The main obstacles to development constantly surprise me. For example, the Head of Kindle’s Education Department would like to start a small business. I asked if he was considering a maize mill, used to grind the staple food here, and a popular choice for income generation. He was visibly shocked at the suggestion, and said if he did that then everyone would think he wanted to murder them. It is commonly believed that a maize-mill business can not succeed without human sacrifice.
A woman came to the clinic for cervical cancer screening, but when we did the screening we found that she didn’t have a cervix, or a uterus. She was visibly surprised at the news we gave her. She said that she had given birth by Caesarean five years ago and hadn’t had a period since. She knew that something must be wrong. Either the doctors didn’t tell her that they had given her a hysterectomy or else she didn’t understand it when they did. Since that day we’ve had at least two other women with this same story.
Tazelaar & Jolie are under the impression that they’re getting big, mostly just because now their clothes are too small and Taz can look his mom directly in the eye. But as you can see in this picture, they aren’t all that big. In fact, you can hardly see them at the base of this baobab tree near our new home.
Last week, after having many weeks of administrative work for the VIA (cervical cancer prevention through Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid) program, I was feeling discouraged about my role. It seemed like it was difficult to get many women to come to the VIA clinic and there were many barriers to integrating this program into the HIV clinic as part of their standard care. But then two women came in and reminded me of the need for this program. Continue reading “Positive Feedback”
I’ve had to start changing the way I get back and forth to Kindle each week, partly because of the unavailability of fuel and partly just because of the expense. A 130-mile round trip to Kindle in a car eats up a full day’s salary, even if we are able to find fuel!
Tuesday was quite an adventure in travel. Continue reading “A Long Day’s Journey”
Malawi has a well-deserved reputation as the “Warm Heart of Africa.” Just yesterday I was looking for a shop in town, and asked someone who was sitting at the side of the road for help. As it turns out, I was only a block away, and he pointed me in the right direction. I thanked him and started to head off, then he got up and walked with me, to show me exactly where it was. When it was in sight, I thanked him again, but he kept walking with me. He took me all of the way into the store and showed me where the manager was, in case I needed to talk to him. Continue reading “The Warm Heart of Africa”
A Malawian woman was leaving our home, and I asked her if I could open the gate for her. Except that the Shona word for “open,” from my Zimbabwe days, came out instead of the Chichewa word for open.
So what I actually said was “Can I undress for you? The gate.”
I’m at least glad that adding “gate” to the end made it obvious that I had made some sort of error!
Penny planned a training on VIA–Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (cervical cancer screening) at Partners in Hope (PIH) for this week. The gynecologist who first taught her about VIA during Penny’s visit to Malawi in 2009 is here in the country again, so Penny invited her to come and train more nurses in the procedure. Continue reading “Starting Cervical Cancer Screening”
Our kids are enjoying their Chichewa lessons with Amayi Goba, and they especially love that Amayi Goba plays games with them.
Our kids taught Amayi Goba how to play “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Then they learned that “duck” and “goose” are both “bakha” in Chichewa. So they had to modify the game a bit. They played “Duck, Duck, Chicken” instead.
We’re very happy that they’re learning some Chichewa. I took the kids with me to the market today, and for the first time they were confident enough to greet people there. A wonderful beginning!
The Stockers' Stories 