Posts Tagged preparation

First day in Malawi, and getting there

September 8, 2008 at 10:41 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

I hate the overnight flight from London to South Africa. The seats are small and uncomfortable, one doesn’t sleep, and one is stuck tight for 11 hours, legs stiff and feet swelling. I’ve made this flight many times now, but this time there was the odd tantalising sensation of being delivered so close to home in Cape Town, only to be rerouted back up to Lilongwe.

It was thus that I entered the arrivals hall of Jo’burg airport in an almost delirious haze from lack of sleep, exacerbated by the hangover effect from a belatedly effective sleeping tablet. Dumbly following an interminably long queue to get a boarding pass for the flight to Lilongwe, I was aware of entering a large stark hall, with only two bored clerks opposite, working behind a counter with place for eight. The only adornment to this ugly functional space was a daring abstract artwork on the opposite wall, its curving black and grey shapes breaking the surrounding monotony of straight lines and hard edges.
I desperately needed a strong coffee, but clearly the unhurried scanning, stamping and printing behind the counter meant I’d have to wait a long while. A portly Zimbabwean man wearing a cream jacket and a bowler hat and clutching a bottle of Famous Grouse asked me if I knew anything about past-life regression, going on to explain that Jesus was just a man. Not knowing whether the incoherence was his or mine I nodded politely. Read the rest of this entry »

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So where exactly will I be working?

September 6, 2008 at 6:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

Good question! Zomba Mental Hospital is the only dedicated state psychiatric hospital in Malawi, and it’s here that I understand I’ll be spending most of my time. ZMH is in Zomba in the southern region. (There are three regions in Malawi – northern, central and southern. ZMH is the only psychiatric facility in the south, the central region district general hospital has a psychiatric ward, and the northern region is served by St John of God Hospital which is run by the church – or was at least founded by the church…)

So, looking at a map, Zomba sits in the cusp of a hand formed by Mozambique. You can see it marked by the pink “A” below.

Taking a closer look at that southern region, we can start to see some landscape features, courtesy of Googleearth. Notice the apparently lovely Lake Chilwa to the east of Zomba, and the Zomba Plateau just to the north.

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Malawi for absolute beginners

September 6, 2008 at 6:10 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

Six months ago I knew very little about Malawi. I knew more or less where it was – kind of in the middle of Africa somewhere, that it had a large lake, and that is was very poor and thus very cheap for tourists. It is close enough to South Africa for odd words and impressions to have seeped into my consciousness while growing up, enough to create a sense of familiarity without knowledge. Some friends had told me about camping on the lakeshore for $2 per night, watching sunsets while drinking cheap beer. I’d seen one or two smiling posters during the apartheid years, promoting Malawi as “The warm heart of Africa”. The incongruity of an African country trying to attract white South Africans at that time was completely lost on me, but that’s for another post.

 
 

So it might be a good idea just to orientate readers as I have had to orientate myself!

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The shrinking of the keys

August 30, 2008 at 3:43 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

The last two weeks have been frenetically busy for me in Edinburgh, and despite my good intentions to continue with this blog, it was not to be. (I did write a wee bit about Malawi itself, which will follow this post.) My bunch of keys, usually dangling from my USB-drive keyring, has slowly shrunk as I left work for the last time, sold my car, got rid of my bike, and finally left the flat. I’m left with only a naked and somewhat surprised USB drive.

Now however I write this sitting on the train down to London, the lovely coastline north of Newcastle whizzing by in the sun (yes, sun!). The First Class tickets were only £8 more than Standard, so I indulged in one. Smartly dressed people come round and offer me free coffee and biscuits – as it should be. I can relax at last.

Planning logistics, packing boxes, saying goodbye, redistributing my stuff to friends, repacking, selling equipment, and generally getting stressed has coloured my general excitement with overtones of exhaustion and frustration. However, most practical preparations are now done. Thirteen boxes were picked up yesterday for hauling back to Cape Town, my car was sold (at the very last minute), ebay items were posted off, and finally my bags were packed by 1am this morning!! Not bad (for me) considering I’m going for six months, and this morning was the earliest I’ve got to bed for a long time! I’m a tad worried that I’ve not taken any psychiatry or medical books with me, which adds to a feeling of general unpreparedness. More on that later.

Saying goodbye to friends is not only sad, but also draining. Edinburgh has been a lively sociable place for me for five years, and a recent weekend with visiting friends was a reminder of how wonderful it can be. I console myself that I will be seeing most of them again in a few months when I return for a visit. Leaving all this behind and jumping into the unknown, even with the help of an organisation like VSO, is quite scary at times, especially as I’ll likely be moving straight on to work in Cape Town afterwards. Most of my South African friends who have been overseas will understand the ambivalence involved in this decision. But that is also something for another time.

I must say a big thank-you to my friend Lorna who’s flat I’ve invaded over the past two months, and who has put up tirelessly with the mess of half-packed boxes and random stuff strewn over her living room floor and corridor.

Off to France now (after a night in London with old friends) until flying to Malawi on the 6th September, if all goes according to plan.

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Jumping off the treadmill

August 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm · Filed under Uncategorized ·Tagged ,

After many weeks of threatening to write a blog about my upcoming time in Malawi, I’ve finally managed to get started. I’ve learnt from various friends who are struggling writing their dissertations here in Edinburgh, that the opening chapter or paragraph, or even sentence, is the hardest. Hopefully with this first post out of the way, the rest should be easy!

Writing a blog seems like a good way of keeping in contact and sharing my experiences*. It’s easier than sending out individual emails to friends and family, thus allowing for more regular news, and it also doesn’t clog up people’s inboxes.

There is an option to comment at the end of each post. Please use it! I think feedback would be great.

One less easy aspect is knowing how to pitch this blog. I hope that it will be of interest to friends and family in Cape Town, friends in Scotland, psychiatric colleagues, and other loyal hangers-on. So the focus of posts may vary from the uninterestingly psychiatric, or mundanely descriptive, to touristy and factual, to feverish and confused if the malaria takes hold. There is something a bit exhibitionist about writing a blog also, which doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with me. But a songwriter on Radio 4 commented in an interview recently that, in songwriting, the more personal and specific it is, the more universal it becomes, paradoxically. The same is no doubt true for a blog, but writing a large group email like this to many people tends to flatten out personal nuances which might usually make stories more interesting. Striking a balance between the personal and the bland will be a challenge. Read the rest of this entry »

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