week 16

Taught the English Sunday School lesson on Sunday morning. It was on Abrahams sacrifice of Isaac. And it wasn’t in the kids bible’s that we had available. Of course it isn’t much of a kids’ story either. We learned and repeated that Abraham is the father of all nations and his trust in God was so great that he was willing to follow God’s direction even to the point of killing his son. Then we sang “Father Abraham” and colored a picture of the story. Not too bad I don’t think. Reminded me some of being back at Ebenezer as the kids were all malawian but I did have a translator so I think they understood more.
Got a new flat mate. Jane is a nurse from England who has been working on cruise ships. She was a tutor at the nursing school for 18 months starting in 2007 and she visited last year so I’ve met her. She is very nice and we haven’t stopped laughing since she moved in. I think we’re going to get along quite well. She’s here until sometime in September. We think we got rid of the bees in the third room and it is looking quite nice…hope the bees stay away!
At the epilepsy clinic on Tuesday we had quite a few patients and a substitute doctor. It went pretty well as we had scheduled fewer patients since we knew the doctor would be out…but it took just as long as usual because he had to read the medical histories from the health passports. Which is reading other doctor’s notes (often illegible) and asking what you hope are the right questions for the patient. Luckily this was an easier day with the patients responding to their own names and usually bringing the correct health passport. There were also medical students in the room- some of them Malawian and so there were multiple people to translate and try to understand the patients’ stories.
It is impressive and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but unlike in the first world where all of our medical records are on file and we don’t really have to keep up with anything, here the patient is responsible for keeping his or her own health passport which is or can be a comprehensive record…they are expected to bring it with them when they come and they must have it in order to see the doctor or get medication (mankwala). The hospital does keep records—for those patients who are admitted especially—but to find them is not usually done if/when the patient returns for other illness or followup.
Had a meeting at the youth office on what we learned from the followup in bowe. This is the planning/brainstorm meeting for the girls’ program. I was told that the meeting was starting at 10…my ride to town got me there at 9 so I chatted and did some computer stuff while waiting. Abusa had gone to malingude at 7 and was planning to be back by 10 (not likely) but we could have the meeting without him as the other women would be there…4 of us and we started about 11…first we went over the list of issues the girls raised when we asked what they thought the issues were and the ways we might be able to solve them.
PROBLEMS: given no chance to lead, not respected by boys, no opportunity at church, fear of speaking to groups, different denomination from their parents
AT SCHOOL: lack of school fees, don’t know why they should go, shortage/laziness of teachers without supervision, teachers taking advantage of girls
WHY THERE ARE SO MANY EARLY MARRIAGES: girls have more responsibility at home, when young they are told to be adults, they have nothing else to keep them busy as they don’t go to school, it gives them status
HOW TO SOLVE: trainings, prayers and retreats that will bring enlightenment and knowledge
So we started brainstorming on what we would teach at a training—public speaking tips, salvation, prayer, holiness, relationships, importance of education, goal setting, decision making…and then they wondered who would pay for it…I said that we would need a budget before we could figure that one out…which means another meeting—not sure why we couldn’t do that now but ok…when? Well they asked me when. I tried to be flexible for them but they wanted a date, then when I gave one they said that they would have to check with abusa first…(why did we just go through that then? ) we adjourned. Abusa arrived back just after 1 and my ride picked me up about 10 minutes after that…
Another trip to the airport to drop off more friends…hard to see them go but so glad we got to meet. Then I escaped to the lake for the weekend…probably shouldn’t have done that as my stomach had been feeling strange most of the week though nothing had happened. Felt so carsick on the way and it took over 24 hours before the queasiness went away…the lake was beautiful though and peaceful. The ride back was ok (thankfully).