We started in Houston then passed through Amsterdam, Munich, Johannesburg, Lilongwe, and then to our site of Namitete. The flights were long and the connections were longer, but I am thankful that we made it to our site safely.

The first 24 hours in Malawi and more specifically Namitete have been eye opening for me. Below are pictures that capture a few moments of my short time here.

Standing outside the front entrance of St. Gabriel’s Hospital. It is a surprisingly large complex. Doctors, nurses, workers, sisters, and community volunteers are all very courteous, helpful, and very busy.

We attended Morning Report always held at 7:30 am where doctors and nurses review patient cases from the night before. Dr. Mbeya, the director of the hospital, introduced us and took us on a tour of the hospital grounds.  I am impressed by how efficiently the hospital runs, but I am also shocked and humbled by the obvious lack of modern medical equipment and supplies.

 

We had meetings with many of the key personnel in the hospital we will be working with for the next few weeks for our projects. This is a picture of Nurse Comfort showing us how the Palliative care unit has utilized DataPall. DataPall is a patient records database developed by last year’s interns. It serves to provide important statistical information on the patients the unit sees. Before it, nurses and doctors would spend days and weeks summarizing numbers and figures of the patients they had seen during a certain time period. These numbers are important for reporting to many associations and organizations that support the unit. We are now in charge of improving the usability of the database and addressing issues the unit has with it.

 

We walked to the local market to purchase food and supplies. A week ago I was shopping at whole foods…the market here is a whole other kind of organic and fresh. Field mice on a stick anyone?

 

The children always seem to be the happiest to see us. They always wave, jump up and down, and say hello!

 

We are currently living at a guesthouse about a kilometer away from the hospital. The house is owned by a farming couple of European descent. Mr. John Grey graciously drove us to the airport to retrieve our luggage. He and his family have been living in Africa for more than 70 years. Long story short, he has incredible stories to tell.

 

“They are a gentle people, Malawians, very gentle.” – Mr. John Grey