Malawi: First Impressions

Malawi, the warm heart of Africa. It's been my home for the last week and a half and will continue to be home until I leave at the end of July. Right now, I'm sitting in my room in Zitha House, the temporary home of guests and volunteers at St. Gabriel's Hospital in Namitete. Kamal Shah, Tara Slough, and I have been placed here at St. Gabriel's Hospital by Rice University's Beyond Traditional Borders international internship program for the summer.

Landing in Kazuma International Airport in Lilongwe: "Welcome to Malawi!" Quickest passport, health record (yellow fever vaccination), and customs check I've ever done. Interesting system of having people deboard the plane and then get bussed over to the terminal. Free carrying carts!

Money: USD-Malawi Kwacha has a great exchange rate. A dollar is worth about MK260, so even buying groceries uses a lot of big-denomination bills. The Kwacha was devalued a few months ago by the new president (the old autocratic president died, luckily for him, because there may have been a coup if he'd lived), and according to the newspapers here there will be 18% inflation this year. Crazy.

Craft market in Lilongwe: very pretty things at the craft market! paintings, wood and stone carvings, bags, jewelry -- things meant for foreigners to pick up as mementos of Africa. Lots of safari themes (lion, giraffe, hippo, rhino, elephant) even though Malawi isn't really the place to do safaris (that would be Zambia). The first man who claimed me as a customer thought I didn't know how to buy things, so he told me about how Malawians bargain ("I set a price, then you give your price, and then we come to a price where we are both happy"). I will go back again though, because I didn't get to see very much of the market before going home.

Namitete and Namitondo: the nearest villages to the hospital! Some small Westernized stores, many stalls/stands in the market. Most stalls are painted either green or red by one of the two competing phone companies here (Airtel and TNM), because a fresh coat of paint with advertisement is better than no paint at all! Produce in abundance here: tomatoes, onions, rape (leafy green vegetable like kale), bananas. Pretty fabrics. Most girls wear black flats or low heels, if they're not barefoot. Little kids who aren't in school yet run up to azungos, and ask for pictures or balloons or soda.

Transportation: Walking - lovely scenery, can meet lots of people on the way, dusty roads. Bike taxis - fun! a padded seat is set over the back wheel behind the normal bike seat for you to sit on, and off you go -- a nice 5km ride for MK200 (MK150 for Malawians, upped price for azongo foreigners). Mini-bus - also fun! but maybe also dangerous. These are 15-passenger vans, but the drivers try to fit as many people as possible into them (the most anyone at the guest house has seen is 24). Gas is really expensive here (MK500 per liter), and there aren't many cars (also expensive).

Church: Went to my first Malawian Catholic mass yesterday. I think it was a special Sunday service, because there were a lot of decorations up and there were a lot of children performing. Lots of singing (choir joined by the congregation) and dancing and calling out. Women would stand up during the singing to dance for the glory of God, and others would make trilling calls to express encouragement/agreement, like an Amen. Even though I didn't understand too much of what was going on (everything was spoken in Chichewa), it was beautiful.

Prosperity: For all people talk about people in the developing world living on a dollar a day, it's still crazy to live here and see that it's really true. People at the hospital make MK1000, four dollars a day -- wonderful salary. There are men and women here whose living is subsistence farming, or selling things at market; in the off-season there is nothing to do and they must live on what they've stored up in the rest of the year. It's especially hard, I hear, November-February. In Nov/Dec because it's malaria season (malaria strikes all year round, but particularly in the hot rainy months), and in Jan/Feb because they're waiting for harvest time and most of the stored grain has already been eaten even though they ration and save as much as they can. You can see the difference in weight (poor = thin, not like in America where the poor are likely to be overweight/obese), in women's hairstyles (cropped short vs styled (braided, straightened, shined)), in level of education attained (primary school is free, but secondary school (after 8th grade) is not, and neither is university/professional school). The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (William Kamkwamba) gives good insight on Malawian life.

St. Gabriel's: It's a wonderful hospital. Despite many limitations (due to infrastructure and money constraints), they do amazing work serving the people of Malawi (and Mozambique and Zambia, since it's pretty close to the border) to the best of their ability. The doctors, nurses, and staff welcomed us with open arms and have taken good care of us in giving us things to do (big project: EMR system for the Palliative Care unit) and checking up on us. It's an honor to be here, to learn about the way things are done in developing world hospitals with limited resources and to help where we can. We're lucky to have clean water to drink and power generators when the power goes out (outages are frequent) and safe houses to sleep in.

Lots more to mull over and write down, but this is plenty. I'll close with a picture of a sunset I really liked, taken last Sunday on my walk home from Namitete.