A Few Photos

Thought I would just post some photos of recent events/activities:

A container arrived last Monday and these photos are guys unloading. I couldn't watch for long because they were just tossing everything off the trucks unless it was heavy or looked important.

Three nice gurneys were put to use the same day! We also got an O2 concentrator, ultrasound, suction machines and an ECG.

This is Jessica, Julia, & I at a fireworks display a couple of weeks ago. They were two peds residents here for 2 weeks.

The next photos are from Nyala Park where they have lots of giraffe. I took many more photos but only posted a few...

Yes - me with the giraffes. :)
And a little baby - so cute!

Things are stressful here - I'll be honest. But on the other hand I have many things to be thankful for. On Friday Cristy and I are going to have a thanksgiving dinner with friends here at Malamulo. It will be nice to celebrate and relax with everyone. We also just had 3 people from LLU come for a few days to plan a big trip with college students next summer. It is always nice to have visitors and the encouragement they bring.

Blessings to each of you and thank you for your emails and prayers - especially the prayers. Some days I feel like I'm in the bulls-eye of the great controversy! I'll write more later...

Almost 4 Months - email

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

Life...

Today is Friday and Cristy and I both actually have the day off! I am doing my best to avoid going down to the hospital at all. Most Fridays I seem to end up in Blantyre running errands but today I’m staying home and “mucking about” as Cristy says. We just got back from the Makwasa market where I bought a cabbage and 5 mangoes. It cost all of 75 cents (100 kwacha). The mangoes are starting to get ripe here and they are yummy! We took Julia and Jessica who are peds residents from Loma Linda Medical Center visiting for 2 weeks to the market too. It was fun to pretend to be a tourist with our cameras for a little bit. I may have written about this before, but I really enjoy shopping at the little market there. It is not tourist-y at all – there are no carvings or random things white people might buy, but rather it is a really the place local villagers shop on a daily basis. Now, since I’ve been here for a while I know several people who are there shopping as well. I like that and somehow I feel more a part of the culture and LIFE here by going there and shopping. Granted, I also buy things in Blantyre at the shops that get their wares from South Africa which most villagers don’t do – but still…

Wednesday was the first heavy rain… I was home for lunch and all of a sudden the sky turned dark pewter grey and I could hear thunder in the distance. The clouds were swirling, a wind picked up, and pretty soon the gigantic rain drops came down. It was amazing! Masa and I were rushing around closing the windows and doors to keep the rain outside. It was so loud I looked out and saw it was actually hail! With part of the ceiling in the kitchen missing the rain and hail was deafening on the tin roof. Cristy wasn’t home yet and as I guessed she got caught in the downpour walking home and came in dripping wet! Everyone is happy that the rains are coming because it means they can plant maize and once again have enough food for the next year. They wait until one or two heavy rains before planting so that the ground is good and wet. But fields everywhere are dug and in neat rows ready to be planted this month.

*Now it's Sunday*
Last night we had an adventure - in the UK they celebrate "Guy Hawks" day on the Saturday night closest to November 6 with fireworks. So the Thyolo sports club (i.e. where rich white people go to play golf, watch rugby, and drink beer) was holding a fireworks show and dinner so we (Kelvin, Sue, Jessica, Julia, & I) decided to go. The fireworks was actually pretty good and the food was edible as well. I was hoping to meet some ex-pats from the area but everyone seemed to know each other and since we were sitting in the dark it didn't help the socializing much. It was interesting, but not a place I'll probably frequent.

So life continues on here – occasionally I have to remind myself that I am actually LIVING in Africa. Not that it seems like it’s the US (the falling ceiling, lack of water, and sweltering heat remind me that I’m not in the US) but I guess it just sometimes seems surreal that I’m actually living here; to believe that somehow God has made a way for me to be here to try and make a contribution to the mission here. It is humbling to be called and used in this way. Very often I wonder if I am making a difference but then I am reminded of the steps that brought me here and how God was clearly leading so I trust in that leading and continue with my daily work.

I appreciate the notes of encouragement and the prayers that I know are offered regularly. Some of you have shared of your financial resources as well and I can't thank you enough.