Peer Support

Last week was VSO peer support week. This four day event held twice annually is an opportunity for all the volunteers in country to get together and share experiences.

This was my first and I found it to be a very useful event. On a personal level it was a great opportunity to discuss the general ups and downs of Malawian life and share some war stories with other vols. On a professional level it was great to hear about some of the projects people had started within their placements and explore possible overlaps and opportunities for re-use in other areas.

Some of the interesting projects being implemented or designed were as follows;

• A role playing game to teach children and young adults about the dangers of HIV and the importance of practising safe sex
• Free Wi-Fi routers for nursing colleges (donated by a technology vendor) which will enable students and tutors to collaborate more effectively
• Introduction of a visual flowchart for nursing students so that they can quickly assess a patients care requirements based on their vital signs. For example, if blood pressure is over X you should do Y immediately. This would be something that every student could carry with them on the wards
• Do’s and Don’ts posters in HIV testing centres that remind both patient and tester what are important things to ask and inappropriate things to ask during counselling.  Many people are currently put off from getting HIV tests because of the embarrassment encountered at clinics

In our own project we decided to form a permanent user group that would meet regularly and feedback on how useful or otherwise the system was being. We’re very keen to move away from talking only to management at the ministry and get users on the ground much more involved in the development process. We also discussed ways of motivating and incentivising such users with things like off-site conferences or maybe even small giveaways  

All in all a very successful week, full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjMEpHXK

The Clinic

I suppose it was inevitable that I would get ill at some point during the year, I’m only grateful that it was after my family had gone back home and that it didn’t happen while I was on holiday.

On Monday last week I came down with a bug that saw me fixed to the toilet seat for much of the day. Remembering my training I drank masses of water tried to keep myself hydrated, however by about 4pm I had started to feel dizzy and was becoming feverish. Terrified it might be malaria I got Judy to drive me to the VSO approved clinic in Lilongwe which is far nicer than any of the general hospitals the country has.

Upon arrival the doctor took one look at me and before you could even say Malaria I was having blood taken out of one vein and sodium chloride pumped into another. I actually felt a million dollars as soon as they hooked me up to the IV drip as my main problem was really just de-hydration. The malaria test came back negative but my kidney function was impaired due to the lack of fluids so I had to stay in overnight on the drip for observation.

During my 24 hour stay they gave me a whopping eight bottles of antibiotics to get rid of whatever had caused the diarrhoea plus some Piriton to get rid of the side effects and a fever shot in my bum! To be honest I think they completely over medicated, partly because they’re terrified of having a VSO volunteer die on them and also (more cynically) because it means they can charge VSO for more drugs.

When they finally let me out I actually felt worse than when I went in because of the massive drug hangover I had, and just to make absolutely certain there wasn’t a single bacterium alive inside me they gave me yet another course of antibiotics to take home and carry on with.

Back at home I was so glad to be out of the hospital and “fixed” that I made myself a bowl of rich beef stew and cracked open a bottle of red. After dinner I popped one of the follow-up pills they’d given me and went straight to bed…

…Two hours later and I’m awake again, sweating, shaking and talking into the porcelain telephone!

The following morning, feeling like I’d been clubbing all night I read the leaflet that came with the pills they’d given me “Potentially Fatal: Disulfiram-like reaction when administered with alcohol” Great, they never mentioned that! I guess it’s not something that’s an issue for most Malawians!

Anyway, three days later and I’m finally back to sorts, it really has taken me longer to get over the treatment than it did to get over the illness.

I’ve decided not to take the rest of the antibiotics, I’m going to save them for next time and go and buy some ORS sachets for my first aid kit, that way I can hopefully avoid going back to the clinic

Visitors

Apologies it’s been such a long time since my last post. I’ve spent the last month travelling, first with Ron around the north of Malawi and then with my parents and sister in Zambia and the south of Malawi.

Ron's Visit

We spent a great two weeks touring around the north of Malawi, visiting several new places as well as showing off some others I’d been before. The trip did turn into something of a Top Gear special at times as we had the car battery fail on us at the start of the trip and then later on had a shock absorber fall off which we had to have hastily wielded back on by a local garage (only in Africa :-))

It was a great mix of Malawian safari and beach, camping and lodges. It was wonderful to see Ron again after almost four months of course and we both had an awesome time

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjKkTeGb

Family Visit

We’d booked a four day Zambian safari for the first week of my families visit in the South Luawangwa national park. This was my first opportunity to see some of the big game and cats that you don’t get in Malawi. We did a total of 4 game drives, two during the day and two at night, we were really lucky and saw some fairly uncommon sights; Lions with a kill, Lions mating (fairly disturbing photography) and a Leopard playing with her baby cub. To top it off most of the animals seemed to be with very new born young, presumably it makes sense to give birth just before the rains.

Some really great shots, full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjM7252k

After our Zambian safari I took my family on a tour of the south of Malawi. Again it was a mix of old and new for me, the highlight being Satemwa tea plantation in Thyolo; a little colonial but a wonderful and fascinating place to stay. We were in the old plantation managers house which came with two of our own domestic staff! Check out the colonial Dennis’s family portrait!

Full pictures available here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjM6YEk9