Flying home for Christmas! =D
Yes!! It is true! I am going home over christmas to visit my family, friends and my Christian! =D It will be wonderful to get a little break from bugs, brown tap water and everything... I love malawi so much, dont get me wrong. I am incredibly happy to be here. BUT it is not always nice, and to start up emergency care from scratch is a very hard job, especially in a place like this... But to sum up the past six months, the project has been very sucessfull. We have introduced Triage, which was ectremely challenging to begin with. The over worked staff did not really appreciate changes and even more work. But when result started showing, people got poositive. And now, everyone is doing the triage and takes it serious. We have alsoi manage to put together en emergency room, started using it 27 of november. It is now one of the most busy rooms in the hospital, which is a very good thing. Many children that passed through would not have survived without it. So,as of now, patients are no longer dying in the OPD! Whoch is amazing!!! =D
To go home over christmas was for a week ago noot 100 % certain...! Doctor Rhona faced problems when leaving the country last week, the immigration guys at the airport wanted to put her in jail!!! Reason: She only had the papers of her permit, not a stamp in the passport. Just like me! And why is that? Cause immigration said, when giving out the permit papers, that no more stamp was needed, it was enough with the paper (???). Which was, obviously, pure bullshit.
So in panic, I had to try to get this stamp. I went to immigration for the 7:th time, showed my work permit and all the stamp on IT that I had paid the fees and bla bla bla. I met the same guys that gave it to me and signed it in november. BUT to get the stamp in my passport, they needed confirmation from BLANTYRE (a city in souther malawi) that I had paid. Even though these two guys were to ones signing that I had paid! Anywat, I had allready faxed tha papers to balatyre a month ago, so there shoulld be no problem. I thought. But when the guys called the office in blantyre, they had all my papers, but they could not see that I had paid the fee, ehich is extremely wierd, because it says on every paper that I had paid! Anywa, I had to go to an internet cafe and fax the papers AGAIN. And then I had to wait at immigration office for several hours. Took a walk in town aswell while waiting. Reason for waitíng: the guy in blantyr who was responsible for the FAX-ROOM had not shown up for work, so they could not get the papers from the fax! Off course! Anyway, after a lot of wating the guys in Blantyre could finally call back to the lilongwe office and tell them that yes, I had paid. Is it not incredibly stupid?? The guys in Blantyre had to tell the guys in lilongwe, whom I paid to and whom had signed all the papers, that I had paid. The blantyre guys looked at the lilongwe guys signature, and called the same guy that had signed, and told him that he had signed! It is just... Stupid. Anyway. I did not freak out. I pulled off the greatest charm show I had ever made. I was SO nice to them, talking, smiling, using all my chichewa... It ended well, they loved me and they bought me fanta. They even, finally, gave me the stamp. So it all went incredibly smooth, even though the system was incredibly stupid. So now, accordning to my passport, I am allowed to travel as I wish in and out of Malawi ffor 2 years. Jippi!!! =DDD
Seriously, what kind of country is this... A doctor who has worked here for a year, saving so many lives, and the thank her by in her last minutes threatening her with prison???? It really makes me start reconsider why we are here... This country does not make it easy for us. We had to go to immigration 7 times, everytime a big struggle. Why is everything so difficult in this country???? A well, I guess I learned a lot about corrupted byrocracy....
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Clock is now... 01:12 am. I am very tired. I had to leave my room cause it was invaded by mosquitoes (and in fancy, luxury hotels like this, it is obviously not classy enough to put up mosquito nets) so I had to go to reception so they could DOOM the room. And I am a bit allergic to DOOM, so now I'm wating for the smell to disappear. It is strange. I have slept in so many diffrent, low standard places here. But never got more than one or two bites. But now, this night, I am allready haft eaten. Shit. Jaja, good thing i bruoght LA (malaria medication) with me. I doubt the doctors at home know how to treat malaria. They would probobly lock me up in an isolation room and take a lot of scary tests, when I just could lay home in my bed taking LA.
Well, hopefully DOOM has done the job, and went away... I will go check. Til then, Good night!! Write again tomorrow maybe, while being bored at Nairobi airport for 6 hours..........
Kiss kiss good night!
