Kamuzu Central Hospital

Here's a picture from my previous village visit of a boy drinking juice out of a bag--a homemade juice box. =)

We may have shared with some of you that the Medical Council of Malawi has asked us to do an "orientation" at the central hospital here in Lilongwe in order to receive our license for practicing medicine in Malawi. They have allowed us to practice at Partners in Hope over the summer because of staffing issues, with the intention of starting our orientation in September. And although it's hard to believe, September is here.

So we started our work yesterday. Our first month will be spent on the medicine wards. And despite our knowledge of medicine in Malawi, it was quite shocking! I wish I was a writer so I could paint some word pictures for you. But it definitely overwhelms the senses. The wards are packed with people--all of the many patients have guardians there to care for them, gather their meds from the nurse, and provide them with food. The patients are extremely sick. And the wards are quite short-staffed. There is constant noise from the din of people as well as the constant wailing and mourning going on for the patients who have died. Thankfully it's not too hot yet and it's not diarrhea season, so the smells weren't too bad. In fact you can smell the porridge and nsima being cooked for the patients.

Today we saw patients in the female wards. The patients are separated into a diarrhea ward, a pneumonia/tuberculosis ward, and a meningitis ward. You don't see this in the states--usually it's the cardiac ward and everything else. Two of the patients we saw this morning died by the afternoon. Both of which had meningitis. Although the majority of the patients have HIV, there are many who do not, and yet they are still quite ill. In just two days we have reached a new level of frustration over the lack of resources for these patients.

Please pray for us during these next few months as we continue this orientation:

• Pray that we will continue to learn the medicine in Malawi
• Pray that we might be able to demonstrate the compassion and love of Christ to patients and staff despite the difficult work environment
• Pray that we might make connections with the staff there that might help provide continuity of care for our patients at PIH that need to be hospitalized
• Pray for the staff at PIH while we are away as they will be quite busy with the growing demands of patients.

Thank you for praying!

On a lighter note, here's a picture of Sydney and Sam in their uniforms for school.