The most common complaints at Luwawa health clinic have so far consisted of malaria like symptoms, chest pain and sore throat with the occasional musculo-skeletal pain from causes such as ‘the tree trunk fell on my leg’: not altogether too surprising as the main means of employment in the area is within the forestry department. I have had one man walk in with his box of shake shake beer in hand, clearly extremely intoxicated at 10am (also not such an unusual sight around here: alcoholism is quite a major issue with the men of the area!)
However one patient I will never forget is a man of about 50 who came in complaining of chest pains. After myself listening to his chest, I was not too worried about any sputum retention but Lucky, the practitioner at the clinic, asked me if I could do some chest physio for the patient so I figured there was nothing to lose! The patient wasn’t greatly compliant so it was not my most successful attempt at ACBT (for all you physios reading) and he appeared in too much pain for much more hands on treatment. We eventually discovered the real reason for the man’s pains and that there had indeed been no need for any chest physio at all. The man had two wives; one who had recently given birth. He had therefore been spending most of his time at home with this wife. On return to the house of his second wife, she was not extremely welcoming towards him and instead of running and throwing her arms around him, she beat him with a wooden plank around his chest. I am sure that this may also be quite a common occurrence in Malawi as polygamy is widely accepted.
Another major issue in Luwawa is the process of child birth and the follow up care that these babies receive. Although educated of the importance of giving birth at the maternity unit and planning for expectant mothers to be in attendance here far enough in advance to ensure that this is likely, births en-route to the clinic remain regular. One such birth occurred last week. The woman was meant to already be residing at the maternity unit, however she was awaiting permission to leave the home from her mother in law! This permission was not granted until the woman went into labour and so, unsurprisingly she gave birth along the path to Luwawa. The situation was worsened as they tied the umbilical cord wrong and the baby was bleeding badly when they arrived at the unit. Lucky claims that however much he attempts to educate the women, they are not willing to change tradition and things will therefore continue like this for the immediate future.
My work at the clinic has been put on hold for the time being as, after a recent visit to the district health officer (DHO), it appears that I need to provide my qualification documents in order to proceed. This is pretty difficult as I will not be receiving my certificate until late November so could inevitably become quite frustrating. The DHO has however claimed that he does not want this to stop me from working here so is having a meeting with his boss (so apparently I will be discussed at government level) to try and figure something out. I will hopefully find out the outcome of this meeting next week so we all have our fingers crossed for satisfactory news!
Our trip to Mzimba to meet with the DHO was an interesting one and my typical ditsy personality came across for the first time since arrival in Malawi! Whilst waiting in the car for Patrick to do some shopping myself and the local VSO volunteer, Lolita decided that we were in need of some hydration and so headed towards the ‘supermarket’ in search of a coke. I was being safety conscious so ensured all the windows were securely shut and all the doors locked. However, after closing my door I realised that the car keys were still in the ignition and due to my care for security we were completely locked out of the car. Luckily Patrick found this hilarious and managed easily enough to find some kind person to break into the car and retrieve the keys! In normal circumstances I may have found it worrying as to the ease that this man broke into the car (a bit of an expert) but I was just so relieved that my stupidity hadn’t caused too much trouble that I was instead very grateful!
As I have not been working at the health centre this week, I have had much more spare time to do other things and experience different aspects of life in Malawi. Yesterday we visited a small and typical Malawian village called Hunga. The journey there ended with a near fatality! I was shocked as John slammed on the brakes of the car and even more shocked at the whimpering sound I heard immediately after this. It was heart breaking to turn and see a small puppy appear from under the car, barely able to move and the sound it was making made me feel physically sick! We stopped briefly until the owner got to the dog but have no idea the poor animal’s plight.
The village of Hunga is much worse off than Luwawa. In fact its name is very applicable to the state of the place. We parked by the school which was mostly a dilapidated mud hut although, fortunately, a recent couple of volunteers had fundraised to provide new flooring and roofing for one of the school buildings. It was still however not near any level of decent standard. The school only had one teacher and 3 year groups so the children of Hunga were sadly missing out on any decent standard of education.
Whilst at the village we were shown the ‘well’. A ten minute walk down a steep slope laid a pungent pool of browning water decorated with leaves and clutter. Clearly not appropriate for drinking and I am in awe of the women that return back up the hill with over my shoulder! Fortunately for the village, a kind French couple of put up the funding for a proper and well to be built in Hunga and this will be one the community development projects that Danny and I will be a part of. From the well we were taken to see some of the village houses and offered some of the wine one of the women was making. This wine was not fermented and honestly looked like a bucket of dirt with some bananas floating on the top. We all politely passed on the offer of a taste and watched in amazement as she took a big cup of the drink and downed it in one!
Our snake sightings were at a grand total of zero until about 3 days ago when I saved Danny from the painful and venomous jaws of what we have since identified as a Boomslang snake. One of the workers at the lodge proceeded in throwing bricks at his head after deeming it a threat to human safety! My second sighting came yesterday during a nice leisurely afternoon jog. I had just turned out of the lodge gate when I literally had to leap from over a puff adder; the snake responsible for 90% of venomous snake bites in Malawi! I didn’t give it a second glance and swiftly continued at an increased pace for the remainder of my run! The only other animal we have had regular encounters with is the monkey which I love but the locals see as vermin! However, one morning in my way to the health centre, a troop of monkeys followed me along my way, throwing things out of the trees!! Clearly not my biggest fan! We have been hearing hyenas howling during the night but have not yet come face to face with one……..
