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.