Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Our last trip to Malawi in August 2010 was successful but very different from our other two trips. We went with a smaller team this time. Just Jaako, myself, my 10 year old daughter Janika and our friend Hannah. We spent the majority of our time travelling project to project seeing how our money from previous trips was spent and which projects would receive more. This is a process we find the most difficult. It's always heartbreaking to have to say no, or give less than they have asked for. But when you are going with a certain amount, we need to know that the money we bring is used in the best way possible.
It was wonderful seeing Malawi through my daughter's eyes. She saw the things I first fell in love with, but through the busyness I had lost sight of us. Like the smell of the tree's and flowers, the beauty of the natural surroundings and just the over all feeling of the country. It's sooo beautiful but with so much poverty. It's almost overwhelming at times.
We suffered the most illnesses on this trip. Fortunately, Janika and Hannah just suffered from your regular stomache troubles and tiredness from our hectic travels. Jaako and I did not fare as well. Jaako had braces put on prior to our trip and when a bracket fell off in Malawi, a speedy search for orthodontests and dentists proved a much harder task than we had thought. We finally found an orthodontest who fixed the bracket but in the process the wire moved and it began to dig into his gum until it permanently got stuck in his gums. We were by then hours from the capitol city and I somehow managed to pry it out and we stuck cotton on the end of it to prevent it from poking back in. His gum became enflamed and I knew we had to head back to Lilongwe. This was hard to do because I was in bed ridden with malaria. I was so sick that I could barely lift a cup to my mouth to take my meds. But I finally got all 13 pills (kids dose) down and within 2 days I was able to make the long journey back to Lilongwe to get Jaako's wire fixed. In Lilongwe, we found a dentist that had studied in BC and we were so happy to know we were in good hands. He gave Jaako an antibiotic, rubbed ointment on the infection and cut the wire. So Jaako was set. Or so we thought......... That night Jaako began to complain about a sore back. A mosquito bite he had gotten at the lake had become badly infected. He had a golf sized cist on his spine. Our dear friend Nunga tried to squeeze the pus out, but it just got too painful and Jaako was overwhelmed. We then brought him to a clinic, where they gave him 6 freezing needles and squeezed the cyst clean. Poor Jaako! It was such a horrible ordeal. We managed to stay healthy for the last 5 or 6 days then and we returned to Canada. After being home for about 3 or 4 weeks, I was hospitalized for a Malaria relapse. The dose of quinine I was in killed that virus and my gallbladder in the process and 4 weeks ago my gallbladder came out! But now we are all healthy and recovered. I am ready to begin to document my trip. Hopefully the saying "Better late than never" applies here.
I told the story of all our illnesses not to gain sympathy. But to let people know that although a trip to Africa is awesome and I would highly recommend it, it can't be romanticized and it's not a holiday or vacation for us.
Either way, illnesses or not, I would never trade our trips to Malawi in for anything. Being able to help one child, one family, one school at a time is all we need to keep going. It is absolutely rewarding!!
I hope to in the next few weeks, begin to blog about each village we visited and give you a snap shop of what Hope for Malawi did and how we were able to help.
I want to thank you for your support these past years. Hope for Malawi exists because of caring people like you!
Until next time,
Sue
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