Four short observations/stories

Last Class with Year 3 students
Last Wednesday was the last day of class with the year 3 students in Research. They now go off to have clinical practice in the community or in the hospital. However I am not really done with them as they have a paper due March 18 and I will write a final exam in May. I asked them to write the two things they learned that they will remember and the vast majority said ethics and informed consent, some mentioned literature review the importance of or how to access articles on line, how to write a clear research question and how to critique a research article. I was pleased with their responses and they enjoyed the slide show at the end of class consisting of pictures I took of them. They really get a kick out seeing themselves. Some students came and downloaded the pictures onto a memory stick so they could share them with their peers and put them on their phones. By the last day the students were really interacting with me, asking questions, telling me when they didn’t understand what I said or what I meant, teaching me Chichewa and laughing at my pronunciation. Now when I walk across campus they said “hello Madam, how are you Madam?” – all the lecturers are Madam, as are all the employers of household or garden help. They are inviting me to share Malawi food with them partly to see if I will eat it. I will miss them but I am going to clinical with them later in the week so I should have stories soon.
One thing I found interesting is that they didn’t ask many questions about my students in the US even though I shared pictures from some of my clinical groups. They were much more interested in how I saw them and they were pleased when I said they were every bit as sharp as students in the US –which is absolutely true. They wanted to know what I thought of the hospital and Lord knows I won’t tell them the truth because it is pretty awful in terms of care. I wish I had some more one on one time with them to learn about them and their stories.
Dutch Treat
We have 3 Dutch students from a University in Amsterdam who are doing a global health minor in their nursing program. They are doing clinical with the students here and attending some classes in the context of doing a project or projects for their home university. They are living in the hostel with the Malawi students which is mostly a marvelous experience for them except after a week and a half they were getting tired of nsima, beans, and chicken. So I invited them to come out to Regina’s house on Sunday for some pasta. I made sauce with real ground beef, lovely local mushrooms (see the photo), onions, and peppers and they brought the pasta. I also baked a local squash (they call them pumpkins) and made some garlic bread. The latter two items had to be cooked in the oven and I soon learned what a challenge that was. Regina’s oven doesn’t work right. When I turned it on I got the broiler and after burning the tops of the squash we figured out how to make the oven go on but then we couldn’t control the temperature which was in C anyway and I had no idea where to set even if it was working right. The squash came out ok because I cooked it open side down but when I put the bread in the oven somehow the broiler came back on and scorched the top. Nevertheless everyone really enjoyed the meal. AnneMarie, Charlotte, and Sandy talked about life in the dorm and how they were managing to avoid mosquitoes by slathering themselves with deet before bed and sleeping under nets. They said they were the only students using nets which is not a surprise to me. We had a great meal and good conversation. Regina asked them questions about their experience here and so I didn’t get to learn about their program so I hope I can do that later. They were a bit sunburned from an afternoon at a hotel pool and were happy to be in a warm sunny place.
Getting Malaria
Getting malaria is just something that people expect here. Most people I have talked to have had it multiple times, several students were missing last week because they had malaria. No one gets very excited about it even though it is miserable, some people get very sick, and others die. I think there is a fatalism about it that goes beyond knowledge – all the students know nets protect against malaria and they teach families to use them especially for children under 5 but they don’t use them themselves nor do most of their family members. There is a very deep belief in God or Allah – many vehicles bear bumper stickers saying “God is in control” Perhaps on the other side of having God/Allah in control is not having any personal control. Consequently if God/Allah lets malaria happen then I will get malaria.
Religion in Malawi
Most people here are Catholic or Presbyterian but no matter the denomination all are very conservative – thus the laws criminalizing homosexuality. The Scots brought the Presbyterian Church to Malawi along with a hefty dose of Scottish austerity. (Scotland still provides a huge amount of foreign aid). Every Sunday there are hordes of people walking on the roads in their Sunday best going to church, I often see women who are members of women’s groups in blue skirts, white tops and head wraps (they look like Pilgrims to me) walking to church on Sunday morning and evening as well as sometimes during the week. Church lasts at least an hour and a half even in the Catholic Church and much longer in some other churches. Even the Anglicans stay for almost 2 hours not including tea time. On Friday and on Sat AM the two big mosques are full and the little masjids in the villages are also occupied. Most of the Muslims here are Sunni. There are two mosques in town right across from each other – both are Sunni but seem to disagree about many things. The big mosque on the main road is festooned like a big cake with green and white lights this week. Shaibu my trusty taxi driver says it is to celebrate the birthday of “Mohammed (Peace be upon him)” and there will be a parade tomorrow through town. The other mosque has no lights and Shaibu says that they just don’t think it is right to celebrate the birthday. (He belongs to the mosque that is celebrating).
Superstition is strong here despite the deep religious piety. Most Malawians are afraid of chameleons because they bring bad luck, hearing the call of an owl is a bad omen and seeing one means something very bad will befall you or someone close to you. Cats are associated with witchcraft and one student said that when a cat looks at you he can see through to your insides as well as your naked body. Witchcraft is feared and people who are thought to be witches are feared and sometimes accused of crimes. However, a recent article in the paper indicated that only someone related to you could bewitch you and prayer could reverse bewitchment (although I don’t see much evidence that this is widely believed) and I do see evidence in the many newspaper ads that people believe in the casting of counterspells.
Pictures later