Thursday, June 9, 2011

Greetings from Malawi

Well, folks it looks as though internet access will be few and far between! Fortunately, there is all good news to report from here (except Jac's suitcase still has not arrived!). We had a smooth trip over, made all connections, and had a good time walking 10+ miles in London waiting for our evening flight. It rained almost the whole time but that didn't dampen our spirits.

We are now in Malawi, the Warm Heart of Africa. We visited our Sinkhani health workers in Chisemphere, a very poor rural village, yesterday. We were 4 hours late arriving due to transportation problems but they somehow managed to have a hot meal of nshima and chicken cooked over charcoal ready for us. Today we met with the Sinkhani in Mzimba. Their stories are amazing. One told of a young girl in her community that had 3rd degree burns on her arm from a pan of hot cooking oil. The parents started to rush her to the hospital and the neighbors said, "take her to the Sinkhani if you want her to get better." So they did, the Sinkhani used some neosporin ointment which is not available anywhere in the country even at the hospitals, and the girl is now doing fine. They told of children with severe diarrhea that they first gave the ORS (sugar, salt, and water solution) to and then made an herbal remedy of soyo. They said it always works. One of the Sinkhani ran outside and picked some leaves to show us what it looked like. We took a picture so we can do some research to find out what they're using. They have now been volunteers since 1992 -- truly amazing people!

Hopefully we can get another email to you at some point. So don't give up!

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