Day 4 in Malawi: Our Lady of Fatimas RC Church and Senga Bay Baptist Medical Clinic

Our day started with breakfast at 7 PM. Then we were off to an 8 AM service at the nearby St. Fatima’s Roman Catholic Church. It was a festive and joyful service, with lots of singing. The music was wonderful and at least a couple of us were sorry that we did not have a tape recorder. The fact that most of us could not understand the language did not bother us. For there was definitely a wonderful and loving spirit in the place.

Afterwards, one of the Sisters (there is a convent with four Sisters) prepared tea and popcorn. Fresh popcorn right off the cob. It was wonderful. Later we met with a local group that uses parish space, the Salima Parish Home Based Care Organization. The volunteers and some of the clients again sang us a song of welcome. One of the things that this organization does is that they fund a student fees for teenagers to attend the local secondary school. In Malawi, every child goes to primary school, up through eighth grade for free. Those who wish to go to secondary school must pay, and many can not afford the fee. We met Augustine, who is in form 3 in secondary school, funded by the Salima Parish HBC. I got to talk with him for a short time. He was a very nice, soft spoken young man. His favorite subject is geography.

What struck me by the presentation given us by volunteers working with the Salima Parish HBC is that those who live with HIV are: “very happy, we are not worried about being HIV positive because we are alive and are happy.” They also run a children’s care corner that sounds somewhat similar to the one we saw yesterday run by SOSA. They emphasized that they work as a team with Our Lady of Fatima RC Church.

We had a nice lunch at a four star hotel on Senga Bay and spent an hour or so visiting the Senga Bay Baptist Medical Clinic. We met with Lawrence, one of the staff who is the HIV Coordinator and works with community development. They have three programs: home–based care programs, voluntary counseling and testing, and a program emphasizing preventing mother–child HIV transmission. In addition, they have a new dental clinic and a maternity clinic with 10 beds. There is a private room adjoining the maternity clinic for woman requiring isolation. The delivery room has three beds.

Lawrence has also done a lot of work with local communities to educate them about drinking safe water and improved sanitation. These education programs have led to a reduction in the cholera rate.

Then back to Carolina’s where I am catching up with my blog entries. When we get back to Wendels, I will post this one and the one I wrote yesterday.

In closing, here are my observations from today’s van ride:

An ox cart traveling the other direction on the road.

A pickup truck stuck in a ditch with a group of people trying to get the truck unstuck.

A small airport.

Stopping to let an ox cart pass.

Stopping to let cattle cross the street.

Something that looks like a factory with a smoke stack.

A communication tower.

A couple of houses in town with a TV antenna on the roof.