Hot Wet Rocks

Time moves weirdly fast and slow in Malawi. Suddenly, we are enjoying our last weekend in Zomba, facing just 5 more weekdays in which to finish all our work in the hospitals. Time has zoomed to this point, but it’s going so fast because everything in Malawi truly moves so slowly. Malawians often comment on how we Americans are always rushing from one thing to the next, even walking at a clipped pace. We can learn a thing or two from this place.

Regardless, the engineering team (now mostly just me and Penny) needed to make sure we were ready for the week. I opted out of the whole group’s visit to a local orphanage so that I could get us in good shape. I spent the morning working on the Infuse device.

The device is pretty cool, it was designed by Mr. Dr. Muelenaer’s high school group that he guides through medical engineering. The purpose is to be a cut off mechanism for IV infusion bags, because an adult bag can over hydrate a child and Malawi lacks the technology the states use to cut it off. It’s a pretty amazing counterweight system, so that as the bag transfers fluid to the patient, it grows lighter and eventually triggers the release of a weight that drops and kinks the IV tube, cutting off flow. Cool right?

The side of the whole device; that's the pulley at the top

Problem was that it was cut down just before sending it with us to Malawi so that it could travel better and sit on a table rather than standing on the floor. However, the lengths of the pulley system and other components weren’t adjusted to account for the new height. Ashley discovered that last week when she tackled it, so now my job was to fix it so that it worked. I was really excited to spend the morning figuring out the puzzle. Since my thermistor system is so electrical, this was exactly the sort of hands-on engineering I’ve been missing (wow I sound like Ashley).

So the original counterweight for the IV bag was a water bottle that the doc just has to fill to the correct level depending on how much fluid they want to infuse the patient with. The bottle sent with the device was the perfect size to hold enough water to balance and also to fit in the diameter of the device. However, when Penny and Ashley checked out the device last week, the bottle accidentally fell and landed on some screws at the base of the device and busted open. Rip bottle 1.

The bottle was an irregular size for Malawi however, and all we have here are smaller ones. So they’ll fit, but they don’t hold enough water to provide enough weight. So my first task was to make the bottle heavier.

SO bright and early this morning, I was squatting by the flower beds in my glasses jamming rocks into a water bottle. Some education girls came out and asked what I was doing to which I replied “engineering” and they made fun of my engineering degree. But I got all the rocks inside. Then I filled it with water from the shower since it didn’t fill the sink so I spent the first 45 minutes of my day making a bottle of hot dirty water with rocks.

wow yummy

RIP bottle 2

However while I was working on a different part of the device the hot dirty rock bottle fell and ALSO got punctured by those darn screws, so the IV infusion destroy claimed the life of bottle number 2! After that I threw my hands in the air and just hooked my Nalgene bottle up to it. It was great because then I could just drink the water down to the right weight, which was less of an option with the dirty hot rock water. That also means now I can’t drink water until after we demonstrate the device at Zomba Central and Domasi Rural so I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for the early signs of dehydration. HEY I can just infuse myself if I get dehydrated! Perfect.

Then I sorted out the rest of it and got to use wire cutters and even my battery-powered soldering iron to melt a part of the stand so it was a big party. I did it all outside and played music for me and the monkeys who were running around trying to steal things from Gift, the housekeeper. I ran inside and grabbed some bread I stole from breakfast and arranged it for the monkeys. They kept waiting until my back was turned to grab it but I caught them red handed.

Look at the guilt on her face

Also there was a boy band singing Christian music and recording a music video at various places around the lodge, since it’s so picturesque here. Their director came up to me while I was working and asked if I’d be the music video. I was in my jammies and looking really grungy and honestly questioning the artistic quality of their video if they wanted me in it so I said maybe next time since I was so in the engineering zone. It was sort of flattering though. I bet I’ll regret it when it becomes the most viral video of all time or something.

I finished up around noon and felt pretty happy with how I got it to work, and Dr. Penny was happy too! Then the gang arrived back from the orphanage so some of us went down to Loveice the tailor to see if our stuff was done and it was! We had a tiny fashion show and it was really fun. Jessica and Penny got inspired from that so afterwards we took a cab into town to go to a fabric shop.

That was super fun because Jess is such a jokester. She was giving the shop guy a hard time and he loved it. She also had fun guessing which fabrics I like (mostly blue ones with nature-y designs or bright colors) which were mostly very different from the ones she likes (lots of yellow or rust, tie-dye, funky type stuff. It fits her too). She was really good at guessing.

soon I can open my own fabric shop

Then we walked around the red roof market, this cramped sort of shanty-town where people sell fabrics and supplies and beans and rice! We smiled at lots of babies.

We walked back from the market, enjoying the hike up the mountain to the lodge. I had a little time to post a weeks worth of blog posts before going to dinner with the T&L girls who I hadn’t seen in a long time it felt, especially after spending every moment together at Liwonde. It was a very nice relaxing evening, though sad because we had to do some planning for our last week in Zomba. One week from tonight we will already be at Cape Maclear, our one stop on the way to Lilongwe for the journey home.

After dinner Jess and I were hanging out in the room when Sammy stopped by. He was just checking in since we didn’t see him today. We talked about his life and his various forms of work- he’s a really resourceful guy. Jessica asked him about maize and he told us a bit about how Malawians get by during bad harvest years like this one. Sammy’s family is already out of maize. I asked him about the Yao tribe and traditions and he told me it’s not just the Yao that do the initiations Amos told me about. He was really kind to stop in and talk with us.

A week left feels like lots of time here to accomplish what we need to but I know it’ll be gone in a flash. I’m just hoping to keep letting myself feel amazed and to spend more time with the monkeys.

With love and dirty hot water,

Lauren

I am grateful for…

Roommate time

Amos and his music

Spanish omelets

What will I do to make today great?

Finish work on the infuse device

Update the blog

Feed a monkey

Daily affirmations. I am…

Smiley

3 Amazing things that happened today…

Did good work on infuse! With monkey business

Fun fabric shopping

I wore shorts!

How could I have made today even better?

Buying more fabric