Today is day 2 in Malawi. We arrived yesterday after a 20 hour trip, 15 hr to Johannesburg, a layover, and then 2 hours to Malawi.
We are staying at N’amanghazi Farm in Zomba, a working farm owned by the Balantyre Synod of the CCAP (the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian). Twenty seven of us are housed in four different buildings. Workers cook food for us every day: fried chicken, goat boiled with onion and tomato, veggies, rice, potatoes, eggs and Nsima, a corn flour dish similar to grits, but finer and stiffer. There are not a lot of veggies, some cabbage salad and mustard greens. The buildings are rough but clean. I believe this was previously a youth hostel, but is now a Presbyterian conference center. Most of the time we have electricity; and we have hot and cold running water and toilets with seats!
Today we met the clinic teams, organized all the meds, and visited the local hospital. The hospital reminded me of the hospital in Liberia that I worked in as a medical student 30 years ago. But it is larger, more disorganized and not as clean. It is heartbreaking to see the conditions of the hospital when we have so much back home.
Tomorrow we will create 4 clinics from scratch in empty buildings with no electricity or running water. We will bring furniture, meds and equipment. Testing will all be “point of care” including glucose, hemoglobin, malaria and HIV testing by finger stick. We expect it to be busy because rumor has it that the government clinics have run out of malaria meds.