Over the holiday weekend, we enjoyed a lovely weekend back in Blantyre while most people went out of town (it was Independence Day weekend for Malawi too!). Although the familiar scent and sound of fireworks were missing from our 4th of July, we celebrated the holiday with a few other Americans and people from all over the world.

I also decided to try to cook my favorite African food, Zitumbuwa, which I have mentioned before. It was pretty easy, and although Ariel assures me they’re better than the ones at the market, I’m still racking my brains to figure out why they don’t taste the same as the Malawian-made ones!

         

We also went to Michiru Mountain for the day on Monday. Riding our bikes through the village, we were met with the familiar stares and excitement from the children at seeing white people. By the time I got home I could still hear the “AZUNGUS!” echoing in my head! A lot of them only know how to say “How are you?”, so they will just keep saying it over and over again even if you answer them. It’s strange but always makes me smile to see my acknowledgement entertain people. On the mountain, we were guided most of the way up by a park ranger who carried a huge rifle to “protect us from hyenas, leopards, and other things.” We did not see any animals other than monkeys, but we did come across a large number of poachers, including a group of about 15 children. The first time he saw a man illegally cutting down trees on the nature sanctuary, he actually fired off his rifle to scare him off before chasing him into the mountain. The poacher got away, but we soon saw a huge group kids carrying massive piles of wood on their heads. This time the rifle was not necessary, but they did have to go back down the mountain for “civic education” and got their wood confiscated. It was difficult to think of children and teenagers, gathering firewood for their families to cook with, as criminals, but the law is the same for everyone I suppose. We saw a similar issue at Mt. Mulanje, where people illegally cut down cedar trees and gather firewood. It is one of the major environmental issues I’ve seen in Malawi as well as crop burning and trash burning.

 

 

 

Cute monkey family hanging out on the road to Machiru.

 

 

Since there are not enough doctors and nurses at Queens to constantly monitor the patients, every patient has a guardian with them to look after them, and feed them. It is also customary for Malawians to visit anyone they know who are in the hospital, so there are always lots of people of the grounds of Queens waiting for visiting hours. This area is across the street from Queens where the guardians and visitors cook meals (mostly Nsima).

 

Our street market

 

 

Implementation at Kamuzu Central Hospital.

Implementation and training has gone very smoothly this week. We delivered 8 CPAPs in one day yesterday! We have also been joined this week by our new co-worker, Caroline, who is awesome and a huge help already! However, I can’t help but feel a bit sad to meet such awesome people with such little time left here in Malawi. Ariel and I are already reminiscing, and we still have a week and a half left…