MAR-A-1
MEDICAL
MISSION TO MALAWI—II
- MAR-A-1 Index to Mar-A-1 “Medical
Mission to Malawi—II”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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
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