MAY-C-7
CONTAINER FOR MALAWI MISSIONS
AND ITS TRANSPORT BETWEEN DERWOOD AND MALAWI
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: PattyDitzel@interchurch.org
Date: 5/21/03 4:23PM
Subject: Fwd: Return from Embangweni Hospital after eventful climax in Theatre salvaging an intrabdominal ruptured pregnancy and having just arrived in Lilongwe
I have returned from a brief mission to Malawi, with a group of medical students and others with whom I had tried to coordinate our visits and carrying of supplies. On this past trip, I was able through the excellent help of Yael de Guaia, to pack along six check- in bags filled with a very large allotment of suture and surgical supplies I had been gathering for some time, which replenished the "Theatre" at Embangweni, so that we were able to operate on quite a few patients and stock the supplies for further use in emergences. Because of the bulk of the supplies and the limited ability we have to transport them at least as far as check- in, I may have "maxed out" the capacity we have to have baggage- equivalent carry- in for supplies to support the medical mission.
I had gathered in my home a large quantity of drugs, surgical supplies and facilities to support this and future missions and had distributed some of them among my medical students who had traveled separately.
I still have a considerable stock of these supples, after packing in the perishables and sterility dated supplies, and do not think I will be able to transport some of these again by the means of check- in luggage. This particularly includes some heavy supplies, like textbooks and liquid medications.
I have been considering the purchase of a used container licensed for a one- way trip to Africa with its contents being made up of what I can assemble in the coming six months.
I had measured one of the "twenty footers" at the Dimmocks' in Lilongwe, and spoken with Nancy Dimmock about the possibility of getting a container (actually HALF container) into Malawi for charitable donation. She had given me the name of Smile Namagonia as the expediter who is the "clearance angel" who has facilitated the shipping of things in before.
I know that Interchurch Medical Association also ships in containers somewhat regularly, and loads them from New Windsor Maryland- - attractive to me as a resident of Derwood Maryland. This is also nearby the home of Dale Kramer, the contractor who will be remodeling my house, for which reason I must move out all the supplies I have been warehousing and a few of my own possessions that might be appropriate for the mission and had been specifically requested by Dr. Douglas Lungu from Ekwandenni- - such as X- Ray view boxes.
If you might be able to advise me on how this can be done, I might be able to semi- fill a container here at my residence in Derwood, or truck over to New Windsor supplies to be placed in an already assigned container, and this might facilitate the next trip to be hand- carrying only perishable drugs or specifically requested pharmaceuticals that need the attendance of an accompanying licensed physician.
I appreciate your advice and assistance.
Yours truly,
Glenn W. Geelhoed MD
>>> Glenn Geelhoed 05/15/03 01:36PM >>>
>>> Glenn Geelhoed 05/15/03 01:29PM >>>
I have just returned (late- - due to a stranding in London from an in- flight "disappearance" of a passport, which made a "woman without a country") and managed to accomplish a somehow efficient re- entry of make- up missed appointments.
I attach only the "read by title" headings (Apr- C- I, May- A- 1, and May- B- 1) of the exhilarating experience in Malawi which is expressed by each participant as a life- changing encounter for the students of all ages.
It is more than malaria, malnutrition, Tb and AIDS- - this is, again, a powerful experience of a spiritual richness that carries these wonderful people despite overwhelming poverty, hunger and what might otherwise be despair. It is what I call "gifts from the poor."
We will be back.
GWG
>>> "frank dimmock" <fdimmock@malawi.net> 05/09/03 08:43AM >>>
We have arrived in Lilongwe for a brief stop at the Dimmock’s from which I will try to send this email. The cascade of fascinating cases has continued down to the end, and each of the post- op patients that were “long shots” have recovered and are doing well—even the young man who had a large chunk of his dead bowel excised, and exteriorization of the ileostomy and colostomy as a last ditch salvage effort- - - he was sitting outside and eating Nzima and waved as I left last night. The Pastor is peeing normally after his large prostate was removed, despite multiple pluggings of his catheter, and all of my C- sections and their babies are gurgling cheerfully. The young man with the huge osteosarcoma which had broken down and caused such a foul stench that he was an outcast, even from his attentive family, had his A- K amputation yesterday, and he has lost his ostracism, being triumphantly admitted to the main Male Ward. As Kevin had said, we have finished our six month’s work in two weeks, and a look back at the “Theatre Log Book” shows two full pages with my name, which seems like the product of several years’ work, all of it passing so quickly that the arbitrary distinctions of the days seen in the attached emailings (the only parts I have been able to type have been the titles, since I had been too busy doing it to type it up—but I have written the usual “serial letter”., I will show and tell a real mini- universe of the “real Africa” upon the return of the cascade of photographs and completed stories. Virginia will also have a “show and tell” of the full program she had led through the Deaf School, culminating in a touching formal “Program in Honor of Virginia” in which they had formal speeches, presentations of gifts and tribal dance and even a formal poem spelling out “VIRGINIA” before the piece de resistance- - - the Bell Choirs performing several of the two dozen songs she had written iont scores, including quite a number which she had never heard and had to sing in Chi- Tembuka. I will tell more of this but the special bragging rights would probably have to come form my side about the music program she had sparked here, especially among the Deaf School’s very grateful students and staff. But, we are now going for a very short hop to Zambia, which is billed as “the Real Africa”- - - a safari inot the game- rich South Luwangwe National Park, an extravagant old- time big game safari for our brief exit introduction to the natural history of Africa on the kind of game drives I have so often led myself. The open question I will leave hanging is—“now, just which of these worlds is the real one?” Then, “Out of Africa—once again, to return ASAP. GWG