Mulanje Medical camp

On Thursday and Friday last week we were whisked off by D (an ex Pat lady who has lived in Malawi for 12 years with her family, and is deeply involved in many charities out here, including AYISE) to help out at the Mulanje Medical camp. The camp provides free medical assistance to the rural areas around the town and mountain of Mulanje. The place was absolutely packed! Crowd control was a real issue due the massive popularity of the programme.

The camp is run every year by a Hindi charity which is based in the UK. They bring out supplies of various pharmaceuticals, as well as doctors, pharmacists and other volunteers who have given up their time and money to help the Malawians who cannot afford, or cannot access medical assistance.

The camp was down a long dusty track, which must have proved problematic for some of the less mobile patients. But come they did, in their thousands! Many walked, but some were lucky / rich enough to ride in on a bike/on the back of a bike taxi.

Rach and I have no medical knowledge really, so Rach was put to work in the kitchens serving the hard working volunteer staff, and then the pharmacy, and I was sent to use my recently acquired Chichewa to help register people for dental services (this proved slightly problematic, as people saw the dentistry registration as a short cut to become fully registered, and consequently get their free lunch and clothing…slightly stressful at times!). I then also helped in the pharmacy, dividing up bottles of paracetemol, handing out clothing, restocking, basic stuff, but necessary to the smooth operation of the camp. The striking thing was how simple some of the medical issues were. Almost every ailment was addressed with multivitamins, iron, and paracetemol – malnutrition is causing major problems for a lot of people.

The Hindi charity (I’m sorry, I cannot remember the name) worked tirelessly all week, we just turned up at the end. Donations to projects of this type make a real difference to the lives of those thousands of people who can get to these annual camps, and deserve our full support.

Our Accomodation

These photos show our accommodation.

We are in a walled compound, with 24 hour company from 1 or 2 friendly security guards who help to reduce any temptation for theft in the community, as well as providing peace of mind to international volunteers, giving lessons in Chichewa, and advising us on current market prices for food – priceless individuals!

We are the only volunteers currently, but when more arrive we will share our living room, kitchen and bathroom facilities (including a shower), but will still have our spacious double bedroom to ourselves, which is luxurious!

The compound is on a dirt road which I’m sure will become treacherously muddy during the wet season (which is just finishing – we had some cool wet weather last week, but this week is looking lovely), but at the moment is just dusty and pot holed.

We can hear reggae from the guard’s wind-up and solar powered radio, the chirping of many birds, crowing of many cockrels, kids playing and sometimes gospel singing from the nearby churches.

In the grounds there are papaya trees and green-oranges trees, as well as chillis growing – we are free to take from these as we please (the fruit isn’t ready yet, but we’ve already used the chillis).

The guards (and most of the Malawian population) cook up nsima for most meals, on an open fire. Nsima is corn (maize) flour, added to boiled water, to produce something that looks a bit like mashed potatoes, and doesn’t taste of much – but is very filling. It is the staple of the country and is eaten with your hands, and if you are lucky enough to have some veg or meat to add to it you have that on the side as a relish.

We are very happy with the accomodation so far, it is far better than we had imagined and is really very luxurious when power and water are both on (most of the time).

So far there are still not too many mozzies - fingers crossed it stays that way...!

A & R

Arrived!

We are now in the offices of AYISE, looking out the open window I can see the top of the papaya tree and hear the fairly regular crowing of a nearby cockrel. Our flights from Heathrow via J'burg and (unexpectedly) Lilongwe went fine, no lost luggage, no extortion or bribes, and all pretty much on time.

We're currently the only volunteers, although many are expected in June - August, so we have the place to ourselves (along with the 2 security guards every night, reduced to one during the day) and Marcel (the Director) is in working today too. The accomodation and offices are all within a walled compound, within the large township of Bangwe. The township appears to be busy and bustling, but our compound is a haven of tranquility.

Initial observations:

• Minibus drivers (the majority of public transport is minibus) obey no rules
• everyone we've met so far has been very kind and welcoming (cliche, I know, but true)
• not very many mozzies yet, phew!
• pretty warm weather, but not unbearable - that will come in October!
• AYISE seems to be staffed by very motivated people, and I hope we can help them to achieve their goals
• the quality of the technology and accomodation in AYISE is much better than we expected

I hope to post again soon, the internet seems pretty good - maybe next time I'll try photos too!

more london photos

We are still in London, and trying to make the most of it without digging into our funds too much (the Adamsonian staff have been very kindly assisting us in saving money). We met up with an off-duty pilot friend of ours who many of you will know, and his delightful girlfriend, and went for a wee trip to the Natural History Museum, where i found my doppelganger, before enjoying a picnic in Kensington Gardens with most of the rest of the London population. The same high pressure system that is bringing the volcanic ash over Europe is at least having the decency to produce some really nice weather for those travellers stranded in London. We borrowed bikes from the Adamsonian and found them to be by far the fasted way to get to and from west central London from Putney - our leisurly pace getting us to the museum in 30 minutes. The Adamsonian Hotel is still living up to its 5 star ratings we had read about in the guidebooks (The Broons Annual (2007) and Oor Wullie Goes To London (2008)). Hopefully we'll fly out on Thursday, but with this darned persistent good weather who knows!

...always a day away...

So Tomorrow never comes...or at least flights 'tomorrow' never come. Due to the continued ash problem our flight tomorrow morning has been cancelled. Due to the huge numbers of people who have had flights cancelled the earliest next flight we can get is Thursday morning. This does have the advantage of a period of certainty, and the earliest we'll have to re-book might be Wednesday, so we can just sit back, relax and enjoy the Adamsonian. Of course we've been here so long that we will hopefully be put to work to earn our accommodation - the service here really is excellent!

Flight delays

Hello all - an update (probably not definitive, and unlikely to be the final situation!)

Our flight out of London tonight has been cancelled. Trailfinders have been very helpful and have transferred us onto another flight, leaving on Sunday morning instead (arriving in j'burg after 9pm on Sunday night). This means that we miss our flight from j'burg to Blantyre on Sunday. We looked into overland options, which seem possible if absolutely necessary but not ideal as we're likely to be exploited for last minute visas in Mozambique - or have to go via the lovely city of Harare - or an even longer but safeish trip via Vic Falls on a selection of sweaty and long bus journeys...so we have asked High Class Travel (the only link between the UK and Air Malawi) to transfer us onto the Monday flight from J'burg to Blantyre (which may result in a small fee to J'burg officials of c.$50 each). We felt this was the best option and hopefully it will come through fine - fingers crossed!

In the mean time we have the opportunity to enjoy another couple of days at the Adamsonian Hotel in Putney - fantastic service here!

A & R

London calling...

Journey south went very well on thursday, and we arrived in Putney ready for a glass of vino and the famous Bed of Destiny! We had a long walk through Richmond Park to the river on Friday - getting home just before dark. Saturday was Katie and Brendan's wedding (Rach was at School with Katie). The whole day was great fun, and involved a private bus ride between the ceremony and the evening reception - hopefully photos attached...
Sunday we met up with Rachel's friend Ross by the canal at Kings Cross, then met up with the Kirkcaldy boys at London Bridge for a boat ride down to Greenwich and a selection of ball and frisbee games in the park, interspersed with refreshments at the local pubs - good times!