Here is a link to pictures from last weekend on mount mulanje - malawi and central africa's second highest peak..we didn't go to the top. will write corresponding text once i have finished coursework and job application from this week!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10600&l=d070c&id=289400653
enjoy!
becky
Friday, 31 October 2008
Monday, 20 October 2008
Evictions, departures and all other things stressful!
Ok so i haven't written here for a while, apologies! the last couple of weeks have been interesting... we were asked to leave our accomodation with 2 weeks - so mad dash to find somewhere new, and unfortunately my travel mate Alev has had to leave and go back to Scotland. So most of the last couple of weeks have been spent trying to find somewhere to live - we have a nice 2 bedroom flat, find a car - as new accom far away - we have a tiny wee toyota starlet, and so i don't have that much of interest to report!
Lilongwe is a strange city - it is very spread out, with forests and nature reserves inside the city. Every are is named by the number in which is was built which makes it hard to memorise where places are as area 1 is not next to area 2! It is not safe to walk around at night, and as it gets dark about 5.30 -6 without a car it can be very restricting. This little car should help a lot.
We spent a weekend at the lake for a festival called the Lake of Stars, which raises money for a microloan organisation. It was really good, we were camping, and rolled out of bed each morning onto the beach where we played frisbee, swam in the sea and danced to awesome music from all over the world.
I have joined a football team which train twice a week - really good fun and is a good distresser after a hard days work! WE have our coach - Leon, a malawian dude, and about 10 girls each week. there are plans to play against a team in Mozambique in November which i hope to get to but unfortunately money is very low so we will see.
Sorry this post isn't more cheery and exciting, i just thought i would update you a bit. Hopefully now in new house will settle down a bit, but next job is to get internet installed as i have lots of coursework and my job application to do in next couple of weeks and no internet! Hope everyone is well, i bet it is really cold at home, its starting to get really hot here - must be in 30's now and although not that tanned(i am good with my factor 30!) my hair is slowly turning blonde again!!
love to all, becky xxxx
Lilongwe is a strange city - it is very spread out, with forests and nature reserves inside the city. Every are is named by the number in which is was built which makes it hard to memorise where places are as area 1 is not next to area 2! It is not safe to walk around at night, and as it gets dark about 5.30 -6 without a car it can be very restricting. This little car should help a lot.
We spent a weekend at the lake for a festival called the Lake of Stars, which raises money for a microloan organisation. It was really good, we were camping, and rolled out of bed each morning onto the beach where we played frisbee, swam in the sea and danced to awesome music from all over the world.
I have joined a football team which train twice a week - really good fun and is a good distresser after a hard days work! WE have our coach - Leon, a malawian dude, and about 10 girls each week. there are plans to play against a team in Mozambique in November which i hope to get to but unfortunately money is very low so we will see.
Sorry this post isn't more cheery and exciting, i just thought i would update you a bit. Hopefully now in new house will settle down a bit, but next job is to get internet installed as i have lots of coursework and my job application to do in next couple of weeks and no internet! Hope everyone is well, i bet it is really cold at home, its starting to get really hot here - must be in 30's now and although not that tanned(i am good with my factor 30!) my hair is slowly turning blonde again!!
love to all, becky xxxx
Sunday, 5 October 2008
Cape Maclear
This post is in retrospect from last weekend - i am now feeling up to writing! We decided to head for a place called Cape Maclear at the Southern end of the lake, without doing much research into how to get there other than asking a few malawians - 'its only 4 hours away'. 24 hours and at least three different buses/pickups later we arrived! In some circumstances, this could have been frustrating to say the least, but as we are still very excited to be in africa and it was our first time outside lilongwe - we had an awesome time. We met some really friendly people, saw malawis stunning countryside (and i might have slipped the fact that i think Malawi is a lot more beautiful than Ghana!) and got into some really funny situations.
the second last part of the journey, took a while to get going as we were the first to join the 'matola' - pickup, or lorry really. The matola leaves when it is full, and believe me, you would never guess how many people constitutes a full matola! We were lucky enough to get the front seats, (the back is the most uncomfortable journey you can imangine - ghanas public transport beats malawi hands down), but just as we were about to leave a lady turned up with a tiny baby, which was immediatly handed to me, i must have 'broody' written all over my forehead. It turned out she wanted to front seat - fair enough, i wouldnt be putting a tiny baby in the back o Louise kindly gave up her seat for them, and i had baby the whole journey - photos on facebook! Louise's journey was different, and full of experiences, for example, the laptop bag which kept being shoved in her face in the business kept making noises..and she couldnt work out how come, - it turned out there was a couple of chickens inside!!
anyway i could write about the journey for days... Lake Malawi was stunning and definetely worth the journey! It is very hard to believe it is a lake, as you cannot see the other side and there are waves. We were met there by Jon and the others, who were a bit more clever with their journey, and almost immediately put straight into double kayaks, which we used to paddle to a small island about 20 minutes away. It was great fun, and kind of paradise! At the island we snorkelled and observed some of Malawi's unique fresh water fish...most of which were a stunning bright blue colour. It has definetely given me the drive to go for a proper diving weekend. Apart from that, the weekend was spent lazying around, swimming, and eating gorgeus food! absolute luxury. One of the highlghts was the kids there, they were obviously very used to tourists and some of them just asked for money, bu most of them just wanted to know your name, and then called it whenever they saw you the whole weekend. Some of them had grouped together and come up with a very entreperenial(sorry spelling?) idea. They made a drum kit and other instruments out of rubbish they had found, including a very fancy base drum, and had composed some songs - including 'how are you? im fine' and 'we are the children' They played outside our guesthouse each night, hoping to get some donations. They were soo talented!
Anyway that has given us a good tasted for the lake and we will be back often, in fact next weekend for a huge festival - lakeofstars, but we might not venture as far in future unless we have extra days!
Love becky, xxx
ps - i sometimes wonder whether peple want to read this, but i personally find it useful as a way of keeping a diary, as i seem to find it hard to write one myself. Just read as u please. :)
the second last part of the journey, took a while to get going as we were the first to join the 'matola' - pickup, or lorry really. The matola leaves when it is full, and believe me, you would never guess how many people constitutes a full matola! We were lucky enough to get the front seats, (the back is the most uncomfortable journey you can imangine - ghanas public transport beats malawi hands down), but just as we were about to leave a lady turned up with a tiny baby, which was immediatly handed to me, i must have 'broody' written all over my forehead. It turned out she wanted to front seat - fair enough, i wouldnt be putting a tiny baby in the back o Louise kindly gave up her seat for them, and i had baby the whole journey - photos on facebook! Louise's journey was different, and full of experiences, for example, the laptop bag which kept being shoved in her face in the business kept making noises..and she couldnt work out how come, - it turned out there was a couple of chickens inside!!
anyway i could write about the journey for days... Lake Malawi was stunning and definetely worth the journey! It is very hard to believe it is a lake, as you cannot see the other side and there are waves. We were met there by Jon and the others, who were a bit more clever with their journey, and almost immediately put straight into double kayaks, which we used to paddle to a small island about 20 minutes away. It was great fun, and kind of paradise! At the island we snorkelled and observed some of Malawi's unique fresh water fish...most of which were a stunning bright blue colour. It has definetely given me the drive to go for a proper diving weekend. Apart from that, the weekend was spent lazying around, swimming, and eating gorgeus food! absolute luxury. One of the highlghts was the kids there, they were obviously very used to tourists and some of them just asked for money, bu most of them just wanted to know your name, and then called it whenever they saw you the whole weekend. Some of them had grouped together and come up with a very entreperenial(sorry spelling?) idea. They made a drum kit and other instruments out of rubbish they had found, including a very fancy base drum, and had composed some songs - including 'how are you? im fine' and 'we are the children' They played outside our guesthouse each night, hoping to get some donations. They were soo talented!
Anyway that has given us a good tasted for the lake and we will be back often, in fact next weekend for a huge festival - lakeofstars, but we might not venture as far in future unless we have extra days!
Love becky, xxx
ps - i sometimes wonder whether peple want to read this, but i personally find it useful as a way of keeping a diary, as i seem to find it hard to write one myself. Just read as u please. :)
week2
Hey so i have had the runs for 4 days and missed a bit of hospital this week, hence the reason for non-communication also. Think i am on the mend now and hope to be fighting fit for the coming week in hospital! So what should i tell you about this week?
Our supervisor and founder of the MIMP program, Jon Dowell, has been here in malawi for the past couple of weeks to ensure things are going to plan etc. His visit has proven very successful and maybe this is a good time to explain why i am here and what i am doing.
Jon became aware that every year thousands upon thousands of medical students descend on developing country rural poor hospitals for 6 weeks of the year, learn a lot, see a lot, and have a great time. He began to question the ethics behind this. Clinical time is taken from patients as doctors often spend time teaching these students. Most students head to these places with little knowledge of infectious/tropical diseases, and his question is what does the hospital get in return for this service. So this program aims to have students in one hospital for (ideally the whole year, but exams get in the way) 9 months of the year, under supervision from a clinician who is hired directly for that job - hence not taking away someone else clinical time, and in
addition - in return for having us we were required to bring a sum of money to spend on the ward.
That was the plan... and it is going quite well, we were at first meant to be based in paediatrics but unfortunately the department is so disorganised there was no place for us, and the first group felt they did not learn anything there. So we are now based on the medical wards, under a Dr Namarika - who is so wise! We are trying to find a place for us where we can be of some use, and Jon's presence has helped that. We are all allocated a specific bay and are 'responsible' for those patients - ie we should know the patients well, ensure investigation and management is carried out, or do it ourselves, and do odd jobs around the ward. As there is a significant language barrier, we have come up with a way around this by buddying up with clinical officer students - which works 2 ways - they help us communicate and we teach by example - clerking patients and doing procedures as well as teaching them in specific tutorials - to come hopefully.
We are also carrying out an audit for the ward, which will help them in many ways and we are currently in discussions regarding what we will be spending out money on. Suggestions so far are really just basic things that every ward should have - glucometers and strips, BP machines, Oxygen concentrators, a trolley - the current trolley is used for 2 wards and is used for carrying patients, food at lunchtime and dead bodies to mortuary....you can imagine the infection control issues!!
So that is kind of where we are just now, we have to keep the momentum up while everyone involed is keen, and hopefully we will have a place in this hospital for years to come.
anyway hope that has explained it a little bit.
becks
Our supervisor and founder of the MIMP program, Jon Dowell, has been here in malawi for the past couple of weeks to ensure things are going to plan etc. His visit has proven very successful and maybe this is a good time to explain why i am here and what i am doing.
Jon became aware that every year thousands upon thousands of medical students descend on developing country rural poor hospitals for 6 weeks of the year, learn a lot, see a lot, and have a great time. He began to question the ethics behind this. Clinical time is taken from patients as doctors often spend time teaching these students. Most students head to these places with little knowledge of infectious/tropical diseases, and his question is what does the hospital get in return for this service. So this program aims to have students in one hospital for (ideally the whole year, but exams get in the way) 9 months of the year, under supervision from a clinician who is hired directly for that job - hence not taking away someone else clinical time, and in
addition - in return for having us we were required to bring a sum of money to spend on the ward.
That was the plan... and it is going quite well, we were at first meant to be based in paediatrics but unfortunately the department is so disorganised there was no place for us, and the first group felt they did not learn anything there. So we are now based on the medical wards, under a Dr Namarika - who is so wise! We are trying to find a place for us where we can be of some use, and Jon's presence has helped that. We are all allocated a specific bay and are 'responsible' for those patients - ie we should know the patients well, ensure investigation and management is carried out, or do it ourselves, and do odd jobs around the ward. As there is a significant language barrier, we have come up with a way around this by buddying up with clinical officer students - which works 2 ways - they help us communicate and we teach by example - clerking patients and doing procedures as well as teaching them in specific tutorials - to come hopefully.
We are also carrying out an audit for the ward, which will help them in many ways and we are currently in discussions regarding what we will be spending out money on. Suggestions so far are really just basic things that every ward should have - glucometers and strips, BP machines, Oxygen concentrators, a trolley - the current trolley is used for 2 wards and is used for carrying patients, food at lunchtime and dead bodies to mortuary....you can imagine the infection control issues!!
So that is kind of where we are just now, we have to keep the momentum up while everyone involed is keen, and hopefully we will have a place in this hospital for years to come.
anyway hope that has explained it a little bit.
becks
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