DAY 1....3 miles

I am excited!! I have my new shoes, which are rocking and ready to go, and I am ready to go spend some time out on the gravel.




Mood: Pumped and ready to go

Song where I found my stride: “Bad to the Bone” by OOOOHhhh yeah! Lol

Today was a good start.

ANOTHER ADVENTURE BEGINS….

So Folks! I have used this blog for my adventures in Italy and then again in Africa….my newest adventure to date besides finishing my Masters Program(YEEAAAAHHH!!!) is training for my FIRST Marathon!!! SO the Marathon is the Rock n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego on June 3rd. I will be sharing with you the challenges and lessons I learn on my path toward being able to run 26.2 miles….without dying lol…I kid :)

I hope you enjoy this experience with me!

Step by step we all can meet our goals- no matter how different they are!

Jenna

Motivational Quote:
Challenges give you the chance to see the edge of your potential and create a new edge which gives you the opportunity to grow yet all of this hinges on whether or not you have the right attitude! (summation of what I have learned in the book I am reading currently titled “The Winning Attitude” by John C. Maxwell)

The last blog from Malawi, Africa

Hey guys,
So today is Tuesday and this is my last chance of using the internet before I head home!!! Yesterday, I stayed at the crisis nursery for the entire time without going anywhere for lunch. I was able to measure the children’s heights and weights, which I will assess tomorrow morning. We are going to have a big going-away party tomorrow at the nursery, which should be fun!!! I am going to miss the little kids, especially Jessie and Justina!! They are so adorable and full of life! Today I also went to the crisis nursery and am in town with Annie running some last minute errands. Wednesday will be spent assessing the growth percentiles of the children in the morning. Thursday will be my last mobile clinic (at least that is what I have been told) and I will pack once I am back. I leave Lilongwe at 1:15pm. I find it funny that you have to pay $30 just to leave Lilongwe!! Oh by the way, I am here over my 30 day visa so I had to go to immigration to renew my visa (thankfully I did not run into my “friend” ). I had to pay $30 to renew my visa and I will only be in the country for not even half a day! Lol oh well! Such is life!

So I will see you all soon!! Im leaving on a jet plane…

Love you all! Hope everything is great!

It's been a great adventure! Thanks for reading about my adventures!

Home Visits in Katondo

Today we (Annie, Mike, Casey, and I) headed out to the village, Katondo. We were going to do four home visits. These visits are set up by the feeding center head and are usually for families that are in need. For the most part, they tend to be families where the father has died and the mother is struggling to provide for her family. On our part, we come with supplies (sugar, salt, soap, detergent, body lotion, and I brought fruit) to give to the family. It reminded me of something my high school used to do for families during the holidays. We used to get a bunch of food together (say for thanksgiving- so green beans, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, etc) and we would put it in the a bag and ding-dong ditch the house! I know sounds strange but it was a lot of fun!

Anyway, the ride to the village was as usual a ride in itself! I feel as though I have ridden the Indiana Jones ride from Dland or gone to Mexico to build a loft house again (for those of you readers who were on that trip you know what I’m talking about!!!) Today’s trip was a bit more bumpy than normal because John was driving. He is a big burly man who is built like an ox, but is always smiling and joking like a 5 year old. He also doesn’t know his own strength at times…a pat on the back …is not a PAT! But he never means to be so rough! Lol.

When we got to the village, they wanted to show us their chicken coops, which I am noticing is a big thing to them. I went over to look into the house and a chicken jumped up to the ledge. It shocked me a bit because I jumped back and started laughing- as did everyone else. SO that was fun!

We finally went to the home visits which were quite eye-opening! The Malawian people are so hospitable. They open up a bamboo tarp for us to sit on while they are sitting in the dirt. We would sit and ask them questions about their lives and they could do the same to us. It was a very open conversation. The first few visits all four of us remained together until the last two houses.

The last visit was by far the best. Annie and I split off to do one by ourselves while Casey and Mike tackled the other. For the most part the beginning of the home visit was the same. Toward the middle though, we were asked what we did back home. When I replied that I was a student they were shocked. The translator said that they were out of school by the time they were my age. That made me think so I asked him to ask them what age they thought I was. Their response was AWESOME! They thought I was 16 and that Annie was 12. WE both had a good laugh about that! We told them our ages and that shocked them more!

It was a very humbling experience hearing about their lives and struggles. In comparison to America, their lives are filled with adversity, yet their attitudes and perspective on life is so strong and grounded in God. Their strength truly comes from God and it was amazing to witness! It made me realize how much I take for granted and what kind of fervor I should have for my relationship with God. God has truly been my source of strength while I am here and I hope that He remains so when I return home!

Focal verse: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize…” Philippians 4:13a

Mobile Clinic at Chimwang’ombe

Today was a good day and a sad day. Jayme left to go back home to Texas so the bus was short one person. We will miss you Jayme!! Additionally, today was supposedly our “last” mobile clinic due to finances. I was excited because I was finally going to be able to assess BMI at this mobile clinic something that I have been trying to get done since the 2nd mobile clinic. Once we arrived at the feeding center where the clinic was going to be held, we were surprised by the amount of people that had showed. Due the amount of people, Mwawi (the clinical officer who acts as the doctor during the mobile clinic) had us just start assessing people without a proper set up. This made the first 20 minutes a bit hectic but soon we became a smooth operating system. I did vitals with a labor and delivery nurse named Sarah. But seeing how there were 300+ people and we were down 2 people on the vitals station ( Jayme went home and Joseph, a paramedic from the states, didn’t come that day), we only assessed those people who looked febrile, were elderly, or pregnant. This proved a bit problematic because the people were used the normal flow of things and when we wouldn’t do a full vital set on them they would be perplexed. I had a few of the elder women get in my face motioning that “all should get their arm squeezed” [this was done by pointing to everyone in line and then squeezing my arm and A LOT of ARM GESTURES!!] Sarah and I finally got someone to translate to them what we were doing and they were content. During the lulls of no vitals, I went over to the weight station to see if I could do some height measurements and assess BMI. Unfortunately, the tape measure that someone brought for me was too short. So I was out of luck. But I am hopeful that I have already attained enough information via the crisis nursery and basic observation to fulfill my nutritional assessment hours.

We finished up the day having served about 340 people. The shocking thing was we were done earlier than we ever have been in the past. But that is understandable because we didn’t do everyone’s vitals. If we had, we would have been leaving at 8pm seeing that there were only 2 of us manning that station!

Reflection: Sometimes we are thrown into situations which you are just called to action. No time to organize just go. There are also times where those moments of preparation help to make the action run more smoothly. Yet whatever the situation, it calls for perseverance and a willing heart.

Nkhata Bay- Mayoka Village

Nkhata bay was amazing and warm, which was much needed in the comparison to Mzuzu which was cold. Nkhata bay is located by Malawi Lake which is why its warmed and more of a “vacation”. We spent one day at Mayoka village which was wonderful. It definitely was filled with Mzungus (white people/foreigners). It reminded me of a place that one would go for a honeymoon so that was a bit odd. But overall, Mayoka village was a small “resort” (I use that word tentatively) that was built on the side of a cliff. There were several little huts that could fit anywhere from 2- 4 people depending on the hut. so that was a bit odd. But overall, Mayoka village was a small “resort” (I use that word tentatively) that was built on the side of a cliff. There were several little huts that could fit anywhere from 2- 4 people depending on the hut. Due to the fact that it resides on the cliff, the stairs were quite steep at times. My favorite feature of the village was the communal shower. Yea you heard me right! The communal shower was a stone shower that allowed you to look out over the lake while you showered. When I first heard about this, I was like “wait is it several showers and you shower with strangers?”. This is not the case. There is one door which you can lock behind you. Also when you are in the shower the wall comes up high enough that its not a peep show lol! (well at least you hope…if so oh well cants do anything about it now haha). Anyway I enjoyed a shower a sunset which was beautiful to behold!

Additionally, they have this challenge that if you win you get a free night’s stay at the village. You have to paddle a canoe to a specific spot out in the lake and back. The issue is its not some American made canoe. It’s a hollowed out tree trunk which you don’t sit in you sit on top of with your feet inside the canoe. Thus, it comes down to some Malawian strategy and BALANCE! Oh..also you had to do it with another person. So I tried this with Mike. Only once we got really close to both being in the canoe and balanced but anytime paddling came into play we would wipe out. It was a lot of fun to try and beat the challenge. My competitive side came out! Lol

Our stay was nice at Nkhata bay and the next day we headed home to Lilongwe.
OH! I forgot to mention. The Mayoka village had the cutest dogs who had just had 8 puppies. So we were able to play with them! The dog parents walked with us to the bus on Tuesday morning! It was awesome! I want a dog lol!

The trip to the North- Mzuzu

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!