We headed out Friday, July 9th to Mzuzu to see the other crisis nursery and to spend a vacation day at Nkhata Bay which is an hour east of Mzuzu. The bus ride was very delightful and drastically different than the last one I had been on. It was for the most part a quiet journey which I very much enjoyed. I noticed that it seems that the farther north you go the more opportunities to buy meat, whereas as you go south its more vegetables. I am not sure if this idea is true but that’s what I observed. As we got farther north, I felt as though I had been magically transported to Oregon. There were rows and rows of dark, luscious pine trees and foliage. It wasn’t until I spotted a monkey in one of the trees that I realized I still was in Africa!
Upon arrival in Mzuzu, we were greeted by Augustine who works at the crisis nursery and were taken to the Merriam medical house. It was a very nice house with comfortable beds and a nice 15 minutes walk to the nursery. Peter was our amazing cook and he was a very warm and welcoming gentleman. The next day we went to the nursery. This is where we met Mrs. Heller, who is a public health nurse back in New York. She was amazing! She and her husband, Paul, run the crisis nursery in Mzuzu. I must say they are doing a fabulous job. The nursery (which is much larger than the one in Lilongwe and has more children) is very orderly and there are set times for feeding, sleeping, and playing. The children seem happier and more content. That night, we were all invited to the Heller’s for dinner, which was amazing. I was able to talk to Mrs. Heller about the nursery and about doing nutritional assessments.
Mrs. Heller was more than willing to let me assess the children’s nutritional status and even gave me the tools to do so. She was also very helpful in talking to me about what she has noticed since her now 2 year stay in Malawi! I must say she is definitely a blessing to these babies!!! In a way, I would have loved to spend more of my stay up in Mzuzu helping her out. But at the same time, I think I have learned some amazing things in Lilongwe as well. She told us about one of the babies in detail- one (baby) which was just precious. Her name is Alesi (pronounced Alice). She was found abandoned in the village in a very bad state- having had nothing to eat for 2 weeks. She was hospitalized for some time and was very close to dying. So close that Mrs. Heller said that she couldn’t bring herself to go to the hospital because she couldn’t take going and seeing yet another baby die. Yet Alice never died. She is a healthy baby girl now and is growing daily!
During our stay, we also got to go to Ana’s home church. [side note: I don’t know if I have already mentioned Ana, but Ana used to work at the Mzuzu crisis nursery but as of February has relocated to Lilongwe and now works at this crisis nursery]. I had never been to a Presbyterian church before (at least not to my knowledge). It was interesting it reminded me of Catholic church to an extent with some small differences. I enjoyed the service! We did have to introduce ourselves like we had to at Assembly of God, but this time we had to go to the front of the church and introduce ourselves!!! It’s an interesting experience to be the minority and have people stare and laugh when you speak. The rest of my Sunday was spent at the nursery with the kids. We all left early Monday morning to head to Nkhata Bay for a day!
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