Final week in Mulanje

It was great to return to male ward for my last week, although it was hard to believe it was in fact my last week. Loved being back with the dream team of Cecilia, George and Major. Having been at the hospital for almost six weeks I really felt part of the team. It was an fantastic experience for me to be able to work independently and continue developing the skills I had learnt since being at MMH. As with female ward, we were a nurse down in my last week so it was just me and Cecilia - my nursing mentor - and as a result we were kept busy and the week soon flew by and before I knew it I was on duty for the last time.

I couldn't of asked for a better nursing mentor than Cecilia. Despite me being seven years older than her, not to mention double her height, she took me under her wing from day one and made me feel so welcome on Male Ward. Both Cecilia and George took so much time to teach me and make me feel part of the male ward family.

Cecilia, George and I - Dream Team

Some gifts for Cecilia and Male Ward

I was so sad to finish my placement at MMH and there were some tears shed when Cecilia and I exchanges gifts, signed off all my assessment documents and said goodbye.

Gifts from Cece

After finishing up our shifts on Friday, we still had our final HIV/AIDs workshop the following morning. This was the fourth and final workshop in series and the kids didn't let us down by turning up in large numbers again. As this was our last week, we decided to run an activity that would bring all the information we had discussed in previous weeks together. To do this, we split the participants into smaller groups and gave them the best part of an hour to create a role play that would demonstrate their knowledge. As usual, everyone got involved and the plays were amazing. The highlight had the group who including a post-sex celebratory dance. After watching all the plays, the group as a whole voted for their winner and then it was time for some photos, goodbyes and some dancing for the last time.

It has to be said that we couldn't have done these workshops had it not been for the help of Juliana and Peter, two student nurses from the hospitals's nursing college. So after the last workshop, it was time to take them out for lunch and thank them for all their hard work. 

Thankyou Pizza and our last meal at Mulanje Pepper

Marmite, elephants and a sex change.

Following on from my last post, thankfully my weekend wasn't totally scuppered by ditch gate. Our original plan had been to get ourselves up the 3001m of Mount Mulanje (aka known as Mulanje Massif....aptly named). However, after my incident I thought it wise to avoid any sort of walking/climbing considering I am clearly unable to walk along a flat road without injuring myself.

As usual, we held our HIV/AIDs education workshop on Saturday and fortunately for us, people actually decided to come back and they were only half an hour late this week, in fact, we had more people than the first week. We split the larger group up and asked each group to design a poster that could raise awareness about HIV/AIDs or STIs transmission and prevention for their peers. As you can imagine we had some very interesting pictures by the end! Each group presented their poster to the rest of the group and the group as a whole decided who had designed the best poster. Fortunately (for everyone!) I didn't have to dance this week.

Action shot

We had an early start on Sunday as instead of scrambling up a mountain we had managed to cadge a lift with one of the doctors and medical students down to Majete National Park. After a fairly bumpy 2 hour drive we arrived. Having been in Africa for several weeks now, it was my first chance to see some animals other than chickens and monkeys. Before we knew it we had spotted some Pumbas (no Timones though. Although, what kind of animal is Timone anyway? answers on the back of a postcard please). Speaking of which, I have written postcards but getting stamps round here is no mean feat!.....Anyway, I digress.....After a wee drive through the game park we parked up at a small hide thingybobby to have breakfast. Breakfast is always a highlight for me, no matter where I am, but sitting eating breakfast on a Sunday morning, looking out at the hippos wallowing in the Shire river definitely took the biscuit, especially as someone had the foresight to pack marmite into the picnic. So happy...as you can see below.

Happy face!

Slow day on safari!

As our food went down, we headed out for some more early morning animal spotting and pretty quickly found ourselves being charged at by a particularly angry looking elephant. Fortunately, I wasn't driving (otherwise I would have stalled at least 3 times, had a melt down and got out the car) and we made a swift get away.


After that little adrenaline boost, things took a slightly more calmer turn as we settled down at another of the look out points. However, it was a slow day down at the watering hole and after the early start, a nap was much more appealing to the others.

Some slightly calmer elephants than the one we encountered after breakfast.

Pool overlooking the Shire river.

We finished our day trip with a wee dip in the most incredible swimming pool, in a lodge just near the park. As with our breakfast spot, the pool looked out over the Shire river and it was the perfect way to end a day of safari.

Back to the wards on Tuesday and I had a slight change of scenery (or more precisely, a change of sex - not me of course) when I was allocated to the female ward. I had been hearing over the past few weeks that female ward had been pretty quiet so I was looking forward to a restful week. I couldn't have been more wrong as they were one nurse down so it was only me and one other nurse for the ward. It was great to a chance to put all the new stuff I have learnt into practice on a different ward though. It feels great now I am past that awkward settling in phase and I can just get stuck in, work independently and actually be useful.
I think I have said this before, but I can't express how amazing the other staff, especially the nurses, have been here. They have taught me so much and although I miss home, I will be sad to say goodbye to them when the time comes.

Dressings, dance offs and ditches.

 Another week in male ward done, time is really started to fly now. My week started off very busy. I arrived back on the ward on Tuesday morning after my days off to find the ward full due to a bad road traffic accident during the weekend. The patients all belonged to a football team who had been travelling home from a match. They all had really nasty wounds which took all morning to clean and dress. I definitely earned my lunch that day. In between getting their wounds seen to,  they spent all day sat outside in the sun (a perk of a Malawian hospital) waiting to be discharged home.

After the last football player had packed up his things, settled his bill and rounded up all his family, the ward felt empty. A theme that lasted the rest of the week, with regular discharges but very few admissions. On Thursday and Friday we had a grand total of 4 patients!! With two nurses and myself, it was practically 1:1 care, apart from they were all stable and needed very little attention! A massive contrast from earlier in the week. 

Peter, Hemy, Me (aka peg leg) and Juliana before our first workshop.

As well as working my shifts on the wards, myself and Hemy are also running some HIV education workshops in the local youth centre. We were granted funding from the Magnus Magnussun Fund, through uni, which allowed us to set these up. We have done two sessions so far and are planning another two before we leave. Luckily, we have enlisted the help of another two student nurses from the hospital's college to help us. Despite not quite knowing who would turn up and what to expect, the first workshop was a huge success (eventually). I say eventually, because being due to start at 9am in the morning, Hemy and I rocked up at 8.30 to make some final preparations. But after being in Africa for a few weeks, we should have known things would run no 'African time'. We sat waiting patiently from 9am until 10am and we had a total head count of 1! It took another half an hour for more and more people to arrive and we started the workshop sometime around half 10, 11ish with over 50 people - ages ranging from 7 to 20ish. Everyone participated in the activities we had organised and we finished off the session the only way you can finish anything in Malawi.....a lot of loud music and more dancing. As per usual, my dancing skills weren't quite up to scratch and I was well and truly outshone by the children. It did get slightly awkward though when the kids started to copy all my dance moves, so I think at one point I had about 20 children under the age of 10 all changing the light bulbs. It was such a good morning though and great to see our hard work in action after months of planning.

Doing my best colouring in

Our resident workshop DJs

Friday night at Mulanje Mission Hospital is pizza night. The nearest town -Chitakale, is home to (apparently) the 'world's greatest pizza' and after a few weeks of eating my body weight in peanut butter, rice and nsima, I'm starting to agree wholeheartedly with them. Normally these Friday nights are pretty standard......couple beers, pizza then home. Last Friday was a different story though. Before settling down to an evening of pizza goodness I nipped over to the cash machine. As per the norm, the first two banks I tried were either empty, broken or my card had been blocked (RBS don't like people using their cards in strange places and seem intent on blocking it every time I go away......but dont get me started on RBS!). So, off I troop (with Hemy as my bouncer) up to the next bank at the other end of the street. As it was half 6 or so in the evening, it was totally pitch black - and I'm gonna blame the darkness for what happened next. Walking along quite the thing (while cursing RBS), I managed to miss the massive gaping ditch that runs along the side of the road. The next thing I know I'm up to my thighs in a minging brown mud/water/rubbish/god knows what! I clambered out to be met with Hemy's look of 'is she hurt or is it ok to laugh' face and about twenty Malawians running across the road to my aid. They proceeded to make sure I was still functioning by testing all my limbs, bending them back and forward really fast. Luckily I hadn't broken any bones, but if I had I'm not sure that would have been the best first aid! We finally managed to shake off the concerned Malawians, pick up all my things and trudged back to the pizza place. I didn't fancy walking in like the creature from the deep so I sent Hemy in to discreetly tell Clare, the designated driver for the evening, what had happened. I in the meantime stood outside, dripping wet, inspecting my wounds. And, of course, weeping like a baby :(

After cleaning and dressing my wounds (luckily I was now an expert after taking care of all the football players injuries earlier in the week), changing my clothes - which were covered in the contents of the ditch,
and drying my eyes, I headed back for the now much needed pizza and beer. My injuries weren't too bad, the worst one was from knocking my elbow off the side of the road on my descent into the ditch ('descent' makes it sound graceful; it wasn't graceful!). So, I have a lovely multicoloured bruise and some attractive scabs.

You'll be pleased to hear that later that weekend I was able to successfully withdraw money without doing myself any more mischief!

Returning to the scene of the crime. Of course, the ditch is now dry!