Hope all is well?
You'll have to forgive me - I'm using this email as my therapy, so I'm afraid it isn't all laughs and giggles, but I guess that is the sad reality of what happens here.
On Monday I accompanied Rashid and Chicku on the "Outreach" project which is where they go out to the children that have "graduated" from Open Arms to be back with their families to check they are getting the continuation of care, their medication and to give them some clothes, soap, basics. The aim is to get to see every child at least once a month, however, fuel and an unreliable 4x4 means they have to go just whenever they are physically able. Fuel here is the same price as the UK and with the average wage for a Malawian being about £10 a month, that doesn't buy a lot of fuel!! Anyway, we first went to see Richard, who is now 4 years old and is HIV positive. I thought my time with the teacher at the school last week was eye opening, this was something else. How on earth anyone knew this village existed I do not know. It was 10km off the main road and was literally in the middle of nowhere. 10 years ago, it was swarming with elephants apparently (if elephants can swarm?!) so you can imagine what it was like. Remote doesn't even come close.
We got out the car, and the kids actually ran away from me. Never quite had that effect on people before, but these people had never seen anyone or anything like me with my white skin and my blonde hair. Trying to think of the best way to deal with this, I thought I'd best hang back and take my instruction from Chicku & Rashid. The head of the village, very kindly got a rug out for us to sit on, which I did and at that point one little lad came forward and very nervously touched my hair....then ran off!! Again, still feeling a little bit out of my depth and trying to think of a way to get this lot on my side, I thought I'd try my hand at Chichewa....so when there was a gap in the conversation I said "Musswe la banje" (no idea how the spelling fares, but phonetically thats how its spelt!) - "Good Morning" which was stupid as we were in the afternoon, however, it made them all laugh and they then started to venture a little closer!! (think they appreciated me trying!) Having cleared it with Rashid before we arrived, I got my camera out so that encouraged a bit more intrigue and some of the boys (being boys!) came up to me so I took their photo and then showed them the image, well that was that......by the time we left, I'd got the head of the family lining up all the children ready for their photos to be taken!! I was swamped by them all, being pushed all over the place - was hilarious!! I've attached a couple of the photos on to this email for you..... The village was mud huts in the true sense.....on average there are 8-10 people in each hut, no running water, no electricity. Nothing. Yet, they are all happy as larry!! I guess what you don't know, you don't miss?
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| Chiku (Matron) with the 'locals' |
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| The children |
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| Giving the months supplies for the sponsored child |
We then went on to see another little lad, George. He is being cared for by his Grandma along with 5 of his cousins. His Grandma & Grandpa have no idea how old they are.....Chicku established through asking questions like, how old were you when you had your first born, do you remember how old you were when the first President came into power, deduced she was between 75-80 yrs old. She is working where ever work is, had been manually pulling in the fishing nets that day - at her age, just to put some food on their plates. Her house, well, it was a room with a cane 'structure' that she and Grandpa slept on, the 6 Grandchildren slept on the floor. No water, electricity again, nothing. This is the hardest life of anyone I've ever seen.
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| Someone's actual home....unbelievable |
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| George's home |
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| George with his five cousins |
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| Chiku, Richard, George, me and George's grandparents |
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| Inside George's home...the room wasn't big enough for me to get a good shot. What you can see is a "bed" ...that is the house in its entirity! |
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| Grandma |
What really got me was the sadness I felt for Richard & George. They sadly lost their Mum and had to be taken in by Open Arms, but that - comparing it to where they are now-is such an amazing start for them. At Open Arms, they got 3 hot square meals a day with 2 snacks in between, fully inoculated, clean water to drink, hot water to bathe in, electricity and love - constantly. They then have to go back to what I saw. Hungry tummies, Grandmothers having to work so not being around, no schooling, 15km away from the nearest clinic with no way of getting there other than on foot. Horrendous. I hope, for those that thought me coming here would be really sad, that helps to illustrate how great this place is and how important it is for it to keep doing what they do?
Emotional day, and just as I thought I'd seen it all......
A little girl - 3 week old twin, Hamida weighing 2kg as of Monday got diagnosed with Pneumonia yesterday . Obviously she wasn't a very well little lady but the treatment she received should have sorted her out so she was able to come back to Open Arms last night. In the night she took a turn for the worse and when I got into "work" at 6.30am this morning, the hospital lady and the Matron were getting ready to get her back to the clinic. Me, being nosy asked if I could go along to see what happens etc.....
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| Baby Hamida....about 10 days old here |
The clinic is a private clinic which is about 4km away from Open Arms. Thankfully, Open Arms have a vehicle so they are able to get ALL the children to the clinics or hospitals as and when they need to (providing there is sufficient fuel - which is a MAJOR issue for them here) so off we went.
Now, this is PRIVATE healthcare Malawian style. A building about 20 years old, to be fair was clean, but had broken doors, beds that had no mattress - just a wooden plank to lie on with a blanket over the top, no windows in some of the rooms......I have never seen anything like it. Not somewhere I would ever like to be poorly in.
In the clinic's defence, within 5 mins of us arriving we were in the initial consultation room. Clearly, the Matron knew what the issue was (she was a Nurse) so we then made our way down to the "injection room"....the Dr tried his best to find a vein to be able to get her attached to a drip but she was so tiny he struggled, so he gave her antibiotics and things as an injection in her bottom and told us they would observe her. We then had to take her to the "children's ward" which was a room no bigger than 15"x15". In it were 3 beds, one already taken by a little boy. We had to put Hamida down and make her comfortable and sit and wait. I didn't see a Nurse the entire time we were there - so quite how they were observing her I don't know?? There was no machine to take her temperature, or blood pressure, or heart rate or anything, she was wrapped in the blankets we had bought her in and that was it. Ward, who is a Driver for Open Arms disappeared and returned a while later with a basket of her things. Here, you have to provide all your own clothes, food (a tin of milk powder) water, blankets - nothing is available to be given to them. And we moan about hospital food!! The Matron then needed to get the money out the ATM to pay for the treatment.....4km away from the clinic - no payment = no treatment here!! I stayed with Vesta, the Hospital Lady, and managed to have a bit of a cuddle with Hamida, doing my best to try to feel slightly useful....
To cut a long story short, Hamida showed no signs of getting any better so they needed to transfer her to Mangochi District Hospital to try to get her breathing a bit better - the clinic didn't have any of the equipment, they didn't have any equipment full stop, so off to Mangochi we went (8km away from Open Arms) Hamida was on Oxygen therapy for about half an hour but she was too poorly and she gave up on us.
3 weeks old, weighing 2kg.
I told you this wasn't going to be all giggles and jokes.....sorry, but is unfortunately the reality of what happens in countries like this on a regular basis.
As you can imagine, today hasn't been easy. It has certainly bought home how fragile life is, and as my Dadsie says "how lucky we are to have been born in our beds". We moan about our ambulances not getting to us quick enough, that hospital food isn't up to standard, that we can't get in to see the Doctor exactly when we want to.....all that fades into insignificance when you see a 3 week old life disappear I can assure you.
Hopefully my next email will be a little more cheery - I'm sorry to be all down in the dumps, but like I said at the beginning, I was using this as my therapy, so thank you!
Speak to you all soon, look after each other and say a little prayer for Hamida before you go to sleep- who is hopefully no longer in any pain and is with her Mumsie looking down on her twin brother Hamusa.
Love you,
Z xXx
http://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Morrison1
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