Farewell to the Warm Heart of Africa

Fond Farewells to The Warm Heart of Africa

Our last few days on the plateau were busy but enriched by having Rebecca staying with us and having a reminder of how amazing the place is seen through new eyes, how quickly we had really adapted to the sights, sounds and smells of Africa, so that we no longer were even aware of the pesky roosters that crow from before 4 am every morning. Rebecca entered life “on the hill” fully and managed to pack in a lot of action, including a guided walk arranged through the Mushroom Farm, the renowned backpacker haunt on the edge of the plateau. She climbed the Chombe Plateau, learnt about the merits of housebuilding with local bricks, with and without cement, and ended up sheltering in Robert Laws original house, when they were caught in a tropical deluge. Charlie’s last two days as a working Doctor, found him dealing with a woman with a haemoglobin of 1.7 gm/dl, who was still able to walk about! a girl with a very badly fractured humerous and a young man with a sinister leukopenia.

We decided to end our time by providing a very informal snack lunch of pizza for the staff. Given the unreliability of the electricity, and the number of staff this could have involved, we kept it very quiet until the actual day as if the event had been more widely publicised we might have had the entire population of the plateau turning up for free food!! Very few of the staff had tasted pizza before as it is classed as “mzungu” food but they were curious, and I had had many requests for recipes and how to make it, so it seemed appropriate to provide this as a small token of our appreciation for the time we had spent there. The kitchen started to produce pizzas on an industrial scale with biscuits and scones as well. Despite the difficulties and with Rebecca’s energetic and artistic assistance and Charlies manful work to keep the dishes under control we produced enough food to give everyone a taste. The Primary Health Care Hall was set up with the help of the student nurses and the doors were opened to the guests. It started off very orderly, with Charlie saying a few words of welcome, the Chaplain saying Grace and an attempt made to serve the pizzas cut up into pieces to the arranged benches of people, but very quickly it turned into a scrum, with people taking lots of pieces and then others not getting any!! Children’s party comes to mind, so when it came to the biscuits and scones we had to be very assertive and insist people choose one biscuit or scone and then pass it on to their neighbours!! We have never seen food disappear so quickly and it was all over in record time, however we think it was appreciated and it certainly was a novelty for them all. Sadly of course because of the short notice some of the nurses were off duty, or on night duty so missed out, but hopefully they appreciated the intentions.

We bade a sad farewell to the two patients who had been there almost since we had arrived and who are there in a palliative care capacity, one a young man of 22, paralysed after a road accident and the other an elderly man who had had an amputation that had not been successful. Biscuits had been saved for them from the scrum and they and their families enjoyed sharing these. Rebecca had brought out a chess board and draughts and a supply of easy English, action DVDs for the young man to help him pass the day and keep his brain active. He had been patiently trying to teach me Tumbuku much to everyone’s amusement in the ward at my poor pronunciation!   We also said good bye to the many people who work for Johnny Dowds with the Living Trees projects, whom we had got to know, some better than others as two had ended up in hospital the previous week with severe Malaria! Thankfully they had all recovered and were able to wave us off. Rebecca had also brought the much awaited scissors for the sewing group so that they could complete their sewing kits, she had also brought materials for the re-usable sanitary pads project, which were most welcome.

The heavy rain over the previous days had ensured that we faced leaving the plateau down the Girody Road.  Even adventurous Rebecca had that white knuckled appearance as we headed down the 20-hairpin bends, lurching over boulders, and avoiding subsidence at the sheer edge of the road. Charlie and the car did a fantastic job and we reached the tarred road safely thankfully only meeting one other vehicle at a bend which allowed safe passing with care. There is only one thing to do to recover after the adrenaline rush of that journey and that is to have a swim and we took Rebecca for lunch and her first swim in the Lake before we continued our journey. We all dutifully put reminders in our phones of when we need to take the medicine for Schistosomiasis in 6-8 weeks’ time as unfortunately we have heard too many bad stories about people ending up seriously ill with the condition which is endemic in the Lake now.

Despite numerous road blocks both with immigration police and traffic police we proceeded uneventfully, learning the language enough to at least greet the police men seemed to ease our passage although at one point we were fined for a non-existent traffic offence. Charlie phoned the previous owner to clarify and they spoke to the police who then let us through without any payment? We think they were just chancing their arms! It was a pleasant relief to relax and be driven to Zambia, and have assistance through the border posts which appeared to be disorganised chaos. The tented safari to South Luangwa National Park was a wonderful experience, and it certainly lived up to its advertisement of feeling very close to nature as hippos wandered past our tents during the night, and an elephant decided to investigate the ablutions block one morning! It was thrilling and a little scary to see several magnificent leopards languidly going about their business in the wild on the night drives.

Once back as legal visitors in Malawi with new visas we set off for Cape Mc Clear and had several wonderful days there enjoying relaxing by the Lake, swimming, snorkelling with the fish and feeding sea eagles. Dropping Rebecca off to fly home we spent the last weekend in Lilongwe meeting up with various friends including the student nurses who were now down off the plateau, preparing for their return trip home. We enjoyed meeting the Mc Cullough family who are serving as missionaries in Malawi with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and gaining more insight into the ways of the country from people who have lived and worked here for many years.

 As we left Kamuzu Airport and circled over the plains of Malawi, we had mixed feelings about the country’s future. We had found the people friendly and warm, well deserving of their reputation as the “Warm heart of Africa” However with a rapidly growing population, little natural resources or industry the only current hope of employment for many is to leave the country and seek employment in South Africa, which many do. The Malawians have a reputation for honesty and a good work ethic, and they are much sought after for domestic work and as gardeners. Malawi has been spared the traumas experienced by so many other African countries of civil unrest or external conflict. However, famine is an ever-present fear, as the subsistence farming depends on the increasingly capricious rains. The country receives massive amounts in overseas aid but little of this seems to percolate down to the people in the villages.  Challenging corruption at all levels of society is still an ongoing battle. Time will tell if the Chinese investments pouring into the country will improve the lot of the ordinary Malawian. The greatest assets of this little country are undoubtedly it’s people, who with the opportunity for better education would have a chance to fulfil their potential, however it is a race against the population explosion to avoid an even larger bulge of adolescents, who are likely to face long term unemployment. No longer will these young people be unaware of their plight in contrast to others with the success story of the rapid expansion of mobile technology in Africa. There is potential for the growth of discontentment as, yet another generation sees its chances of employment and improved living conditions passing them by.

Malawi has the potential for an amazing tourist industry, its scenery is varied and very spectacular, however the pollution that has accompanied the introduction of plastic, especially the blue plastic bag used in all markets now instead of more bio-degradable alternatives is blighting the countryside. The pressure to produce food for ever more people has lead to over fishing the Lake and deforestation and exhaustion of the soil from constant usage which creates a tension with a tourist industry. These are all huge issues for great minds to debate and for effective action plans to be taken quickly, however as we left we had no great solutions to all these problems or ingenious ideas to activate the potential of this beautiful country. We felt thankful for the amazing opportunity we have had to briefly share in the lives of Malawian, for all that the time has taught us about what is important in life, when there is no health or Social Services to cushion families in tough times. We could only hope and pray that the rains would be good and the harvest plentiful for our friends and neighbours in the coming year.

This the last blog from Mullahead to Malawi, as we head back now from Malawi to Mullahead.
Thank you to all who have been interested in reading this ramble of our time here and who have contacted us during our time away or sent thoughts and prayers. It has been most appreciated.