Today was an adventure in a different way. M and K run the Lutheran Mobile Mission Clinic through the LCCA. They serve 5 villages and visit each once a week. Today M was the one going out to clinic and she took us with her and the staff out to the village of Suzi. It’s amazing seeing someone just a few years older than me running this whole extravagant operation! Suzi is a small village, like others we’ve seen, but again it was really cool to get up close and see everything and kind of experience village life.
The mobile clinic operates like this: M or K go out to the village for the day. They drive the ambulance and pick up the staff members each day who ride in the back. There are about 9 of them I think. Then, once they get to the clinic, everything needs to be unpacked and set up each day. While this is happening, everyone is weighed, and a devotion is lead outside for the villagers, so I got to sing in Chechewa. Then the staff take turns teaching about something important to the villagers in the world of healthcare. Today’s topic was about under-5s vaccinations. After the teaching, the clinic operates different lines for sick patients, under-5s, antenatal care, family planning, and pharmacy. The staff members are busy constantly and the villagers know which lines they need to be in and wait patiently. The sick line today had at least 150 people in it. The staff just keep calling people through the lines under everyone has been taken care of. Whenever the lines are done, that’s when they go home. We got started around 9:15 and they were done around 1:15. Then they pack everything back up and head back for the day to do it all again the next day!
I was in awe of this well oiled machine and it was neat watching for awhile, but not being a nurse, I didn’t really know what to look for. So, being the teacher, I found all the small children and started making friends with them. J Also, the clinic can only do so much, so if someone is extremely ill, they will take them into Lilongwe in the ambulance. Usually they come with the staff at the end of the day, but today there was a man who was not doing well at all, so he had to go back in the middle of the day. T and I accompanied the driver on this hour plus drive into Lilongwe and the same back to Suzi just to turn around and come back to Lilongwe. But this gave us a chance to see what the ambulance driver does and how the Malawian hospital system works. We saw just a bit though, so not enough to compare to the one in Lusaka, but this one looked cleaner, by a bit. Unfortunately when we got back to Suzi, M told me that she had found out that they expected this man to have TB. And I sat next to him during the ride. He didn’t cough on me, so my chances of being infected are slim, but the running joke for the next few days from K, M, and T was that I was coughing or couldn’t do things because I’ve been infected with TB. It’s fun to be silly sometimes. J
After clinic, T and I rested before church. The church building at the LBI is gorgeous and they have the new hymnals! We have been using the old ones from 40 years ago in Lusaka! We enjoyed the final Wednesday of Lent in Lilongwe, and we enjoyed meeting the missionary families that are in Lilongwe. After church, everyone had meetings, so T and I decided to wander the LBI campus. It’s very nice! More classrooms and prettier grounds than the sem. There’s even this cute gazebo that T and I hung out in. They have all their student housing in one place instead of spread out like at the sem, so I didn’t like that as much. Hopefully a program will be there one day eventually, too. I was very impressed by the LBI and was excited to meet missionaries JH, MP, and PN. After church, K, M, T, and I went back to K and M’s house to find the power out. Usually it’s on Tuesday night apparently, so it was weird to be without power on a Wednesday. We ate chick burgers though (and oranges with cinnamon on them—strange but yummy!) and packed for returning to Zambia!
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