Sunday 8th August 2010

...We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. 1 John 4:16.

This was the verse for my daily reading a few days ago. The writer of the study for that day tells of his time when he went back to his home country in Africa to finish his internship (FY1 or to non medics – 1st year of being a doctor):

‘At one point I thought, ‘Was God really right to tell me to complete my internship here?’ Perhaps I had been wrong to think so. Yet despite my doubts, deep down I knew that I had heard Him right. Does that sound familiar?’

Umm, yes that sounds VERY familiar! God really does speak to us doesn’t he?! As I’ll explain later I was slightly freaking out yesterday on the way here, however God has just gently reminded me of this reading I read a few days ago, saying ‘hang on a minute, didn’t I just reassure you a few days ago?’ Yes God you did, and thank you for reassuring me again, I think you’re going to have to do that a lot these next 5 months!

Anyway so, here I am, I’ve made it!
The weather, which is the first thing all you Brits will want to know about, is much the same as it is at home – about 20-25 degrees, and today it is about 20! I am actually wearing a hoodie ‘cos it is cool inside the house. This is the end of the Malawian winter – roll on summer :-)

I have to confess whilst I was on the plane on the way I was absolutely terrified – of what I am doing not the fact I was in a plane – although that is quite scary, I don’t understand the physics, but being thousands of metres up in the sky in a tin can is WEIRD! Anyway back to being terrified of what the next 5 months hold...
I can’t quite believe I have decided to up and leave the comfort of England and an NHS job where I know everyone and what is expected of me and come to Malawi, where I don’t know anyone, and I actually have no idea what I will be up to. Anyway, as soon as I was picked up at Blantyre airport and was being driven to the hospital and the guest house, all of that disappeared! I was back in Africa and I knew I was going to love it :-) Please pray I’ll settle in quickly.

Once I arrived, I was greeted by a current occupant of the Guest house, Sheila, who is a physio student from California (USA). She has another month here. Apparently I have just missed 2 Medical students from Newcastle – they left yesterday morning a few hours before I arrived.

The house is one storey – like most African houses. It has a tin roof on which the pied crows were fighting on this morning and made one hell of a racket! There is a nice big lounge and dining room, with a TV and DVD player. The kitchen is compact but has everything useful – though why the cooker is electric and not gas is beyond me (African electricity boards have what they call share loading, which means parts of the city takes it in turns to have blackouts at random times during the day!) There are 4 rooms with 2-3 beds in each. I am currently sharing with Sheila. There is running HOT water (usually anyway) which means no freezing wash in the morning to wake me up (that was a delight in Uganda!)

Yesterday I got invited out in the afternoon with Sheila by one of her many family friends (Rose). Her Dad grew up in Zambia and therefore seems to know a lot of the Indian families in Zambia and Malawi. Rose took us on a drive down the hills outside Blantyre to the river and back which was beautiful. She then took us back to her house which was full of her Grandkids and fed us very spicy chicken samosas and doughnut type bread which was yummy.

Today Sheila showed me the local supermarket which wasn’t huge but big by African standards. She lent me some local money – Kwacha, as I have not yet managed to change mine. The guest house is self catered, although I get lunch at the hospital on working days. I found the usual African goodies of Blue band margarine, mixed fruit jam in a tin can, and ‘sodas’ of all flavours (pineapple or blackcurrant fanta anyone? – I wish the UK would sell them!) Tomorrow I will adventure to the local market and pick up small bananas, tomatoes, and aubergines all totalling about Mk 150 which is equivalent to $1 – brilliant :-)

I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow but I’ll turn up at the hospital worship before rounds at 7ish and meet the other doctors there and work out my timetable and on-calls and stuff. It would be nice to have tomorrow off to venture into the centre of Blantyre to change money and get a phone etc before being launched straight into work, but I’ll go with the flow! Please pray for my first working day – I always get scared about first days of new rotations, even back in the UK, I think it’s mostly the not knowing about stuff which scares me, such as where to be at what time and each hospital even within the NHS has different ways of doing things, and I hate getting things wrong.

That’s about it for now, just to say I am writing this in a word document and then will up load it onto my blog – which won’t happen till at least tomorrow hence I’ll continue to put the date at the top of each entry so I try not to confuse people.

P.S. I’ve just heard an ice cream van go past – surreal! Its tune was teddy bears picnic!

H xxxxx


Tuesday 10th August 2010

Well today has been much better than yesterday! I actually felt homesick yesterday afternoon. Feel much better today. Yesterday consisted of a short ward round with Dr Sam and then his clinic which I just sat in on. I was told by Sama that Jim (the boss) would come and find me to chat about schedules and stuff but he never did. Today I went to the early worship meeting – the singing was amazing, I love the African sound, and the message was just right for how I was feeling. We looked at Psalm 100 and how we should always praise the Lord no matter what, Allelujah! It was then time for theatre and we operated on the kids who we saw on yesterdays ward round. I helped with a tibialis anterior tendon transfer to correct club foot, excision of osteochondroma, and release of burn contractures on a teenagers fingers with full thickness skin grafts. I still need to get hold a mobile and change the rest of my money, as have not managed to do that yet. I am hoping to catch jim this afternoon after his clinic to sort out what I’m actually expeted to be doing and my on call schedule as well.

Please pray that the homesickness will stay away and that I will settle in more and more.

Bye for now!

H xxxxxxxx