Malawi reflection

Everyone loved having photos taken! (Mbame primary school, Blantyre)

It’s been a little over a week since arriving back in England after a month in Malawi. It did seem to take me a while to readjust; everything just seemed so modern and technological back here! The main thing that I keep thinking about and will always remember from my month in Malawi is the abundant happiness of all of the people I came across over there, the smiling faces everywhere! Their content and joy with their lives and the little they had was quite overwhelming and almost made me feel guilty for the way we live our own lives in this Western world and the lack of appreciation we have for the numerous resources we have available to us and our quality of life. Each and every child I met was uniquely resourceful, humorous, showed kindness and protection to one another and showed immense love to us visitors; there were several that I particularly became attached to and I believe that I will continue to think about them often. Especially with the amount I have been talking about them and showing photos/videos to friends and family! A valuable experience I had there was being involved in an interview of a family with 4 albino children, along with Dr Lund, Liam and Bryony whilst at Lake Malawi. I had never participated in this kind of interview before and so it was extremely interesting to initially listen to the conversation between the more experienced interviewers and the family and to then feel I could ask my own appropriate questions. I found that the conversation ran more smoothly when questions allowed for the interviewees to expand and develop their answers into other topics. The children were quite shy and it was often the father who answered for them but I had expected this. I had learnt from Pat that it was normal practice to have the first interview in the interviewees home as this is often a secure place for them, where they can feel more comfortable and allows a rapport to be built which can help with future interviews. We had Harrison (our driver from Fisherman’s Rest) with us to act as translator when necessary, which was useful on several occasions. However, the standard of English of the family was generally good due to the level of tourism in that area. We also made sure that we took appropriate gifts for the children, including sun cream, long sleeved clothing, magnifying glasses to help with their reading as albinos suffer with nystagmus and we also took lots of stationary as the children were all re-starting school. This was just one of the numerous unforgettable experiences I had in Malawi and I wish I could go back as soon as possible to continue helping! This trip has inspired me in the long term as I am about to start my PhD researching new antioxidant treatments for sickle cell anaemia. This is a blood disorder that is mainly prevalent in regions of Africa; therefore I would like to complete my PhD successfully with the intention of using my findings in field work in Africa to potentially introduce new treatments there. It is safe to say that I will never regret my time in Malawi and I can’t thank everyone involved enough for making it the best experience of my life to date!

Sarah and Jacqueline, students at the local nursery (Lake Malawi)

Beautiful Lake Malawi

Mpemba health clinic

On Wednesday, the DASH team visited Mpemba health clinic, and to say the least, people's opinions were mixed.

The clinic is poorly equipped and hugely understaffed, where patients walk hours to the clinic and then wait hours to be seen; and most cases are then referred to Queen's in Blantyre.

In my opinion, the staff at the clinic should be praised, and I don't think words have yet been invented to just sum up how much amazing work they do. Despite conditions and lack of necessary equipment, the amazing staff remain unphased and work endlessly until their job is done.

We should all focus more on the positives than the negatives.

Gule Wamkulu - 'Big Dance'

Edgar, who is Pat’s scriptwriter came with his friend James, a musician, to tell us about the history of Malawi and explain the Gule Wamkulu (goo-lee wham-koo-loo). A Gule Wamkulu is a traditional tribal dance that involves dancers taking on the persona of spirit while wearing a mask.

 

Edgar and James

A Gule Wamkulu dance has three functions:

Education

Therapy

Entertainment

The director of the dancers will consult with the local community to address issues that are rife at that particular time. Each dance can take up to 40 days to prepare and is used to educate people about their ways, what they are doing wrong and things that need to be changed.

In Malawi, when a man marries a woman, he will move to her village and be “owned” by her family. This can often result in bad treatment, so it is believed that the dance may have originated as a release or therapy for men from the hardship that they suffered.

Gule Wamkulu often take place on special occasions or at prestigious events. They are incredible to watch and we were lucky enough to see one during our time in Malawi last year.

The dance also involves music and singing. It begins when the drumming begins. Hoards of onlookers came running to the middle of the village and within minutes the whole area was full!

Three different groups of characters involved in the dance:

-       Animals

-       Traits & Characteristics

-       Ethnic/ Professional Groups

Animals portrayed during the dances include hare, elephant and lions. The hare - kalulu, is a trickster. It is the first to perform and neutralises any magic powers that are active within the area. The elephant rarely performs and is only seen on very important occasions such as the death of a chief.

The Crocodile

Traits and characteristics depicted during the dances include Chadzunda and Nadola. Chadzunda is somebody that doesn’t listen. This attempts to encourage people to be more attentive. Nadola is a character that picks up anything that does not belong to him, and is used in an attempt to condemn stealing.

Ethnic and professional characters are often used to ridicule particular groups. One such character is mzungu, meaning “white man”. It is a word we’ve heard many times during our time in Malawi but is used in an inquisitive way rather than offensive. 

Mzungu – White Man

Police Man

CURE; teddy donation

Our amazing girls Liz and Erin holding their toy donations which were all lovingly provided by friends and family back home for them to bring and give to children here in Malawi.

They both decided that they would like to donate some of their teddies to Cure in Blantyre to the children our wonderful physiotherapists are currently working with; all of the children they are working with are all inpatients with mild to severe mobility issues.

Majete Nature Reserve

Majete is located in the Shire Valley and was declared a nature reserve in 1955. Following excessive poaching and poor management, resulting in certain species being wiped out from the area, the reserve was taken over by Africa Parks in 2003 and transformed into the incredible site that it is today. 

The initial priority of Africa Parks was to fence the entire reserve, making it more manageable as well as creating a much-needed barrier between the animals and the local community – for the benefit of both parties.

Following 4 years of work, in 2007, animals finally began to be re-introduced to the park. Since then, Majete has become home to a number of rhino, over 400 elephants and 5 lions as well as a whole host of other animals.

Our Vehicle for the Game Drive

During our time at Majete, we went on a guided game drive, saw lots of different animals, camped under the clear Africa night sky and enjoyed local food in the restaurant.

Elephants Protecting a Cub

Hippos Lazing in the Summer Sun

Female Nyala Drinking at the Water Hole

The Beautiful Zebra

We saw some beautiful animals during our time at Majete and were able to get very close to take these wonderful pictures!