Valentine's Day
Valentine’s Day is barely noticed in Malawi, but we were determined to celebrate anyway. So, we made plans to go out for dinner at the “MzoozooZoo”, a local hangout where you can actually get a hamburger—a real meat hamburger on a real bun with real Heinz ketchup! This is a rare treat.
Saturday dawned bright and fair and we worked at home all morning. In the afternoon we would take a walk to the reservoir, then go to the “Zoo” at around 5 p.m. for an early dinner, rounding out the day by watching a romantic episode of “24” on DVD. (?!)
At 2 pm the nursery calls – sick baby. Alick has a temperature of 102.8 F. and is not eating or drinking. Sounded like malaria. No Malawian management staff is on duty at the Nursery this weekend. We are on our own. I drive to the nursery, pack a bag for Alick, and drive to the hospital with Beka (our 19 year old U.S. volunteer who is working at the Nursery and living with us for 5 weeks).
The clinical officer attends to Alick after a remarkably short waiting time. He orders blood tests and then leaves to try to find the lab technician. A drive to several locations around town fails to turn up the technician. The substitute is away as well. After 45 minutes the "doc" returns to say he will treat the baby as if he has malaria and not worry about a lab test. Fine with me!
The hospital pharmacy is closed, so I am given quinine pills in a little bag and paracetamol liquid. There is no Amoxicillin and the nurse (without asking anyone) substitutes Chloramphenicol instead. (Yikes!) We drive home. Setting up the medication chart, giving the medicine and instructing the nanny on how to continue Alick’s treatment, takes another hour.
It is now 5:30 pm. No problem. Beka and I go home, change, pick up Paul and head out for dinner.
We arrive at the Zoo to find a group of 8 travelers waiting for food. Not a good sign. An hour later our food has not arrived at the table. Then, just before it is to be served, the power goes out. No problem, EXCEPT that our computer back at the nursery is plugged in!
Now in Malawi, when the electricity returns, sometimes it is with an enormous power surge that renders the average “surge protector” useless. We cannot risk leaving our computer plugged in. Immediately we decide to return to the Nursery so the cook packs up our food and off we go.
Arriving back at the nursery—surprise, surprise! The power is on. In fact (un
characteristically) it had never gone off! Ahhhh yes! I check on Alick (still feverish), go over the medication schedule with the nanny once more, and we go home. Beck stays to use the computer to call her family in Washington State.
At home I light some candles for effect, and we eat our cold burgers. Just as we finish, the power goes off, and with it our romantic background music. Paul returns to the nursery to collect Beka while I stack the dishes in the sink. It is 9 pm, our usual time for lights out anyway. So, I go to bed with my Valentine.
(I did not sleep well that night because I was doing a lot of praying for little Alick. Good news. After several days of medicine and TLC his is fully recovered and flirting with all the nannies. Alick is pictured here)
Saturday dawned bright and fair and we worked at home all morning. In the afternoon we would take a walk to the reservoir, then go to the “Zoo” at around 5 p.m. for an early dinner, rounding out the day by watching a romantic episode of “24” on DVD. (?!)
At 2 pm the nursery calls – sick baby. Alick has a temperature of 102.8 F. and is not eating or drinking. Sounded like malaria. No Malawian management staff is on duty at the Nursery this weekend. We are on our own. I drive to the nursery, pack a bag for Alick, and drive to the hospital with Beka (our 19 year old U.S. volunteer who is working at the Nursery and living with us for 5 weeks).
The clinical officer attends to Alick after a remarkably short waiting time. He orders blood tests and then leaves to try to find the lab technician. A drive to several locations around town fails to turn up the technician. The substitute is away as well. After 45 minutes the "doc" returns to say he will treat the baby as if he has malaria and not worry about a lab test. Fine with me!
The hospital pharmacy is closed, so I am given quinine pills in a little bag and paracetamol liquid. There is no Amoxicillin and the nurse (without asking anyone) substitutes Chloramphenicol instead. (Yikes!) We drive home. Setting up the medication chart, giving the medicine and instructing the nanny on how to continue Alick’s treatment, takes another hour.
It is now 5:30 pm. No problem. Beka and I go home, change, pick up Paul and head out for dinner.
We arrive at the Zoo to find a group of 8 travelers waiting for food. Not a good sign. An hour later our food has not arrived at the table. Then, just before it is to be served, the power goes out. No problem, EXCEPT that our computer back at the nursery is plugged in!
Now in Malawi, when the electricity returns, sometimes it is with an enormous power surge that renders the average “surge protector” useless. We cannot risk leaving our computer plugged in. Immediately we decide to return to the Nursery so the cook packs up our food and off we go.
Arriving back at the nursery—surprise, surprise! The power is on. In fact (un
characteristically) it had never gone off! Ahhhh yes! I check on Alick (still feverish), go over the medication schedule with the nanny once more, and we go home. Beck stays to use the computer to call her family in Washington State.At home I light some candles for effect, and we eat our cold burgers. Just as we finish, the power goes off, and with it our romantic background music. Paul returns to the nursery to collect Beka while I stack the dishes in the sink. It is 9 pm, our usual time for lights out anyway. So, I go to bed with my Valentine.
(I did not sleep well that night because I was doing a lot of praying for little Alick. Good news. After several days of medicine and TLC his is fully recovered and flirting with all the nannies. Alick is pictured here)
posted by Paul and Darlene Heller at 11:01 AM
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