Sister Mumba

We are strangers in a strange land. Nowhere is that more obvious than in speech. We speak English. The Malawians here in the north speak Tumbuka. There are no similarities between the two.

So how do we communicate? Well, English is the official language, but that message hasn’t hit the villages yet. Also, our nannies here at the nursery aren’t on the government language plan either. So that means lots of Tumbuka.

Occasional tutoring got us started and resulted in some successes. The nannies are always willing to help, and ever patient with our verbal experiments. One morning I entered the dining room, looked around cheerily and asked how things were going at home. What the nannies heard was: “how are things at the frog house”. Ten startled faces told me something went wrong there. Then we all had a good laugh.

Helpful observers tell us that we will “pick up the language” if we are here long enough. But the real story is that if we don’t work hard, we won’t speak Tumbuka. Occasional tutoring wasn’t working well. Enter Sister Mumba.

Sister Mumba is a nun at St. Peter’s Academy down the road from us. She has taught for years. She laughs a lot. And she gives homework.

Dutifully we go to Sister Mumba several times a week for lessons. She not only teaches Tumbuka, she teaches cultural appropriateness. Never go into a room and begin talking business first thing. Always take time for the proper greetings. Greet, ask about a person and their family, be human. Business happens only after the personal side of life. Not an easy lesson for those of us who like to get down to business.

But we press on, trying our best to fit in and learn the language. Wish us luck. Tiowonanenge sono sono. (See you later)

Well Babies

Here in Malawi it’s hard to get routine physical exams. Well-baby visits are a luxury we simply don’t have. However, last week a medical team from the US led by Dr. Ken Root was able to do just that. His team of 2 doctors, an occupational therapist, 3 medical students, a pre-med student, and a Malawian dental technician examined 15 babies and 10 staff members in one afternoon. Whew!

All the babies had heights, weights and complete physical exams done. We weigh babies every week, but the team came with growth charts for each baby, so we can start tracking the weights and following them on a graph. Fantastic! Developmental screenings were done on those we felt had problems. The team was organized, calm and thorough. Everything went smoothly. It was like a dream day at the pediatrician.

What did they find? Generally healthy and happy babies!! A few had fungal diaper rashes. But for the most part everyone was OK. Developmentally, we had one baby with a tight hip and were shown how we can exercise and stretch it to gain normal function. Everything was fixable. It was good news for us all.

When our team examined our staff they treated everything from high blood pressure to a toothache. Maladies are very difficult to treat here and long term ones present special problems because medications are often not available. However, the team came equipped with medications as well as expertise. We got creams for the fungi and medications for the staff. Everyone got what they needed.

All in all it was an amazing day. We were grateful for the time, energy, and expense it took the team to do this for us. We are healthier for it. And we had a great time!

Infection Control

How do you keep 15 babies living in one house, healthy? They all crawl around on the floor and love to taste each other’s snacks. They all play with the same toys. They do not sneeze into tissues. What’s a mother to do?

The first thing you see when you visit the Nursery is our handwashing station. All who enter here must wash their hands at the door—or else! This goes for visitors and staff alike. No exceptions. Hands carry lots of germs and those same germ-bag hands also carry babies. So when you come to visit, “Zie vill vash!”

The next step is shoe removal. Since most of our babies are crawling on the floor we don’t welcome any outside dirt inside. So take your shoes off at the door. Regulars have their own special shoes that they wear inside. As a visitor you are treated to a box full of flip flops that you can choose from, at the door. You must wear these flip flops or you will be denied entrance to the holy of holies. They are washed every few days and put in the sun to dry so we know they are clean. The sun hates germs and kills them by the gazillions.

Our floors are all linoleum, and easy to clean. They get washed twice a day with bleach and soapy water. This makes a good surface to crawl on and play on. But most babies are small and only sit in one place so we have 2 thin mattresses in the center of the room for their sitting pleasure. The sheets on these mattresses get changed a lot when accidents occur. Even sitting babies are messy.

In the same room is the toy dresser. The bottom 2 drawers, which are really big wicker boxes, contain the toys. These boxes are taken out when babies are present (which is almost all the time). The babies empty them, play with the toys, and then play with the boxes. The toys are all washable plastic and are washed several times a week and dried (you guessed it) in the sun.

The babies themselves are bathed daily, at least once. Sometimes another bath or two is necessary. Their clothes are changed as necessary. And since we have 3 full bathrooms it is not unusual to have a nanny in the shower. Accidents happen.

We have a washer and dryer – a real luxury. In sunny weather the laundry is hung on the line and only has to go in the dryer for 10 minutes to kill the phutsi fly eggs that may have been laid on them. During rainy season the dryer is going almost nonstop to try and keep up. We are thankful for the washer and dryer. We use cloth diapers and fifteen babies make a lot of laundry.

Do people ever complain about the rules? Sometimes. We had a man who wouldn’t take his shoes off, so he was told he couldn’t come in. Once we had a guy with a wooden leg who couldn’t take his shoe off! We gave him a clean plastic bag to put over his shoe and in he came. So when you come to visit, don’t expect a bye on Attila-the-Matron’s infection control rules.
Do the babies ever get sick? Yes. But we do the best we can.