Lake Malawi

Saturday, September 7

Today had an awesome beginning!  I woke up early to go check on Stephano, the diabetic patient.  Sam was rounding this am but had asked me to at come in a see this patient before I headed out of town.  The blood sugars were all within my target range. YAY!!!! I finally got to write up the discharge paperwork.  One of the sweet patient associates helped review all the teaching:giving insulin, checking blood sugars, recording it, what to do with highs and lows.  I will see him next Wednesday in clinic. I had brought in some note cards and a pen. It is just wild that here even asking people to record things is impossible because they don’t have paper and writing utensils.  The nursing students have trouble coming up with pens. I also dug a box out from the trash to put the soccer ball and pump in. Stephane was so excited that he looked like he was going to explode. I explained that he had to wait until he left the hospital to open it as all the patients could not see what I had given him or it would cause problems.  His family was incredibly grateful and emotional in their saying goodbye.

I then waited for the business office to open.  I wanted to pay for the bill. Partly knowing that this family will have significant medical expenses for the rest of his life and partly because his stay was so long in large part to poor dosing and monitoring by the staff.  I didn’t feel like it was right for the family to pay for this. I had wanted to be sneaky but the business person was late and I had a car full of people waiting on me. I finally had to leave a nurse with an envelope of money and a note to bill the rest to me.  I hope that works.

I am on cloud nine to have a critically ill patient going home and doing well.

I also am headed out on another adventure.  We are heading to Lake Malawi. I have really wanted to see it and I am going with Hanna and 4 medical students to spend the night there.  That means 6 of us in the car. We look almost local all packed in.

The drive is about 4 hours an I love just seeing the people and the villages.  It is also a lot of fun banter in the car. Storing telling and teasing. Google maps actuallly does a better than expected job here in the warm heart of Africa. We did have some segments of dirt road and maybe there were better options but it all just added to the view.  

We arrived at the hostel and found very few guests.  The demonstrations have held off but the news of them has caused many people to cancel their trips in this area.  Lucky us! We got a room upgrade and the place to ourselves. This place sits right on the beach of the lake and has a pool and restaurant.  We are each paying about $15. So fun!

I was able to spend the afternoon posting, and reading, and talking to Wayne. It was also great to watch the people in boats and canoes.  The women along the edge of the water did laundry and cleaned the dishes, using the rough sand to scrub. Children sang and danced. The water is crystal clear.  Today there were clouds. The younger girls would have preferred more sun but I was very happy with the shade and breeze. I sat in a lounge under a mango tree. I know-Africa is so rough!  I did keep having those moments of pause-look around, you are in Africa!

The we all drank fruity drinks and watched the sunset.  It was amazing! We played cards and shared stories of home and family.  The cook brought us our dinner of salty beef and sauce and mashed potatoes out on the porch.  We played more games and laughed a lot and did a lot of terrible singing with the radio. It was a fun day.  A gift of rest and refreshment!  

Another fun part was that at dinner, Lisa asked if we should have a “moment of silence or something”.  I asked if they would be okay if I prayed. They all agreed and I said the prayer. Afterwards, there were many questions about how I knew what to say and if it was pre-practiced.  It gave me a chance to talk about how my faith was relational with God. That I talked to him like I would talk to my dad. So much seeking and curiosity and I feel honored that they are vulnerable with me about this.

I went back to the room and got showered and ready for bed.  Hanna came in not long after. We had a good discussion about faith, Christians that she has had contact with in the past, and morals and cultural norms.    She had not been a part of the faith discussion back at Hope’s Inn. We talked about Jesus-historical person, Son of God. I was able to share my beliefs. She has more of a view of all religions being similar with ideas of love and serving others. I talked about the distinguishing of Christianity as one in which God pursues us out of love and sacrificially made a way for us to reach him instead of a works and scales paradigm.  She seemed to appreciate that and commented about a feeling of seeing true love and concern for people from me instead of a push to make people follow rules and convert. I was honest with her in saying that I did desire for her to know Jesus as I did in that I want her to have the same peace, joy, and security in heaven that I do.  

I don’t know if these seeds will grow, but I am thankful that God has put me in a place to  get to plant them. I am sad that this generation has so much disdain for the stuffy Christians that they have been with that are quick to judge and condemn.  It is also interesting that this particular group is so dedicated to caring and serving others. They openly talk about how comparatively the “Christians” seem to do less even though by their faith they should do more.  On top of it, is a very legalistic perspective that they hear in chapel. It is like trying to paint a light colored delicate painting on an already used canvas of harsh colors and strokes. But God can restore and make all things new!