This is Mary greeting you from Malawi.  I continue to work mostly with the community health teams in surrounding villages and some in the hospital.  Yesterday we drove with an ambulance full of staff to the largest clinic yet.  It’s about an hour each way.  We arrived to more than 400 women plus babies and kids waiting for immunizations, family planning, prenatal care,

pharmacy, the “Dr.”,  and probably other things I’m not remembering. It’s a bit overwelming but it goes quite well.  Everyone but me seems to know the sorting of services and I just do what I’m asked.  It all continues to amaze me.

I’ve also spent a lot of time talking to people about a sustainable project for orphan care that we would use some of the project funds for.  I’m working on a proposal for starting a coffee and tea place in a current craft shop. Right now there is no place to get either or food other than in the the market (picture a farmers market).  We would buy coffee from a local grower, hire someone to bake a simple bread item, etc.  All profits besides what would have to go back into supplies and 1 employee to assist the current craft shop employee would go to orphan care.  The current craft projects already go to orphan care but the shop itself needs cleaning and paint and better ways to display things, which I’m dying to do. 

Una - the nurse from Belfast we’re staying with - and I have added some new items for the shop.  The hospital has a tailor who sews on a treadle machine.  He is now making African shirts and aprons.  There is a steady stream of backpackers who hike up here so we are trying to add things they want.  There is an HIV/AIDS Prevention group that beginning tomorrow will be weaving placemats and coasters for sale at the shop.   Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.

I often wish I could show everyone at home what I see everyday. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a National Geographic magazine except that people are greeting me by name or I’m holding their babies. It amazes me every day that I'm here in this special place.  Hope all is well with each or you.

Mary

I traveled about today as the Malwaians without vehicles do - by whatever means available - heading for Chilumba up the coast to talk to the headmaster at the secondary school there about needy students. This is the nearest government-run boarding secondary school,

approximately 34k from Livingstonia.

I met friend David Mhango and we hiked down the Gorodi Road through 16k of twists and turns, descending 3000 feet in about 2 hours.  We hit the tarmac highway in the town of Chitimba, then caught a mini-bus (a jam-packed Toyota van) up to the Chilumba junction, then hoofed it the last 5k to the secondary school.

At the school, we met Headmaster E.K. Chirwa and 6 needy students including 4 orphans and two visually-impaired students.  It was a very moving experience - the young people were so deferential and regarded us with hope tempered by their real-world experience.  It was all I could do to not promise them the moon.  But we explained that this was an information-gathering visit and we would get back to them.

Afterwards, we caught a matola (rickety old pickup truck - you ride in the bed with several others) back to Chitimba, had some cold drinks and then began the long ascent up Garote at about 4:10.  Three hours and a steep 16k climb later, we arrived back in Livingstonia, tired and thirsty.

We’re waiting on lists of students from the Day Secondary headmistress, the headmaster at Livingstonia Secondary and the director of the Primary Health Care office who is sort of the social services director for the plateau.  We’ve let them know that we need their lists by April 10th as we’ll be leaving here for about about a

week to travel to Zambia.  Enroute, we’ll access the project funds to deposit in the school accounts in Mzuzu to cover the cost of fees for the designated recipients in time for the start of term 2 on April 20th.

Sounds like an early spring at home by all accounts.  Hope this finds you well, enjoying the changing season.

Best,

Steve

Life in Livingstonia

Ah, Livingstonia!  This is a place far removed, 16 km up the side of an escarpment on a road with no less than 20 hairpin turns.  Beautiful views abound but so does some abject terror if you make the mistake of looking straight down at critical points.  Guard rails are unheard of and there isn’t room for two cars to pass, so you rely on the skill of your driver.  Large boulders and deep rain-washed gullies in the road make it one long chiropractic adjustment.  I had forgotten just how bad the road is.

Contrast that with the view when you reach the top, where all is forgiven and forgotten.  Picture the best views along the north shore of Lake Superior (Lake Malawi in this case) and throw in a mountain range visible most days on the far shore of the lake.  Add the everchanging play of light and clouds on the lake and you have a real jawdropper.  The accompanying photo shows a rainbow over the Livingstone Mountains of Tanzania, 50 miles across the lake, as viewed from the plateau.

The weather is moderate here, a little more humid than it will be in a month after fall arrives (south of the equator, you know), with highs in the upper 70’s and lows in the 60’s.  Not too hard to take. During this rainy season, which continues into early April,  the sky cover changes constantly, from thunder and rain to full sun and everything in between.  Big, billowy clouds drift through the valley below us several times a day as we’re more than a mile above sea level.   

The people are warm and welcoming and give so much for those who have so little.  The children are a delight, though I’ve been a bit overwhelmed these past two days as the only teacher for Standard 1 (the equivalent of first grade) with 98 students and a piece of chalk as my only equipment.  I’m doing a crash course in Tumbuka (the local language) commands and questions as the little ones speak almost no English.  It’s challenging, frustrating and exciting at the same time.  

Mary Ellen has been fully immersed in hospital life, and her duties run the gamut from midwife to emergency room nurse.  Tomorrow she goes out on her first rural clinic visits, something she is looking forward to.  Through the orphan care program at the hospital, she was made aware of a young man who was orphaned at an early age and is head of the household.   He is off to college in Lilongwe (the capital city) this week after doing exceptionally well on his entrance exams and receiving a scholarship.  Slight problem - he has no shoes and the usual ill-fittting donated clothing.  She was asked by a credible source if we would donate some of our funds from the orphan care portion to help clothe this young man as he leaves the plateau for the big city and we readily agreed.  So know that your generosity is making a difference here already.

On the secondary education front, we were disappointed to find out that the boarding secondary school here on the plateau is closing as the college is taking over their building.  That leaves only the day secondary school to provide for the needs of all Form 1-4  (the equivalent of grades 9-12) students in the greater area here.  This school is run by a very able headmistress named Mercy Jerre who I spent 2 hours with yesterday.  There is no electricity at the school, no glass on the windows and no lunch program currently, so the infrastructure needs are great.  And, as you might guess, the vast majority of the students come from impoverished families, so we’ll be working with Mercy and others in the community to determine where the greatest need is and how we can help.  

We’re proceeding cautiously and making no promises to anyone here, aware that language and cultural differences can easily lead to misunderstandings.  We’re determined to make the best use of the $6500+ that you contributed, and we’ll keep you informed of our progress.

Wishing you well from beautiful Malawi,

Steve and Mary Ellen