Day 6: The children at KASO

Day 6: Kanengo AIDS Support Organization

This morning we visited two sites of the Kanengo AIDS Support Organization (KASO) in Kanengo, a town not far from Lilongwe. At both sites that we visited, they run a pre-school program where in addition to pre-school activities, they also provided a meal.

The first site was not far from Lilongwe, perhaps 20 minutes. The second site was about a 20 minute drive from the first site along a dirt road that grew more rutted and dusty as we got further and further into the countryside. The director of the program is a wonderful man named Richard.

At both sites they had a few children's books, some in English, some in Spanish. It did not seem to matter. A book is a book. Just as I was wondering how they teach mathematics ideas to the preschoolers, I glanced at the blocks. So, I asked Richard, who was standing near me, they use the blocks to teach counting? He said yes. At the second site, and I'm sorry that I was unable to get a picture of this, they had a poster (from UNICEF?) with very simple pictoral multiplication ideas.

Note the boy with guitar in front of the table of books. I asked him to play some music for me while I took his picture.

Beauty in Malawi

There is incredible beauty in Malawi. As demonstrated by these photos from gardens at a restaurant near Wendels where we had lunch this afternoon.

Contrast these pictures with images of dry and sometimes dusty vegetation because it is the dry season here in Malawi (April through November)

Day 5: Back to Lilongwe

After breakfast at Carolinas where they served us local fruit, bananas and papayas, on the house, we drove back to Lilongwe. On the way we were scheduled to visit two programs.

The first one took us off of the main road and onto a rutted dirt road for 30 to 40 minutes, one way. I was riding shotgun in the car Don was driving. We have both a car that Don drives and the van that Luzu drives. Anyway, this gave us a chance to see what life is like in rural villages in Africa. Lots of traditional round huts with thatched roofs. When we got to our destination, there were some women and children who greeted us. I think that the person that we had hoped to see was not there that day.

So we drove back to the main road, this time I was sitting in the van. We ended up missing our visit at our second destination because we had the wrong directions. We meet the director of this program for dinner, we bought him and his wife dinner. He is a very nice and intelligent young man. The kind of man who can help Malawi in the future.

We got back to Lilongwe. Don's wife, Mary and I had an adventure walking around a two block area of Lilongwe, crossing streets three times. Crossing streets is almost like taking your life out of your hands. But we both came out the other end, so to speak.

Those of us who are staying at Wendels, got to Wendels and immediately went off to our rooms to hook up to the internet to write home to friends.

I am late to breakfast at the start of day six, so I'll sign off for now.

Saints

All of the staff at Bottom Hospital -- physicians, midwives, clinical officers, RNs, laboratory staff, administrative staff -- are saints.

I especially want to thank the OB/GYN who took the time to meet with us that day, Dr. Medguid.

Dr. Medguid, I will never forget you.

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.

Day 3: Lilongwe to Salima Bay

We left Wendels for Salima Bay, one to two hours north of Lilongwe, not far from Lake Malawi.

Observations in van ride:

Two oxen pulling cart accompanied by two teenage boys.

Nice road

Group of residences, little boy playing with old tire.

Goats, lots of goats

Several villages with round houses with thatched roofs.

Catholic or Anglican Church.

Another Ox Cart.

Small roadside stands

Boys with bamboo displays

Women at well pumping water

Sudden stop for goats crossing road.

Small market areas, businesses in individual stalls.

Cattle grazing along side road.

More woman pumping water from well or bore hole.

Roadside stand with tomatoes for sale.

Police checkpoint, they stop a van ahead of us and let us through.

Another market area, people selling various goods, bamboo furniture, fruit, cabbages.

Electric wires. Are the villages able to afford the cost of the hook–up? Probably not.

Another girl pumping water.

What could be charcoal for sale.

The smell of smoke.

Someone on a motor cycle.

What could be a grain elevator? Or was it a water tower?

Burned grass: Luzu said that they burn grass to scare out the mice. They eat the mice, or sometimes sell mice on a stick to passersby.

Electric substation.

A large tree, approximately two feet wide, that has been cut down.

Salima Aids Support Organization: Started by a nurse in 1993 to increase AIDs awareness in community. Programs include youth outreach, home based care, work with orphans, voluntary counseling, and testing. One of the goals is to break down fears of AIDs. Before someone with children dies, they are asked to identify a family member who can care for their children so they are not orphaned.

They have what they call a children’s care corner every Saturday. As we were there on a Saturday, we got to meet the children, most of whom were under the age of fourteen and many of whom were orphaned. SASO provides them with two meals, play time, share experiences, promote oneness and nondiscrimination. The children’s care corner meets on the grounds of a primary school. When we arrived, they were gathered in the school building singing us a song of welcome. It was very special to be greeted in a joyous musical welcome by a lot of smiling shildren.

Later I asked what they liked best about coming to SASO. Here are some response: shoes (he was the only one wearing shoes), children’s corner, education, games such as football (soccer), and food.

As we were talking with some of the adult volunteer workers, I took a snapshot of a group of children gathered nearby. They were excited by the camera, and even more excited by seeing their pictures. They were laughing as the pushed to get a glimpse of the small photo on my digital camera. I had to move because the kids and I were making too much noise. So, I tried to take more pictures and they kept waving their hands in the air. It was hard to get them to stop moving for the picture as they wanted to move forward closer to the camera.

The final stop of the day was to visit one of the home–based care patients that SASO is working with, a young woman, aged 28 with two children whose husband walked out on here after her HIV diagnosis. She walked out to meet us, because their was a funeral going on in the village. It touched us all deeply that she did so, because she was so small, frail, and voiceless.

More observations from the van:

A village or church school with 2 VIP latrines

Two women carrying large metal pails on their head. Are the pails filled with water.

Man on a bicyle carrying a load of firewood tied on a rack on the back of the bike.

We are staying tonight and tomorrow night on Senga Bay, near Salima, Malawi, in a place called Carolina’s Beach Resort. I am sharing a dormitory with a very nice young woman named Stephanie. Senga Bay is on Lake Malawi, one of the largest lakes in the world. It is a bit windy as I write this and the waves are rolling in.

Day 2, Lilongwe Malawi

We spent some time together after breakfast with more introductions, a chance to share a little bit about ourselves, and taking care of business.

The first order of the day was a visit to the open market in Lilongwe. Very crowded, with stalls on either side of a narrow walkway. When we walked in there were three or four women sitting on the ground with baskets of three different kinds of beans on their laps. And more beans in baskets surrounding them. They were wearing brightly colored chitenje cloths. Chitenje cloth, are large brightly colored cloths that women wear as skirts or dresses, as well as to carry infants.

I purchased one to have when we visit rural villages where women wear skirts and not pants. And yes, I will wear one over my pants. It is purple.

There did seem to be an organization to the layout. We saw grains and beans first. A short distance into market there were many stalls where woman were selling chitenje cloth. There were crates and crates of live chickens for sale. Each crate had several chickens. Later was fish, lots and lots of fish, including sardines and chambo. What struck a couple of us was the decorative patterns that the fish were arranged in. And no ice. The vendors would sprinkle water on the fish. A short distance away were dried chambo.

After visiting the open air market, we had about an hour. I went and got some cash from the ATM with a couple of others from our group before going to a fast food restaurant called Nandos. I think that Nandos is a chain as one young woman in our group who has been living in South Africa for over a year reported about Nandos in Johannesburg. I stiffled the temptationt to order a burger and fries. I had a chicken wrap, mildly spiced, french fries, and a diet coke. No ketchup for the fries, but they did have vinegar.

After lunch, we went to the grocery store and I picked up some bottled water, along with some peanuts and cereal bars for those times when we are not stopping for lunch.

Then it was time go to the Bottom Hospital, the free maternity hospital in Lilongwe. We meet with one of the OB/GYNs on the staff. One of two OB/GYNs. I do not think that I am ready to write about Bottom Hospital yet. All I could do was to think about my Dad, he would be horrified. They see 2.5 million woman a year, with 12,000 deliveries. And 2 OB/GYNs and 6 clinical officers. From what I recall from some reading that I have done, a clinical officer in Malawi has a couple of years of training and performs many medical functions, including, I think, minor surgical procedures. There are 2 to 3 midwives per shift. For 2.5 million woman a year.

And only one operating room.

Whole blood is only available from 8 to 4.

This is a humanitarian crisis. . . I felt the tears well up. And my words can not yet describe what I saw. I am not sure that my words ever will.

We left Bottom Hospital and drove through a residential area. Small houses, close together, some barely more than shantys. Some with pit laterines (out houses) some with indoor plumbing. And lots and lots of kids. Kids playing and laughing. Others just hanging. And the roads in this part of town, full of potholes. This makes the worst dirt road I have driven on in northern New England look like a newly paved highway.


We got to a home based care organization, Kabaso, that works in this community. Once a week a nurse comes with supplies for the AIDs patients, to their homes accompanied by volunteers from the community. On Friday afternoon Kabaso brings the children of those living with AIDs together. When we got there, they sang us a song of welcome, full of joy.

Their joy could not take away the horrors that I witnessed at Bottom Hospital. But it did provide a counterbalance.


I must say a few words about the very wonderful group of people that I am traveling with in Malawi. A wonderful group of people. And Don and Mary, our trip leaders, are doing a wonderful job of organizing our itinerary, including last minute changes as happened today.

Internet access and lack thereof

Tomorrow (Saturday June 16), I leave the land of easy internet access for two nights when we leave Wendels in Lilongwe for Carolina's on Senga Bay. We will back here at Wendels for two nights on Monday, June 18. Starting Wednesday, June 20, I will be without internet access for six days, until Tuesday, June 26 when we return to Wendels..

The plan is that, no matter what, I will write a blog entry each night based on that days activities, and possibly some thoughts and reflections. I will save these to my hard drive, and when I return to Wendels I will upload each entry to my blog. When I am at Wendels, I will post directly to my blog.

If I get to an e-mail or internet cafe on the days when we aren't at Wendels, I will post about what ever happens to be on my mind at that moment.

Day 1: First Images of Malawi

Flying into Lilongwe, I noticed decent sized areas that were bare of vegetation except for some grass, interspersed with groupings of trees. But not large groupings of trees.

I had read that much of the trees have been cut down for firewood. I wonder if people in Malawi sell firewood for income?

The international airport near Lilongwe is small, friendly, and manageable. A bus or coach met us at the plane to take us to the terminal. I would have welcomed the walk, my knees were stiff from all those hours on an airplane. But I digress.

I meet our driver Luzu, I liked him immediately. I am looking forward to getting to know them. I know that Luzu will be with us for the two weeks.

Driving to Lilongwe, we drive on the left side of the road as they do in Britain.

Observations from the van

We went past several patches of charred ground, blackened, as if there had been a fire. I wonder what that is about?

Many, many tree stumps, some covered with foliage, perhaps new growth where the tree stump is still viable and starting to grow.

Men walking to and from a factory. It turns out to be a tobacco factory.

A few solitary huts by the side of the road.

Men selling what seemed to be corn.

Hand made furniture, table and chairs by the side of the road. Are these for sale?

Women carrying baskets on their heads, or was it water? I couldn’t tell.

Two men slaughtering an animal, while another of the same species looked on.

Many people are barefoot.

Many people walking on dirt paths along the road, one or two on bicycles.

A really cool looking lizard crawling up a brick wall.

A petrol station.

A group of pit latrines or outhouses.

Some nice flowers, what appeared to be larger "bush-like" poinsettias

Two cattle walking on a dirt path.

First dinner as a group at Wendel's Guest House. Our guest was the Honorable Marjorie Ngaunje, Minister of Health (for Malawi) and Member of Parliamet. She is one awesome lady. And her daughter Grace, another awesome lady.

Sitting here in my mosquito netting writing this on my laptop.

Mosquito netting

A trip to Africa is not complete without, you guessed it, mosquito netting. This is a not so great photo of my bed at Wendel's complete with mosquito netting. I promised a picture of mosquito netting and I delivered. I'm also a little punchy after spending 14 hours on two airplanes flying from London to Malawi. And I only forgot a couple of relatively unimportant things, some nicer socks.

We had our first dinner as a group, I'll post more about that tomorrow morning.

One thing I am struck by is how nice the people in Malawi are. Real nice. And a generosity of spirit.

Right now, I am going to crawl under the mosquito netting with my laptop to work on my next blog entry. And yes, I remembered to take my malaria pill.

Arrived in Malawi

I made the "Johannesburg connections" without a hitch. I went from the plane to what is called the international transfer lounge. There were no lines for the South African Air agents and there were a few agents. I picked up my boarding pass for my flight to Malawi withing minutes of arriving in the transfer lounge. Passport Control and security were no problem at all. All members of our group were at the gate by 9:45 AM, and we made brief introductions.

The Virgin Atlantic agent who checked my bag at Heathrow was correct; I did not have to do anything with my checked baggage at Johannesburg. It went from my Virgin Atlantic flight to my South African Air flight, and was waiting for me when I cleared passport control at the Lilongwe Airport.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering what having my bag wrapped means. It is what you think it, I paid five pounds at Heathrow to have my checked bag wrapped in layers of plastic. It helps to ward off the problem of luggage being broken into, a problem reported at the Johannesburg airport. And I have a TSA approved lock to lock the bag. You know who forgot to lock it for the Newark-Heathrow flight. But I did put the lock on for the important leg from London to Lilongwe.

I am here at Wendel's Guest House. A very nice lodge and with wireless.

I'll try to write more later on. In the meantime, I may try to nap a little before dinner.

At Heathrow

I ended up taking a car service to the airport. I know, it was expensive, but I decided to splurge, especially since the hotel was less expensive than I thought it would be. I got a chance to see more of London than I would have seen if I had taken the underground.

The first thing I did upon arriving at the airport was to get my bag wrapped, per advice from US government travel sites for people flying through Johannesburg, South Africa. My bag is through checked to Lilongwe and tagged for international travel so that I won't have to deal with my bags in Johanesgurg. Unfortunately,I was unable to get my boarding pass for the South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Lilongwe, Malawi. The customer service rep. said that there is an arrangement between Virgin Atlantic and South African Airways that allows the other airline to provide the boarding pass for connecting flights. He wasn't sure why the computer system was not allowing this. He suggested that it might be due to the way my flight was booked. Or perhaps a computer glitch?

In any event, not much I can do about my boarding pass at the moment. South African Airways is in another terminal, and this airport is too large for me to even think about going back and forth between terminals. So I will ask my higher power to grant me the wisdom to accept the things that I can not change.

--Breathe--

London to Johannesburg to Lilongwe Malawi

I check out of my hotel shortly, and have four hours to kill before making the trek via the London Underground to Heathrow for my 8:30 PM Virgin Atlantic flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Another overnight flight, this one for over 11 hours. I hope I am able to get a little shut eye on the plane.

I will arrive in Johannesburg South Africa at about 8:30 AM on June 14, if the plane is on time. The plan is that I will meet my fellow Malawi travelers for the first time at the departure gate for the South Africa Airways flight to Lilongwe, Malawi. This flight departs at 10:20 AM, and is scheduled to arrive in Lilongwe at 12:45 PM. Our driver, Luzu, will meet us at the airport and take us to our lodging. I will be staying at Wendels Guest Lodge in Lilongwe.

Wendels has wireless, so I hope to be able to make a post tomorrow afternoon before dinner.

Royal Observatory

Today I visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This was about a 30 minute ride on a combination of the London Underground and light rail. I had been to Greenwich when I was in London sixteen years ago and wanted to go back. Many of you know of Greenwich Mean Time, also known as Universal Time. Well, this is where Greenwich Mean Time is kept. This is also where the prime meridian or zero degrees longitude passes through. Looking at the first picture, I have no idea the significance of the statue on the meridian. The thing on the wall to the right of the picture is a digital clock noting Greenwich Mean Time. What you can not tell from the picture is that, both this clock, and another one not in the picture, do not note the time in what they call "summer time" around here. Or daylight savings time.
Outside the planetarium, I saw a very interesting piece, I was puzzled by it until I read the signboard. I hope that the picture is clear enough so that you can read it. It is placed on the prime meridian. I'll let the sign board speak for itself.

I walked to and from the Observatory through Greenwich Park, one of the older of the Royal Parks in the London area. For obvious reasons, the Observatory is on a hill in the park, so no matter which way you approach it, you have a short climb. On my way to the Observatory, I passed through an absolutely exquisite rose garden. Sorry, no pictures. All the roses were in bloom, and they were all quite well cared for. I have to confess that I only ended up at the Rose Garden because I took a wrong turn trying to find the Observatory. There were lots of school aged children, playing in the Park, along with people with dogs, and the like. Oh, and they even have special containers for dog poop.

Tonight I am seeing some London theater, Billy Elliot on the advice of a friend. I had thought about not bothering to see a show while in London. I decided that I would not forgive myself if I were to pass up an opportunity to see theater.

I have part of a day in town tomorrow and plan to go to the British Museum which is a short walk from the hotel where I will leave my bags. Then off to Heathrow for the long journey to Johannesburg and from Johannesburg to Malawi.

Energy savings in London

I am staying in a hotel in London called the Grange Holborn. A nice hotel, pleasant staff. I feel taken care of. I have one interesting story.

The room is very bright and airy with a wall of windows gives plenty of natural light. These windows face the street. Anyway, after I completed yesterday's posting, I close the drapes to darken the room before lying down to rest. I turned the light switch on near my bed, nothing. There is a light switch near the door, I turn it on. Nothing. I turn on the light switch near the TV, nothing. I do all this again. I try the TV, it works. I try all the light switches, again they don't work.

Finally, feeling like a complete idiot, I call up the front desk, who put me through to the concierge. They tell me that there is a card reader near the door, I had seen it and wondered what it was. Seems you put your room key in to activate the lights. Makes sense. About one minute after you remove the key, the lights turn off. Theoretically, because this is literally next to the door, you won't forget your room key. Interesting way to conserve electricity. No chance someone will go off and leave their lights on.

I also noted that the water is not as hot as we are used to in America, at least not at the hotel. I got my answer to this through a commercial on a British TV station aimed at getting people to turn the temp down on the water they use to wash clothes.

As for my energy, I did not nap yesterday afternoon. I had a nice visit with my friends, they took care of the blearly eyed me. Later, I did get a good nights sleep.

In London

Well, I made it to London and am writing this from my west end hotel.

My flight took off about an hour late from Newark. Not surprising. Sometimes on these flights, we can make up time if the jet stream is favorable, it was not.

I enjoyed the flight, and the flight attendants were very attentive. My favorite part of the flight was playing the video units in back of the seat in front of me. I had never used one before. It was a lot of fun.

I did not get much sleep to speak of. I have a hard time sleeping upright, finally dozing off about one to two hours out of London.

We arrived at Heathrow over an hour late. I got through passport control in about 30 to 40 minutes, and then walked for what seemed like an eternity to get to the London underground for my trip into London. I took the Piccadilly line from Heathrow. There is a stop about two blocks from my hotel. I was glad for my trip into London 16 years ago. I successfully negotiated the underground by myself for part of the trip.

The hotel and the staff are nice. I suspect that they are used to seeing slightly dazed, bleary eyed Americans.

I am going to sign off and try to take a nap for a couple of hours before my friends come. We will go out to dinner somewhere close.

Eleven hours till departure

Well, my travels begin tonight. My flight for London is scheduled to leave Liberty International Airport (formerly known as Newark International Airport) at 9:30 PM. If the flight is on time, I will arrive at Heathrow at 9:05 AM, London time and go to a hotel in the west end of London. I hope to be able to take a nap for a couple of hours before meeting some friends at 4PM for dinner. Then back to the hotel for what I hope will be a good nights sleep.

On Tuesday, I want to go the observatory in Greenwich, and possibly to the Tower of London. Wednesday, I check out of the hotel by 11 AM and do not have to leave for Heathrow until about 4 PM in the afternoon for my 8:30 flight to Johannesburg. I understand that the British Museum is within walking distance of the hotel, so I may hang out there.

In the time since I last posted, I have spent time getting ready. In addition, I have been spending what I hope is quality time with my loved ones.

I got few British Pounds from my bank. What is interesting is that the Pounds appeared to be shipped to the bank via DHL overnight. I could be wrong, but it looked the banker got the Pounds from a DHL overnight bag.

I got most of my pre-trip "chores" done by Tuesday or Wednesday so that I have been able to be somewhat more relaxed the last couple of days. One of the things I did was to put together all the stuff that I had purchased for my trip and put them in my suitcase. I know, it sounds a little over the top, however, I did realize that there were some missing items. I had time to purchase these with plenty of time to spare. One checked bag, on the small size, and one carry-one bag.

The hotel where I am staying in London has high speed internet access in each room, so I hope to be able to post once or twice from London before departing for Afica.

No comment

This intersection really exists.
I want to say only in New Jersey.

But I suspect that there are intersections like this all over.

When I took this photo several months ago, I decided that I would save it for a day when I had nothing else to say.

That day has arrived.

Malaria pills

My other exciting adventure today was filling the prescription for Malaria pills. The pills that will hopefully, keep me from coming down with Malaria. Mind you, even with the pills, there is still a chance that I could get Malaria, so I will be carrying my DEET and some spray for the room (just in case). And every place we stay will either have good screens in the windows or bed netting. I'll take a picture of a bed with netting when I get to Africa and post it here so you will be able to see what I am talking about.

The organism (a protozoa) that cause Malaria are resistant to the old standard Malaria medications, so I am left with fewer alternatives. The inexpensive one, mefloquine (Lariam), is taken weekly but has a host of very scary side effects including neurological and psychotic effects. I decided that there was no way I would take Lariam.

Fortunately, there is an alternative, a newer drug called Malarone. The problem is that Malarine is taken daily, so it is more expensive. Many health plans do not cover it. I decided that it was a no brainer, it is worth the extra money ($200 or $300).

So, I go the pharmacy this afternoon to pick up the drug figuring on having to charge it because I did not have that much cash on me. I was pleasantly surprised when my pharmacist told me that he had a conversation with my provider and was able to get them to cover it. So, I got it for $10.00.

So, I have my Malaria pills and the antibiotics (Cipro) in case a get a bad case of the runs. And I will need to get Imodium AD to counter the side effect of the Cipro cause Cipro kills all the good bacteria and gives me the runs. I am hoping that I won't need the Cipro, but I have it.

And I have two prescription bottles with two labels for the two bottles of thyroid pills that I am taking with me. I don't have a thyroid, so I need these pills. Two bottles, one to carry in my pocket and the other in my carry-on. In other words, a spare bottle in case I lose one.

Yeah, not exciting. But that is what my life has been like recently. Taking care of all kinds of details.

Stay tuned.

13 pounds

While not exactly a frequent flier, I have flown a few times domestically over the last few years. So, I am somewhat familar with the carry-on baggage allowance for domestic flights.

I have this small knapsack that is designed for laptops with extra padding. I can put in my laptop and some other personal items, and it will fit under the seat of all but the smallest airplanes. And then I can have one other piece of luggage. I have a small suitcase on wheels or a small canvas duffle bag that just fits the dimensions for carry ons for most domestic air flights, Continental allows a total of 51 linear inches (length + height + depth). So, I can carry my laptop and a small suitcase. This is usually enough for most of the two or three days trips that I have been on. And I have never had to worry about weight. The 40 pound weight requirement for carry-on baggage has never been an issue.

I started out assuming, silly me, that it would be the same for my international flights. That I would be able to take my laptop and other electronic gear in my knapsack plus a small suiticase on the airplane in addition to my checked baggage. I would have enough clothes to last in case my checked baggage was detoured.

Not so, I start out on Virgin Atlantic. I am allowed one carry-on, 22" L x 14" W x 9"D that weighs 13.22 pounds (6 kilos). And it is weighed. When you consider that I am traveling with a laptop, that fortunately is very light weight for a laptop at around 5 pounds, that does not leave a lot of extra room for additional items. I figured out that I can carry my laptop and charger, the adaptor from Apple for the UK style plugs (that also work in Malawi), my digital camera, a small amount of extra (light weight and easy to dry) clothing, a book, and some personal effects. I can carry one electronic item on my person, and that will be my i-pod and my earphones. Although, I am going to play it safe and be sure that I can put the i-pod in the knapsack and be within the weight restrictions.

I know, I know, this is not very exciting. But that is the way my life has been the last few days as I get ready for my trip to Africa. I am so glad that I know about the weight restriction because otherwise I would have shown up at the airport with an over weight carry-on knapsack and I would have had to lighten the load. That would have been a pain, and I probably would lose my place in line to boot.

The last three weeks

The last three weeks or so since I last posted here have been taken up with taking care of various details relating to my trip. None of which are especially earth shattering and not necessarily worth writing about.

I have also spent a lot of time in my garden, taking care of spring planting and clean-up.

My time here is short today. I do want to say that as the time draws closer to my June 10 departure, that I will begin writing more about my reflections about the trip itself or about my preparations. Or perhaps about something that has nothing to do with Malawi.

More influences regarding my work in Malawi

I have already written about how my Dad's work has served to inspire me to travel to Malawi. I have also written that my upcoming trip is a natural outgrowth of my writing about Malawi. I have not written about other influences.

I wrote a few weeks ago about my work on the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns for the Episcopal Church where I started to think about the very broad issue of our global water supply and an increasing awareness of global poverty.

In my graduate work, I did some, put not a lot, of work on international planning and development. But, I had no formal course in international planning and development. Most of my research and experience focused on domestic issues. As a result, I stuck to what I knew in my writing and research. My service on the Commission, coming at a transitional point in my life, gave me the courage to start to think about taking some risks with my writing. When I saw a call for articles in Progressive Planning for a thematic issue on the politics of water, I knew that I would be able to find something to write about. It took a couple of weeks of making various contacts through the Episcopal church, but eventually I was connected to Dr. Thomas Gebhard and the work that his parish was doing in Mindandti, a small village in a remote corner of southern Malawi. And the rest, shall we say, is history.

So, in some sense, I owe all those that I serve with on the Commission for giving me the courage to step outside of the safety and sanctuary of what was known and familiar, and to step into that which was, at least partially, unknown to me. As I began to research my article, I found out that I was not hampered by knowing very little "international development theory", that I have other things that I brought to my research and writing on Malawi.

I do not think that I would have answered the call for articles if I was not serving on the Commission. And without the article, I never would have made the contacts that eventually lead to my upcoming trip to Malawi. So, to all those that I have served with on the Commission, thank-you.

On international travel

My upcoming trip to London and to Malawi will be second international trip, not counting my forays into Canada. Speaking of Canada, I should get to Canada more than I do, because the property I own in northeastern Vermont sits about fifteen or twenty miles from the border. The trip is fairly easy to make by car. The last time I spent any amount of time in Canada was about ten years ago, when times were different. We may have been able to cross the border without showing any thing more than our drivers’ license, although we each may have carried our birth certificates with us. The key point here being that we were able to drive, and it was very easy.

My first international trip off the continent was to London in 1991. I went to an international academic planning conference in Oxford England. I traveled with one of my grad school buddies, and his wife. My friend is from Cyprus, traveled on a British passport (I think), and was very familiar with London and environs because he had gone to college and his first grad school in England. So, I felt very safe. I knew how to get a prepaid international calling card in England allowing me to easily call home to the States, and I knew how to get British Pounds from my Bank. I got my passport, got some British pounds from the bank and had a couple of wonderful tour guides for the time I spent in London. Oxford was wonderful, a great city with a long history.

At least this time, I already have my passport. Since I am familiar with London from my trip in 1991, and having some friends in London, it made sense to break up my trip to Africa with a couple of nights in London. An added benefit is that my two nights in London may help me to adjust to the change in time zones. London is five hours ahead of NJ (I think), and Malawi is two hours ahead of London.

As I faced the reality of my upcoming trip to Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa, I knew that there are things about international travel that I need to learn about. Thanks to some friends, and to the Internet, I could easily find out answers to questions such as visa requirements, required shots and prescriptions, and a list of things to include in my health kit. I am fortunate to have a travel agent in the family who booked by flights and my hotel in London. He also told me about the prepaid international calling card that works in Malawi, and about an online store that has a lot of things that I will need for my trip. Finally, I spent too much time on the Internet finding out about international cellular telephone coverage. Oh, and I won't even talk about electrical connections. And yes, I do know on good authority what adaptor I need for Malawi. And it is even one that is included by Apple in their world wide adaptor kit. In case any wants to know, it is the same adaptor used in most of the United Kingdom.

The trip leader of my trip tipped me off that my ATM/debit cards will not work in the few available ATM machines in Malawi, but said that I can use my visa credit card to get cash. He has also provided me with invaluable country–related information.

Finding out these things has helped me deal with the reality of this upcoming trip. I also found this process somewhat soothing.

Purpose of Malawi Trip

Because I have written about issues related to providing a clean and safe water supply to one remote village in southern Malawi, some of my friends think that my upcoming trip to Malawi is focused on the supply of water. While I was doing background research on Malawi last spring and summer, I quickly found out about the impact of HIV/AIDs on the people of Malawi. The group that I will be traveling with to Malawi in June will be looking at the impact of HIV/AIDS on the people of Malawi. Over the years, I have known more than a few very fine individuals who have died of HIV/AIDs, and I know many who have lived with HIV/AIDs for years thanks to the drug cocktails available. So, perhaps it is all these wonderful people that is but one of the many inspirations "calling" me to travel to Malawi.

From what I understand, we will be visiting various clinics, orphanages, and other groups that are helping the people in Malawi who are either living with HIV/AIDS or living with the effects of HIV/AIDS.

Even though most of my trip will involve looking at how the people of Malawi are coping with HIV/AIDS, I do hope that things will work out for me to visit Mindanti, the village I wrote about. Certain things have to come together for this happen that are outside of my control. All I can say is, this side–trip will either happen or it won’t. No matter what, I know that I am in for an adventure.

Origins of my trip to Malawi

Last year I found that my writing took me in a new and very unexpected direction. I answered a call for articles in one of my planning magazines, Progressive Planning, for an upcoming thematic issue on social justice and water. I had become more aware of the very sad state of global water supply through my work on the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns (for the Episcopal Church). Not knowing where to start, I contacted the Episcopal Relief and Development Office in NYC along with several other organizations affiliated with the Episcopal Church. I was beginning to lose hope when I was put in touch with Dr. Tom Gebhard, a water resources engineer and an Episcopalian from Austin Texas. Members of Tom’s parish, St. David’s, were among the founding members of a non-profit, Warm Heart International devoted to outreach in southern Malawi. Warm Heart was then engaged in raising money to put in a well in Mindanti, a small village in a remote section of southern Malawi. Tom and I exchanged many e–mails and a couple of telephone calls over the coming months as I focused on writing my article on Malawi. The article appeared in print in December, and is called “A Bottom–Up Planning Model for a Safe and Accessible Water Supply in Malawi.”

I had the occasion to speak with a physician, Don Thomas. Don is involved in an organization called Global Aids Interfaith Alliance (GAIA), founded by The Rev. William Rankin, the former Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge Mass. Readers of this blog may remember that I wrote about GAIA in my November 14, 2006 blog entry.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world where its population suffer from a myriad of fatal diseases: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, water–borne diseases, and the like. Don has been to Malawi on several occasions, leading groups each summer. We talked about these issues as affects the need for a clean and safe water supply.

After I finished my article and before it was published, I began to experience what can be best described as a “calling” to go to Malawi. Not only would such a trip give my writing credibility, but also I would be able to complete the work my father started. You see, my Dad, who died fifteen years ago, was a research immunologist with a Ph.D. in microbiology. He wrote his dissertation on one the organisms that cause the water–borne diarroheal diseases commonly known as dysentery. He was offered a post–doctoral fellowship in 1961 in The Congo in Africa. I now understand why he turned it down. There was no way he could take his young family to an undeveloped country that may have engaged in a bloody civil war.

Knowing that Don Thomas travels to Malawi each summer in connection with his work for GAIA, I wrote him at the end of last year and asked him if I could tag along with one of the groups he leads this summer. Don got back to me in early January saying that he was going to ask me if I wanted to go to Malawi. Wow, how about that! Before saying yes, I had some important questions for him. I was looking for certain answers to these questions before saying yes, I got the answers that I was looking for. God at work?

I told a priest friend of mine that I felt a calling to go to Africa and I was trying to find excuses not to go, but that I could not find any. He grinned and said that I won’t be able to.

It took a few weeks to work out all the details. I booked my plane tickets to Malawi last week. I leave on June 10.

Travel to Malawi in early summer

It is official, late last week, I booked plane tickets to Malawi in the later half of June. I am very excited about this opportunity. I will be traveling with a group from All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena CA.

I am headed out the door, literally. I will be writing more about how this trip came to be shortly and how it came about, so stay tuned.

Reflections on light bulbs

Funny thing. I never used to spend much time thinking about light bulbs. Every so often, I’d pick some up of various sizes when I was at the grocery or hardware store. A light bulb was a light bulb, or so I thought. When I had my first apartments as a young adult, first in Baltimore and then in Manhattan, I’m not even sure that I kept light bulbs in my apartment. If a bulb burned out, I was just as likely to do with out or to “borrow” one from another light fixture until I got around to getting a package of bulbs.

In those days, I could by one package of light bulbs and they would last a long time. When I was living in Manhattan, I might have had a lamp on my desk. Since I was a college student, it would have been the intelligent thing to do. Other than that, it was ceiling fixtures, one in the living room, the bedroom, and the bathroom. And they might have been bare bulbs.

So, almost thirty years later, my lighting needs are much more complex. And we are living in different times. All of a sudden what type of light bulb I use can make a difference. After spending $10 per spiral light bulb in the supermarket, I found myself in the light bulb isle of Home Depot. And listening to the ribbing my partner was giving me for making a trip to Home Depot to buy light bulbs.

And I learned about lumens in the light bulb. Lumens are the measure of the output of a light. Don’t be impressed, I only learned about lumens because I asked one of the people in the orange aprons about why some of the spirals I had seemed to produce less light than expected.

I learned that the 3–way spiral from GE had more lumens than the 3–way spiral that Home Depot sold. The other spirals sold by Home Depot had comparable lumens to the GE spiral light bulbs and the CVS spiral light bulbs. So, I’ll stick with the more expensive GE 3–way spirals for now, except I have not been able to find any. Oh, and 3–way spirals do not come in the compact size. They are larger because more spirals are needed in the higher watt spirals.

I have put the spirals in almost all the lighting on my list. Some of the lighting that gets lower use will not get spirals. Nor will some of our 3–way lamps because the spirals don’t fit. And I have not yet seen any spirals that will fit the chandelier in my dining room.

I am glad that I have finally dealt with getting spirals. It is a small way that I can help counter global warming.

light bulbs

A couple of weeks ago as we were experiencing warmer than normal weather here in the northeastern U.S., I finally went out and did something that has been on my To Do list for a few months. I went out and bought those spiral florescent bulbs. These are the bulbs that have been in the news as one of the simple things that everyone can do to try to counter the effects of global warming.

I first heard about these bulbs a few years ago. The owner of a small local hardware store, Joe, told me about these bulbs. We had just purchased our house and I was frustrated that the 60 watt bulbs that we had to use to light the study in our finished basement did not provide the lighting that my partner needed. Our light fixtures were rated for a maximum of 60 watt light bulbs, and using 100 watt bulbs comes with a risk of overloading the wiring and causing a fire. I have lived through fires, and have no desire to tempt fate again. So, we stayed with the 60 watt lightbulbs.

I happened to mention this to Joe at the hardware store one day while I was picking up one some item needed by all new homeowners. He mentioned these spiral bulbs, which I had heard about. He told me that these bulbs use less wattage than normal bulbs. So, we could put a spiral bulb that produced about 100 watts of output, but would use only 25 watts of electricity. In addition, the life of the bulb was far longer than the ordinary light bulb. So, in the summer of 2001, we went and purchased 4 100-watt output spiral bulbs at about $10 per bulb. The only drawback was that these bulbs were much larger than the normal bulb. Fortunately, they fit in the two ceiling fixtures in the basement. Five years later, only one bulb burned out, that we just replaced.

I never dealt with getting the spiral bulbs for our other light fixtures until last week, and feeling terrible for continuing to use ordinary bulbs. I was at my local pharmacy last week and saw that they were having a sale on the spiral bulbs. And they now have mini spiral bulbs that actually fit in our smaller fixtures and floor lamps. The even make mini three-way bulbs, but these seem to be hard to find.

We have thirty lightbulbs in various lighting on the main floor of our ranch-style house, because many of our light fixtures have three or four light bulbs. And I am only counting the lighting that will accomodate the mini-spirals. So far, I have replaced four. And I have eight bulbs that I can put in other fixtures. I am starting with the lighting that gets the most use.

Of course, now that I have written about how simple it is to use the spiral bulbs, it is time for me take the action and use the eight sprials that I have in my closet. And purchase some more.

My Christmas Vacation

I was going to write about AIDs in Uganda last week, but decided that I had to spend some more time checking things out on the net before I put electronic pen to electronic paper for all to see. So, I hold off on AIDs in Uganda for awhile.

On the subject of what I have been doing the last couple of weeks, You can tell from last week's post that I watched a lot of football. Probably too much, but it was fun. Fortunately, my other half is also a football fan so this is something that we enjoyed together. Speaking of football, I get e-mail from Apple, including i-tunes updates. Do you know that you can go to i-tunes and purchase copies of the 2007 college bowl games? Now there's a thought . . .

Orange Bowl at half-time

This second day of January finds me watching the Orange Bowl. [Wake Forest almost blocked a punt] I have been a pretty serious NFL football fan –– as in the New York Giants –– for twenty years now. [two commercials] My Dad was a pretty big football fan, but for some reason I did not enjoy watching football all that much as a kid. I am not sure why. [Wake Forest scored a field goal and another commercial] Perhaps it was because I did not understand the game. But I do understand the game now, and have been enjoying watching college football this season. As an alumnus of Rutgers and a football fan, I have gotten interested in college football because the Rutgers football team had one of their best year. [first down Louisville]. And won their first bowl game. [first down Louisville but there is an official review, and another commercial]

We are watching our fourth bowl game in two days, with three more to go, I am thinking of my Dad. My Dad lived in Pasadena CA for five years when he was a little boy. He talked about being able to watch the Rose Bowl from the roof of his house. I always wondered if he snuck out onto his roof. I would have tried, I think. [booth review upheld call on field, first down Louisville]. I remember this beat up football that he had. He said it was a game ball from the Rose Bowl. I wanted to play with it, and even snuck it outside one day. [field goal Louisville. Tie game] He let me play with it for a while then took it away saying it was too fragile. At this time the ball was probably between 25 and 30 years old.

Now if my Dad were alive, he would ask me what I am doing writing this blog entry while I am watching the Orange Bowl. This is a big game for us because our conference is playing in the Orange Bowl. And I’d tell him that since I am good at keyboarding that I can write this AND watch the game at the same time. And correct my typos during the commercials.

My Dad preferred college football to professional football, but he watched both. [another commercial] There was one thing he hated, the super bowl pre game show. My Dad died on January 22, 1992. It took awhile to gather family together for his funeral so his wake did happen until the following Sunday. Super bowl Sunday, Washington Redskins v Buffalo Bills, his wake was during the super bowl pre–game show. Not a coincidence. By the way, the Redskins won, 37–24. In case you are wondering, I have a helper, a copy of the 2007 Sports Almanac.

[Wake Forest fumble with less than two minutes to go in the half. Louisville goes three and out. Wake Forest drives down to within field goal range and their hotshot kicker misses a 47–yard field goal. Louisville is up, 10 to 3 at half time.]

My Dad and HIV/AIDs research

I’m not quite sure what transpired that lead my Dad to focus on immunology. By the early 1970s he was running a clinical immunology laboratory in a hospital in upstate New York. He attended conferences in his fields, both immunology and microbiology and kept up with his journal reading. As such, he read much of the early research in HIV/AIDs, and probably kept up with this reading at least until a couple of years before he passed. As far as I know, he did not do any HIV/AIDs research but several of his friends did.

Over the years my Dad and I had several occasions to talk about HIV/AIDs, both from the perspective of the research being done at that time and other writings from his immunology journals, and from the point of view of seeing so many fine young people die of AIDs.

I recall one of his last visits with us in New Jersey in June of 1990. It was the weekend of the annual gay pride parade in New York City. We took a train into the city to watch the first hour of the parade before going out for lunch. Our perch was somewhere near 23rd street in the boro of Manhattan (NYC). We got there in time to see the beginning of the parade. Among the early marchers was a rather large contingent of HIV/AIDs groups. Dad was very moved by seeing both the AIDs activist groups as well as all those living with HIV/AIDs. Remember that this was before the widespread use of the various drug cocktails used by those living with HIV/AIDs in the U.S. and other developed countries.

A couple of years later, my dear Dad was dead from complications resulting from a neurological disease.

When I first became acquainted with the Global Aids Interfaith Alliance , I knew that Dad would want to be very involved with GAIA if he were alive. If he were able, he would want to go on one of their trips to Malawi to visit various medical facilities working with HIV/AIDs patients and orphanages with children whose parents have died of HIV/AIDs. I’d like to think that my Dad is one of GAIA’s special angels.

My Dad and Africa

I want to pause for a moment and tell you about my Dad, John. You see, in many ways, my Dad is an inspiration for my interest in Malawi. You see my Dad had a Ph.D. in microbiology. I had just turned seven years old when he earned his Ph.D. Around this time; he was offered a post–doctoral fellowship in what was known then as the Congo in Africa. It is possible that my mother mentioned the possibility of living in Africa to my younger sister and I. It seemed so exotic. At the time, the only thing I knew about Africa was that the lions, monkeys and elephants that I saw in cages at the zoo lived wild. I dreamt of seeing African tribesman and wild lions, elephants, and monkeys. A short time later, my mother told us how disappointed she was that Daddy was not going to accept the fellowship. Several years later I recall hearing about some sort of violence and unrest in the Congo. I understood why he didn’t accept the fellowship.

After he earned his Ph.D., he stayed at his university, teaching biochemistry in the med school and doing research. It may have been during this time that he started to shift his research focus to immunology. Later, he ran an immunology lab in a chief medical examiner’s office of another large east coast city before moving to a small city in upstate New York where he ran a clinical immunology lab in one of the local hospitals. My Mom passed in the mid–eighties, my Dad followed a little less than eight year later.

It never occurred to me to ask him about his dissertation research or why he was offered the fellowship in the Congo. After he passed, I found his masters and Ph.D. dissertation in an antique secretary I inherited. I knew that he had left his dissertations in this secretary, when I was ready, I looked to see what he had done his dissertation research on. I don’t know what I never asked him about his dissertation work, perhaps because his life’s work took a very different direction. After he died, I got curious. All I had to do was look in the secretary and read the abstract.

Now, I am not a microbiologist, nor have I taken a microbiology course. But, I knew enough to know that his work was related to Dysentery. The Shigella Flexneri bacterium that was the focus of his research is one of the organisms causing one of the diarrheal diseases sometimes referred to as Dysentery. It wasn’t until over ten years had passed since Dad’s death and I was working on an article on the efforts to supply a safe and clean water supply to a small village in southern Malawi that I made the connection to my Dad’s dissertation work and the fellowship in the Congo that he turned down.

It was when I was reading about water borne diseases that I made the connection about my Dad’s dissertation work. I felt like it was not a coincidence that fate had led me to my interest in southern Malawi. In some ways, I feel like I am finishing the work that my Dad started in the 1950s.

I know that he would be thrilled to know of my interest in working for a safe and clean water supply in Africa and globally. I do believe in angels. he is hovering around me, smilling, as I write this.

Reflections on water

It may be ironic that as I write this it is raining. Rain, what some of the arid or semi–arid regions in the world wouldn’t give for the amount of rain we have had this year, about 9 inches above normal. Those of you who have been following my blog will recall the entries that I wrote in June and July about the flooding on the Delaware River in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

I am not here to write about our abundant rainfall, I am here to write about how my passion for Malawi started. It was about seven months ago and I had started to do background reading and research to familiarize myself with life in southern Malawi. I knew that many people living in less developed regions of the world. I knew that many people in these regions do not have easy access to a clean and accessible water supply near their dwelling. I knew of the various diseases transmitted by dirty water. I knew that the people of these regions were very, very poor. Somehow all this seemed so far away. Up until last spring when I started writing about southern Malawi

It would be arrogant of me to sit here on the east coast of the United States to say that a few months of reading and writing about the people of rural southern Malawi translate into really knowing what life is like for these wonderful people. I can not, even if I should get a chance to go and visit with these wonderful people some time in the future.

But I can have compassion. And I can use the gift of my electronic pen to write of the compassion I have for and how writing about southern Malawi has, I hoped, helped me to not take things for granted. Like the well on my property that supplies us with clean water.

It was around the end of April, and I was taking a break from my research on Malawi. I started to think about what I might or might not plant in my garden in the middle of May after the threat of a freeze had passed. Believe it or not, we were then in our third consecutive month of below average rainfall. I was wondering if we were headed for a dry summer. I wondered whether I should set in new plants or not. I decided not to, to wait awhile.

Suddenly, I thought back to the people in the village in rural southern Malawi that I was writing about. The “problems” of a dry spring seemed suddenly so trivial and unimportant. I thought to myself, what is the worse that could happen if we did have a drought that summer, some of my plants and trees might die. Perhaps we would have to dig a deeper well. But we wouldn’t get sick from drinking dirty water. We don’t have to walk for an hour one–way and wait in a long line at the crack of dawn to get a bucket of water to last the day.

I know that these words sound trite and some of you may be shaking your heads, saying, “Give me a break!” You probably have a point, for I am an expert at what I can white liberal guilt. All I can say is that, suddenly, I began to look at my own use of water differently. And perhaps I can use my “white liberal guilt” for some good, through my writing.

And a few weeks later the rains came.

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance

In the course of my writing about Malawi and her people, I happened upon a wonderful organization called the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance . Their mission statement is:

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) partners with religious organizations in resource-poor countries for community-based HIV prevention and care.

We assist communities in developing locally initiated, planned, and led workshops that create detailed action plans for projects specific to community needs. These grass roots, village-level projects educate high risk groups about the disease, modify sexual behavior, promote voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, foster the social and economic empowerment of women, care for AIDS orphans, provide home-based care of ill persons, improve nutrition, and reverse the stigmatization of people with AIDS. Where medications and treatment are available, projects provide aggressive referral for treatment of opportunistic infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV itself. We assist these projects through small grants and through assisting them with applications to other funding sources when appropriate.

One of the countries that they work in is Malawi. I have had the pleasure of corresponding with a retired physician who has been to Malawi for extended visits on several occasions with GAIA. Our discussions haunt me.

GAIA has a fact sheet on Malawi, with some facts that I did not mention in my earlier post that you may find interesting. I urge you to spend some time on the the GAIA website . And I urge you to look at their video.

More Facts on Malawi

Electricity (lack of), Sanitation, and Source of Drinking Water in Malawi
Source: 2004 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (Chapter 2 of the Main Report)
Prepared by the National Statistical Office of Malawi
URL: http://www.nso.malawi.net/

93% of all households do not have electricity.

Source of household drinking water:
Piped into dwelling 2.9%
Piped into yard or plot 3.4%
Public tap 13.7%
Open well in yard or plot 2.4%
Open public well 22.6%
Protected well in yard or plot 4.9%
Protected public well 38.6%
Spring 2.6%
River or stream 8.0%
Pond or lake 0.4%
Dam 0.2%
Tanker truck 0.1%

58% of all households are at least a 15–minute walk from the closest water source.

Household sanitation facilities
Flush toilet 3.4%
Traditional pit latrine 79.4%
VIP latrine 1.1%
No facility, use bush or field 16.1%

89% of all households cook with firewood.

Facts on Malawi

These facts on Malawi were forwarded to me by someone that I have cooresponded with about Malawi. I will let these facts speak for themselves.


Current Facts about Malawi

"Pocket World in Figures, 2006 Edition"
published by The Economist. (London: Profile Books.)


Highest population per doctor: Malawi ranks 1st in the world at 88,321.

Most road accidents (# people injured per 100m vehicle-km): Malawi ranks 1st in the world at 2,730. (Rwanda is a distant second at 1,764.)

Lowest purchasing power (US = 100): Malawi ranks 2nd in the world at 1.6

Maternal mortality rates: Malawi ranks 3rd in the world with 1,800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, behind Sierra Leone and Afghanistan

Lowest GDP per head: Malawi ranks 5th in the world at $140

Lowest median age: Malawi ranks 6th in the world at 16.3

Lowest life expectancy: Malawi ranks 7th at 41.1.

Lowest female life expectancy: Malawi ranks 7th at 40.6 (women live shorter lives than men in this country.)

Highest foreign debt, as % of goods and services: Malawi ranks 8th at 660%

HIV/AIDS prevalence among 15 - 49 year olds: Malawi ranks 8th at 14.2% of population in this age range

AIDS deaths per 100,000 of population: Malawi ranks 8th at 694.

Highest death rates: Malawi ranks 12th at 19.9 per 1,000 population

Crude birth rates, number of live births per 1000 people: Malawi ranks 14th at 44.6

Highest fertility rates in the world: Malawi ranks 16th at 6.1.

Highest infant mortality: Malawi ranks 16th at 102.6 per 1000 live births

Malawi geography

Malawi is a landlocked country in what is often referred to as the sub-saharan region of Africa. That is, the region below the Saharan desert. Located not far from the east coast of Africa, it borders Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania. If you are looking at this map of Africa, Malawi is small enough that you may not find it unless you know where to look.. So, I will offer a couple of hints that I hope will be helpful. First, find the equator, running through the middle of Africa. Look below (south) of the equator. Go to the east coast and look for Tanzania. If I have the correct compass points in mind, Tanzania lies northeast of Malawi. Translation, Malawi lies to the left and underneath Tanzania. In terms of its total area, Malawi is slightly smaller in size than the State of Pennsylvania in the U.S.


Natural resources include: limestone, arable land, hydropower, unexploited deposits of uranium, coal, and bauxite.

Current environmental issues include deforestation; water pollution from agricultural runoff, sewage, and industrial wastes; and silt buildup in spawning grounds that endanger fish populations.

The climate is subtropical. There are two seasons in Malawi, rainy and dry with the rainy seasons running from November to May. During the rainy season, roads serving the more remote villages may be impassable. Above ground water sources may dry up during the dry season.

A good summary of information on Malawi may be found in the World Factbook entry on Malawi. Most of the information included here including the map reproduced above is from the World Factbook.

Platelet donor

I am starting to work on my next entry about Malawi, about geography including a map. I hope to post this tomorrow or the next day.

In the meantime, some of you may recall that I wrote about making a blood donation sometime last summer. I think this was in early August. About ten days ago, the New Jersey Blood Services had an apheresis donor appreciation event that I attended. A nice buffet breakfast on a very rainy Friday. Considering that the weather was pretty awful, there it was very well attended. Hearing the people from NJ blood services talk as well as a couple of the recipients got me thinking about why I am an apheresis donor.

As I understand it, an apheresis donor is another word for a platelet donor. Platelets are the component of our blood that, among other things, form clots when we cut ourselves. Patients receiving certain forms of chemotherapy, for example, need lots of platelets as do certain newborn infants.

Many of you have probably donated whole blood at least once, perhaps in an employer or school sponsored blood drive. Whole blood donations take about 20 to 30 minutes. After your intake, you lie on a table and make your donation.

Platelets are one component of whole blood, another being red cells and plasma. Platelet donations take about one hour, not including intake. I donate double platelets, which takes a little longer. On top of donating double platelets, I can make a red cell donation about every 60 days.

Why do I do this? I do it because of people I know who live with cancer, or are in need of some form of transplant, or have received a transplanted organ. A couple of people who fit in one of those categories have touched my lives in special ways. Blood is the gift of life. As long as I continue to meet the various criteria for a blood donor, it is a fairly simple thing that I can do to help out someone who really needs help. A way of giving something back and of giving something to people I love. I can not, for example, give my friend one of my kidneys. But I can make a platelet donation for an anonymous recipient where my platelets mean the difference between life and death.

Why am I writing about Malawi?

Well, I'll tell you.

Over the last couple of years, I have been doing more reading about issues affecting the global water supply, with a focus on conditions in developing countries. Sometime in the late Spring, I had the opportunity to submit an article to Progressive Planning for their upcoming issue on water and politics. While there are many areas I could have chosen to focus on, for reasons I won't go into here, I decided to focus on Africa. Because I have never been to Africa, I knew that I needed some contacts. So, after several queries, I made contact with people who had been to Malawi.

Like a rock that gathers more and more moss as it rolls down a hill. One contact lead to other contacts, including people in southern Malawi. It is difficult to express in words how all this background research affected me. I can only say that I was and continue to be very moved by what I found out. In addition, I feel almost driven to keep going with research and writing about various issues affecting water quality and supply in southern Malawi.

I readily admit here that one of the things that I can not get past is that I have never been to Africa. Perhaps one day, all the necessary cards will fall into place, and such a trip will be possible. At present, I can only work with what I have, which is my compassion and my call to keep writing about Southern Malawi.

So, for know, I am going to do some writing about Malawi in the blog. As the title, random ramblings suggests, I will probably post other random thoughts on issues unrelated to southern Malawi in particular and global water supply in general. For those of you reading this blog who are interested in Malawi, I will endeavor to remember to mention Malawi in the title so that you can easily find postings about Malawi.

If I get something wrong, or "fail to be correct", I know that someone will tell me either privately or as a public comment. As appropriate, I will respond to these comments in this blog.

Grateful for sitting in the dark with no water

Last Friday afternoon, a line of squalls with high winds went through here in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't think much of it until I decided to take a break from my writing to see what was on the tube. Does this ever happen to you? The remote wouldn't work and I wondered what was wrong. It took me about one minute to realize that the reason the remote didn't work was because the power was off.

When we lived in northeast Jersey, we lived in a town with a municipal water system that, for the most part, kept us in water even during a power failure. Not so here, we have our own water well in our front yard. So, the only water we had was the water in our water tank, some bottled water, and a large trash can with water in it (a reserve for flushing). The power failure wasn't all that long, all things considered. It did run into the dinner hour, and fortunately for us, it was not widespread. So, we were able to go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

Then we came home and sat in the dark with no running water. We grumbled and complained about this while listening to the radio and reading by flashlights. We dug up a few candles that provided a small amount of light. Cats and candles don't mix. At least we know that our cat and candles don't mix, so we paid close attention to where we put the candles as well as paying close attention to where the cat was.

A couple of hours after we got back from dinner, the lights came back on. All things considering, not to bad.

Why am I grateful for sitting in the dark with no water?

I spent several weeks working on an article about a remote village in southern Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa. This article will be published in the upcoming issue of Progressive Planning, the quarterly publication of the Planners Network. The theme of this issue is water and politics. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world, and like many other countries in sub-Sahara Africa and elsewhere, many people do not have clean, safe water for drinking, cooking, washing, etc. Poor water quality leads to a variety of public health issues including a high incidence of water-borne diseases such as cholera. Many of these same villages can not afford to hook up to the electric power grid, assuming the grid is nearby.

I have thought about the people in this remote village of southern Malawi quite often over the last few months. Writing about these wonderful people has been a life changing experience.

My lights came back on as did my running water.

My friends in Malawi are still waiting for the things that I take for granted, running water free from disease causing organisms and electricity. For some, the wait for clean and safe water may be too long, they may be dead.

Confessions

Ok, I have talked the talk about my intention to make an entry to this blog every day or so. And as you can see by the length of time since my last post that I have not lived up to this. So, This is both a public confession and a kick in the you-know-what to get me started again.

R.I.P. Cory Lidle and Tyler Stanger

Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, died yesterday when his plane crashed into a high rise on the east side of Manhattan. His flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, was with him and died in the crash.

Both were young men, dead well before their time. Cory was 34 and Tyler was 26. My prayers are with Cory’s and Tyler’s family and friends as they mourn their loved ones.

Their deaths hit me heard because of my relationship with baseball and the New York Yankees. I have been a baseball fan most of my life. I live with baseball and the Yankees for six months a year where games are played virtually every day. Baseball games on TV or the radio, conversations over dinner, newspaper accounts of games we missed, and listening to sports radio are a part of our routine during baseball season. In a sense, the ball players on the Yankees are like a part of our family. In his short time with the Yankees, Cory has already left his mark on many.

He left his mark on me. Perhaps it was because he was a starting pitcher. Perhaps it was because of his love of life. Perhaps it was because those who knew him well spoke of a normal guy who loved his family. Perhaps it was because he spoke his mind and didn’t shy away from the media. Perhaps it was because he died doing something he loved, flying.

I don’t know much about Tyler Stanger. I wish I had a way to give him equal time here. He was a flight instructor, so I suspect that he too was passionate about flying. He too left a mark on people, and he a way that is hard to explain, he has left his mark on me. Tyler, I am sorry that I never got to know you. Dead to soon.

Like many other Yankee fans, I was deeply disappointed by their early exit from the playoffs. Somehow, their loss to the Detroit Tigers seems unimportant, as does the usual post–season intrigue. Two young men are dead.

I don’t have any information on Tyler’s family. Cory and his wife Melanie, have a six–year old son, Christopher.

Rest in peace, Cory and Tyler. You will be missed.

I'm back

No, I didn't go anywhere. My fall allergies lead to a sinus infection and a little bronchitis. I laid low for most of last week, and did very little writing.

I did watch some but not all, of the first round of the baseball playoffs. I am not even going to talk about the Yankees.

For those of you who are not up on baseball, the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees to advance to the next round of the playoffs. Actually saying the Yankees were beaten by the Tigers is being much to kind to the Yankees. The heavily favored Yankees were embarrassed by the Tigers. The Tigers, who entered the last weekend of the season in first place in the AL central division, who lost all of thier games that final weekend to end up as what is known as the wildcard team (the fourth place team).

So, while the area media is ruminating about the fate of Joe Torre, the Yankees manager, I am trying to pick up where I left off before post season baseball (and my sinus infection) and go on with my life.

In the meantime, we are due to have another warm fall day. I am behind in my fall gardening chores. The weather is glorious, and I intend to enjoy it and get some chores done at the same time.

Fall is my favorite time of year except . . .

Fall could be my favorite time of year. The weather in September and October, even into early November can be very pleasant. Like today, temps will be close to 70, nights are cool and crisp. The early morning chill gives way to moderate temps by mid-day. On a day like today, I would, at most, wear a long sleeve shirt as a stand-in for a light jacket.

The one thing that I don't like about Fall are my allergies. What I try to remember as a sometimes moan about the inconvenience of my allergies is that, all things considered, I don't have it so bad. If the worse thing that happens to me is that I suffer from sinsus congestion, I am a lot better off than many people who are in far worse health than I.

And then there are the baseball playoffs which start this week which is always a special time of year for this baseball fan.

Today is the last day of the baseball season, and some the playoff spots are still up in the air.