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