Carolins experiences in Malawi 26.Jan 2005

Carolin and the Reality – 26th January 2005

Hey Everybody!

I just came back from making a baseline survey and I am tired and depressed and motivated and everything at once.  I think today I saw real Malawi. I was until now in Blantyre and there are slums at the edge of the town – the people are really poor here.  But you also see many cars and business people and you have a few expensive shops - not what you imagine with expensive shops, but a supermarket where you can actually buy something like cheese or packed toilet paper and a clothes shop with European clothes and so on.

Today I drove with the minibus to Chikuli, which is the last station on the bus -  the last 20 kilometers is a very bad red sand road.  From there I walked
another kilometer to reach the Chikowa Local Health Center.  It’s in
the middle of the bush, there is nothing, no electricity, no running
water, nothing...Chikowa is a small house with a waiting room ,full of mothers with children and a small examination - it serves as hospital for 21,000 people from all the small villages kilometers around.  They don't have the possibility to find out if the people have tuberculosis, therefore they have to go to Blantyre.

With regards to Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) the people have to go to Blantyre as there is no program at all either on HIV information nor about Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission in the area.  To go to Blantyre means a one hour drive there and 200 Kwacha to go there and back - I can imagine that this is pretty much money for the people in the village.

The people in this area have no information at all and they really need education and information.  I also liked the people in the village very much, it was very funny, I was walking down the road and when I looked back there were about five children walking behind me and looking at me; every minute they became more.  Every time I greet somebody in Chichewa (the local language) they laugh because they don't expect it (I guess that's the reason, because I think my greetings are meanwhile pretty perfect!).  And on the street people just start talking to you where you come from and what you are doing but it's a little bit difficult because they don't know much English, I try to learn Chichewa now but actually "pang'onopang'ono" it goes slowly!

Malawi is amazing, it rains stones every afternoon, but as it rains so much we don't have running water in our house anymore - that's not logical!  But whatever, it will come...

You can really look forward to come to Africa, the work is really so free, you can realize every idea you have that could improve something and you can do so much.  Some DI’s here have great projects running or starting and you can change so much through the work.  So prepare yourselves good - make as many partnerships or connections as you can beforehand and start thinking of ideas!

Many greetings !!!
Carolin