It’s not all flooding bad news from the Trust’s food sustenance initiatives in Malawi. Here’s a shot from Kennie of a very healthy crop planted by the kids at one of the primary school projects. To borrow from supermarket advertising: every little helps.

This won’t just help the pupils have a bit better diet, it’s also about teaching good horticultural practices and encouraging them to do it for themselves.

There was quite bad flooding at several of our Tuesday Trust projects in Salima, Malawi last month, with rice and bean crops the worst affected. Some of the village areas which have had flooding include Mhoka, Kandulu, Magumbwa and Lifidzi. Even after the waters subsided, the silty mud residue has undone all the women’s fantastic, hard work.

Kennie, our project manager has taken some shots to show the aftermath. We are working with the groups there to get their food sustenance gardens going again.

Anne-Louise spent the last quarter of 2010 in Malawi and has compiled a detailed progress report on the Tuesday Trust’s  Food Security and Education project there, around Salima. If you’d like to know anything more about any aspect of the TT’s work, please post below or send us an email.

Thanks for everyone’s help and support to date. We’re making slow, but steady progress - and learning lots about how to get things done along the way.

Just click here to download the PDF:  Tuesday Trust Progress Report 2009/10

Buried under work now. Barely stick my nose up before its time to go home.Administration, paperwork…and more paperwork. It is the season for CV’s. We receive some every day. Came across an unusual one. Worth mentioning. The guy was a computer technician. Lots of qualifications. Among his interests he listed… reading, swimming, sport, fishing and…STANDING.

It must have been the heat… Ben and l collapsed laughing.

“And did you take up standing as a young boy?”

“Do you like to stand on your own or in a group”?

“What’s the longest you have stood for”

Hmmm…..!!

Had to go home for a few days. Came back to open arms and a bursting heart.  I have a good friend here. His name is Faxon. He is a cook. He is graceful and bold and beautiful and good. Hard life but not so bad. While l was gone, his little boy took ill on Saturday morning. He strapped the young boy to his back and cycled to hospital. 20 kms away. The boy died that afternoon. The same day his wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She still has no name.

The next day the gardener’s son took ill. A little baby. Lucy rushed him to the Baptist hospital. He died that afternoon.

Everybody is gaunt and strained. When l asked..why? All anybody could say is. This is what is happening. It a silent killer. We don’t know why.

The grief is deep. They get up the next day. They walk to work. There are so many funerals that employers restrict their employees to funerals of immediate family only. Just too many every day.

But there are moments where you get a peek into heaven. Sitting on the shores of the lake. The line on the horizon offering glimpses of Mozambique. Young men in dug out wooden boats trailing nets, cows ambling on the shore with boys no more that 8 herding in earnest.

Sitting under the shade of a magnificent tree covered with orange blossoms. And the birds. Blue, yellow, and red in the sky and peeking from  the  trees. Takes my breath away. In a nod to Noah…  2 birds fly side by side. As the sun goes down, two young men while away the afternoon lying in the warm lake eating mangos. I can hear them laughing and talking. Good friends. For that moment all was perfect in the world.

So much oesphigical cancer. Talk is why? Is it the ensema (their basic food made from maize). An NGO will have to take this on. Nobody here can. Our doctor went on a home visit to a young man who had a tumor on his eyeball. His eye was completely distended affecting the other eye and all of the nerves in his face. It could have been avoided. He went to a good hospital when it first appeared. They took a biopsy. He went home. Nobody called him. Eventually he was told it would take three years to get his results. He stayed at home in his village. Even at this end stage he was asking our doctor could she cure him. She is tied up in frustration. All she could offer him was Palliative Care.

l am learning that the work is never ending. There is simply so much to do. Have to keep reminding myself that we can only do our little bit in our little bit of the world.

Interesting night coming up tonight. Having a barbque .

My friends have come from Ireland to help. So good to see them. My friend has come from Kampala for the weekend. Bright red hair and beautiful. Raised in Malawi and back now, giving most of Africa a very firm hand!  And my friend who is partial to guns and rangers is driving down from her camp to get some R&R.  She can’t seem to part from her scouts. She’s just called to ask if she can bring one and put him in a tent in the garden. Sure. Another Ugandan lady who spends all of her time travelling to different parts of Africa setting up Palliative Care and a frankly mad but lovely woman from Zimbabwe who now lives here. A sort of …  Major of Malawi.  You want police, army tractors, tailors, coffins, money, medicine, sugar …anything.  Just call her.

Just one man. A lovely man. Have asked him to dress up!

Don’t think we will do much standing. Maybe dancing.

Went to a Catholic Misson in the hills . 200 years oldFounded by the White Fathers. One of them is famous in Malawi..

for not exactly holy reasons. Mostly unholy reasons.

Like becoming more Malawian than a Malawian.

Too secret to tell…but he is also an artist.

A good artist.

Sitting in  the church feeling a desperate need to connect.

Kept closing my eyes to pray. No way it was going to happen.

Too much going on around me.It was a mass of thanksgiving for the local school children after their exams. The whole school formed the choir. It was  powerful. And moving. I am sure you could hear them in Tanzania.They must have practiced for weeks.

They sang loud and clear. 200 children.

The singing….the heat; the Sunday clothes…the babies sleeping.

And a priest speaking Chiweoan in a Kerry accent!

Perfect.

There are moments here that are good and this was a good moment. Over a Fanta, l asked the handsome Kerry priest has he seen any changes in Tansania or Malawi since he came in 1984.

‘None - Its the same’

That’s worth thinking about.

Yesterday a bridal party arrived to have their photos taken in a ‘pretty place’. Small car and out hopped…Granny, Mums-in –law, bride, groom, 3 brides maids, a best man, and the driver.

The local football team were getting ready to leave the village to “take down” the neighbouring village. They sang and beat their drums for the newly weds.

The bride was beautiful. It took me a little time to see the groom among the gold taffetta and crisp white shirts.

And when l did…l got a fright. He was so  ill .

Disease has ravaged him. Cancer? HIV? Both?

He was tiny in his white wedding suit.

His shoes looked like cartoon shoes and he could hardly walk.

He held his friends arm.

I looked away.

Have meet some very funny patients.  “Mr. Big Leg” is my favourite.

A  poor man livining in a roofless hovel. He has elephantititus in his legs. He has lesions all over  his body .

Lucy and l found him in the bus shelter. (Another long story).

The hospital told him in 2003 that they had to amputate his leg.

He never went back. Now after a few days of food and medicine

(not to mention many showers) l asked him how he was feeling.

“Wonderful…wonderful…but Rome was not built in a day “ in a deliciously superior accent.

Love it.

New volunteers arrived. A lovely New Doctor from Wales and her partner who’s a Wizard disguised as an IT man .

He rides a unicycle!

He rode it home last week in the late afternoon sun.

I drove behind him. He made everybody laugh along the way.

Young children ran after him..old women just rocked on their porches in laughter, young men caught up with him on their bicycle’s and overtook him literally convulsed with laughter. Old men just stared.

And he waved for everybody.

Must be  a Wesh thing!!

What a great gift….

Our Bendictine Monk had a tough week. The little girl he looks after has maleria. She was very ill.

He wanted to fly her to another country for treatment but was persuaded to keep her here. Too sick to fly.

They brought her to the District Hospital and hooked her up to an IV drip. He would not stay the night though. The little girl could have picked up a host of other diseases.

They brought the drip home and a good friend with medical training adminstered to her through the night in her own bed.

Did not have a good supper last night.

I kept seeing a man with three fish in his hand all day. In the garden.

In the hall. In the wood turners hut.

In the street. All day.

There were 3 of us for supper last night.

We had one fish each.

I recognised those fish .

In the 40 degrees heat. For hours. Hmmm.

There is only one psycharitrist in all of Malawi.

What happens if you need help?? Where do you go??

(Maybe l need one!)

Will spend time with the Tuesday Trust ladies this week.

Getting ready for the rainy season.

This is a busy time.

Rains come end of November.

Everyone’s out digging .

The monkeys are still driving the dog wild.

I wake at 5 with the birds.

And that’s beautiful.

And there is a Frangipani growing near my window.

And l love it.

Going home next week for 10 days.

Beyond excited.

Good news.

Some shots here of the first TT Land Lecture at the Mchoka resource centre. We had a guy from Agri-Foresty called Watson Jali and our own Kenny give a talk on composting.

Watson is the Land Resource and Conservation Officer for the district Agricultural Office and he was great. The women are leaders from some of our original projects: Magumbwa, Mphunga, Mchoka, Kandulu and we also had Phaka, Chimoga and Sanimaganga, three new gardens.

The women were really enthusisatic and Watson has kindly agreed to come himself or send somebody else for the next four weeks. I have also asked him for information on organic fertiliser. I am hoping that he will put our teams on a government programme next year to supply tree seeds and bushes and the technical backup. There are also grants available. However we are too late this year but they are very happy to give us all the technical support we need. In return l have told them we will develop the data on the different gardens using agri-forestry which l am sure he would find useful.

The women in the photos are all leaders of the different groups. I asked them if they felt this way of working i.e. seeds, support, etc was better than us simply giving them a bag of maize. Without doubt they all want to go forward developing their gardens and most importantly, they want the education to back it up. They were so excited today and participated so well.

If You Grow Up.

A crocodile ate Lucy’s great-grandmother.

Honestly.

Feel bad because l laughed.

First time l’ve met someone who actually knew somebody who was eaten.

By a crocodile.

Sneaked out tonight.

Music coming in loud and clear.

From  the bush.

Grabbed the New Canadian Doctor.

Something not right.

He’s dancing with the ladies over 60 and I’m dancing with the boys under 16.

Not easy coming home through the bush.

No traffic lights.

New Canadian Doctor afraid of snakes.

And there it was again… Madonna.

He heard it too.

Asked a boy today what he wanted to be when he grew up.

He looked straight at me. ‘’I might be dead. I might be a drunkard”.

Thought I saw him at the party.

Alone.

Going to look at crocodiles tomorrow.

Hope Lucy won’t mind….

Busy.

Tuesday Trust is coming along.

Learning lots about termite resistant fences and rural Malawian politics.

The village women have their first lecture tomorrow.

Composting.

Coming up next… agri -forestry.

These women are smart.

Gate crashed an opening they were having in another village.

Such ceremony.

Lots of chiefs.

And chiefs of chiefs.

And wives of  Chief’s….

Lucy did not eat her dinner tonight.

Too sad.

Little 16 year old girl who was a friend of hers taken to a missionary hospital (you have to pay) with a serious headache.

They are very poor.

The village chief wrote a note asking the hospital to care for the young girl.

She went at the wrong time. 4 am.

The attending medic did not give her any respect.

He put a drip in and went back to bed.

He ordered the staff not to disturb him.

He went back to sleep. But he did not put the drip in properly.

It was leaking all over the floor.

Her family could only find a watchman to complain to.

Eventually somebody else came along and gave her a new drip.

By 10 am she was dead.

Her family left.

The hospital gave them a bill.

And their daughter’s body.

So sad.

It brings you face to face with human rights.

It’s in your face.

Every day.

Looking forward to the weekend. Heading up to a small reserve.

My Irish friend is the camp manager. Lots of Rangers.

(Wonder if they will let me shoot)

Bringing the Two Canadian Doctors.

Called for directions.

Was told to bring a saw, chains and two planks (because the bridge is down)

The saw to cut up trees on the road, which the elephants have knocked down.

Hmmmm

Chicken for chickens!

Packed the ambulance full to bring all to the clinic.

Carefully helping the young and the old.

Got to the clinic.

Opened the doors.

The oldest woman handed me a huge black live chicken.

Yes, I dropped it.

She’s in trouble with Lucy.

No chickens allowed in the ambulance…

Yesterday I was walking through Lucy’s garden and through the gate came a young Malawian man in a red Arsenal shirt, a man in a black cassock and wooden cross, with a tiny Malawian baby over his shoulder.

He is Brother Michael and the baby’s name is Christina.

I don’t know what “ Arsenals” name is.

He is an Anglican Benedictine Monk.

The last one in the world.

There were four of them but he is now on his own.

He is mid 30’s.

Spend most of his adult life in an enclosed order in Scotland and the last five years in different countries in Africa working with abandoned babies.

Usually physically or mentally handicapped.

Christina was born with brain damage.

She has cerebral palsy and she had a stroke at birth.

She was abandoned to die.

Brother Michael took her to his home.

He nurses her, cares for her.

She did not sleep more than 2 hours a night at first.

He works around her.

She is tiny and lovely.

He and his little group arrived from another town on the bus.

They have little.

He wants to open place for abandoned children here.

I hope l see them again.

(Already hatching a plan for Bro. Michael to get him a new light grey cassock.

The heavy black one he wears …way too hot.

Wonder if he will surrender to us or will we steal it while he sleeps…..)

If l kill a chicken on the road, it’s 200KW.

If l kill a goat, then it’s 6,000KW.

If l kill a cow we reckon it must be 50,000 KW.

Just back from camp. Five of us on 40,000 acres.

Beautiful.

Huts, monkeys and elephants.

And fleas and horrible flies called TziTzi flies that give you a disease the locals call  ‘Sleeping Sickness’ (Eventually getting into your brain).

The Two Canadian Doctors l was with seriously need to re-sit their exams….

They jumped into a pool of stagnant water covered with flies and fleas, small animal poo and parasites.

Am watching them very closely to see if they will die.

Soon.

It’s getting hotter.

34 degrees today.

Very high humidity.

Almost unbearable.

Have surrendered to the lake.

Will take the medication later.

Starting to see beyond the dust.

Driving home, l now see the big guys in the field play powerful football.

I see tiny children playing and running.

I see the older women gossip around the pump.

I see young men giving their girl a lift home on the back of the bike.

Fridays are like home.

At 5 o’clock, people everywhere.

Carrying wood for the fire, maize on their head.

A few wobbly bikes.

Too many beers.

Mosques calling to prayer.

Oxen running for home, with a couple of 10 year olds waving sticks at them.

The street markets buzzing with music.

Young boys selling mice on a stick…..

Feeling more at home….

And missing my family.

But it’s OK.

Film crew came yesterday. Volunteers. Making a little movie to Lucy raise money.

Big Canadian film guy… Tom.

Lucy made us cry.

She sat in front of the camera and Tom asked her to tell us why she does this. Her sister was dying.

In the next room was a young Malawian soldier. He screamed in pain for three days and nights. Lucy begged for help for him.

He died in pain.

She promised that as long as she could… in her world… nobody would die in such pain.

A man died yesterday at the local district hospital. He had had a stroke and lapsed into a coma. His wife and son said very little.

He must have been a good man.

The look in their eyes was unbearable to watch.

New Canadian doctor arrives. Donating three weeks to the clinic. Good fun and a great doctor. (Really bad driver!) Asking all the right questions but still can’t get the right answer.  Just as we were leaving the house this morning… a woman brings her sick baby for him to look at. Very ill child with measles.  He checks the child. Lucy explains how it is. There are no tests. There is nothing we can do. The father waits in the kitchen. His son is very important to him. He says nothing.

Tuesday was washing day for me. Took all my clothes outside to the sink to wash them.

Humming.

Scrubbing.

Slowly looked over my shoulder. About 20 VERY quiet people sitting on the wall. Watching me. All waiting to see if they could get a lift into town. Lucy sends half away with a quick flick of her hand. Not quite sure what she said but could take a guess…

Major problem with morphine supplies. (An issue of distribution, organization and Centeral Medical Stores). Am becoming  an expert on essential medicines. Draining.

Lucy stressed.

Have sourced some weak morphine to keep the clinic going for a couple of weeks. Had to send a guy from the clinic on the bus (4 hours each way) to pick it up. Can’t send a car…diesel shortage. Major changes have to come. Tony at the forefront of the attack. Spent most of the last 10 days doing this. More to come…

My new Irish friend who is running the nearby Reservation is beginning to see the attractions of army life. Has six scouts and two armed rangers at her disposal. Lines them up in the morning…checks them out. Sends them out to catch poachers. Listens for rapid gunfire. That means they have caught a poacher. Am heading up next weekend.

Hope the elephants come out to play.

God… I truly hope there is nothing too creepy up there. Had to skip over a snake in the garden yesterday.

Not to mention the two monkeys who live in the high trees in our garden. On Skype, my 7-year niece asked if l could catapult some bananas up to them. They look like fat cats to me!!

Not to mention the GIANT things that live in my roof that run around at night. I don’t want to know…

Big thanks to Liam Chivers and Patrick O’Reilly at metronet, who not only set up this site for the Tuesday Trust pro bono, but also fixed the latest link glitch in the dead of night. Great web developers who also do real work for money.

info@metronet.ie

Thnx again guys. T.

September 22

The sun is hotter every day. My days are going faster.
l am running from place to place; meetings in the car, picking up patients,
driving faster! More meetings in the office. Bushfires on the horizon.

Today was a difficult day. Bit like watching ten movies at once. Started off with a
meeting in the army base with a guy about a plane. He’s a game hunter in his
spare time. Soldiers all wearing shiny boots. (Maybe the only boots in the
family). Don’t get carried away thinking these guys are cool. An army for hire.
Peacekeepers. Cheaper than sending your own troops.

Next stop, the office. There is a fuel shortage, an electricity shortage, an internet
shortage and a team from the local reserve, which was attacked by local villagers.
They come in and out to sit in our office while they take turns in the fuel queue.
The clinic is dealing with patients coming all day. Some need to be taken to the
hospital. Emails are backing up. Deadlines are way past bedtime.

More importantly. As of yesterday, there is a morphine shortage. There is no
Vincristine (chemo) at the hospital. Patients are coming here for their
treatment. Lucy cannot bear to turn these people away even though they are not
registered. They are in terrible pain. Our budget for Vincristine is spent for the
year and we have three months to go…..

This means that Tony (the man l have come over to help out) has to spend
valuable time shouting at the government and anybody in-between. This
happens when we are not relieving drivers in the queue for fuel. It’s been two
days now. If we have no fuel we cannot get to the patients. And they need
morphine. They are terminally ill patients. For Gods sake.

Only reason for morphine shortage is because some person in Government got
his sums wrong.

In the middle of all of this, I had to be the driver as our drivers were at the petrol
station fighting for fuel for the ambulance. Did a couple of runs. Tony (in his 70’s)
was busy relieving me, dealing with a report due in last week for funding, writing
cheques for fuel, dealing with accountants, fighting Government cars that tried to
jump the queue. How does a Prison Officers car take precedence over an
ambulance?

Found a few minutes to sit in the office. Lucy , the Malawian lady who started this
Clinic in 2006 walked through the garden holding the hand of a shy, young 16
year old girl . They come into the office. Lucy explained the problem. The young
girl is HIV positive. Her family want to be rid of her. They want her to get
married. I don’t think she wants to be married. Lucy explained to her it’s not a
good idea. She took her hand and led her  away to sort her out.

Looks like the young girl might now have a place in a local school, learning a
trade. Maybe sewing.  Maybe enough for to make a difference.

Got some emails off. Nice people offering to help fundraise. Irish in Lilongwe.
Money really does make this world go round. If Tony and Lucy had more…they
could just direct their attention to their patients.

Going home drove past some dodgy characters dressed in long grasses covering
their faces and bodies, having a nice crazy dance around a fire.
Maybe it’s a full moon…. Two patients and their little baby sit in the back.
Giggling all the way home.

Home now. Having a beer. Talking to Lucy.

Won’t stay up late.