July 14-20: After a very long airplane trip (Boston – New York City – Johannesburg – Lilongwe), we arrived in Lilongwe Sunday afternoon. We were greeted by Seed Malawi staff and brought to Wendall’s Guest House, which is conveniently located next to the Seed office. I’m racking my brain right now for my first impressions of Malawi, but if I’m honest, my first day in-country was memorable only for weariness and jet lag.

Monday morning, after a 3-minute stroll to Seed Global Health Malawi offices, we started orientation with Chichewa lessons. Austin, our patient teacher, was kindly encouraging even as I mangled the greetings and basic phrases he was trying to teach. “You’re getting there” was his usual response to my attempts to speak Chichewa. Fortunately, I am undeterred by imperfection and so practice my Good mornings, Thank you, and See you laters on every unsuspecting Malawian I come in contact with, which is usually met with a smile and a correction. I’m getting there!

Monday and Tuesday, we had lectures and a visit to the Lilongwe central hospital. We went to the phone company and got new Malawian phone numbers (you can now WhatsApp me at 265 998 936 712) and were instructed on how to keep our phone in service by watching our data balances. At meal times, Seed Global Health continued their commitment to keeping us well fed. A highlight was Wednesday night at a very nice hotel restaurant when I got to meet my new boss and Head of the Ob/Gyn department at the College of Medicine in Blantyre, Dr. Luis Gadama.

Thursday was the day when we discussed our work plans and objectives that Seed and our partner organizations were hoping we would fulfill. Seeing my new responsibilities enumerated was daunting, but I have been given some time to orient to the department and my new home before I am expected to be fully contributing.

Eighty-five percent of Malawians live in the rural areas and as part of our cultural orientation and education, we were treated to a tour in a rural village on Wednesday. The photos I’ve included here are from that visit. I don’t want to publish photos of anyone who might object to having their photo in my blog, so I’m omitting pictures of people’s faces. It’s mostly scenery and animals for now.

If you are an animal’s rights enthusiast, I want to point out that although meat is part of most meals I have had here, all the livestock in the village was free range: the pigs, goats, chickens, guinea fowl, pigeons, and ducks. During our village tour, we were assured that each of the wandering animals knew where they should go at the end of the day and they don’t get lost!

Friday, we learned even more things that we need to know about living in Malawi and prepared for our short Air Malawi plane ride early this morning to our site in Blantyre. We said goodbye to one of our fellow volunteers, Dr. Ashlyn Sakona, who will stay in Lilongwe to do her work. Dr. Sakona is a just-graduated Infectious Disease specialist who is spending this academic year in Malawi as a Global Health Fellow through a joint partnership with Seed and UCLA and she will be working at the central hospital in Lilongwe. Of course, like all of you, she has an open invitation to come visit us in Blantyre, so we hope to see her again soon.

For some reason, the following paragraph failed to be published in my previous post (which is no doubt due to my inexperience using this site), regarding my friend Yuko:

A filming crew from the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in Tokyo also took part in our orientation sessions. Takeda is a supporter of Seed Global Health and so filmed our sessions and interviewed us about our hopes for the year, but it isn’t only vanity that makes us look forward to seeing the final film. Yuko Furukawa was part of the film crew and we became friends, so she promised to visit me in Blantyre when the crew comes to Malawi in October. (Shameless plug: you too can be featured if you come to visit!)

July 7 – 13: A week of orientation and training in Boston, which alternated between exhilarating and anxiety-producing. The Seed Global Health staff made sure that we were kept busy and well-fed. We had lots of time to learn from, and ask questions of, educators who had been in the Global Health Services Corps (GHSC) before us. The GHSC had previously been a partner to Seed Global Heath, but now Seed Global Health was sending educators on its own, so much about my work in the year ahead is uncertain.

At this point you may be wondering about Seed Global Health, the organization for which I am working, and this gives me a chance to show that I was paying attention during the orientation lectures:

The Seed Global Health vision: Seed believes in a future in which every country has a robust health workforce that is able to meet the health needs of its population.

The Seed Global Health mission: Seed educates a rising generation of health professionals to strengthen access to quality care with a goal of saving lives and improving health.

During the week, we had dinners and informal get togethers after our all-day sessions to get to know our fellow educators, as well as the Seed staff and the lecturers. When I did get some time off, I took full advantage of the centralized location of our hotel and summer’s late nightfall to play Boston tourist.

A group of film makers from the Takeda pharmaceutical company in Tokyo were also at our orientation, documenting it all. Takeda is a supporter of Seed Global Health organization and so they were allowed to film our orientation sessions and interview us. Vanity makes us now very curious to see the final cut. I became friends with Yuko Furukawa from Takeda, who promised to come see me in Blantyre, along with the rest of the crew, when they visit Malawi in October. (Shameless plug: if you come to visit, I will feature you, too!)

Saturday morning at 3:45, we left our hotel for the Boston airport, to check in for our 26-hour-long trip to Lilongwe, Malawi. We were bleary-eyed but excited and looking forward to the rest of our story.

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It didn’t seem like it was going to be that complicated when I started.  I was living in my too-big Granite Bay house after Jessica had left for college and I felt the need to downsize a bit.  I soon noticed that I had fewer visitors – they were afraid that I would try to talk them into taking home a piece of my furniture, a plant, or some other “treasure” that I was unwilling to keep for storage.  I gave away or donated much of my furniture and household objects but still needed a 10 x 15 feet storage unit to hold all of the things Jessica and I want to keep.

So now, after months of culling and packing and moving, all my earthly belongings fit into a small storage room.  The house is sold.  Our cat is happily being fostered. Jessica is enjoying her first college summer in Long Beach and has the title to the Prius formerly known as mine.  I leave for orientation and training for my new job at Seed Global Health headquarters in Boston early July 7, and from Boston I will leave for Malawi on July 13.  

I have a contract to work for a year. It’s going to be interesting!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton