September
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 24/Sep/2011 08:46, 34 days ago
Well hello again whoops I know I'm not very good at this blogging thing!!Well September has been a bit of a crazy month.Many meetings with VSOVSO contacted the northern region volunteers on the 6th September and said that the new country director and the deputy country director would be coming to visit on the 8th and 9th September to discus safety and safe houses. This was slightly difficult for me and Czar as we were going to a colleagues engagement ceremony on the 10th in Lilongwe. Anyway after much talking back and forth on Thursday morning VSO finally told us that the country director would drive us back down to Lilongwe as they were going anyway. So Thursday they came to visit our placement, unfortunately it was late by the time they arrived so we briefly showed them around then went home as they had agreed to take us all out for dinner that night so we could talk. Went out for a really nice meal and was the first time all the VSO volunteers in Mzuzu have been together. Then Friday VSO came to visit all of our houses so they could decide which house we would use if/when we needed a safe house. They then took us out to lunch to discuss their decision and get us to sign an agreement. After that the four of us set off for Lilongwe. Well 5 hours later and some dull conversation we made it to the big city!! Our deputy country director had left his car at the directors house so we went there first then Baldwin was going to drive us to the VSO guest house. When we arrived at Manoj's house it was amazing! His wife was lovely and invited us all in for tea. Eventually we left and Baldwin drove us to the guest house. It was really nice to meet the new VSO Malawi director and he seems like a very nice friendly guy. He was asking for our opinion on VSO and how it can improve and seemed genuinely interested in our responses. He seems to be very much that the office is working for the volunteers where as up until now we often feel that we are working for the office and putting them out when we phone up to get things clarified.VSO also came up for a meeting on the 15th of September to set some goals. Yes it is a bit late to be setting goals but better late than never! It was actually a really productive meeting and gave the four of us (me, manager from VSO, matron and CNO) chance to sit together and discuss what we have already improved and what they want me to achieve in the remaining 4 months. I found it really helpful as I was beginning to feel like I'd lost my purpose so this has renewed my enthusiasm and has me right back on track for those remaining few months!! People keep putting me on the spot and asking if I'd like to stay if there were money to extend. The honest answer is I wouldn't stay here, I'd be tempted if they could offer a teaching/lecturing post but I don't think I could handle another year of working on the ward. Realistically a year is a long time away from PICU nursing so I really ought to get back into the fast paced life. I'd love to do something like this again, perhaps next time a short term placement like 3-6 months. I'm not going to pretend it's all been a bed of roses it's bloody hard work and not always as rewarding as you'd expect, it's also an incredibly lonely thing to do. All that aside I do love it. In general this has been quite a depressing month at work, we have had fewer patients than we normally have (40-60) so it has been possible to give really good care as we often have double that number of patients but lots of our patients have been dying this month, I think it averages out to 1 a day maybe slightly more. Death is very much a part of life over here normally the death of a child is followed by a lot of hysterical weeping/crying/screaming/shouting as with anything you adapt to the culture you are in and that is just how people express their grief here. There are many beliefs or practices that seem strange to a white European, such as apparently if a child dies and is a twin the family are not allowed to express any grief, if they cry then the other twin will die!! Now I find that more disturbing than the outpouring of emotion that you normally have! We have had big problems at the hospital this month with electricity and water. I would estimate the water has gone off at least twice a week and the electricity has probably been the same. The hospital has a generator but it is powered by diesel and unfortunately there is a diesel crisis in Malawi too! We got a message the other day saying the hospital only had enough diesel to run the generator until 4pm!! I don't think they actually turned it off though they must have found some diesel hidden away somewhere. The biggest problem without any mains electricity is it means that the X-ray can't work. I confess I don't really understand why as all the plug sockets work perhaps the X-ray machines take so much electricity that they would totally drain the generator. The machines in the laboratory keep 'breaking' too which is very frustrating. I mean we can't do many blood tests and then the ones we can do 'break down'!! Living without water doesn't make life easy either as it makes hand washing a challenge! One of the students asked me on Friday whether there were power cuts in England, I explained very rarely it might happen if there has been a problem, often trees falling on the lines ect. I pointed out that people would normally make a huge fuss about it but it probably only affects a few thousand people for a couple of days in their life!! Here electricity is normally off all day at least once a week, sometimes more frequently. I believe it's not such a problem in Lilongwe, many sceptics may suggest that is because all the important people live in Lilongwe!!So away from work and on to life!! So on the 10th September I went to a colleagues engagement party. It was slightly challenging to find as it was in someone's house in the middle of one of the biggest 'housing areas' in Lilongwe and we had stupidly forgotten our directions!! We eventually found it after much stressing from my companions it was really nice but unfortunately we couldn't stay long as we had wasted so much time driving around. We got up had a dance congratulated the couple then left! I then met up with some of the Lilongwe volunteers and went out for dinner. Czar wanted to get the executive coach back to Mzuzu as it's nicer than the regular buses. We got to the office at 9.30 and they told us the coach leaves at 12, Czar asked if we could book tickets or reserve a seat and were told we couldn't as the bus comes from Blantyre so they can't give you allocated seats. So we decided to go shopping get some supplies to take back to Mzuzu, then sat in the office at the bus depot. Well the coach arrived and suddenly 50 people seem to run towards the bus as if from nowhere!! Czar and I end up at the back and eventually get on the coach and realise there is nowhere to sit! Czar goes back inside and speaks to someone and is told he can sit basically on the engine next to the driver and I figure it's probably easier and safer for me just to stand. So I'm MK1000 poorer than when I get the normal bus and I have to stand!! Eventually after about an hour some people get off and I'm able to sit down, 2 hours later as we are pulling into Mzimba the bus suddenly lurches forward and comes to a halt. The driver tries to put the coach into gear and it just won't go. So we all get off the bus and men become 'men' and all start looking at the bus, touching things, poking things and generally not helping!! The women start phoning the bus company to let them know that the bus is broken down. These buses generally run every couple of hours so we all figure the worst case is we'll just have to squeeze on the next bus that comes along. NO! The men say, we can fix this, suddenly trucks appear with more men who get out and start joining the others walking around the coach kicking the tyres and hmmm-ing a lot!! I am now incredibly pissed off not only am I 1000MK poorer but I've never had a normal bus break down!! Damned executive coach!!!!! Anyway the next bus arrives about 90minutes later at which point the 40 people on our coach cram onto an already full bus. Yet again I'm standing this time sandwiched between two guys who seem to think touching me is acceptable. One in front kept trying to hold my hand and the one behind kept stroking my hair. Not the most comfortable bus journey ever I was thrilled when we got back home, even more pleased when I realised all my shopping including my eggs made it back to Mzuzu in one piece!!So that took up the entire weekend, then last weekend I did a bit of shopping on the saturday then went out for a couple of drinks with some friends. Sunday I went to Nkhata bay with one of the other volunteers, unfortunately due to several incidence we didn't make it to the lake until late in the day but it was still really nice. We stopped at a restaurant on our way home and met up with a few other girls that we know. It's nice to catch up and see some other people find out all the gossip.So now I am officially on holiday from work. In true Rachael style I actually haven't booked anything to do as yet but I'm going to sort it all out tomorrow and hopefully find somewhere in Mzuzu with foreign currency. I'm hoping to go on safari and whilst I'm down in Lilongwe I'm going to finally get a sim card that will work with my dongle and get my dongle running so I can have proper internet access!! Well I think that is all I can update you on, fingers crossed my next update will be all about my safari!!!