A Break – FINALLY!

Happy Easter to all! First I just want to say that the reason I have faith and believe in salvation is because of the holiday that was just celebrated. Although it was not really emphasized here at all I am still thankful for the death of Jesus and his resurrection from the grave. It is certainly reason to celebrate and rejoice in the gift of grace and salvation.

Because of the holiday I got a few days off of work and decided to take a much needed break. My friend here Ali (a VSO volunteer from the UK) suggested I look into Zomba Forest Lodge. She said it had a lot of "character" and that I would enjoy it. So I called and booked two nights there – Sunday and Monday – and came back Tuesday. It is an old colonial house half way up Zomba Plateau. It has been re-done into a guest house/lodge run by a man named Ronald from South Africa. He and his dog Obs live there and they have a staff that prepare the food, clean, and keep the grounds. There is no electricity although a warm shower and running water. It gets cold at night so my bed had a down comforter and there was a huge fireplace in the front room for the long evenings. Plenty of kerosene lanterns lit the rooms so I didn't even miss not having electricity.

I decided not to have an agenda while I was there so I enjoyed the beautiful flowers and grounds, laughed with the other guests who were there, read a book, took a nap, and just generally enjoyed my time there. On Monday morning I drove up to the top of the plateau (about 10 kms) and went horseback riding. It was a beautiful, cloudless day. The horse was wonderful and it was just a beautiful time. Then I ate a small lunch at a picnic spot along a creek while I read my book. (For good photos of the horses and Zomba Plateau visit http://web.mac.com//plateaustables.) I can't explain how it was but just being out in nature, with a clear blue sky, and peace and no agenda was amazing! I was a little "saddle sore" for the next couple of days, but definitely worth it!

At the lodge there were other guests – a couple from the UK, four from Norway, the South African owner, and myself. It was quite the cultural mix - made discussions around the dinner table and fireplace quite interesting. They were either there on holiday or working in Malawi with some kind of humanitarian project. The man from Norway is an orthopedic surgeon working at the government hospital in Lilongwe for a year. Another lady from the UK that came the next day is in Malawi for a year working with a project that provides meals for 350,000 children in primary (grade) schools around Malawi. It is funded by an organization in Scotland and she is running the whole thing.

Time has just flown by since this little "outing" of mine. We have been busy with 14 guests from Loma Linda, CA. Eleven of them were 4^th year medical students, along with Dr. Jim Matiko and his wife Becki. He is an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Loma Linda and their son was one of the eleven students. They just left today after being here for three weeks. They were a big help around the hospital and one of them said last night that she feels like she learned more this month than she has in all of her other rotations this year. We had fun showing them around Malawi a bit as well as eating with them, chatting, playing games, and a movie night thrown in. Dr. Matiko was a big help with several surgical cases and also got to volunteer in town at a couple of the hospitals there. He even got to attend an orthopedics conference where the highlight was treatment of crocodile bites!

One of the big things they did to help was distribute the 96 hospital beds that ADRA donated. I didn't realize how big of a job that would be but the students from Loma Linda worked hard to move the old beds out and put the new ones in their place. Some of the old ones can still be used so we are going to donate them to other mission hospitals or other facilities as well as keep some here for back up. The new beds came with nice, proper hospital mattresses too which will be a wonderful change from the 4" foam (or less) that they have been sleeping on. We are steadily working to make things a little bit nicer with new linens at the annex, new curtains (made from hospital divider curtains) and other little things around campus.

It has been busy with visitors lately. Cristy's parents were here for two weeks from West Virginia and we certainly enjoyed their visit. It was nice to have some "mom food" and I know they were especially encouraging to Cristy to have family here. Also while they were here Donna (her mom, and a nurse) helped organize injections for all of our employees for Hepatitis B vaccine. We had gotten it several months ago but hadn't been able to have staff available to give the injections. This is a huge benefit to our staff as it is good for life and something that no other hospital offers. Cristy's Dad was also a big help to her in the hospital doing rounds and some teaching. Donna also got really attached to Hobbes, her "grand-cat". He was certainly enjoying being spoiled with always a warm lap to sit on. We decided they should come and visit several times a year.

Today Faith Lukens and her husband Charles arrive from Kentucky for 10 days. Cristy and I went to Southern with her and she and Cristy lived together during med school. We are looking forward to their visit. In May there is a couple coming from Loma Linda looking at Malamulo as a possible place for mission service. They will be here for a week. We have various visitors for the day coming and going as well – ADRA Sweden is here today and back again next week to look at our water project. Also related to our water project, Wes & Chrislyn Lutz are coming with their two little ones to volunteer for 6 months to manage the installation of the new water system. They are planning to come the middle of May.

I find myself quite overwhelmed a lot with the role that I am in here – not just Malamulo but the other facilities in Malawi. There are certainly good things happening and the devil is causing some trouble. Please continue to pray for the personnel and leadership at Blantyre Adventist Hospital and Adventist Health Center in Lilongwe. I was able last week to spend some time with Florence who runs Adventist Health Services, the organization that has the 18 clinics around Malawi. Now that I have a car I am freer to spend the time in town that I need to. I hope to go in again and meet with their business manager soon. Their biggest challenge is maintenance of the buildings. They just got a 680,000 pound (~$500,000 USD) grant from the UK for a mother and children project that is running over 4 years. There are some excellent things happening there.