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 7th 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
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