh here everyone’s health records are in a little booklet called their health passport.

Then the moms brought them to me and I took their MUAC. This was really awesome because I’ve research MUAC statistics and measurement all year for my device and then there I was actually in a village doing the work. I had to use the band to measure from their shoulder to elbow, and then take the circumference measurement of the halfway point. Then I wrote it in the health passport. Most of the village’s babies were really well fed which was great but also surprising, since the harvest was so terrible this year. I made some of them cry, and Pearson said they’ve probably just never seen a white person before. It hurts when your face makes a baby cry.

All the babies were classified as well nourished by their MUAC until the last baby. That mother came in late and before I took her daughter’s MUAC I could tell she was way too thin. It was 115 mm, the dividing line between moderate and severe malnourishment. I notified Pearson and he talked to the mom about brining in the baby for evaluation and supplementary feeding.

All the while Pearson had been administering vaccines to children and mothers. He looked at their passport and Jess reported what they were missing and he’d give them the injection. He was also giving mothers depo, an injected birth control. Family planning is one of the main things taught at the outreach clinics, because many village women don’t know contraception exists otherwise, and will just keep having babies without necessarily having the means to feed them. It also makes the women more vulnerable to health problems if they’re constantly getting pregnant. They like depo because most men don’t trust the idea of birth control, so they would be angry if they caught their wife taking the pill every day or something. Depo just requires an injection every 3 weeks.

After the clinic I tried to communicate some more with the older kids, but they couldn’t stop laughing at me so I gave up and tried pictures. They liked them, and see phones even less than the other kids I’ve met so they thought it was pretty cool.

Then we walked on a beautiful path back to Songani market, and Ackim and I talked about names. He asked if Penny was Penny’s birth name, and I explained nicknames. He said that my name is terrible for Malawians and said I should just introduce myself as Maureen because that was as close as anyone was going to get. Maybe I’ll try that in the future.

Felix met us there and drove us to Domasi where he dropped off me and Jess. We had a coke at MIE and reviewed our finances before she went to find a spot to write notes and I went to the Government school to help Dr. Pat and Sandra (Pat’s sister) with the pads again. The T&L girls had to paint at Melemia that day so they weren’t around to help Pat. She was really grateful I could come which made me really happy, she’s the best. She insists the standard 7 girls like when us young American girls are around to help, but they really just laugh at me all the time so I question how true that is.

That day at the petal pads assembly line things were the same, but all the girls finished so our job was to find out when they were finished and give them extras to make sure they each had 12 little pad inserts. They were really fast sewers so that was impressive to see. After they were all done we collected all the needles on magnets that were very fun for everyone to play with, and then we had the head teacher Gertrude translate some words of thanks for us, and all the girls told us they were grateful which is really nice. They have so much attitude and laughter and spunk, it’s hard to imagine how helpless it must feel to be inhibited from going to school because of something as natural as your monthly cycle. I hoped that these things we made with them would really help them; you never know if aid like that is going to stick or not.

Pat bought me and Sandra each a coke and we got to talk for about an hour. That was awesome because Pat is a very very smart and determined lady, and I haven’t gotten a chance to really talk with her yet since she’s mostly involved in education. She told me all kinds of things I didn’t know about Malawi, because only someone who knows it as well as her (she’s been 33 times) won’t walk on eggshells about how bad it can be. Here are some facts she said:

•       There’s a severe patriarchy, even in schools, where the girls do all the school cleaning and the boys do nothing
• -       When children address their parents at home, they kneel on the floor
• -       Wealthy Malawians are always overweight because they stop walking anywhere, because walking is such a sign of the working (or lower) class here
• -       One of the reasons access to water is such a problem is that it’s the women who walk to the water source to fetch it for the home, and if it’s too far their likelihood of being raped on the journey goes way up
• -       I’ve observed some bullying at the primary schools, and at Melemia it’s because the kids who are descendants of this one powerful village chief are regarded as divinely in charge basically

So that was all really interesting and some of it quite sad. After we finished our cokes we went to the bus where we met Jess, and then picked up the T&L girls at Melemia and headed home. On the way we stopped at the market that Jess Penny and I visited over the weekend. Sammy gave us a fast-paced walking tour through the whole things so I’m sure we looked like a bunch of white ducklings all in a line. We also stopped at the fabric store one last time before getting back on the bus and going to the lodge.

We all had dinner at Annie’s again and discussed some wrap-up things like gifts for Sammy and the lodge staff. That was bittersweet, because it’s exciting to think of all the fun things coming up like Cape Maclear and seeing home again, but it feels a lot like we live at Annie’s now so it’s hard to imagine it just going on without us.

That night I worked on the med school application some more and talked to mom and dad on the phone and didn’t even cry that time. Also the dogs howled some more.

With love and the ridicule of 7^th graders,

Lauren

I am grateful for…

Bananas

My little bed

One-Ear Scotty and the Cat Gang

What will I do to make today great?

Help sew some petal pads

Write in the blog

Spend 0 kwachas

Daily affirmations. I am…

Thrifty…now

3 Amazing things that happened today…

Singing and taking MUACs at the outreach clinic

Helping with petal pads and talking to Dr. Pat and Sandra

Writing a whole new personal statement

How could I have made today even better?

Interacting with the kids more