MAR-A-1

MEDICAL MISSION TO MALAWI—II

  1. MAR-A-1  Index to Mar-A-1 “Medical Mission to Malawi—II”
  2. The first of March in Malawi: a Friday full of the kinds of daily events that a tropical rainy season day can produce, with a few cases thrown in. 
  3. Cover letter to the messages sent out from arrival in Malawi to the March 1, dramatic case of a dying 18-year-old mother of a three-week-old child, as mother suffers volvulus with dead bowel; Message sent to Lilongwe on disc with Elizabeth’s departure from Embangweni, March 2, 2002. 
  4. A bright Saturday morning run precedes Elizabeth’s departure with Kennedys to Lilongwe, bearing a disc of my “Messages from Malawi” to date, as I continue with rounds and a visit to the paramount chief. Tragedy at midnight: the expected outcome of the infarcted gut and the loss of a young motherFind myself in C-section city, hard at work to deliver more surviving Malawians. 
  5. Sunday on Embangweni Station, going from church to making rounds and finding myself again in high-risk obstetrician status with a 16-year-old primip breach given native herbs by the ngongo—for yet another C-section. 
  6. Martyrs’ Day Holiday Celebration: An early morning run (making a week straight in the African dawn!), rounds to discover a man caught “pinching cassava” in the famine, and beaten to the point that he will not walk again, and the Grand Celebration at Ephangweni, the Nkosa’s village, of the traditional “Ngoma” dance by Bwekawaka Jere’ troop, and the Tikoleraneko singing and drama group performance for AIDS control;  a holiday visit to our host, the dying 82 year-old Nkosa Mzukuzuku Jere. 
  7. My final operating day at Embangweni Hospital, with several cases after my morning run, and a ululating cry from Maternity after our morning report heralding and unwelcome surprise;  I try to pack what little will leave Malawi as I am getting  “short” in my time here. 
  8. My final African dawn run and the farewell ceremony for me at Embangweni Hospital, the long drive down the “M-1” to the capital, Lilongwe, the arrangements for the Poehlmans’ Safari to Uvuu through Wilderness Safaris, and the evening in the Baptist Guest House in Lilongwe before Malawi Departure. 
  9. Departing Malawi and separating from my safariing friends, as I go from Lilongwe through Nairobi to Amsterdam and then return on the long haul home—for the barest of breaks before departure for  Cuba! 
  10. The cover note I may be able to send from Lilongwe if I am lucky enough to get the third internet connection attempt in Lilongwe to fill in the Malawi experiences as I near departure

Return to Journal Index