Safari's are fun!

So, South Africa has been awesome so far. Sunday was a perfect day that I want to tell you about, but it will have to wait.

For now I want to share some pictures from my safari. I took off yesterday from Johannesburg to go to Kruger National Park. We did a late afternoon safari yesterday and spent most of today out on the road. It has beautiful, awe-inspiring, and just plane cool. This is a fantastic national park...I'm emailing now, need I say more? The camp sights are fenced off from the park for our safety (which after all that I've seen, I'm grateful to be caged). The pictures tell most of the story...

Me excited to be on "Buddy" our safari truck

Giraffes - so much cooler when they're not at a zoo

Monkey at the camp sight - I don't know what kind

White Rhinos - one of the "big 5" that you're supposed to see on safaris

Baboons. The little one got up on the mother's back. It was super cute. There is an Impala in the background.

African Elephants - one of the "Big 5"

More African Elephants

It was a really big deal to see this Leopard (another of the "Big 5") and to follow him up the road is exceedingly rare. Our guide has not seen a leopard this close up in this park in 12 years of taking people here. It was the certainly the best part of the day.

The other 2 animals in the big 5 are the buffalo, which we saw, but I don't have a picture of, and lions. I'm hoping that I will see lions in my last couple days here, but if I don't, the trip was still well worth it. You have no idea what it's like to be driving and looking out the window, only to suddenly see a gigantic elephant crossing the road just meters away! Unbelievable.

Okay. Wish you were here to share this with me...especially Fritz and Molly because they would LOVE all the animals :)

Last few hours in Malawi

The computer with my pictures on it is packed away, so you'll have to put up with boring words with no visuals. I thought I'd write before I get to South Africa where I will most likely not have internet access. You will have to wait until I get to Australia to hear about my South African adventure.

The past 6 weeks have been absolutely amazing. I fell in love with each of my patients here and got tearful yesterday when I had to say goodbye to them. They are so strong and beautiful. I am constantly impressed by their ability to smile through their pain and sickness; rarely complaining or begging for pain medications. I will always remember them. I am now done with all of my requirements for medical school and this was the perfect way to end the 4 year journey.

I leave for Johannesburg in an hour and a half where I will spend my last night with my 3 roommates before heading out on a 4-day-Safari to Kruger National Park. I will get to meet 20 or so new people and see all sorts of amazing things. It will be nice to be surrounded by new faces and stories. I'm excited for the adventures to come.

Look forward to stories in about 1 week...

Open Arms

What a good day.  I left the hospital a bit early today to go to Open Arms, an "orphanage" in Blantyre. It really is a fantastic organization.  The children are orphaned for numerous reasons, but many lost their parents to AIDs.  They don't like the term orphanage and prefer the term transition home instead.  They take children from birth on and provide them with a safe environment, with loving/stable "moms," good food, and medical treatment.  The kids transition from nursery to a preschool setting.  At age five, they move into a house where there are a couple other kids and a house mom.  This way they can be raised my a Malawian woman in the Malawian culture.  This is all on the condition that there is no extended family that can take the child.  Open Arms keeps in touch with all of the families of the children and when they reach an age that the family can take them in, they transition them home.  Amazing really.

From the moment that Kim and I entered, we were embraced by small children.  They walked up to us "strangers" and reached up to us, asking to be held.  There is a good number of staff there and the children all seem well loved, but they were anxious to get love from the new people.  One child that was less than 2 hugged me for a full minute and wouldn't let go.  It was amazing!  The kids were unbelievable...all with stories of overcoming terrible circumstances and bad illnesses.  I'm in love with all of them.

Read more about it at http://www.openarmsmalawi.org/

One of the precious children

Kim with some of the kids

Blowing bubbles with the toddlers

I'll leave you with a poem that brought tears to my eyes that was posted in the main office.

What AIDS Can't Do

AIDS is so limited

It cannot cripple

Love

It cannot shatter

Hope

It cannot corrode

Faith

It cannot take away

Peace

It cannot destroy

Confidence

It cannot kill

Friendship

It cannot shut out

Memories

It cannot silence

Courage

It cannot invade

The Soul

It cannot reduce

Eternal Life

It cannot quech

The Spirit

Our greatest enemy is not disease

But despair

A weekend with the locals

Saturday: At 5:00am Saturday morning, my friend Medson and I got in an old Land Rover and headed south. Medson had agreed to take me to the village that he grew up in, so that I could experience rural Malawi. Medson and Me

His village is 4 hours by car, so I had lots of time to learn his story. He is one of the only people in his village to go to secondary school and the only one to go beyond that. Unable to afford school, he was fortunate enough to find a British sponsor by an unexpected twist of fate. Now he is a hard-working intern that often skips lunch in order to care for the neglected patients. He is the only boy of 5 children, but his eldest sister passed away from complications of HIV 6 years ago. It was quite the story. After hours of talk and educating one another, we pulled up to his village.
When we arrived, his mother prepared a meal for me, Medson, and Medson's friends. It was fantastic! There was so much food, and everything was tasty. Medson's parents have a very nice new home that has a secure wall and gate around it. They have good investments in livestock and farms that have made them among the richest in the community. The village is directly outside his property:

One view from Medson's home.
I wanted to take many more pictures of the narrow, crowded streets; a "bustling metropolous" at the village's center, but could not do it with tact.

The houses were mud or cement with thatched or tin roofs and no running water. One well provides clean water to the town; a 13 year old addition. Electricity made it to the town 3 years ago and that powers the corn mill where they bring their dried corn to be ground into flour.

Medson's mother wrapping me in a Chitenge

After a great meal and initiation into chitenge wearing, we took a walk around the town. We walked the 200m to the Mozambique border and talked politics to the border guards. I didn't have my passport with me, but I couldn't resist running illegally into the a new country.

Me illegally in Mozambique

The kids that greeted me at the border

It was the most interesting day that I have had in Malawi so far, and I fell in love with Africa a little bit more. The community life so resembles what I miss about the villages that I have visited in Central America. The barefoot kids were all beautiful and everyone was so kind to me. It was a great experience. After a 4 1/2 hour drive through rain and fog and more good conversation, I arrived home safely.

Sunday: I went to the neighboring city of Limbe to meet up with my friend Madalitso. We had arranged to go to Catholic Mass; the English service.

The Limbe Cathedral on a rainy Sunday

After mass, I spent the rest of the day with Madalitso's family. She prepared 2 meals for me and we watched a lot of Malawian television. It was a low key day after the emotionally exhausting trip to the village the day before.

Me and Madalitso

Madalitso and her 3 year old son. Her son was scared of me at first, but eventually opened up. He was adorable...

I very much enjoyed my weekend adventures with my Malawian friends. It gave me a look into the culture here that I have so been craving since my arrival. I had great food, wore traditional clothes, crossed illegally into another country, and even tried to carry a bucket on my head. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

She's only 26

She's a year older than I am. Her pregnant belly is hidden behind the fluid collecting in her abdomen and lungs because she has advanced Tb. Her body's immune system is useless because of the HIV that has been silently killing off the only cells that can defend her. She sits patiently, smiling even, while I drain fluid from her belly so that she can rest more comfortably and tells me in Chechewa that she doesn't mind because she just wants to get better. This is her third pregnancy. I do not know if her other children are living and, if they are, who is caring for them. Her mother sleeps beside her on the floor. She is also weak having already outlived the 38 years that is expected of the average Malawian. I run uselessly around the hospital trying to collect the results from her blood tests and making sure that she receives the medication needed. I have at least 5 other patient's with stories like this one and there is so very little that I can do. I come home frustrated by the lack of resources, but content that I gave all that I could this day. It is difficult to reconcile this world with the one waiting for me at home. I will add this to my other experiences in lands with limited resources and know that again I am changed. I juggle the frustrations with my excitement about moving to a new city, starting a new job, and getting to live close to Ankoor after nearly 3 years of a long distance relationship. It has been a growing experience to say the least.

On a happier note, I have fun plans for the weekend while the rest of the group enjoys Lake Malawi:
Friday: Enjoy a few hours of solitude...and then watch a movie with some new friends from the states.
Saturday: drive for hours in the car to a village in the southern part of Malawi to spend the day with my favorite intern and experience what village life is like.
Sunday: attend Catholic mass with my favorite midwife on the labor ward and go out to eat with her after.

I'll let you know how it goes. Sorry if this blog bummed you out too much.

I'm moving to Cleveland!

I am very excited to share the news that I will be working at Case Western University Hospitals come July 1st! Ankoor and I will get to be together again at the program of our choice after nearly 3 years of a long distance relationship. I am so very happy. My breath caught in my throat while the email slowly loaded and relief soon settled in. I am sad that I cannot be home with friends and family to celebrate, but my 8 roommates were fantastic. 2 other people also matched tonight and Terrie (our professor/house mother) bought us chocolate and cheese to celebrate...two things that are hard to find in Malawi. It was fantastic.

I am truly enjoying my experience here. It has been intense and I have much to share from the last two days. Today has had a really high high (matching in Cleveland) and a really low low. I went to the hospital early to find out that one of my patients passed away last night at the age of 29 from an infection that her HIV infected body was too weak to fend off. It is difficult to deal with all of the things that have happened during my time here and I have much to talk about when I get home. For now, I will celebrate my new job while doing the best that I can to positively affect the Malawians that I meet here. They certainly have had a profound impact on my life and I will always remember the lessons that I have learned here.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I hope to celebrate with you soon.

Match week

For those of you who don't know, this is match week. On Thursday we find out where we will do our internship next year; a paying job after 8 years of school. It's kind of a big deal. I'm excited to graduate and move on to the next stage of training, but it is daunting.

Today we found out if we matched...not where. Even though I knew that I would match in one of the 5 programs that I interviewed at, I still got the tiniest ball in my throat when I opened the email entitled, "Did I match?" Thursday is going to be an intense day. We find out at 1:00pm EST, so 7:00pm Malawi time. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers this week as I approach this stressful day, and I'll let you know where I will be moving to come June.

The Zomba Plateau: A transportation adventure

I had a wonderful weekend on the chilly Zomba Plateau. It was definitely the biggest adventure that I've had in Malawi so far.

The trip to Zomba - hitching a ride, Malawi style: 4 of us decided to risk the Malawi bus system and get a ride to Zomba for less than $2 rather than spend far too much money to rent a car/driver for the weekend. Surprisingly, the bus had seats for everyone on board and there were no chickens (a common finding on Malawi buses). When we got to the city of Zomba we had to meet up with Anthony Umi, our host for the weekend. We were under the impression that he would drive us to the plateau, so we were a bit surprised when he walked up to us; no car in sight. This meant we had to find an overpriced taxi to go the last 11 miles. Mr. Umi went to find us one and came back with a friend of his that offered to take us up to our house for free. You can't beat that, so we hopped in the back of his truck, happy that our journey only cost $2. The trip was off to a great start. The other 4 group members were less lucky. They had hired a driver who apparently was night blind. He was great until night rolled in and they hit a biker on the side of the road and feared for their lives. They arrived a bit shook up to say the least.

Saturday - the 5 hour hike: We awoke to a foggy day and set out to see the plateau. First, we stopped by Mulunguzi Dam where Mr. Umi had a friend. We hiked down a rocky slope to get to the door to an underground/underwater tunnel. Mr. Umi's friend described the history of the dam and proceeded to take us through the tunnel and pressure locked doors. It was actually pretty cool to be in a tunnel 47 meters under the water's surface.

The lake created by Mulunguzi Dam with a small waterfall in the background.

After the dam, we headed straight up the mountain through the mist and fog. There were many pine trees and the air was chilly which made me feel at home in this foreign place. The air was thick and I was exhausted, but the surroundings were beautiful. As I was huffing and puffing, there were many Malawians walking barefoot down the slippery clay path with more wood on their head than I've ever carried. Mostly women and children, they carry large bundles of wood atop their heads to the villages. Amazing really. Apparently, they collect wood on the weekends that they can use for cooking and heating their house for the week.

Hiking through the fog

After what seemed like far too long of hiking straight uphill, the ground leveled out and we found a lake formed by the small Chagwa Dam.

A frog that I found by the lake

The tranquil lake (prettier in real life)

More hiking on level ground brought us to the Queen's view and the Emperor's view...obscured by the fog. We did get to see a bit of the fantastic view through the fog, but the pictures don't do it justice. We had a picnic while watching the rolling clouds and then headed down to Williams Falls. There, we took a refreshing shower under the falls...my favorite part of the weekend.

Williams falls

Shant, me, Niamh, and Mr. Umi in the chilly falls

After 5 hours of fabulous hiking we returned home to Mr. Umi's guest house and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Sunday - travelling refugee style: All low on money, we got the cheapest ride back to the bus station that we could find. This meant sitting in the bed of the of a truck on make-shift benches. Since it was raining hard, they had covered the truck bed in red and blue fabric. This meant that we could not see where we were going at all. We were huddled in the back with no idea how far we were from home, holding on for dear life. The rain kept coming down and the holes in the fabric became apparent. I was lucky enough to be under one of the larger holes and got my own personal shower. Laughing through it all, I arrived at the bus stop wet and cold. Our bus arrived an hour after we did and although there were many people standing in the aisle on the way home, the trip was uneventful. It was a fun adventure for sure.

I had a great weekend! I loved talking to Mr. Umi about the town and the people. It was much less planned out than our previous trips and that's the way I like it.

Alright. I'm happy to be home and now I must rest.

All for 3,000 Kwacha ($21)

I have happy news and sad news. I'll start with the good: The baby that I helped resuscitate yesterday is doing miraculously well. When I went to check on her, I found her kicking and crying. She moved all of her extremities and had good color. I was so relieved. I think that I can honestly say that that was the first time that I saved a life. She seems strong and I hope that she continues to rally.

The bad: Today was a sad day in the pre-natal clinic. I helped do ultrasounds on the mothers to be. Unfortunately, we had to tell 4 of them that their babies had passed away. The worst case was a woman that was 7 months pregnant. 4 days ago some robbers came to her house and asked for 3,000 kwacha (about $21). When she couldn't provide it, they beat her and kicked her in the stomach. This was a fatal blow the fetus inside her and now she must labor to birth a still born. It was a sad sad thing, and it just made life seem so cheap.

Hmmm...Maybe I should have started with the bad, I don't like ending on a negative note.

Tomorrow we head out of town again, this time to the Zomba plateau where we will hike and relax and try to cope with the difficult things that we saw this week while in awe of creation.

Breech Baby Blue

Today I assisted with a breech delivery on labor and delivery that was supposed to go to C-section, but did not make it due to lack of resources. The baby came out slowly with lots of tugging and repositioning. When the baby was completely delivered she was pale and floppy. I went with the nurses to resuscitate the newborn. I did chest compressions while the nurse provided air through the use of a bag valve mask. After a couple minutes of chest compressions, the baby's heart miraculously began to beat fast enough. I then took over for the nurse and breathed for the small seemingly lifeless infant. I continued the resuscitation efforts by myself for the next several minutes while the nurses attended to other women in need. Amazingly, the small girl began breathing on her own. She was still floppy and did not cry, but her heart was beating and she was breathing. I followed her to the neonatal special care and handed her over to the pediatric nurses. It was getting late, so I had to leave at that point in order to get back before the dangerous dark. I don't know what will happen to her, but I know that I did all that I could. It was my first time trying to resuscitate a child, let alone a newborn, and it was intense to say the least. I'll let you know if I find out what happens to her.

How hungry would you have to be?

Today I was given a bun with an egg on it for lunch because I attended a lecture during the noon hour. I was walking away from the hospital eating my "sandwich" when a man said, "Sister, please share. Share with me." So I did the only thing that I could and gave him all that I had left. It was sad...How hungry would you have to be to follow a stranger down the street and beg them for a half eaten bun?

Mvuu Lodge

Here are some of the sights from our mini safari at Mvuu lodge (click on that to see the awesome lodge that we stayed in). In order to get to the lodge we had to take a 45 min boat ride through beautiful surroundings. The Shire River is home to the highest density of hippos in the world. They all peer up at you from the water and then subtily dissapear beneath the surface. I have lots of pictures with hippos, but they're hard to see unless the photos are big, so you'll have to wait on those. At night, we saw the hippos walking around everywhere. We had a great time and saw lots of awesome things. Here are just a couple of the things that we saw on our 3 safaris (walking, boating, and driving).

Waterbuck that we saw on our walking safari

The Shire River from our boat

Me on the boat safari with the elephants

Some kind of King Fishers (Dad that one is for you)

Impala - we saw so many of these you wouldn't believe it

The whole group on our driving safari

in the back - Kim, Sammie, and Katie

in the middle - Shant and me

in the front - Tom, Niamh, and Angela

Elephants! and there's a hippo in the water on the left if you have good eyes

Crocodile

Yellow baboons

On Monday it was back to the hospital. It's quite strange to go live in luxury as the rich westerner all weekend and then return to such poverty. It is quite the whirl-wind tour of Malawi with difficult sights and hard realities mixed in with unbelievable natural beauty.

Please keep in touch. I miss folks!

Pictures from last weekend

Our relaxing room at Gecko Lodge

Some of the unique fish of Lake Malawi. They were very curious and would swim after me as I snorkeled. When I turned quickly, I found that hundreds were following me...amazing.

One of the magestic Fish Eagles. We saw at least 10.

A quick view of the main street in Cape Maclear, taken about a one minute walk from Gecko Lodge's gate

A woman in near Mua Mission

An example of "inculturation" (I think that's what it was called) . This is a depiction of Christ using images that are common in the Chewa traditions with a corn stalk being used as the outline of the cross.

On the road to Dedza. Taken from the car. The winding roads through the mountains were amazing with many things to be seen on the side of the road from villages to cows to beggars to creation. Very scenic and beautiful.

That's all that I have time for now. I have to get some sleep before I head to Mvuu for the weekend. This is apparently where the greatest density of hippos are in the whole world; something like 25 hippos per kilometer of river. Should be interesting.

More from the weekend

For those of you that still do not know where in the world I am right now, I thought it time to provide you with some maps. Malawi's neighbors are Zambia, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

This past weekend, Ankoor and I went on a circle tour between Blantyre (where I live and work), Cape Maclear, Mumbo Island (which you already heard about), Mua, and Dedza. Dedza is basically due west of Cape Maclear on the Mozambique border and Mua lies about half way in between the two.
Cape Maclear: We stayed at Gecko Lodge nestled into the small, poverty stricken beach village. Within feet of the the Lodge's restaurant, women and children bathe in the lake and do the dishes after each meal. I couldn't help but watch in awe of the simplicity and beauty of the Malawians. I felt like an intruder, but I couldn't stop admiring the life that was going on down the beach from me. On the day that the rainbow appeared, there was also an island of grass and weeds that the storm had brought in. 15 Malawian men stood on the beach and discussed how to move this gigantic island...unexpected, but welcomed work on a beautiful Sunday.

Mua: We stayed at the Mua Mission in the middle of a unique town that became the site for catholic missionaries nearly 40 years ago. Because of the Vatacan II policy of "culturalization" (I think that's what it is anyway) many of the traditional tribal customs have been transformed to have a Christian spin. The missionaries started a museum in the town that gave me the greatest look into pre-colonization Malawi that I've had so far. I learned about the 3 main tribes that inhabited Malawi (and still do); the Chewa, the Yao, and the Ngoni. We were lead through rooms that had dioramas rich in color and tradition. The room for the Chewa (the main tribe of Malawi) had many masks with vibrant colors that are worn during spiritual rituals allowing the mask wearers to become the spirits which the masks represent. Ankoor and I learned how each of these unique cultures have traditions rich in ceremonies that show strong roots in community and family. We weren't allowed to take pictues of the rooms with tribal artifacts, so I cannot show you...sorry.

Dedza: This was a quick day trip to pick up some world famous pottery (http://www.dedzapottery.com/index.html) and eat a quick lunch in a cute cafe. It was a great way to end a pretty perfect weekend.

That was a long post...thanks for sticking with it. I wrote this before uploading pictures, so I will put pictures in the next post because it's just easier that way.

Ankoor and I are Engaged!

There is much to tell from the weekend, but I'm sure that you are most interested in the engagement, so I will leave the rest for a different day.

The Perfect Engagement Day...

On Sunday, March 1, Ankoor and I awoke to a beautiful rainbow over Lake Malawi that lingered in the sky for an hour while I ate breakfast. A great start to a wonderul day.


After breakfast we headed to Kayak Africa for our adventure to Mumbo Island. We Kayaked 10km over relatively calm water on a day with few clouds. I love kayaking! Another plus for the day. (unfortunately our guide, Akim, is not the best picture taker...)

After 2 hours, we arrived at our home for the night...Mumbo Island. The water around the island was calm and clear. Absolutely gorgeous. By chance, we had the entire island to ourselves.

We found our room with a view and got settled. The accomadations were comfortable and rustic. With no permanent buildings or electricity on the island, the wilderness is almost untouched. Rooms are built atop rocks and our bathroom was sandwiched around trees and rocks. The toilets were all composting and, as a general rule, all places with composting toilets are awesome (Gesundheit Institute, Matt and Shana's, etc.). Here's us on the hammock outside our room.

Another view from the island.

After getting settled, we began exploring the island. Well marked trails take you on short hikes to all of the island's beauties. This is Fisherman's Beach where I snorkled while Ankoor rested. I saw thousands of vibrantly colored fish...many of which are unique to Malawi (check out Planet Earth for some footage from Lake Malawi). With no other humans or boats in sight, this was by far the best snorkeling I have ever done.

Back to our room for catnap before our sunset cruise. Our room was on this small island attached to Mumbo by the bridge.

We climbed to the top of a small boat with some reisling and set out to watch the sunset. We went around the island to get a view from the outside and saw many fish eagles perched. The sun disappeared behind the clouds, but it was still amazing.

We got back to our room before dark for a fantastic view.

The happy couple (me a little sunburned). Ankoor would like everyone to imagine that he is wearing a tuxedo (ignore the jeans and T-shirt).

After a traditional Malwian meal, we relaxed in the hammock and enjoyed the starlit sky. With no light pollution, the milky way and the southern stars were clearly visable. The only constellation that I recognized was Orion, my favorite. It was truly a perfect day. After a thousand opportunities, Ankoor nervously asked me to marry him (another Geib sister proposed to in her pajamas). Who could say no after a day like that. Ankoor was wonderful, and I could not have asked for a better proposal. According to my wishes, Ankoor did not have a ring...so don't ask about that.

I just wish that I could have shared all this with my friends and family in person, but that can wait.