For in This Hope We Were Saved

It's a miracle that the backpack finally made it to the Baylor Clinic in Lilongwe. It was a happy ending to an incredible adventure. The adventure began at 6:30am, on the back of three bikes. Chase became a true Malawian in order to save us $.67. He carried the gigantic box on the back of the bike (It’s common to see Malawians riding on the backs of bikes with gigantic loads of who knows what), instead of sending it with its own bike. My driver laughed the entire bike ride as I rode with the backpack that was bigger than me. We were sure that the bikes were going to stop completely as we went up the hills. But, we made it safely to Namitete (Chase about ten minutes later than mom and I, but safely none the less).

We saved another hundred dollars by riding the mini-bus to Lilongwe instead of ordering a taxi. They shoved the gigantic box in the back and tied the trunk shut. We were off. After arriving in Lilongwe, we hopped on another mini-bus and headed to Kamuzu Central Hospital in hopes of finding the Baylor Clinic. Carrying the box was a two person job. We had no shame in our gigantic black box and unnecessarily oversized backpack. We were already out of place enough with our white skin and broken Chichewa. Why not throw in a few more awkward things?

At the bus stop for Kamuzu Central Hospital, the bus driver told us that the Baylor Clinic was just 100 yards up the road. We are beginning to notice that when Malawians give a distance they tend to underestimate it by at least a factor of ten. Needless to say, the clinic was quite a walk (or in our case hike) away. But, the important thing is that we made it. It made it. It made it from the Rice University bioengineering lab, to Waterford Virginia, to New York, to South Africa, to Namitete, to Namitondo, to the back of a bike, to a lap on a mini-bus, to Lilongwe, to district 12, and finally to an examination bed at the Baylor Clinic. Only time knows where it will go from here. Hopefully, its adventures have just begun!

I spent the rest of the day shadowing Dr. Buck around the clinic. The experience was incredible, humbling, joyful, sad, and inspiring all in the same moment. Mom and Chase spent a day on the town. They found an incredible bookstore, got ingredients for homemade pizza, and found an “incredibly special place” that I’m not allowed to know about yet. On the way back to Namitete we set a new record on the minibus. Twenty –six people, two babies, and one little boy who was (literally) terrified of us. He spent the entire ride shrieking “Azungu!”. Since none of us were very satisfied with our Cliff bar lunches, we decided to eat another seven dollar meal at the cafeteria.

It’s funny, no matter how crazy and hectic your day is, when you return to St. Gabriel’s the same things are always there to greet you- the kids screaming your name, the smoky smell in the air, the hospital smiling back at you, and Bobby guarding your house. There is magic in the home; it is a mystic circle that surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its humble limits.