Mulanje

This time I was back at the mountain for business.. and I loved it!! The landscape is so unbelievable beautiful now everything is growing and blooming that I could spend hours just walking through the tea fields watching the tea pluckers picking the fresh leafs and the blackbirds flying deep between the trees. At night it is so quiet that you can hear the flattering of flying ants performing their wedding dance around every single source of light until they lose their wings and die. What an act just for reproduction. Millions of them like a cloud!!! A little holiday really away from “big city life”!

I had a short but relaxing weekend and also a new flat mate! Janet has now moved in and is really nice company. On Friday Ash and Liora also arrived for a weekend in Blantyre and as the married ones had a nice quite dinner Liora and me went for some action to a Black Missionaries concert (again) with Raz and friends. A real Malawian experience, with a lot of dancing! The rest of the weekend was quiet with some sight seeing, tourist shopping and trying not to get wet which means staying at home most of the time. I had to prepare some lectures anyway.. Compared to the constant rain in Ntcheu it has gotten much clearer with one or two heavy storms a day. If it rains it is like flood and it is still raining into my bathroom. It’s a challenge to get in touch with my landlord but the bathroom is not the worst place it can rain into so I can cope. After the storm is over the sun comes out again then it gets really humid. I think that’s  better than being cold and rainy, in the sunlight everything looks so juicy. It reminds me of German summers!

My way to Mulanje was a bit headless. I took the minibus this time and because I forgot to bring my umbrella from home I bought one before going on the bus. Of course by the time I reached Nkhonya (just before Mulanje) after about 100 stops where people and animals got on and off, I forgot about the umbrella and left it in the bus. Typical me! I´m sure the minibus driver was happy for that little Christmas present that’s always a good thought!

I took a bike taxi up the tea estate to Elleana´s place at Mulanje Mission Hospital, unfortunately she is off for vacation with the family but Alex, the German guy who is a volunteering nurse, was still home. He lives just two houses away and welcomed me with a cake (it was his birthday!) and we had some pasta bollognesa for dinner, what a treat!

The way to work was a bit of a trip. It takes about 20min down a dirt track on a bike taxi, the big mountain in view, overlooking the tea estate till you reach Nkhonya again. From there another 30min (waiting included) on a minibus or bike taxi through Chitakala to the next market, Boma, where its another 10min walk to the District Hospital. That lays right on foot of the mountain and is fairly big with about 4000 deliveries a year. There´s also a female, male and childrens ward, a theatre and several clinics. No one new I was coming (as usual) so I spent the time searching for the District Nurse Officer, then the students, then waiting for them searching for the books and then us searching for cases. Good fun! For a change labour ward was really quiet so we reviewed some antenatal mothers and I couldn´t help but saying a few words about the importance of documentation and paying extra attention on detecting abnormalities especially without having equipments like ultrasound or special blood tests.

One lady lost 20kg in her pregnancy without anybody being concerned, the other one, a 16 year old, had already a history of three abortions and a stillbirth, no one knew when or why, not even herself. The next one had such a big belly that either the due date was wrong or she was expecting twins. But on fairness with mostly uneducated patients who rarely come to their follow ups and never complain of anything it can be really difficult to find out if there is anything wrong. Not knowing when they got pregnant which results in not knowing when the due date is plus only having a measuring band, your hands and experience doesn’t make things particularly easier. Back to basic!

Yesterday morning we went to have a look at a Health Centre in Chonde, kind of close by. For the students a task for practicing health management skills, for me a whole new experience! Already on the way there a mother with her 25 year old son who must have had an epileptic fit at night boarded our minibus. The poor guy was severely brain damaged, couldn’t walk or talk with spasms in all extremities and his face. Carried by two men from the village, his mother and us, we helped him out the minibus and had to sit him on the ground as there was neither a chair nor a bench available. It took a while to find a wheelchair but how to enter the Hospital with a wheelchair if there are only stairs. So carry him again. The admission area was packed, it looked like people had spent the night there as a few were still or again sleeping. People came packed with food, water and blankets, they must have taken a long journey. The Health Centre is relatively small compared to all the other hospitals I´ve seen so far, with around 1500 deliveries a year. The problem is as usual, overcrowded, understaffed, no resources, no equipment.

There is a new building to extend the male and female ward with a big European Union Sign over the door, it was finished a few month ago but is still empty because there is not enough staff to work there. The hospital manager, a clinician about my age who was trained to be a clinical officer, explained that they have 8 trained nurses/midwifes and 4 clinicians (he is one of them), 8 hospital servants and 1 driver.  They don’t have enough supplies and run out of gloves or medications so they have to transfer the patients to the next District Hospital only for that reason.  It is tremendous!

In delivery ward there is only one midwife per 12 hour shift, only one for 1500 deliveries! No CTG, no ultrasound, no meds, no nothing! I couldn’t help but thinking of my dear colleagues back in Frankfurt and the staffing problem there: yes it can really be worse!  But besides the midwives working crazy hours it is most of all the women who suffer and not getting adequate care. That is really not fair! My hope is the future, when these 22 students are finished there will be another 50 coming next year and so on, with good skills and motivation they can maybe be sent in these places and help.

There are some good interventions on the way, for example a CPD (continuing professional development) books where each and every nurse and midwife has to achieve points each year through attending training sessions, further education, conferences and so on. I think that is a good initiative to improve the professionalism in the health sector. I am very happy with the students, they are well skilled, diligent and interested. I showed them the book I bought in England before I left: Survival Guide to Midwifery (I think that’s a brilliant little book) and they were so amazed. If they could only get them here, only 20 of them for the library, that would be so helpful! All they have is this book anno 1950 from South Africa, that’s anything but up to date. But like that there are so many things which should be here but aren´t. CTG´s, ultrasounds, doptones, weighing scales which work, bedlinen, curtains and so on. You don’t know where to start! It is amazing how they keep on working and delivering and caring I think.

When we left, the young man in the wheelchair was still waiting, his trousers were wet, I don’t think they could help him. That is so sad!

And from this you find yourself jumping out the minibus just on the foot of the beautiful mountain, with its peak named sinwapitu (=”you shouldn´t go there” in Chichewa) with the green tea and maize fields all around you, the smell of firewood in the air and the red soil. So beautiful! That’s Malawi, cruel and beautiful! Hard but warm, the warm heart of Africa.

I walked back a little path through the maize fields passing some huts on the way. All the kids are smiling and waving at you. Then they follow you to the next crossroad. Outside every hut you pass are people sitting and doing some work, they cut wood,cook or knit clothes, collect water or wash pots. Everyone says hello, everyone invites you to have Nsima with them, they are all so friendly. I gave my shoes to some young woman, I already bought new ones in town as my feet were full of blisters and I had to take the old ones off for passing the river which is usually a stream. Its Christmastime after all! So I walked home barefoot through the maize and tea and a guy on a motorbike from the mission hospital saw me and gave me a lift to the house. (I put my other shoes on for that, learned my lessons with the motorbikes this summer haha but he was driving very slow).

I made it to Blantyre just before the rain started. 

the students

random

the health clinic

Mulanje district hospital

teafields

tea pluckers

Today I´m back in the college, it´s my last day before my holidays weeee! I´m so excited to meet Andrea and Clara on Monday, I can´t believe they´re already coming. Now I just hope for good weather and good streets so we don’t get stuck in the mud in Tanzania or Mozambique (I heard the streets are pretty rough up there) but I´m renting Nikki´s 4WD so we will manage somehow I´m sure. We´re planning to spend my birthday and Christmas on the lake somewhere north and then new years eve somewhere in Tanzania, maybe we´ll make it to the Kilimancharo that would be awesome! I don’t know if I have a good internet connection there but I try to write again before the next year.  Just in case I can´t, I´d like to say to all of you:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Ntcheu

This time I´m writing from Ntcheu, a District about 2 hours away to the North, between Blantyre and Lilongwe. I´m staying with two fellow volunteers, Ashtin, a surgeon from the UK, originally from Mauritius (he actually studied in Newcastle and knows Hans Fuchs!!! Small world!) and his wife Janet who is a Microbiologist from UK (she will move in with me for a while as she and Ash are looking for a flat in Blantyre). Then also Henry, a guy from Uganda who´s working in HIV/AIDS and Liora, the Dutch medical student. A good crowd with lots of stories.

I came here to supervise the “old” students in their last placements and just to check out the District Hospital. The way here was already an experience! Liora was in Blantyre to visit some Dutch friends so we took a bus together. After 2 hours waiting for it to fill up (it was already getting dark) we started our trip with what felt like 100 other passengers, all Malawians, squeezed in between maize bags and chickens, babies and a preacher who gave the whole bus a lecture in Chichewa about Jesus and the holy spirit! His voice was even louder than the “good-mood” music and the roaring engine of the old bus. Toped up with some gospel songs, the whole bus was singing! Amazing!

The district supervision went well, the students are about to qualify so they are already well skilled and able to handle situations themselves. The problem is not the theory, it is the whole organization, the lack of staff and equipment, no monitoring, no prevention, to deal with the problem when it comes along. So if it´s busy and there are 10 women in labour half of them pushing and just 3 midwifes so bad luck, let´s just hope the babies pop out one after the other. Of course there is no point to start focusing on privacy, good midwife to client relationship, painrelief, different birthing positions, one to one care or other luxury like this. What is important is that you catch the baby when it comes out and if it needs resuscitation - which can be the case if you didn’t know that it had a bradycardia for the last 20 min during pushing. Survival of the fittest it was comes to my mind every time and me I don’t know where to start.

As a supervisor I am supposed to focus on “my” students and their working skills and not distract myself to other cases. But it is not easy when behind the curtain next to you all in a sudden things are getting really hectic and everyone looks at you as if you should know what to do. During these 3 days I´ve spent with the students in labour ward I also helped with one flat baby who needed resus after a normal delivery and just barely came back to life with me and Liora doing bag and mask and heart massage for like 15min! Thank god it worked but who knows how this baby is going to end up, probably handicapped and abandoned. A fresh stillborn because of cord prolaps at home where I ended up doing the delivery because the woman suddenly started to push and everyone else seemed to have disappeared. Another dead baby during emergency c/s because of hand prolaps, wrongly diagnosed as a breech, another emergency c/s with undiagnosed breech on first baby presented fully dilated from home and an emergency c/s because of logged twins, first breech second cephalic but both babies happy and well besides obvious undiagnosed twin to twin transmission syndrome (one baby was 2.2kg  and the other 3.8kg). CRAZY!! Seriously there were more complications then normal deliveries during the time I´ve spent in labour ward but regarding my work with the students I think it was a real helpful time. I had also time to observe them in postnatal and antenatal clinic where I learn a bit more about the Malawian health system every time, very interesting!

At the last day Amanda came back from Lilongwe and we went to labour ward together so she could see a delivery. That was really nice and without complications thank God! It is just so hard to prediagnose anything or prevent emergency situations when continous monitoring is no option because there are no CTGs and frequent monitoring seems not to be possible properly because of lack of staff. There is definitely potential to improve at least the interpersonal skills, awareness of responsibility each and everyone has and hopefully increase of professional health workers as there are more students then midwifes around at the moment. So there is hope and I am happy to be in this post and have the opportunity to motivate, supervise and teach the students and future midwives to make the effort and feel responsibility, be aware, have good skills and work as best as possible to have some good results for Malawi in the long run. So these few days really motivated me a lot! After the last week in the college where there was really nothing for me to do I started thinking what on earth am I doing here? Now I feel much more motivated again! That’s good and it wasn’t even so difficult as I thought to get things organized for me to go to the District Hospitals. It turned out really handy with having a place to stay and a few days with the students. Next week I will go to Mulanje to do the same again but unfortunately Elleana just left for a family trip to Zimbabwe and Victoria falls so she won´t be around. I will miss her! But I can stay with Alex, a German guy who volunteers as a nurse in the Mulanje Missionary Hospital.

Besides the development in my placement, Malawi is really putting a new face on as well. After a week of nearly constant rain the nature is just exploding! Everything what was dry and dusty before is now juicy green and lush, trees are blooming, the crops are growing, the earth looks even more read now being soaked with water. The hills and mountains are covered with a light green carpet and neat little fields with perfect rows after rows of little maize, potato or tomato plants are dominating the landscape. It is absolutely amazing how the whole face of a country can change during two weeks of rain! As putting some makeup on for a feast Malawi has changed from a desert like red and yellow to now lush juicy viarities of green, red, purple, orange and pink. The air is humid and the mountains around Ntcheu and Blantyre are surrounded by clouds and fog. Beautiful picturesque and the air smells like rain. That is so refreshing after all the heat but I hope it won´t rain all the time when Andrea and Clara are coming. 10 days!!! Aaaaaaahhhhhh! 

Here are just some pictures from the hospital (still no own camera) enjoy!

Ash's house with Liora

 

Ntcheu Market

the twin mom in labour ward with a local wheelchair

waiting and singing pregnant ladies

Liora is assisting a c/section

on top of the world

It seems that I can´t even get my posts in fast enough so much is happening these days. I enjoy every second and it feels good that I will be here in this beautiful country for a year and have so much time to do so many things.

So back to Monday where I stopped last time.. The work-week started with a trip to Chikwawa, a district about 60km south of Blantyre. I remember how I thought Blantyre is so tiny and not a big city at all but compared to what lies around it, it is huge! As soon as you leave BT you´re completely in the wilderness, open grass and bush land with red soil, dry and very hot. Along the street is where life happens it seems. Every about 1km is some sort of stall where you can buy Mangos or pots or other things. One stall made of wood sometimes with a grass roof or just some branches laid across, behind it a little hut where a family of at least 5 people lives. All living from this one stall it seems. What a hard life!

Every maybe 5-10km there is a small market, a summary of maybe 50 little stalls with a lot more goods you can buy, mostly food. Maize, tomatoes and onions. To reach Chikwawa you have to go down from Blantyre (BT), which lays about 1000m high, into the Shire valley. The Shire runs through the whole south of Malawi into the lake and surprisingly still has a lot of water. It is the end of the dry season so that is quite impressive! It is like a snake wearing a green skin, along the shores everything is still green while the rest of the country lays in dry yellow, red an orange. You have a fantastic view going down the serpentines overlooking the valley and it helps distracting your mind from the suicidal driving of the minibus. We had to catch two minibuses to get to Chikwawa from the hospital. Both times you wait about 30min to one hour for it to fill up but what else do you need in Malawi but patience! After crawling down the hills for an hour and passing about 2 police road blocks, which check that the baggage on board is secure and that there are not too many people but seem to ignore that the whole vehicle is nearly falling apart, you reach the little market where you grab a bike taxi for another 20min ride to the district hospital. This whole journey takes about 2-4 hours and costs 500 Kwacha one way which is about 2,50 €. Crazy!

Bike taxi driving is a wonderful experience! There we sit, Hilda and me in our uniforms and bags, each on the back of a bike, nice and comfortably cushioned, and ride through the heat of the valley. Down here it is about 10 degrees hotter then up in BT, so at least 40°C! No noise, no smoke just the bike, the driver (mostly a 15 year old youngster proud as a king because having a muzungu in the back) us and the nature! Beautiful! The way goes through little forests on dusty paths, along maize fields and little villages. Kids playing with sticks and eat mangos, women doing the laundry carrying their babies on the back, goats and chicken roaming in the fields. It is a peaceful atmosphere and even the hospital, compared to the big one in BT is laid back and peaceful. I first thought I was on a farm because there are dogs, goats and chicken running around everywhere. But then you see a lot of people, guardians, cooking, washing or just waiting in the shade of a tree. We went to see the matron first, to pay respect and to get the allowance to move around free on the hospital grounds. After that we went to find the 4 students we came for. Some observation and supervising is been done and a lot of talking and resting. It seems most important is the socializing and updating what´s up in BT or the family. I think the fact that Hilda used to work here for 7 years didn’t really help. I met about 20 other people from the cleaner to the secretary to the sisters on the wards. Very interesting but very tiring!

The delivery ward was quiet enough, only one lady in labour and one just delivered. Compared to Queens this ward is tiny, only 6 beds with curtains in the middle, a little admission and rest area which is also the office and another bed for special cases. A total number of 3500 deliveries a year, small haha!

The poor students are still left on their own and even they´re finished with their exams and about to qualify still there´s so much they have to catch up on. Most of them didn’t finish collecting their deliveries, especially not the high risk ones like breech or twins, or postnatal/antenatal checks. There is a big gap between what they´re expected to be able to do and what they´re actually able to do. On top of that they also need to be able to manage a whole ward on their own, writing duty planers, ordering stock, reviewing guidelines. It is crazy! To learn all about midwifery plus becoming a ward manager they only have 11 month of training. Of course that doesn’t work especially if there is no supervision, review or preceptorship. There is a lot to improve but that is really difficult as there is neither money nor human resources, it feels like the whole system is about to collapse (again)! I´ve been talking to Hilda about this, she sees the same problems but can´t find any solution.

On our way back and forth we´ve been also talking about my role in the college and what exactly I will be doing during my stay here. It seems there is a bit confusion going on as I do not have any special qualification to be a lecture which I told them already when they asked me to work in this post about 9 month ago. Everyone seemed to be happy enough that time but now things have started to be more specific. There have been control visits from the Nurses and Midwifery Council in Malawi and job qualifications have been reviewed. Two of the lecturers in the college have been degraded and are only allowed supervising but not teaching. I said I am happy with any role as long as I have anything to do but so I stopped preparing lessons for now. I don’t feel 100% comfortable with teaching 50 midwifery students in the sterile environment of a college classroom but it would have been a good experience I´m sure. Anyway if I end up being only supervising I might as well try to improve the whole preceptorship system and control of the students learning development. That could be good fun!

So I spent Monday and Tuesday and have seen again a little bit more of Malawi. 

On Wednesday then it finally rained but not talking about normal rain, what rain means here is a thunderstorm with gushes of water falling from the sky so in seconds the whole ground is under water and becks turn into rivers, rivers into streams. What is usually a garden in the back of the college was suddenly a lake, the whole world seemed to consist of water for a while. It rained – not so heavily after the first deluge was over – constantly the rest of the day and when I met Chris and Jen in the evening they told me that my flat is not waterproof and they had to mop up 3 buckets of water from the hallway. Shit! So it´s raining in, not into my room thankfully, but in theirs and in the bathroom, toilet and hallway. The problem is where the light bulb is fitted to the ceiling (this light bulb of course exploded as soon as used). Rain is coming in runs along the wire and drops on the floor. Also it seems that water is coming from along the walls, I think the problem is when it rains so heavily the water can not drain off because of all the leaves on the roof and so it overflows and runs down the walls. I called my landlady and hope she will come down some time in the week. Hope dies last!

But besides the rain also my Chichewa lessons started this week. Every day from 16:30 to 18:00 and it really helps! Chichewa is a very practical language with always one verb as a stem and then different endings, middle parts or beginnings attached to it. So the words get longer and longer if you are for example talking about something someone else did some time ago at some other place. It is funny! Also in Chichewa you find a lot of “chichewanised” English words like “nyuzipepala” for “newspaper”, “botolo” for bottle, “dokotala” for “doctor” or “oklokoloko” for “o´clock”. They use the same numbers or names for month but “eleven” would be “eleveni”, “a hundred” would be “ahundredi”. In Chichewa there is no word ending with a consonant so even when Malawians speak English they would put an “i”, “o” or “a” at the end of any word. “r” and “l” is actually the same in Chichewa so “rain” becomes “lain” and so on. It is very interesting and also very logical. It is a describing language and politeness and respect is very important. I am enjoying the lessons very much!

But last Friday I had to skip my lessons to go to Mulanje. Elleana, the Canadian midwife is now working and living in Mulanje so I went and visited her on Friday. I went there with Liora, a doctor student from Holland and 4 other Canadians (Elleana´s sister Kiara who´s volunteering as a teacher, Katherine, Kate and Stephanie who are all volunteering in HIV/AIDS projects) So we were a group of 7 girls all ready for the big hike. We rented a minibus to go to Mulanje, that’s about 100km east of BT and the 16-seater was full after everyone put their backpack, food and sleeping bags. As soon as we arrived in Mulanje we went for Pizza because Mulanje has the best Pizza in Malawi, real oven, made on stone and wood. Fantastico! With full bellies and a few more people, we met some Swedish people in the Pizza place we went on the back of a pickup truck to Elleana´s house. She lives on the missions grounds and is surrounded by tea plantages and the mountains. Just beautiful!

After a short night and oatmeal for breakfast we got picked up by an ambulance Elleana has hired to bring us to the start off point where we also met some more VSO´s, Anna (my sis, always so good to see her!), Joel and Trish and a Scottish guy who Anna met last weekend and who is looking for some mineral resources on the Zomba plateau hired by a Chinese company, he´s from Glasgow the accent is wonderful! Haha! After organizing porters, a guide and ourselves we started the 4-5 hour hike with the aim to reach the hut we had a key for before dusk. The group quickly split up into two smaller groups, it is way too complicated staying in such a big group especially on a path where you can only walk behind each other. I tell you it was steep! And we have only chosen the less steep path. But all the muscle work was so worth it! We came along waterfalls, where we went for a swim, cliffs, viewpoints where you could see over the whole country (all what light touches!) and high plateaus. I was reminded of the hike in El Escoreal, Spain, only that the whole way was like the very first bit of that hike. Exhausted but happy we reached the hut on 2800m altitude, a little timber house with two rooms. One to sleep in, one for cooking. No electricity, water from a well and the quietest and most peaceful atmosphere you can imagine. In the middle of nature! We warmed ourselves sitting on the porch in the light of the setting sun, after having a quick basin wash in one of the wooden cabins. We were so lucky with the weather, only a few drops on the way up was all, the rest of the time sunshine and a cool breathe. We cooked some Curry with rice on the fireplace and had a glass of wine with it, the guide and porters telling some Malawian fairytales and singing some Malawian songs, the Canadians singing Canadian songs and telling Canadian fairytales, over us only the stars around us the mountains. I never felt that free! This is how we went to bed.

Next morning we got up early, again porridge and packing. It was hard to say good bye to this mind opening, peaceful place but we had to leave. The way down was much quicker and I already was back in BT by 3 p.m.

In the evening I was invited to a BBQ at Maria´s house, a colleague from work, I don’t know how many hours she had spent in the kitchen but so much food! Nikki, Pauline and me were hungry but after the first round of the meal (Nsima, Rice, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Chicken, Cabbage, Fish and Salad) I was already full. To find out that that wasn’t even the BBQ, soon we had tons of beef and chicken on the grill and a beer in one and a wine in the other hand. I definitely refilled my energy tanks after that dinner! We had good conversation about cultural differences, stigmas and a lot of questions were asked about how it is back in Europe. What is the minimum wage and what is the problem with snow! Nice conversation and the first time I´ve been in a locals house, of course a richer family with both adults working and being educated. They have a 12 year old son and a gorgeous 2 year old daughter. She is beautiful! Also some neighbors came over and they were all super friendly! But I was also happy when I finally fell into my bed. I think some time I would like to spend just in a village with a family who really lives rural. I would like to experience life as it is for most of the Malawians. I have to talk to Ashtin about that who´s wife is moving in with me in a week. Chris and Jen have moved out and back to Nsanje, it’s crazy how quickly these 6 weeks went by! So let the new week begin! 

a few more pics from Monkey bay

holiday house of malawis president

fishermen

Reggae feelin´

It has been nearly 2 weeks since my last entry and of course so much has happened!

The weekend after my last post was very relaxing.. A good night out with Elleana and her sister on Friday night where we went to Doogles for a gig of this guy (Ron Nkomba) I´ve also seen at the lake of stars. Good music! A mix of reggae, folk and soft rock I would say. We danced till early morning and I slept nice and long on Saturday. Blantyre seems to be quite a place for the whole Raggae and Rastafarian buisiness, you see a lot of supporters. It gives it I think a nice atmosphere because besides the whole hardship and surviving fight you have this music which cheers you up. Then the people are one and can forget about the differences and inequalities in this world around them it seems. I like this about Reggae. One love!

So Saturday went by fast, Jennifer and me went to the Limbe market which was really an experience. Totally Africa! There are stalls and huts, piles of clothes, goats, chicken, cows and people all over the place. And I´m talking about a place of about 3 football pitches! Through it runs this stinky little river what makes it even more original. Its huge! You can get anything here! If you don’t want anything be careful, people drag you into their stalls, nearly throwing clothes at you or simply scream from the top of their lungs just to get your attention. From every side some boy or men standing in the middle of their piles scream “one peace only a fifty a kwacha!” the other one “two pantses only a hundredi kwacha!” Its fantastic! The dialect, the life, all these things you can buy. Everyone is staring at you, what is a “muzungu” doing in the market? Some boys were just laughing their heads off, I still don’t really know why. Maybe they were happy to see us or just found it so hilarious seeing us completely overwhelmed trembling from one stall to the next. We bought some bed linen, a Chitenga (traditional colorful peace of material which women wrap around their waste or carry their baby with, or use for several other situations), which I can use as a beach towel, some flip flops, a nice little summer dress for Jen and of course some fruits and vegetables. Covered in sweat, overwhelmed with this experience and packed with hipes of veggies we went back home to have a nice big dinner. What a wonderful day!

Sunday I went to the swimming pool (! Yes there is a swimming pool in Blantyre!) with Nikki. It is a bit outside of Blantyre, I definitely need to get a bike, and the trip is so worth it! It belongs to a middle aged French guys hostel, “Hostellerie du France”, and is simply stunning! Behind this old colonial style house (hotel and restaurant) is the pool on a terrace, overlooking Blantyre, surrounded by trees with lots of birds. You can see right to the other side towards Mt. Soche, a big mountain just at the side of Blantyre. It gives you a fantastic view! There we spent the day, a bit decadent but so nice, reading, sunbathing and cooling down in the pool.

It was hard going back to work on Monday but things are progressing and slowly I find my way around the college. The week was the week of the finishing students writing their exams and I was involved in taking and marking them. I already know a few of the students from my orientation and its nice to be participating in their final weeks. On Wednesday I went to a national football game (2 Euro to get in) just a bit up the street from the college. Malawi vs. Ruanda, friendship game in preparation for the All African Cup and we won!! 2:1!!!! It was really good fun! What is a big screen, life commentators on power speakers, big half time shows and slow motion repeat if you have the voovooselas and the crazy crowd dancing to Malawian music?! (again a lot of reggae!)  I think I missed half the fouls and actions on the field, I´m just not used to the perspective. Being spoiled with all the technical equipment in Europe, especially as I usually watch (if I watch it) football in TV and not live, I was surprised how precise the fans could see what was going on down on the pitch. We were so far away! So I just waved my flag I bought at the entrance for 10 cents and which was handmade out of 3 little stripes of cloth, red, black and green roughly sutured together and a white sun painted in the centre, this stapled on a wooden stick. This is Malawi! Improvised but original! My new rasta-friend Raz who went to the game with me, walked me home and I learned a lot about this whole philosophy of being one nation, coming back to Africa, to the roots of the human race, smoke the roots as well in form of weed, pray to Haile Selassie (third messias on earth and king of the one free country in Africa, Ethiopia), grow your hair in dreads as it shows that you don’t believe in Babylon (the ideology and uniformity of the west) and be open, friendly and stop thinking in categories. Interesting! So easy people to hang around with! The colour of your skin doesn’t matter and that’s really nice for a change! (I sometimes ask myself who is the racist? The white or the black?)

So the week past buy and Friday night we all went to this reggae concert some half an hour out of Blantyre to see the Black Missionaries. That was real Malawian, the place was steaming! Everyone was dancing and having a good time and the good thing is all of this is not very expensive so affordable for most the people and therefore not so posh and extravaganza as some other places I went in the first weeks. Well the security is not that good, although there were army guys standing at the doors with rifles but the camera and phones of my Canadian friends got stolen when standing in the Q, it just happens so quickly! But again, hopefully that feed some hungry kids. I really enjoyed chatting to the people and dancing. I even got a proposal of marriage, a really serious gentlemen thought it was the solution to just start a new race, whatever that means. All in all it was a great night! Elleana brought a German guy along and it was nice talking a bit of German again :) On the way back we had to take a taxi because the Minibusdrivers were all inside drinking, unfortunately the taxi didn’t start so the two guys had to push it. While doing this some kids tried to steal their valets out their back pockets so they went after them. We, sitting in the taxi, which finally starts and turned around, realized the guys were gone! What a fright! But we found them completely high on testosterone and adrenaline level but with their valets and belongings. Crazy night! You learn out of these experiences!

After 3 hours of sleep Nikki and Hazel picked me up at 6 o´clock in the morning to go to Monkey Bay, girls weekend of all female VSO´s (the male VSO´s had a boys weekend at Cape McClear). It took 3 hours to get there and the place was –again- absolutely beautiful! It’s a south-african guy with his 3^rd wife and boy who owns it. A real hippie! Directly at the lake, a little bay, a little campsite, some rooms and a little bar (Called the joint) next to this huge, 3000 year old Boabab tree is all you find. No electricity or running water (only that from the lake) but a lot of atmosphere! He even got a car radio with some speakers running on car battery for us so we had some music. It was a long night, started with a boat trip along the shore and back where I still don’t know if we were the attraction for the fishermen and kids or the other way around. It felt like in a zoo where you don’t know who is watching who. And ended with a lot of drinks and dancing back at the joint! Even the little boy, Sander who is 8 years old and already a hippie with long hair, was dancing along with us as if we were all friends. There were a few other travelers but mostly VSO, we rocked the dancefloor! Most surprisingly I met a German girl from Gießen!!!! She is travelling through to visit her friend in Mosambique. What a coincidence, it was like meeting someone from the family haha! And surprise surprise, she is a Rasta through and through, wearing dreads and the whole lot. I think that’s really hunting me! Maybe I´ll see her again..

Sunday I was just completely tired, you can only sleep that long in a tent until the sun is up and it changes into a sauna. So up at 7 and not able to sleep any more as a lot of exciting things were taking place. Breakfast made on open fire, clothes swap with the other vols, a few of them leaving soon and packing up the things. We were home by 4 and I had to do a ton of washing which made me really sick because I think I lost about a litre of water from sweating! Nearly fainted. I was so happy to be back in my bed. Chris and Jen went to Zomba plateau that weekend and they had a lot to tell me about it.

And now this week started and again so much has happened. I went to Chikwawa monday and tuesday with one of my collegues for district supervision and started some Chichewa classes. But I think I´ll tell you about it the next time when I´m back (if I´m back) from Mulanje Mountain. Our plan for the weekend, to climb that mountain, but the Malawians say there´re evil spirits on top and a lot of people never returned. We will see..

Peace man! (I think that has to be said for the end of this post)

Hanna

here you see the homo sapiens sapiens in their typiacl way of socializing and attitude

our camp

Monkey at Monkey bay

the baobab tree with Julia, the girl from Gießen

the bar