Courage The Villagers Chords

[Giulia Satmary]

Inher comments about the events of September 11, Brooks drew parallels with the historical figures of her just-published first novel, Year of Wonders. In this novel Brooks portrays the plight of the inhabitants of a tiny village called Eyam in the north of England, who were hit by bubonic plague in 1665. Unbeknownst to them, the lethal bacteria arrived on a bolt of cloth, bringing agonizing disfigurement and indiscriminate death to villagers within days of exposure. The terrified villagers shut down their village, preventing anyone from leaving or visiting in order to try to contain the danger. A year later some 260 were dead. During the scourge, several individuals showed immense courage, nursing the sick and dying. It was the challenge of imagining the response of the people to the calamity that inspired Brooks to write her novel and to portray their fears, faith, and moral choices.

Despite her experience in prison, Brooks continued to work as a foreign correspondent, covering the civil war in Yugoslavia. It was only when she had her first child that she gave up the job, believing it would be difficult to combine the two roles. She settled in the US with her husband, the late Tony Horwitz, and published two potent works of non-fiction: an account of her interactions with women in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates entitled Nine Parts of Desire (1995), and a memoir, Foreign Correspondence (1998).

I did not know what to expect of a medical trip to Malawi with VIP, even though I had visited Malawi with VIP previously on a friendship trip. The trip was far more involved and personally rewarding than I ever expected. I was assigned to work in triage, primarily taking temperatures, weights, and looking for symptoms of serious illness to expedite.

Yet the single most rewarding experience was meeting a young girl named Violet who suffers with cerebral palsy. Her clinician recommended a jog stroller, and I was asked to deliver and instruct on its use. I explained the features and use of the stroller to the overwhelmed mother and then had the mother repeat the actions.

Later I saw her outside of the clinic showing other mothers her great gift. In this moment I truly felt that I was sharing in the experience of making a difference. In the end I know that I received more from the people of Malawi than I ever could have contributed.

Fortunately, timing was on my side as I would soon be helping at the newly opened Khanda Health Center (Opened August 2023). Here at Khanda, women could receive family planning services, prenatal care, and give birth if pregnancy was uncomplicated. They could also bring their babies for immunizations and weight checks after birth.

The trip to Khanda helped me appreciate the need for a clinic in this setting as the distance to the hospital is significant with difficult roads and uncertain transportation. Upon my arrival to the clinic I met nurse/midwife Stephen Munyapa, who was to be my teacher and guide over the next few days. At Khanda there are three wards for pregnant women; an antepartum ward (prior to birth), a labor ward, and a postpartum ward (after birth).

Stephen practiced with an efficiency born of necessity as he also had two women in labor, one active and the other in early labor. Weights and measurements were duly recorded in his official log book in between checking on the young mothers-to-be. As it became clear that one of the young women in labor was progressing rapidly, I asked Stephen if I could help with the birth.

It was my extraordinary privilege to do so with his guidance. This beautiful young mother birthed her baby with power and grace in the safest environment possible thanks to the vision and commitment of Villages in Partnership. I was, and am, a fortunate witness to the successful beginning of the Khanda Health Center.

I have been to Malawi five times now and have seen God working in incredible ways out at Khanda Village. My first trip to Malawi was in 2015 and I joined Lucy at our remote clinic in the village of Khanda. Soon after we started, the suffering and lack of medical resources available to the Khanda villagers was evident. Malaria was a huge problem there, as we suspected, but there were also numerous cases of scabies, diarrheal illnesses, and children suffering from developmental/physical deficits due to birth injury. As someone with a background in pediatrics, the impact on the children really struck a chord with me and I left that year hoping there was more we could do for them in the future.

In July 2022 I returned to Khanda for the first time since 2015, and we are about a year out from opening the long-awaited health center. During the outreach clinic, it struck me how many children with cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, and failure to thrive presented to the clinic. In one year these children will have access to physical and occupational therapy, mothers will have access to prenatal care and a clinic close by to deliver, and life-threatening infections will be managed before serious complications. One patient in particular that really stuck with me presented to the clinic on the back of a bicycle.

At 13 years old, Rabecca developed bacterial meningitis and did not receive treatment until her condition became very serious. As a result, she developed hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain), which was not treated until she was 15 years old, and in turn, she developed a number of physical deficits as a result of the brain damage.

This trip to Africa has been one of the absolute best experiences of my life. I feel so blessed that I was able to use my nursing skills to serve the people of Malawi and meet amazing, life long friends along the way. There is really no way to fully describe Malawi, the villages we serve, and the Malawian nurses and doctors we work alongside, but I can say that you will leave Malawi a different person than you were before you came. This trip has changed my heart for the better and I am forever grateful for this incredible experience.

The Malawian translators were amazing at being our voices for the week. They were always willing to teach us their language (Chichewa) so that we could speak to the patients in the clinics. Seeing the smile on the faces of our patients when we spoke their language absolutely warmed my heart. The amount of impact this trip has had on my life cannot be put into words and I am truly grateful for VIP and the entire village community.

We are created the same, yet somehow by a unique set of circumstances, we survive differently. I met a culture of people born into poverty with unimaginable suffering in Malawi, Africa. They are brilliant and happy and kind and beautiful. Their resilience and ability to laugh drew me to them, and their suffering is what made me want to stay to give them the aid they need and deserve.

VIP gave me the opportunity to emerge myself in this population for a week. Although I was able to provide care to thousands of people, the return on my time was much more valuable. I learned how the Malawian people thrive despite their difficult circumstances. I also learned how to go home and live differently because of my new Malawian friends.

With poor access to care, extractions are the most frequent and required treatment option for the villagers and care in these remote villages is done without electricity or running water. With the commitment of our Malawian partners and with support from my colleagues in the Us we are trying to shift that paradigm. Each year that I have returned to this community we have brought additional materials and equipment to support more treatment options. In 2014 we were only able to provide extractions and we did so with patients sitting in two plastic lawn chairs.

The chief and her husband were extremely kind and welcoming. Sarah asked what his complaints were and to see his medical passport. The chief went off in search of the passport and we continued to get information from the husband. Using our translator Emma, we were able to get all of his major symptoms. We went through the passport looking at his medical history. We really collaborated together about what diagnosis we were thinking and how to best handle them. Knowing that he had a history of hypertension I went in thinking the blood pressure was going to be high. I took it once and got a low reading. I turned to Sarah and told her my findings and said I wanted to take it again. Diving deeper into the history Sarah found he was taking medicine for his hypertension and the reading I got was similar to the ones that they were getting while he was taking his meds. Knowing that my second reading was almost exactly like my first, I moved on to the easy stuff, temperature and pulse. He thanked me and gave me a toothy smile.

This morning, eight of us woke up at 4:45 AM to go help the village of Ntambo inoculate chickens against Newcastle Disease. This is a virus that has ravaged the chicken population in Malawi. Because of Newcastle Disease, VIP has had to suspend its program of chicken distribution to the most vulnerable families until they could get the disease under control. Now VIP helps the villagers inoculate their chickens every 4 months.

We arrived at 5:30 AM along with the sunrise. After being greeted by the chief of the village (a woman!) the villagers all brought their chickens to the center square in the village. So many chickens! Entire families came with chickens. There were chickens in baskets. There were chickens in buckets. There even were chickens carried in their hands. Little children arrived swinging chickens nonchalantly by their feet and wings. There were roosters and newborn chicks, and we took care of them all. VIP staff member Charles Sokoso explained to the villagers and the Americans how to inoculate all of these birds. It was surprising how simple the process was.

The real significance of this project is that these people had no access to glasses before we brought this here. In many instances, when the new glasses were placed on the patient, their face brightened up with the realization that they could see clearly. We also brought reading glasses in various strengths. Again, the reaction from the people when they could clearly see the words in their medical passport was very rewarding. Wearing glasses myself, from a young age, I can appreciate how beneficial they will be.

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