Zomba

Tobacco fields between Blantyre and Zomba A church in Zomba with the plateau in the background

We have finished our tropical medicine training in Blantyre and look forward to starting work at the clinic on Monday. Mike will be working full time and I will be working in the morning 3-4 days a week

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Kids feeding trout Sam after falling in the mud

We have some pictures to share of our trip back to Lilongwe from Blantyre. We took the scenic route through the Zomba Plateau. It was a beautiful wooded and mountainous area. We stopped at a trout farm and fed the fish. As you can see, Sam got a bit close and ended up falling in the mud. Then we had lunch at a hotel at the top of the plateau. It had gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains and villages. We were itching to hike but didn't have time. We were able to buy strawberries and raspberries up on the mountain as well. We loved it. Mike and I both think it's the most beautiful part of Malawi we've seen thus far.

The beautiful gardens at the hotel

Graduation

Syd waiting for the award ceremony Sydney and Mrs. G

Here are some pictures from Sydney and Sam's "graduations" this year. Sydney finished Reception--a sort of Pre-K (although in the British system it is actually Kindergarten), and she will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. She loves school and her teacher Mrs. G who came from the states to teach for a year. They had an award ceremony the last week of school and Sydney received an award for being self-controlled, giving and considerate. She's very proud of it, as are we.

Sam will be finishing preschool this week and will start reception in the fall. The "graduating class" put on a little show for the parents--singing and acting out many nursery rhyme songs. Here they are singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. (Sam is in the middle of the back row with the blue shirt) For a kid who loves to sing at home, this waving of stars was the most involved he was in the program. The rest of the time he was too shy or too distracted to sing. Oh well. It was fun anyways.

Now, Mike and I have to come up with some creative ways to keep the kids busy this summer as we start work on Monday. They are going to miss school and we'll miss having them at school =)

Learning

Mike in front of the hospital

As we mentioned previously, Mike and I are taking a Tropical Medicine in Practice Course (TMIP) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre this month. It is a practical extension of the 3-month Tropical Medicine course in Liverpool, England. There are about 16 students--most of them from the UK. Some of them just finished the course at Liverpool and are at the beginning of their careers with hopes to someday work abroad, and others are just finishing their careers as neurologists, surgeons, hematologists and are wanting to do something different in retirement. And then there is Mike and I who are just trying to get a grasp of medicine in Malawi.

The medical department in morning report

It's been a great course with good didactic teaching and great practical experience. The staff here are also involved in teaching the medical students, so the schedule reminds us a lot of our medical school days with morning reports, ward rounds and case presentations. And a lot of pimping of the medical students--it brings back memories.

There is some talk of starting a medical school "campus-extension" in Lilongwe. The medical school is growing from 8 students to 30 and now to 60 a year and there is a need for more places for the students to get their practical training. It's possible that Partners in Hope would be part of this extension which would be quite exciting for us. We would like to be a part of training future doctors and health care providers for Malawi.

Some of the other TMIP students seeing patients on the wards

Where does the time go?

Yes, it has been a month since our last posting. I apologize for the lack of communication on our part. But I do have some excuses. Shortly after our last posting, Sam got a fever and abdominal pain. 3 days later he was getting worse and we didn't know what was going on so we took him into the doctor. We were quite concerned at the time of possible surgical problems or rare tropical diseases and wondered if we would be heading to South Africa for some further care. But after a day of going to 2 different doctors and the Central Hospital for an ultrasound and x-ray, we finally had a diagnoses. Pneumonia! Thankfully nothing too unusual. But it did take him 4 or 5 more days to break the fever and the better part of 2 weeks to get back to normal--so we were sort of preoccupied.

In the meantime we were getting ready to move our family for the month to Blantyre, another city 4 hours south of Lilongwe. Mike and I are doing a tropical medicine training there. We unfortunately don't have reliable internet access there. So right now, we are halfway through the month and I am taking advantage of a weekend home in Lilongwe to use our computer and internet connection. We will tell you more about the course in a future blog.

For now, here's some pictures of the family. Last weekend Mike and I had the opportunity to play in a tennis tournament. We found ourselves playing against 17 year old Malawians that train every day. And since we haven't played more than 4 times in the last year we were a bit out of our league. But it was a fun opportunity. As you can see, Sam is looking happy and healthy. And we enjoyed the weekend with the Harthoorns.

Oh, and I almost forgot. We had to say good-bye to the Jansens last month as well. They are back in the states for the year to reconnect with family, friends and supporters. We miss them already.