For my mum!
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 10/Dec/2011 10:32, 34 days ago
This is a special blog just for my mum as she has been reminding me every week that I haven't updated it!Eleazar the VSO paediatrician that I was working with became sick at the beginning of November and after a lot of stress and discussions the decision was made to fly him to Nairobi in Kenya for two weeks to see a specialist. The specialist decided that he ought to be flown back to the Philippines, so around the 25th November he was flown home. It was really sad as he only went to our X-ray for an ultrasound then he told me the hospital were arranging transport to Lilongwe then he flew from there to Kenya then home so he never came back. He phoned me form the airport and said bye and thanks. It was really sad as we started together and he has been a huge support. He's phoned me a few times since he's been back, I think we both find it strange I hadn't realised how used I'd got to seeing him almost every day and if I ever had a question I could just text or pop over and ask him.I'm coming very quickly towards the end of my placement and need to make some really tough decisions about what I'm going to do. VSO are trying to give me the option to move to a different part of Malawi and become a nurse tutor for a year or I could come home. At the moment I feel that this is a once in a life time opportunity and I'd be stupid to pass it by especially when the economy at home isn't brilliant, not that the economy here is much better!It's all a bit up in the air at the moment though, it's quite complicated and I don't really understand but here goes. Basically the way the health programme is funded has changed at the moment DFID or UKAID are providing VSO with the money they need for the health programme to run but officially they stopped funding at the end of the last financial year. VSO have found a new independent funder but they are only interested in funding new volunteers not extending current volunteers. No-one wants to fund volunteers to work in hospitals as all you do is create a gap when you leave they are looking to fund people to work in educational institutions. There are already two VSO volunteers working at Mzuzu uni and none of the other nursing schools want volunteers up here. Originally my programme manager phoned and said there were 3 positions available, nurse tutor in Blantyre or Zomba or paediatric lecturer at KCN in Lilongwe. I said I would feel happier as a nurse tutor although was concerned that I am a paediatric nurse I've done very little adult nursing. This seemed like a nice role as you spend time in uni teaching then go out on placement and supervise students. The job at KCN is a permanent lecturing post so I felt I would miss working on the ward a lot and I know that KCN are running a paediatric masters course from February and wasn't sure how comfortable I felt at the prospect of lecturing on a masters course. My VSO boss said she'd have to talk to the programme manager as she wasn't really sure where things would go from here and they need to discus funding as priority for money has gone to people extending in their own placements not transferring, apparently this isn't something they often do in VSO.So then the manager of the health programme phoned me last week and she said she felt that the job at KCN would be the best fit for me and she has spoken to the dean of Kamuzu College of Nursing and she is happy that I have no previous lecturing experience, well may be not happy but Wina felt confident that the Dean of the college of Nursing would tell her if she didn't feel that I was right for the post. So Wina said she would share my formal CV with the Dean of KCN and she'd have to talk to our country director about whether she could pull funding from elsewhere to fund my placement and how to go about an in-country transfer. She's very keen for me to be able to stay as KCN want a paediatric nurse lecturer and VSO Malawi have a paediatric nurse in the country, she seemed to be a little bit frustrated at the bureaucracy of VSO nothing is straight forward or as simple as it should be. To update me and keep me up to speed with what is happening she phoned me again on Tuesday 29th November and said KCN are definitely interested, she still needs to figure out the funding issue and once that is sorted VSO will need to formally meet with the Dean of KCN. The idea of VSO is that they work in partnership, this means the partner has to offer something. At the moment Mzuzu Central hospital provide my accommodation, for some volunteers the placement contribute to their allowance. The idea I think is that if the partners are really involved it makes them have more of an interest in the placement and the volunteer. She also said that the dean from KCN would like to meet me to have a kind of interview so they can meet me and I can meet them and all the team I'd be working with. She made out it'd be really good and an opportunity for me to ask any questions ect. Just the word INTERVIEW that freaked me out a bit!!! I'll keep you up to date as I find out more sometimes Africa time can be very frustrating!I have officially set a finishing date for this placement now too. If I can't extend and need to fly home I need to have left Malawi by the 5th February. It is cheaper for VSO to book air tickets well in advance so we have provisionally said that I would fly back at some point the week beginning 30th January. I still have 10 days of leave to take so I have suggested to the Chief Nurse that I would like to make my last working day the 13th January then take my two weeks holiday then I can spend time organising my things so I can be ready to fly home or move to another part of the country! It's really weird at the moment as on one hand I have my manager trying her hardest to let me stay in Malawi and then I have my placement support officer booking a flight for me just in case I can't stay. It really plays with my emotions as I would really like to stay and then they mention home and there is so much I miss that sometimes I would love to come home.Malawi has proven to be very good in general for my health, I've almost lost 3 stone since I've been here although I'm not convinced you can tell. Sadly a sign that I was clearly far too fat before leaving England. I really enjoy life out here I have some really good friends and finally feel at home.I'm sorry mum it's possibly the worst blog in the world but I don't really know what else to say.Love you and miss you loads x x x x