The day the warm heart of Africa turned cold
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 06/Aug/2011 08:49, 34 days ago
Well, well, well. Most of you will have probably been able to read or watch more about the civil unrest in Malawi than I can tell you. Basically we had known for a while there were going to be protests on Wednesday 20th July. The police had got an injunction to stop the protests and the vice president was appealing to the president to let the people protest as it is their right.So Tuesday I got a call from VSO saying look hopefully it'll be fine but to be on the safe side make sure you have enough food and drink in case people loot shops, make sure you have some money in case they loot banks and if you feel your safety is at risk get home or to the nearest safe place and obviously don't participate or make any statements that could be seen to be politically motivated and don't wear red (the colour of the protest). The nurses at work all found this highly amusing, you're such a mzungu this is the warm heart of Africa, people will just walk from Katoto to the government building then go home. No-one will get hurt and nothing bad will happen, you people worry too much, as we Mzungu would say famous last words!!So Wednesday morning we went off to work and heard that the injunction had been lifted and protests were going ahead. I got a message around 10am saying protests weren't going well in Mzuzu and it had turned into a riot and to avoid the town. Luckily we are outside town so no problems around the hospital. I came home for lunch and my guard tells me he heard that apparently someone got shot in town and police were using tear gas to control the crowd. After listening to the news report I decided to head back to work in the afternoon and to carry on doing some work in my office as normal. I then heard on the radio that there were no longer allowed to report on the riots as the government were worried they were inciting violence. Later in the afternoon I get a phone call from VSO saying to go home so they know we are all safe and we in Mzuzu are to remain indoors on Thursday until VSO can assess the situation. So I pack up my stuff and leave my office, as I'm locking the door the nurse in charge of the ward where my office is based says all the nurses have been called to the emergency room to assist with casualties. Tricky decision to make!! In the UK I wouldn't think twice and I'd do all I can to help but political unrest in a foreign country when I've been advised to go back to my home what do you do? I passed the emergency room as I honestly felt 100% safe at the hospital and at this point saw 4 nursing assistants running by with 2 trolleys with covered bodies on heading to the mortuary. As I was walking by I saw the emergency room matron and spoke to her briefly I said I was happy to stay and help, as I said this I acknowledged that actually MCH was completely unprepared for this. Nurses were shouting at each other in Chichewa and Chitumbuka. I've honestly never seen anything like how our emergency room looked it was just complete chaos, the matron and I decided I probably wouldn't be much help and she said if things did get worse it's probably safer to follow VSO's advise so I came home.People set fire to houses and cars and started looting shops, allegedly the police opened fire on the crowds. Later in the evening on Wednesday we heard that in Mzuzu they were specifically targeting shops of foreigners. They apparently destroyed an Indian restaurant and were burning and looting Chinese shops. In the early evening I got a message from the VSO emergency number saying volunteers in Mzuzu were to stay indoors until VSO were able to assess the situation and volunteers in Lilongwe and Blantyre should assess the situation in their area before leaving home on Thursday. Then as I was eating dinner and listening to live reports from the BBC world service I got a text from our VSO country director saying volunteers and staff are to remain indoors on Thursday until further assessment. Apparently they completely closed Mzuzu down and had military police at all the entrances to the town, even walking to and from work was weird as there were no taxis or minibuses just an army truck that was ferrying people that had been discharged home.We only live a stones throw from the hospital so it was a really tough decision to make to not go into work on Thursday but in light of the xenophobia in Mzuzu I decided it would be safer to just stay at home and follow the VSO advice. It's weird because as a nurse at home you are kind of taught that whenever you can help you should. Having discussed with people VSO's biggest worry was people may carry on looting shops on Thursday and foreigners are always a big target, they were also concerned if people got 'bored' of looting shops they may turn to looting peoples homes or hospitals and offices. Yet again volunteers and foreigners are a big target as they know that you will have some things that are worth looting obviously as I write this it is Thursday and we are just hoping that things don't get any worse and that the warm heart of Africa goes back to just that. It's weird I often think I wish I didn't need to go to work today and then VSO give me a day off and I want to go to work!So here I am advised to stay in the house. No TV, no internet, only books that I have read at least once and not a whole lot else to do! So it is now 10:30am and I have already got up had a shower, eaten breakfast, cleaned and mopped the floors. Going to wash some clothes when the floors are dry and then cook some food to go in freezer bags. It's meant to get to about 27 degrees later so I might try to get a bit of sun and sit in the compound and re-read one of my books! Oh well presuming things are going to be back to normal by the weekend it'll give me a whole free weekend now I've done all my cleaning, cooking and washing!!! The life of a mzungu in Malawi, jealous??!So Friday I was released from my sort of house arrest and went back to work, sadly there was then a 'slight' riot at the hospital as there were some issues about releasing the bodies of the 9 people who had died in Mzuzu as far as I understand the families and organisers of the demonstrations wanted the people buried in a place known as heroes acre and the government didn't want them buried as heroes as they maintain they were shot whilst they were looting shops. So a guard met me at the gate to the hospital and walked me back to work after lunch on Friday as he told me they were protesting at the hospital and they weren't sure how things would be. It appeared that some relatives were trying to break a door down to our conference room, so after about 2 minutes the riot police arrive which freaks out everyone in the hospital and there were about 100 people unfortunately running right towards us screaming and shouting!! Me and my guard carry on walking through the people and then the riot police set up a barricade right in front of us with their riot shields. I then experienced one of the strangest moments in my life, we approached the riot police as they are now blocking my way and my view is that it is probably safer to be behind the riot police and get to my office than try and turn around and go back home. So we walk up to them and two of the police in the middle just moved and opened a little pathway for me to walk past!! I went to my office and then VSO phoned about an hour later and told me I should go home and shouldn't have gone to work (despite telling me it was OK!!) So the hospital is by this point totally quiet again so I walk back home and get a message saying we are to stay indoors until further notice.I get a text message on Saturday lunchtime to say we are allowed out to get emergency supplies, so I went into town to do some shopping. Town was so sad, there were hardly any people and so many shops had been completely ripped apart both inside and out. I managed to buy the food that I needed and then decided to go to the lake on Sunday. Had a really nice relaxing day at the lake took a boat ride with some friends, it was really nice to get away from Mzuzu for a while.Latest news is that 59 people injured during the protests were admitted to Mzuzu central hospital and 9 people died in Mzuzu. They have more protests lined up for the 17th August so we will be staying inside then too!!Last week at work was a nightmare, both the other nursing officers were away for the week so we have been really short on nurses. I think I've hit a 6 month slump at the moment as everything about the place is annoying me. Both the nursing officers are away again the week just gone on a conference in Blantyre so again there will only be 2 of us working. I think part of my slump is that I know the ward and the nurses much better now and so I am much more aware of who is not doing any work and keep making excuses to be somewhere else. In some ways I can't believe I've almost done 6 months and in other ways I feel like I've been here forever!! I do love Malawi and I love the job that I do but it is one of the most frustrating jobs I've ever done, especially this week and probably next week when I am trying my hardest to run the paediatric ward on my own. The down side of all this is that I have to keep the ward keys over the weekend which means I have to go in Saturday morning to stock up all the drugs. So I went in last weekend and stocked up and again today. Last week everyone seemed to go off sick but we all got through it with only a touch of layrngitis!!