- Sign for a church near Namitondo.
We asked Comfort. She said that a fatal road accident had come in; the singers were the members of the deceased patient’s church, singing hymns with the family until the funeral. They weren’t Catholic, she thought, probably Presbyterian. Religion is very important here. Most of the population is Catholic, Presbyterian (CCAP), or Muslim. Parochial schools dot the road between Namitete and Lilongwe. We see Hallal butcheries, bakeries, and restaurants in trading centers. Mostly, though, as you might have imagined given that we’re at a hospital called St. Gabriel’s, we interact with Catholic institutions.
The hospital was founded by a Carmelite sisterhood of nuns from Luxembourg, and it’s currently run by a group of those sisters who work with Malawian sisters living on the hospital grounds. Both groups of sisters feel a sense of ownership of and responsibility for the hospital. They set the tone of hospital pride that we’ve seen in the clinicians, nurses, and staff here.
Our first Sunday here, we went to the Malawian sisters’ mass in Namitondo. The service was from 7:30-10:00 (scheduled until 9:30, but naturally ran long) and it was conducted in Chichewa. The choir at the front all wore white shirts and sang with a rotation of upbeat backing tracks. Because the service was in Chichewa (includings the bible readings), I didn’t understand most of it. Even Liz was surprised, though, near the end when a long line of women and couples came in carrying 50kg sacks of maize to be blessed. Men sat on the left and women on the right. By the time the service let out, the church was full of worshippers in their Sunday finest.
- Sister Justa is our friend, mentor, confidante, and guide. She and the Malawian nuns sold us fruits, vegetables, and a chicken, then took us to Namitete to get everything else we needed. (The bottom picture is mostly for the benefit of everyone who’s asked me if I’m eating enough here. Hi, mom!)
This past Sunday, I trekked to the Luxembourg sisters’ mass at 6:30. It was in English, but I honestly still didn’t understand most of it. It was just me, Sister Justina, two other sisters, and Father Williams, and they were very gracious hosts. The things I did understand this time, though, were the sermon and readings: fish and loaves and a selection on Abraham’s generosity.
It made me realize how strongly many of the people here draw their sense of purpose from religious teaching. Many of the expats here give a lot of thought to the nature and effectiveness of charity, and the sisters in particular have given their lives to serving this population.
In morning report, the nurses often read bible passages focusing on Jesus’ administrations to the poor, though they tend to be less explicitly about charity. Tertiary education, especially here in the rural areas, is exceedingly rare; healthcare workers in Malawi take on a very difficult career path for less compensation than they could get with comparable degrees despite the great cultural honor given them. The majority of medical students in Malawi come from the city and doesn’t truly encounter village poverty until the immersive public health unit in medical school. I wonder how they see the parallels between their work and biblical narratives.
In our interactions with patients, I’ve seen that the religiousity here gives them a deep sense of identity. “Traditional” village medicine, muti, is often posed at odds with biomedicine at home. Here, though, many patients’ care regimen includes both. “Traditional” religion, for many patients, isn’t something apart from global religious structures and biomedical ideas. Rather, they simply coexist naturally in the patients’ minds.
During the next two weeks we’ll be travelling the north part of the country helping with bCPAP data collection. We’re excited to get to see more hospitals and spend time in Blantyre!