And They Set Off Together

All good weeks begin with a laugh. Mom provided this week’s smile. But, I should start with a proper explanation before I get to the good part. Mom has been translating all of Josh’s Frontline messages from Chichewa into English. Recently, she came across a message that said “please send the mother of Joshua for the arms and legs”. So, the next day mom set out on the back of a motorcycle with Alex towards the patient in a rural village. Before she got onto the bike, she quickly changed into jeans, tied up her hair, and put her helmet on… or at least what she thought was on. She was ready to go. Hopefully the pictures will explain the rest. But don’t laugh too hard, it was extremely cute.

Eventually, they got going. At that point, we were all a little worried for mom’s safety. But, we figured… if anything happens, she’s a physical therapist, she’ll figure it out. I was happy to see St. Gabriel’s makeshift medical diagnostic lab in a backpack strapped to the back of the bicycle courtesy of Chase. It was quite an event when the motorcycle showed up in the village. When they go there, the patient was waiting in her small house on a mat with her husband and a kettle on a fire in the middle of the room. My mom took about twenty minutes teaching the group (the patient, the guardian, and the community health worker- CHW) the necessary physical therapy exercises, and they spent about twenty minutes repeating every single step exactly as instructed, no urgency or impatience needed.

Before they left, the CHW wanted to give them some ground nuts for the journey. They entered his house to find three gigantic bushels of tobacco, ten piles of window pains, and enough room for three or four people to stand. Sometimes I wonder about Malawians and their ideas about space. Who knows, maybe Americans are the ones with the warped sense of space.

My mom has been a jack of many trades during her visit this summer. One second she is on the back of a motorbike, and the next second she is visiting an elderly nun in the convent. The other day I went with her to visit one of the Carmelite Sisters. This woman was incredible. She arrived in Malawi with her nursing license in 1959 from Zambia. All she really wanted was someone to talk to. I can’t blame her; she has quite a lot to talk about. I am so thankful for hidden gems like this woman. Unless you happened to venture to St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Namitondo, Malawi and were somehow able to sneak into the nun’s convent, you would never know that this incredible woman, this incredible story, this incredible virtue, even existed. Well, here’s a tribute to incredible things that come and go unnoticed, except to the lucky few.

On Friday Josh and I traveled to the Baylor Clinic again and shadowed Chris Buck in the Kamuzu Wards as he worked as the HIV Counselor/MD. The Kamuzu Wards give you an interesting perspective of the real gaps in Malawian health care. There are two kids to a bed (one with diarrhea the other with pneumonia—each giving their own diagnosis to the other). Clinical officers are discharging patients without consulting a doctor or reason. Translators are scarcer than Chichewa-speaking doctors, and communication between Baylor and Kamuzu is non-existent. After a mini-bus breakdown, Josh and I arrived at the hospital by 10. By noon three of Dr. Buck’s patients had been discharged and two had died. Out of discouragement, he took us out to lunch at a local Malawian joint. He still claims that he misses Mexican food more than his family.

We visited Deus's house. It has a gigantic common room and four smaller rooms. Thanks to Kevin (aka Kelvin), and 5000 bricks made by hand, Prince will have a beautiful house to grow up in.

This week we decided to make pizza. We invited Shida, Alex, and his twins to join us for a taste of real Western food. Ten years from now, I will still remember that pizza; not because it was the best pizza that I’ve ever had, but because of the way that we had it, together.

We all did a sprint workout this week. When I say we all, I mean we all… as in every kid in the entire village. They think that every sprint is a race, and they don’t like to have recovery time in between races. The little ones (like Grace and Corrie) mark the “finish line” for us and give us high fives as we turn around. One-twenties will be a different experience for me this pre-season. Every time I cross the line I will be giving Grace a high five, and I will be remembering her strength, her endurance, her tiny hands, and her beautiful smile. Every time I cross the line, Malifa will be running right next to me and Alec will be dancing behind. Roderick will be keeping time, and twenty other kids will be waiting at the finish line ready to give me high-fives. This year, we will do it together.

“A part of you has grown in me. And so you see, it's you and me- together forever and never apart, maybe in distance, but never in heart.”

For They Were Fishermen

5am-Three people, one bike

6am- Twenty-four people, one bus

7am- Twenty two people, one bus

9am- Fifteen people, one pick-up truck

10am- Five people, one paradise

After a complete day of traveling, we arrived at Senga Bay. The pictures don’t do Lake Malawi justice, but at the least they’ll speak louder than words. Even after our long day of traveling, we decided to make the boat trip to Lizard Island. We all went swimming, although I hesitate to call Peter’s attempt swimming. It was more like drowning. I know I’m not one to talk, but Josh literally had to rescue him. When we got to the island, Josh and Chase immediately took of their life jackets and dove in. Peter did the same, insisting that he knew how to swim. We quickly found out otherwise. The lake was a majesty of fish. They were delighted to have us intrude on their paradise.

After the swim, we hiked all around the island and took a boat back to the lodge. Next, we decided to hike up the mountain to what is arguably the most beautiful sight in all of Malawi. It’s incredible that so much fresh water exists in Malawi, untouched in a beautiful oasis. By five o’clock we were all hungry, exhausted, and trying desperately to stay awake until dinner. It was all worth it. We had Malawi’s signature fish, chambo, out on the lodge porch with all of the lodge visitors for one gigantic barbeque dinner. Again, we all tried desperately to stay awake at least until nine. The next thing we knew, we were all waking up to the sound of curious monkeys and the endless bliss of the lake. After an incredible breakfast we were ready to head back to Namitete. The weekend was a reminder of the luxuries we sometimes take for granted.

When we got to Lilongwe, mom and Chase were ready to show us their surprise. They took us to the mall. As we sat in an Italian restaurant and ate chicken sandwiches with French fries, we could have sworn we were back in the US. After dinner came the surprise- hot chocolate. I know what you’re thinking... hot chocolate?—so what! But it was literally... hot... chocolate. It was as if someone had taken a chocolate bar and melted it in a cup. It was the best dessert on the planet—a hidden gem to the rest of the world.

There is really no way to describe the lake, so I have included tons of pictures.

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.