Wedding Crashers

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet at the hospital. We tried for several days to go on one of the Mobile Clinics into the local villages, but there have been fuel issues in Malawi lately and there was none to operate. (Mickie is doing great, by the way! Just breastfeeding away every time we check on her!)

Wednesday night was Bible Study at at a Dutch couple's house, Marika and Djerck (pronounced w/ a "Ch" sound, not "J"!). Focused on some Lent-related passages. We sang and prayed and discussed. It was really
nice!

On Thursday we did see a couple interesting patients. One child was extremely malnourished child with severe Kwashiorker's. She had the bloated belly, swollen hands and feet with weeping blisters and some open wounds from blisters that popped, downy hair, and not to mention scabies all over her body. The mother says they have enough food at home, but there is some social situation that we can't get a handle on. 2 of
4 of the child's siblings have died. It was really sad. Dr. Annika even teared up a little after the patient and mother left the room. Even by Malawian standards, this child was SO not healthy and not clean. Such compassion. We also watched a baby being born! Walked into the room just as its head was almost fully out. The midwife student, Claire, only had time to get on one glove! The interesting thing was that the baby was almost born in the amniotic sac- her membranes didn't rupture until nearly the shoulders were out! Very different from our previous OB experiences. The midwives also speak up if the parent wants to name their newborn something funny- they are simply told "Nope, you can't name him/her that!" This is how one midwife students had a baby named after her- might be one of the only Malawian Jennys!
We planned a half day for Friday in order to head to Nkhata Bay, so of course it was the busiest day at the hospital. We spent all morning helping Carol round in the Children's Ward. It seemed like every time we finished one admission, there was ANOTHER child with severe malaria who needed a blood transfusion! Another patient presented to the female ward, which Dr. Summers definitively diagnosed as a stroke based on physical exam and history alone! That's what you have to do with limited resources. No imaging. Could only put her on oxygen, monitor her blood glucose & blood pressure, and maybe slip her some aspirin if she becomes conscious enough to swallow. That's all.

We finally got on the road to Mzuzu, stopped at the bank and post office and our new Mzuzu buddy, Donald the Duck, set us up us a taxi ride to Nkhata Bay. Just otuside Mzuzu a Malawian woman passenger made the taxi stop so she could stop at a small stand where we picked up a couple other passengers, of the poultry variety. Yes, we had an hour car ride with live chickens in a plastic bag squawking away. At one point they did calm down- either they were sleeping or suffocating... Malawian drive-thru dinner! But it was still a really pleasant trip, driving through the mountains, listening to reggae and a Zambian song about Facebook.

Got to Mayoka Village in Nkhata Bay just in time for a quick swim before dark. Feasted at the DELICIOUS BBQ buffet- salad, avacados, Morrocan carrot salad, potato chips, breaded eggplant, veggie
sausages, beef kabob, spinach cooked in peanut flour, potato sald, honey BBQ chicken, and, Julie's favorite, the chilli bites. Spent most of the evening chatting with Nick and Zuflaa, a couple from Sydney who
are on a 4 YEAR trek through Africa which they started at the World Cup in South Africa. They've already backpacked South America and Southeast Asia some years ago. They plan to finish their trip in
Greece in 2014 to get married at Nick's grandfather's castle! Crazy, right? They stay in one place for several months to earn money as they go- Zuflaa works as a bartender and Nick is a chiropracter/
acupuncturist who does free-lance work, even getting room and board in exchange for treatments! We also met Clyde and Anthia, a couple from Derbyshire, England who are here for a wedding. One of the Malawian Mayoka staffers, Benji is marrying an English girl, Eimei (pronounced "Eema"), on Saturday AT Mayoka Village! They actually met 10 years ago when Eimei was volunteering as a secondary school English teacher during her gap year and visited Nkhata Bay one weekend! Things just tend to work out in Africa like they're supposed to. Now she lives here permanently- they actually just built a house just a little
down the bay from Mayoka Village.

Saturday morning was pretty lazy. It had thunderstormed all night and was still raining in the morning, so we didn't get the sunshine we were hoping for. Julie and I were planning on leaving in the afteroon to get back to Ekwendeni Saturday night for church on Sunday, but how could we pass up partaking in a Malawian wedding?! Once again, the decision was easy to stay an extra night.

We read on our lakefront porch then headed to the deck for breakfast where they were already setting up for the wedding. Clyde, Anthia, and Suzie (the bride's mother) recruited us to move tables and twist
fabric for decorations while we waited for our food- suddenly we were practically part of the wedding party! Which paid off later because we had prime seats for the reception). Then the actual wedding party left on a boat, with an army of brightly colored umbrellas, for the ceremony on a private beach. Julie and I took the time to swim across the entire bay and back. It was a great swim and we made it back in time for the reception...which included Benji's entire village, including the chief, crowdingon the Mayoka deck. Thats about 150 people on a deck meant for, hmm, 50, max?

But it was FANTASTIC. Great food, great festivities. The reception started out with speech's by the brides parents and the groom's father (done in both English and Tambuka with the help of the translating
priest). A close friend of Benji (who looked straight of out of Jackson 5 with his fro and plaid get-up) serenaded them with the guitar and another Mayoka regular, Wonder, read them a poem he wrote
(we've heard several of Wonder's poems during our Nkhata Bay visits-he's really good actually. And in case you're wondering, yes I took a picture with him- of Stevie & Wonder).

Then, it traditional Malawi fashion, the crowd threw money at the bride and groom. This consisted of music playing (the Facebook song- twice!) and people dancing their way to the front of the room and tossing
money in a big bowl in front of the newlyweds. It was HILARIOUS. Especially when people asked for change out of the bowl. We were cracking up.

The reception ended around 6 and most of Benji's village headed home- that's when the party really got started. Lot's of music and dancing. Everyone had a great time! We met Benji's great uncle who was the
village elder at the ripe old age of 81. He had a little photbook he carried with him of pictures that had been sent to him from previous traveler's. It was really cool. He also had a picture of his father,
one of the first men in Malawi to practice medicine! Thie highlights of the night include one local, Charles nicknamed MJ for his dance moves, going crazy whenever an American song popped up on the ipod,
another Malawian who danced the night away balancing a beer bottle on his head, and, best of all, a private reggae concert. This guy was real good. The crowd favorite was a song about Lake Malawi itself:

How big is the Lake?
I said the Lake is SO big.
How big is the Lake?
Its SO big! SO big!
How big is Malawi, yeahhh?

We got really into it. One of the verses consisted of him giving the true dimensions of the lake. I tossed in a line about over 600 endemic species, which he, while in song, corrected me to 740 endemic species. I don't usually like being wrong, but it was well done.

All in all, we made the right choice to stay for the wedding festivities. WHAT a day, despite the rain. And we even hitched a taxi early this morning back to Ekwendeni and made it back in time for the English Church service! Then we were invited for coffee at Annika and Martin's house where we got to play with their 3 frickin' adorable children- Thomas (6), Mariah (4), and Ruth (1). The best part? Annika served us brownies, popcorn and... cheese! Its a little rainy and muddy here today, but we are gonna try to go on a hike later this afternoon.

Everyone we've met has said 1 month is too short of a visit Malawi. Now we get it. So much more to do, to see- its hard to accept we are over halfway through this journey. SO big! SO big!