Mary in Malawi

Almost two weeks here now, starting to miss things at home.. But also, there are a lot of things I don't miss...

I MISS:

*HOT WATER IN THE TAP <3
*FAST INTERNET
*GOOD TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS
*PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEMS.......!
*CLEAN SOCKS

I DO NOT MISS:

*TRAFFIC/NOISE
*BIG HOUSES
*STRESS
*COLD AND RAIN (may change in the rainy season....!)
*DOING LAUNDRY (We actually have a maid named Olivia who does our laundry!! =))

Yesterday we went to Llilonggwe. It took about 2.5 hours to get there, the car broke down at least 10 times and people had to walk out and push... Well well. Our gardener was very happy, cause we bought him new boots =)

the road to Llilongwe is intresting. It is like one big market. People are selling all sorts of things; goats, chickens, meat, furniture, dead mice, sunglasses, knives..... All you can imagine. And people are riding bikes, carrying amazing amounts of stuff on them... Like 10  bags à 10 kg of corn, or wood for an entire fence....

And maybe I've allready mentioned this, but the woman carry everything on their heads. It's amazing how much they can carry,... And many of them also have one och more children hanging on their backs.





Today I helped to put a broken arm in place! hehe! The clinical officer and I. I  pulled the hand as hard as i could, and he pulled the elbow the other direction. The broken bones jumped back into place, and then I kept in stretched until the cast was in place. The child was under this famous general ansthesia i wrote about last time.... We could see his pain.. Uff. Wish they could at least put the patients to sleep...

Also, we had to hold a a little boy down when they were cutting and draining a giant abscess over his eye.. He was hitting and kicking and trying to bite us... And also the ketamin didn't really work so he woke up during the procedure so we had to hold him down and keep him still.. He screamed so much... I felt so sad for him... I found this picture on google, it is very similar to the one we saw today..











One of Link's patients yesterday.. A baby with burn wound. His parents took him to a traditional doctor, and he put ashes in the sore..... Not very hygienic.. The baby now risks to become septic from infection in the wound.



I hope to put up some new pictures from the hospital again on monday, tomorrow we are going to the Lake malawi to swim and camp! =D Im really looking forwatd to it! =) won't bring the pc though, so call me oon the phone if you want something, and remember that my sms-service doesn't always work...

Good night everybody! =)

//Maria