This is an email I sent last week - thought I'd post it here:
Hello Friends & Family,
I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the chilly days of autumn! I have to remind myself that it is fall at home and that Thanksgiving is around the corner. Signs of Christmas are loud and clear here. If you drive along the road every 5 miles is a police check point where they are collecting "christmas" (i.e. finding any tiny thing wrong with your vehicle and charging you). Then at Shoprite and Game (the two chain stores from South Africa) in Blantyre you see gaudy Christmas displays everywhere. Consumerism is no respector of countries, bank accounts, or people.
I just realized the other day that it has been almost four months since I came to Malawi! I can hardly believe it! Time has flown by which, I think, is a good thing! I've been updating my blog almost weekly, but in case you haven't been there I wanted to just send a brief note to let you know I'm still alive. Things are continuing on here at Malamulo and we are seeing a few glimmers of hope here and there. In October I got a change of scenery and spent a few days in Lilongwe at the SDA clinic there. Part of my responsibilities is to help the other health organizations under AHI and they needed some help so I was there for a few days. Cristy ended up having a meeting up there too for something else so we spent a day or two in the capital city with a friend from the UK who is volunteering with VSO (like Peace Corps).
Recently we had two pediatric residents here from Loma Linda Medical Center. They did a two week rotation and helped tremendously at the hospital since we don't have any pediatricians on staff. It was fun to have them around and they kept me company the week that Cristy was gone to South Africa for Faith's wedding. On Friday last week a group of us went with the residents to a game park a couple hours away and saw lots of giraffe, zebra, impala, bush buck, and monkeys along with a few other things. The park is small but nice to see these animals. Also they had a picnic area overlooking a swamp where we had lunch under some shade. What a lovely day although over 100 degrees!!
Some exciting news today - a container from the organization Give Children Hope (www.gchope.org) based in LA arrived today. This container has been quite a headache to get through customs since this is the first one from this organization to Malamulo. Unfortunately it has cost the hospital over $2,500 compared with most that usually only cost less than $500. It is full of wonderful things though and I am excited to go dig through it tomorrow. It is such a blessing that organizations are able to get donations and forward them on to places like Malamulo. It is a huge benefit. We also get a lot through AmeriCares (www.americares.org).
Life is okay in general. Our ceiling is still not fixed and even more panels have fallen (but not on my head, thankfully). We are seeing more patients coming to the hospital with the rainy season starting and malaria coming. Also our clinic in Blantyre is getting more busy with the doctors back and getting established here. Cristy will mark one year of being here at the end of November! Don is back in the states until the first of December for his son's wedding. I'm acting CEO again while he is gone. In October we also laid off about 40 people from the hospital payroll and are starting to see some savings from that - financially. It was not without it's backlash. About 2 weeks after doing the lay-off our biggest pump was stolen from a well that supplies water to the campus. It cost about $1,000 to replace and on top of it the thieves threw a pipe and big rocks down the hole. It took us about 3 weeks to figure out how to get the pipe out and the rocks broken up so that the hole was still useable. We are continually looking for ways to improve things overall, and I know there is so much potential!! God is faithful and he reminds me of that frequently! (Lamentations 3, Ps 104)
Thank you for your continued prayers, emails, and encouragement. I even got a few packages the other day which made me so excited!! Thank you to those of you who are sharing stories and news about Malamulo to your friends and churches. There is so much need and the more people who know, the better. I am blessed to have such a wonderful group of people to support me while I'm here. May God bless you all individually in special ways.
Miss you and Happy Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elisa
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