Zikomo, Malawi!

This week, Ariel and I wrapped up our data collection at Queens and did our final analysis. It is my last night here in Malawi, and it has been a bittersweet end to a wonderful summer. Going around the hospital and saying farewell to all of the random people I’ve befriended, I realized how many people I am going to miss. I am so excited to be coming home to friends and family, but sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful people that I may never see again.

I could try to paint a picture of Malawi by describing all the missing things that we take for granted in the US, but I think that would give an utterly incomplete image of this beautiful place that I have grown to love. Overall, I definitely learned a lot about all of the things Malawi doesn’t have. Some of it I learned in a classroom back at Rice, and some of it didn’t sink in until I witnessed it here, thousands of miles away. But most importantly, I learned about some amazing things that Malawi has to offer that many places do not have, such as a friendly “Hi, how are you?” from strangers, encouragement from random passerby as I jog around Blantyre, and an abundance of fresh produce on every major street. And frankly, a lot of words just sound better with a Malawian accent (baby, for example).

There were plenty of times this summer when I was overwhelmed by the immensity of the health care problems here, and times when I was overwhelmed by the ability of people to find ways of getting past them and have the courage to go on despite them. I had to see a lot of suffering, but not a day went by when I didn’t also see so much joy. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be here. I’m looking forward to continuing to help with the CPAP project from the US and also excited to continue work on the CPAP sleeve with some of the feedback I received here. Zikomo to all the amazing people I had the chance to work with this summer and everyone who helped me get here! TX/CO, here I come!