Two weeks left
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2007
1
6
16
Trip End
May 08, 2007
Blantyre, Malawi
Friday, March 16, 2007
One week left till my days in Malawi come to an end. I can hardly believe it...The months of February and March were an adventurous one. I have been very fortunate to meet a great friend and wonderful family who has shown me the beauty's of Malawi and making this trip unforgettable.
MOUNT MULANJE
First off, I never thought my birthday would ever of been spent in East Africa. My Malawian friend Steven and roommate Claudine took me to Mount Mulanje, which is the mountain with the highest peak in Central Africa. The drive was both stunning and inspiring with never a dull moment. On each side of the road, villages comprised of shaggy thatched homes would be seen and all along the road you witness a tiny peak to what the day-to-day activities of a Malawian would be. Women are most of the times walking either with baskets or tubs on their heads, kids playing in the dirt or also carrying their little sibling on their backs or water jugs on their heads, and men typically riding bicycles with stashes of wood or charcoal strapped to the back of the bike. After an hours drive, we arrived at the base of Mulanje and sat on rocks in the middle of the river trying to take everything in. It was truly beautiful.
NATIONAL PARK
Driving over the Shire river, I was taken to a National Park where you can find Nyala, which is a tall antelope, monkeys, zebras, and giraffes among others. The drive was amazing and the coolest thing was while we were driving through the park, I was distracted at looking at some Nyala to the left of me. All of a sudden a HUGE giraffe walked right in front of the car. I couldn't believe it. For a second it looked like a huge tree suddenly got legs and walked right in front of us. I have seen a giraffe before at the zoo but to see it in person in your own car is a whole different experience.... Definitely something I won't forget.
CAPE MACCLEAR, LAKE MALAWI
Lake Malawi is another destination I was fortunate enough to see. It was so nice to be at a beach, granted it's not the ocean, but it was really beautiful. It was hard to believe that in a land locked country something like this would be sitting here. The freshwater lake is the third deepest lake in the world (700 meters) and at night you hear the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. I went kayaking in the clear blue waters and snorkeled to find beautiful blue fish swimming around me. It is said that 80% of Malawians protein source comes from fish most of which are found in the lake. During the day you see men in traditional dugouts using small nets to catch fish to feed their family and/or to sell to make a living and if it's not a full moon, you see lights in the distance in the dugout canoes finding fish to bring into the shore.
WEEKENDS
One thing I've discovered while I've been in Malawi is that I LOVE rugby. My Saturday's consist of doing nothing but watching the sport. The Six Nations Tournament is on now and Ireland, Whales, England, Scotland, France, and Italy are the competitors and I'm happy to say that Ireland is one of the top teams in the tournament ?
I also was able to go on another fishing trip with my friend's family and I have felt real privileged to be able to go out with them. The last time I went all I caught was a bass but to chill in a boat in the middle of a dam was very peaceful and relaxing.
FIELD PRACTICUM
Being in Africa, I've seen many things that I probably wouldn't see in the states. Since my office is near the pediatrician's, she calls me in when she has an interesting case. I have seen 2 children who have been malnourished and as a result their skin is flaking off and discolored. One of those children was showing signs of marasmus which is a form of protein energy malnutrition and was such a severe case that it would be probably be something you would see in Somalia. The child was of 4 years of age but looked like he was 2 due to stunted growth and a loss of muscle and body fat. His cheek had started to bleed due to his skin flaking off and it was truly sad to see. He had no energy and had to be carried because he was so weak and therefore couldn't walk. The doctor also suspected he had pneumonia and thankfully was admitted to the hospital to be put on IVs because if he didn't receive fluids he would of died. I know he was discharged some days later but it's hard to say if he really will survive or not. The mother seemed to have no willingness to take her child's illness seriously and due to poverty, she may not have enough money to be giving him the proper nutrients he needs to recover as 75% of Malawians live on less than $2 a day.
Regarding my own research, next Wednesday I am scheduled to present my report to the head honcho's of the hospital. I'm pretty nervous but I'm sure it'll all go well.
Unfortunately there are a lot of gaps in my research due to a poor monitoring system of PMTCT (preventing mother-to-child transmission) patients, but this opportunity has given me insight to the clinical side of PMTCT and an opportunity to present these issues to the management with solutions so that there can be change in implementing a proper monitoring system for the hospital.
One of the biggest barriers to battling HIV/AIDS is the stigma that surrounds it. When a women is HIV+, the full protocol for PMTCT includes: c-section, ARVs before or during delivery for the mother, nevirpine for the baby 48 hours after delivery, and infant formula feeding for baby. When a women opts for a c-section, everyone wonders why she is getting a c-section and not choosing vaginal delivery. A lot of the pressure comes from the mother, mother-in-law, and grandmothers. If the mother chooses infant formula instead of breastfeeding her child, she has the risk of facing stigma among her own family members, friends, workplace and community will question her status because about 99% of children are breastfed for at least one year and 92% are still breastfed from 16-19 months. Discrimination and stigma are truly huge barriers to fighting the disease for mother-to-child transmission as it accounts for nearly 25% of all new HIV infections.
I was fortunate enough to meet a doctor who works at Queens Elizabeth (QE) Hospital, which is one of the main government run hospitals of Malawi, and offered to show me around. The hospital is quite big and outside the corridors of the hallways you see families literally camped on the lawns outside of the medical wards. These are the people who take care of their loved ones who are sick and admitted at QE. The ratio of nurses to patients is 2:100. This is why you see so many families here because they are fully responsible for keeping their family member alive and well by administering drugs, taking them to the bathrooms, and sitting by their sides to comfort and console them. If you have read the book The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs you will have read his introduction describing the medical ward at QE. According to Sachs, there are 150 beds in this medical ward and they need to accompany 450 people who are admitted. It was amazing to see the little space between beds with bed mats on the floor in between to accompany for the overflow of patients. In addition, Sachs gives the statistic that when he visited this same medical ward in 2005, 75% or more of the patients in this ward are in the late stages of AIDS and as a result he calls this ward a "dying chamber" rather than a "medical ward".
The patients in the room all looked very sick. Many of them were very very skinny, others were vomiting, and some just lay in the arms of their loved one helplessly. The doctor let us observe inside the mouths of some of these patients to see if any of them have developed Karposi's Sarcoma which is one of the earliest signs of AIDS. I had never seen it before but that day I observed signs of Karposi's in 75% to 80% of the patients we looked at. Although Karposi's manifests in the mouths in different ways, some of the signs I saw were discolored growths on the palette and/or open blisters on tongue. To say the least it was quite an experience.
On a happier note ? .....
MY FAMILY IS COMING!
Next week my family is joining me in the warm heart of Africa and I can hardly wait to see them. We are going to spend one night in Blantyre and then off to Zambia to a safari for two days and then to Victoria falls for another 2 days. After that we will travel to beautiful Cape Town and spend the rest of our vacation there. I will leave them in Africa a few days before they leave to attend my friend Timmy's wedding in San Diego and then off to Asia for 5 weeks to backpack and meet up with some friends along the way.
I'll keep you all posted as time goes on. I hope all is well back home... much love...
Cheers,
Melissa
PS. to all the Irish out there...Happy St. Patty's Day!
Comments
Hi Melissa,
Did you by any chance meet Bronnie Driscoll fro Australia while you were in Malawi?