Where Have We Been?

Well we are back in Lilongwe. Gone for 10 days, we had the great pleasure of seeing most of the southern portion of Malawi as we visited several organizations that implement home-based care and provide support to orphans and vulnerable children with the help of FHI funding.

Since the beginnings of our several orientations for this experience, we have heard the terms HBC (home-based care), OVC (orphans and vulnerable children), IAs (implementing agencies), and vocational schools without really visualizing what everyone was talking about. After this trip, I definitely feel up to speed with all of the FHI lingo and (most of) the abbreviations and acronyms that permeate a lot of discussions regarding global health and development work. So that’s fantastic.

So I’ll give you a brief run-down of where we went. Last Sunday, we left Lilongwe to travel to Blantyre, the commercial capitol of the country, which is about four hours to the south. On the drive down, we drove on a road that runs along the border between Malawi and Mozambique, so it was really interesting to see another country, no matter how surface level it may have been. We stayed in Blantyre for a couple of days before heading down to Nsanje to visit a couple of FHI partners down there. It is in the southern-most part of the country and was pretty hot. We stayed the night in Chikwawa at a lodge on a game reserve, which was awesome because we saw a lot of antelope and monkeys. There was actually a pamphlet in my room that warned visitors to keep their doors closed because they’ve had a problem with monkeys coming in and stealing stuff out of the rooms. There was a frog in my toilet the whole time I was there. Tremendous.

Then we went to Mulanje. There we saw a vocational school for orphans and vulnerable children. There were about twenty kids of various ages learning carpentry, tailoring and tinsmithing. The aim of this program—and many others like it that FHI funds—is to generate income for and empower the children. In Mulanje we also saw a training session for future HBC volunteers. HBC volunteers do weekly visits to patients in local areas that are suffering from HIV, TB and cancer. They receive training from FHI-funded organizations on medical treatment, nutrition and psycho-social and spiritual support for the patients. We were lucky enough to sit in on one of these training sessions. The training was for adults, but took place at an elementary school, so when we arrived, we were mobbed by about a hundred little kids. “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Once Jing took out his camera, it was all over. There was nowhere to go. We were surrounded. Only after a few minutes was I able to wade out of the lake of smiling, laughing, curious kids. It was a warm welcome to say the least.



We drove to Blantyre again to stay the night before heading out to Mangochi the next morning (Friday). We visited another partner and saw another vocational school and then returned to where we were staying. Friday through Monday nights we stayed on the shore of Lake Malawi, which was awesome to say the least. The lake is huge; it is very beautiful and definitely a point of pride for Malawians. The administrative officer that had accompanied us since we had left Lilongwe headed back home over the weekend and then we met back up with FHI when the head nutrition officer of the country met us in Mangochi to show us some of the nutrition programs going on there and in Namwera (a small town in the district of Mangochi). We saw three different gardens that were funded by FHI-funded implementing partners. The purpose of the gardens is to encourage diet diversity and ensure food security during times of food shortages.

Yesterday we returned to Lilongwe and have settled back in nicely at The Golden Peacock, where we had a warm welcome from all the staff. Our friend Raki has left to work in Zambia for about a month. His replacement is here, living in his room, but we haven’t met him yet.