July 9th – Anglican Village in Mtunthama

Today, I caught a ride with Liza, a 38 yr old white South African, to Kasungu. Liza was born in Southwest South Africa (now Namibia) and grew up on a farm there. Then during the independence, her family fled the violence to South Africa. She grew up under the Apartheid, went to Switzerland where she received a degree in education and visited Malawi for a holiday, loved it so much that she decided to stay and start a life here. We arrived at Kasungu and she dropped me off at the Malawi National Bank.

Then I called Peter Minjale, the Clinical Officer at St. Andrews hospital, to come and pick me up in Kasungu. The hospital is about 25 minutes outside of Kasungu and is part of an Anglican Mission which also includes a Church, a primary school, and a secondary school. When I first arrived I was quite surprised to see many azungu’s (African for white people) there. In fact I was slightly bummed out that I wasn’t the only azungu in the area – I wouldn’t necessarily be the center of attention anymore…..what a selfish feeling to have. In addition, with all of the support the Anglican village was getting I couldn't but help wonder if my support would have done more back at Ludzi Mission......

The first azungu I met was a 19 year old guy named James from England. He is on his “gap” year, which is basically a year sabbatical that English students take after graduating from secondary school before heading off to the university. James was planning on attending medical school this fall and decided to spend three months of his gap year in Malawi at the St. Andrews hospital.

James has had string of bad luck with his health while he was in Malawi. When he first arrived his right lung collapsed and he was bed ridden for the first two weeks here at St. Andrews hospital. Following that he got a viral infection in his throat that quickly became infected with bacteria leading to multiple ulcers that made it hard for him to eat and even talk. Despite all of this he refused to fly home because he loved his experience at the Anglican mission. He would struggle with these ulcers during my entire visit in Kasungu. We later found out that the Malaria prophylaxis, Doxycycline, was known in some individuals to cause these ulcers.