A Busy Day

My beloved friends Deb and Zack left Malawi for the States on July 27th. Deb is a fourth year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh. She took a year off school to accompany her husband to Malawi. Zack works for Baobab, a small NGO that is setting up computers in the wards at Kamuzu Central Hospital (really incredibly stuff). During her year in Malawi Deb has been my partner in the labor ward and very good friend. She is seven months pregnant and I'm ashamed to say I gave her pretty shoddy prenatal care; I will definitely miss seeing the birth and the introduction of her little one to this world. Before she left, Deb and I has a nice lazy couple of days at Nkwazi lodge - a little place on the lake about 5 hours North of Lilongwe - and we also went to see Ireen again so that they could say goodbye.

I still have not learned my lesson about timing here. Saturday morning we arrived in the village at 11:30 (an hour drive from Lilongwe) and I was supposed to meet Frank and his group at 1pm. Ireen and her parents were at church so we waiting for someone to let them know we were there. Deb had brought photos from a previous visit, including pictures of Alinafe, and those excitedly flowed through fingers as we waited. Finally Ireen and her father appeared; Ireen laughing hysterically at our visit and then crying hysterically at the sight of her lost little girl in the photos. Her father kindly took the pictures from her hands and said, "It happens."

By that time we should have already been making our way back to Lilongwe but Ireen's dad convinced us that we needed to collect her mother from the church and then the mother insisted that we eat nsima. Finally, well after 1pm, we said our goodbyes and let them load the car with pumpkins, popcorn, and two chickens. I promised Ireen's dad that I would bring him a book on HIV (by his request) and a bicycle - since his was beyond repair and had provided the sole means to transport his produce from the garden to the market.

Around 3pm I met Frank and three women from his group who were still waiting for me. I loaded them in the car and we left to see Stacia and Kristof's farm, a short distance outside Lilongwe. Stacia and Kristof came to Malawi as Peace Corps volunteers but have now been here for over a decade. Stacia is a nutritionist and Kristof is an agriculturalist and they both speak fluent Chichewa. On their table Stacia had arranged an elaborate display of dried produce and grains grown in Malawi. She gave a nutrition talk to our small group of five emphasizing dietary diversity and then Kristof led us on a tour of their garden talking to the women about permiculture and crop diversity. The afternoon was rounded off by tea and popcorn made from their produce and a show and tell of a low cost fuel-efficient stove and "charcoal" made from recycled paper. The women accepted a variety of seeds, took notes, and were eager to buy several of the stoves (they are sold in another town outside Lilongwe and we have not yet purchased them). Driving back with their buzz of conversation felt great; although I could not understand much, I certainly sensed the enthusiasm and also felt excited about the possibilities.

I dropped off Frank, the three women, and two chickens just before 6pm; Memory had been waiting for me at the Nature Sanctuary since 5pm. Memory is 16, she is a bright girl with big ambitions. She is an orphan. I am paying her school fees and told her that if she did well on her exams, I would take her to dinner. The Nature Sanctuary is a park that includes a small area of caged animals (hyena, python, baboons, crocs), a large area with the same animals roaming free (you don't often see them but can hear the hyenas at night), and a restaurant with reasonably priced Malawian food that is open in the evenings (a rarity here). It was a sweet evening; I could see that she enjoyed it, even after waiting for me for an hour in the cold. I drove her home, met a few of her cousins, then drove myself home to a hot shower and bed.