11th April 2012
As we’re coming to the end of our
placement at St Martin’s hospital, I thought I would give you all a rundown of
the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks.
The absolutely wonderful thing is
that Dan and I have had a baby named after us! Little Danielle (probably not
spelled that way – no one here has worked out how to spell my name yet) was
born about a week ago, and was my first delivery at Nkope. Although things were
nowhere near as eventful as they were during Dan’s first delivery, we clearly
made an impression, as the mother came to our house a couple of days ago to let
us know that she has named her daughter after us. I can’t describe how honoured
I feel. There are a lot of downsides to working in the medical profession, but
moments like this make it all worth it.
We’ve been experiencing frequent
power cuts over the past few days, which Dan referred to in one of his last
posts. This has led to long periods of quiet introspection, mainly because Dan
and I have had to rely on each other’s conversational skill for entertainment
(seriously, it’s been a stretch :D). Before we got here, I knew how lucky I was
in comparison to most of the world’s population, but the last three weeks have
really brought it home. A good example is the reaction of both Dan and myself
to the food here. Although it is yummy (genuinely, there is a type of dumpling
that has just become addictive), both of us completely took for granted the
level of variety available in the UK. In comparison to the rest of the village
I imagine that we’re eating really well, but the sight of Cadbury’s in Blantyre
actually rendered us speechless for a moment.
What has amazed me is the way that people in
the village just get on with things. For instance, the fact that electricity
here is so unreliable means that almost everyone gets up before sunrise to make
the most of the daylight, and that there isn’t a siesta culture despite the
oppressive heat in the middle of the day. Although everyone is (understandably)
angry about the fuel crisis, there seems to have been a general acceptance of
the fact that getting in and out of Nkope is difficult. I imagine that once I’m
back in the UK I’ll be back to complaining about 8am ward rounds and getting
cross when the local supermarket runs out of cinema sweet Butterkist, but I hope
that my perspective has changed a bit. Either way, I definitely intend to stay
in close contact with St Martin’s, and I hope to return in the near future.
One of the things that I will
miss (along with the dumplings, the sound of Lake Malawi, and the odd, safe
sensation of sleeping under a mosquito net) is the wonderfully friendly nature
of a lot of the people that we have met here. They definitely call Malawi ‘the
warm heart of Africa’ for a reason. It feels like everyone in the village has
really tried to make us feel welcome, and we really have made some lovely
friends.
Danni
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