Malawi experience: Zomba Plateau and National Volunteering Conference at Kande Beach

After the two emotional weeks in the hospital I think I deserved a bit of nature and adventure so I went to Zomba to visit my friends Anna, Nick and Moni who are placed there. I think I told you about them before: Anna is from Scotland and an occupational therapist and Nick is a psychologist from England. Moni is in the education field and was supposed to be involved in a book production for little kids in a small village close to Zomba. Unfortunately that project was already finishing off by the time she arrived so she is quite bored down there in Domassi where is nothing to do for her but a market consisting of two huts selling tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Electricity cut offs every day from 18h and not really any internet or phone connection makes her very isolated and bored. So therefore she was pretty excited coming to meet up in Zomba.

Anna and Nick are both placed in the same hospital (Zomba Mental Hospital) and also living on the same grounds, a nice little patch surrounded by a wall with two cute houses on it. In one is Anna living with her housemate Gay who´s a VSO volunteer from the Philippines and is a Lab technician, and the other house where Nick is living in on his own. They also have a guard dog - Easy – her and I fell in love first sight, she is naughty but so cute!!

Anna and Nick also had a tough start in their placement orientation. The hospital is overcrowded and understaffed (same problem as everywhere) and seriously mental ill people are not getting assessed or treated properly so it is actually quite dangerous for them going around in the hospital. Anna was describing situations where people just get sedated to make them quiet because there is nothing else they can do. Murderers, rapists, thefts, dealers, all kind of mentally ill criminals are in these wards where there is no security and Anna has to actually lock herself in the nurses office (after surviving the way in) to do her work there. There is just not enough staff and no good skills so it sounds really challenging.

So we all enjoyed the weekend off and being together with other new a little culture/workplace-shocked volunteers. After only one hour ride in the minibus from Blantyre/Limbe I arrived in Zomba on Friday evening just before sunset. Nick picked me up and we walked to a beautiful Italian restaurant for a pizza-treat where we met Anna and Moni. Malawian food is also good, lots of chicken and Nzima (Maizeflourstuff without which a Malawian meal wouldn’t be a meal).

Saturday we got up quite early not only because Easy was howling but also because it was just so hot! At 8am we already had our breakfast, chats and showers (meaning bucket wash in terms of wash yourself with water out of canisters filled up by Anna and Gay previously, unfortunately there was no water supply from Thursday to Sunday night). We took a minibus to Zomba city centre. Anna and Nick are living in the outskirts of Zomba, Kalimbuka, about 15min by Minibus. We went to the market to shop for the evening dinner and drinks. The market is huge and I couldn’t believe it but between the vegetables, chickens and furniture stalls we also found a little second hand clothing “bend down” shop with piles of skirts, blouses, dresses and t-shirts. Our female hearts started beating faster! SHOPPING! That was great fun trying on different outfits next to the meat sector where dead goats and in blood covered men were staring at us while the Malawian sellers giving their comments about how the outfits suit you. We had a real show and a good laugh! I bought some really nice summer clothes, that’s definitely a must do on a Malawian market!!

Packed with clothes, veggies and drinks we went home after a surprisingly 6 hour shopping tour. In the evening we had a wonderful dinner cooked by Nick. Maaike and Woiter (the Belgian couple from Blantyre) also joined us, they arrived with their motorbike just before dinner. Good for us because they know the trails on Zomba Plateau and wanted to show us around the next day.

So Sunday we had an amazing day up in the Zomba plateau, a nature reservoir some 500m higher then Zomba city known for its very fertile soil with potato plantages, berry bushes and forests. Even a trout farm you can find up at the dammed lake used as a water reservoir for Zomba (obviously not used for Kalimbuka ). The hike was wonderful and the views stunning! Talking a lot with the others, having breaks at a waterfall and a handful of berries, strawberries or Doritos here and there was how the day went by, it was good to be in nature again and also there is so much forest! I just loved it! I think the pictures speak for themselves, and I found out you can also rent horses here (which is actually quite expensive) and have a ride through this beautiful nature. I feel really tempted! Maybe when Andrea and Clara are coming hihi!

That evening I had to take the minibus back to Blantyre and was just falling into my bed my lungs full of fresh-high-mountain-forest-air and my belly full of healthy food, my memory full of the picturesque landscape and also in general fully relaxed and happy I fell asleep. What a nice weekend and not far away at all!

Easy and me <3

Kalimbuka and in the background Zomba plateau

you get inventive when all you have is a bit of carton

chicken for sell

fashion victim

our evening dinner

Anna´s and Gay´s house

Maaike and Woiter with motorbike (for Paul and Simon)

Zomba plateau, yes this guy is carrying a tree trunk

lunch break at the "waterfall"

the view from the top

Anna and me

Monday went by in a second, went to the college for the first time in a while again and went with two of my colleagues to test on some clinical skills of the nearly finishing midwife students. Interesting how they know everything in theory but just can’t putting it into practice. That’s something we need to work on I guess..

And then Tuesday morning I was already sitting in the car again up north to the national volunteering conference of VSO. Took the ride together with Gay, Pauline and Nikki and we arrived after an 8 hour ride (Nikki and me were sharing the wheel so first time driving on Malawi roads for me, you need to have good reflexes!) at Kande Beach resort at the Malawi lake. This place is absolutely fantastic! Just a laid back backpacker place, reminds me a bit of the place in Mexico I was with Nora, Tulum, just a bit bigger. Our dorm is directly at the beach and is just open built. A lot of hammocks around and yeah the water, palm trees and sandy beach. About 80 of the 100 volunteers in Malawi showed up and it was great to meet up again with the people from up north like Ling and Dharini I haven’t seen since the in country training! Also Mark and Amanda of course and then all the other volunteers I haven’t met before. It was a great time, really relaxing but also very informative to have a more up to date update on what is happening in VSO programmes and also backgrounds in terms of funding and money spending. Unfortunately of course the recession didn’t stop to strike VSO so the funding from some supporters and also government was cut down not less than 50%. So if you don’t know where to spend your money on donate on www.vso.org.uk we can really need it! Actually Christmas and my birthday are coming up so that would be a nice present! My fundraising page is www.mycharity.ie/event/hannagoesafrica every little helps!!

Besides these information and updates on what´s going on within VSO Malawi and also a closer look in each sector (e.g. mine: health) and each region (e.g. mine: south) we got together for our first peer support meeting for nurses, midwifes and community health supporters. It was really interesting to find out what the other ones are doing up in Mzuzu, Kamuzu or Ncheu. We had a few presentations together with the doctors and lab technicians so all in all a very helpful and informative meeting. But I would be lying if I said it was a lot of work, it was more a laid back setting with a bit of exchanging information and we´ve also done a lot of laying at the beach, swimming, partying, pool playing games and even swam to the little island about 1km off the mainland for some cliff jumps and exploring.

Even here you can rent out some horses for a ride at the beach and a splash with them in the water. I´ve seen them, they´re beautiful! So girls get prepared!!

I had a fantastic time and it was so relaxing and nice to see everyone. Oh I also met a German gynecologist, Dr. Graf, who is here for already five years and works in Zomba Central Hospital (so funny he was doing his internship in the Bürger Hospital in Frankfurt and knows Dr. Engel!!!). He gave a little presentation about obs/gynae in an African background – very interesting – and has invited me over to see how things are up in Zomba. That´s a good opportunity for me to see another Central Hospital. Looking forward! And then of course all the other doctors from VSO (mostly gynaes) who were all excited of me being a midwife and invited me to several district hospitals, so yes I am sure I will have enough to do. I feel things are finally getting started and I feel much more settled and comfortable since I know my way around and a few more people working in the same field as me throughout the country.

The only problem is there won´t be any midwife students till January so it will be difficult for me to find out how my actual work will look like in the college. So up till then I guess I will just get my lessons prepared (I still have to find out which topics exactly they want me to teach) and visit other hospitals. That’s probably the best thing to do. I keep on gathering information.

Enjoy the pictures and everyone who´ll come visit me here. Look forward this country is sooooo beautiful!!