African Bureaucracy

(sorry that this post was updated so many times, but the screens here are weird and I can’t always see what I’m writing)

Now I’m back in Lilongwe, after another horrible bus ride.  What is worst about travelling alone, is that I don’t dare to drink or eat anything because I don’t know when the next time would be that I’ll be able to pee. The ‘toilets’ here, are at most a hole in the ground, which I usually have to pay 30 kwacha in order t0 use. And Its not like I can just leave my stuff on the bus while I pee, no, I have to drag my backpack along with me.

Once I asked a girl infront of me to hold my backpack, and as I was about to leave the bus, a police officer who was inspecting the bus warned me ‘Eeh, sistaah, thiz place iz very bad place, please look aftah your beegs (bags)!’ but my bladder was about to burst, and I looked back at the girl, who gave me a reassuring smile. I had no choice but to ask from God for mercy as I ran to the 30 kwacha hole-in-the-ground. Eventually I reached lilongwe, and called the same taxi driver who gave us a lift a few days before. It was so nice to have someone wait for you there. Once I got back to my room in the malawi college of health sciences, I passed out on my bed at 18:00, beside the constant drone of very loud music and girls running around and shouting to each other from other ends of the corridor. (this is no joke, there is a constant cacophony at that place starting 5:30 in the morning and ending around 1:00 am.)

Anyway, today I took part in the MaZaFi Network meeting. This is where representatives from my School, North karelia university of applied sciences, Kamuzu college of nursing (lilongwe), Malawi College of health sciences, and Lusaka school of nursing come togther to discuss the future of their collaboration. I was asked to be the ’secretary’, because of the apparent dexterity of my fingers. In other words, I wrote up the discussions from the meeting.

Thereafter I was asked to present my Final project plan to everyone, which without surprize recieved harsh critisism concerning my definitions. The only reason it became such a big deal is because each institution has its own understanding of the concept of clinical tutoring, and ‘tutor’ means something else in each institution. My efforts to explain that as a reasercher however, I have the freedom to define my own terms, where rather futile.

Once that argument seemed out of the way, the Zambians hit me with the apparant fact that I have to go through an ethics committee, and that I have to pay 500000 kwacha (80 euros) in order for it to go through the express. This was not something we were prepared for at all.

So, other than some culture shocks, and hectic mosquito bites and sunburn, I’m still alive and ready to give the system a kick!

Below are some photos of my adventures so far. Cheers!

1. The main Building entrance to the Lusaka University teaching hospital

2 Warning of cross infection sign at the gates to the UTH grounds

3 Me (middle) and my two Finnish colleagues

4 Promoting Nursing in Malawi (taken in Mzuzu, northern malawi)

5 The inside of the gate at the Kande beach resort. I spent two nights here at the lake malawi, for a short but sweet holiday.

6 6:00 am at lake malawi

WhereintheMalawi am I?

I am here
The most gorgeous place in the world!
But this safehaven we did not reach until after we endured a gruelling bus trip from lusaka to lilongwe (started at 7 am, the bus left the depot at 13, and we arrived in lilongwe at 2 am!)

We spent two days in the malawi colledge of health sciences, which to my opinion is a pretty nice place.
To be honest, I think I have completely fallen in love with Malawi. The people here are a bit shy though, so compared to Zambia, we have had more peace and quiet. However when we got to the northern part, a town called ‘Mzuzu’, I could immediatly feel the women checking us out and talking about us. Some people would even come out of nowhere and start laughing pointing at us!

Anyway, eventually we found our little paradise, which is dirt cheap, and yet surprisingly beautiful.

On friday I met up with my teachers for the first time, and I managed to get permission from both Malawi colledge of health sciences and Kamuzu colledge of nursing for my interviews, and my first interview is now behind me. Now I need three more from here, and I’ll have half of my interviews done.

Now going to hunt for a pretty chitenge. Until the next time I get my hands on the net,

Musalibwino!

Mulibwanje!

Greetings from the worlds most friendly country!
on saturday I stepped out the plane at 6:00 am, to be greeted by a warm, moist tropical breeze, and light warm droplets of water dropping on my bare arms.

with my south african passport I was able to pass through the border effortlessly. whilst waiting for my bag, some man came and offered his assistance. I just allowed him to lift my bag onto the cart, and immediately he demanded 5 dollars so that he could buy Nshima (maize meal). Of course I refused, but he just took the trolley and went towards the customs. In order to avoid trouble, I offered him one dollar, but he refused and said it was not enough. At the exit, some officer was checking my bag and the receipt number, and the men were speaking the local language. Now being a paranoid Joburger, I just gave the man the 5 dollars, hoping he would then leave me alone.

I then waited at the entrance hall for maybe 15 minutes, and after refusing 10 offers for a taxi ride, I looked back and I saw two africans near by the entrance holding up a piece of paper with my name. how glad was I to see them!

I told then that they could just call me Anna, and so we got into a big bus that read Lusaka School of Nursing.

So far I have only had a short tour of the hospital, and I have been to town, to the market, to the swedish school to the finnish embassy…and a club, though I was the only one not taking alcohol. I have decided that during this entire period here, I will abstain from all alcohol. Many reasons for that, but the main one is that I don’t want to take unnecessary risks, and also because my anti malarial is Doxycycline, an antibiotic.

Gotta go now, the cafe is about to close.
All the best for you guys in europe, and I hope to be able to write some more soon.

On wednesday were off to malawi!

The drama continues

With only five more days to go until I leave my cozy home in Helsinki, I got a rash.

I first thought this rash was caused by a pair of shocking pink stockings that I wore for my costume during my farewell party, but when the rash continued to spread afterwards up my arms and on my back, I was reminded of the Amoxicillin course I was on just last week.

Great, now I’m allergic to the most useful antibiotic.
I took some cetricin dihydrochloride, which helped.
Whilst in the pharmacy, I went on a shopping spree, emptying the shelves that had gloves, hand disinfectant, plasters and sun cream. I also got some small bottles of saline, anti-diarrhoeals (requested by my friends in Zambia), hydrocortisone cream…Who cares about clothes, right?

The gloves were the most expensive, costing about 9€ per packet. I had to get latex gloves because vinyl gives me a rash.

Now I have to go to the police and start the bureaucratic fight concerning my international driver’s license. Wish me luck!

Health Tip: Don’t take penicillin if you are allergic to it! Discontinue use if you suddenly and unexpectedly develop a rash, or have breathing difficulties.

Name calling

I found out a while ago that my name when pronounced the correct way (as in anya, but still spelt anja), will not necessarily warrant an appropriate response from my patients in Zambia, especially those speaking the local language in Lusaka, Nyanja.

Anya, in Nyanja, means to pass stool. Yummy…

All I have to say is *…thanks mom for the crappy name…*, which actually is rather ironic, because mommy told me that she chose my beautiful name because it is international (in german, finnish, english, afrikaans, russian…)…but she forgot about the fact that our beloved continent, Africa, is home to some pretty weird languages.

International indeed.

I need a new name. Any suggestions?

Health tip: Don’t make fun of nurses… and their names.

Countdown

Today in exactly two weeks I leave my quaint and beloved country, Finland, for a new temporary life in Zambia.

My feelings are not exactly describable, and what makes it annoying is that everyone else is more exited than I. Frankly, I’m not too optimistic, because I already know that what welcomes me there is no life of luxury (two of my exchange-colleagues are there already). So I am just concentrating on more important issues, like my final project, which is a qualitative descriptive study of the experiences of tutor nurses in Zambia and Malawi.

Speaking of which, I finally got my final project outline proposal underway, which is a huge relief. Believe me, there is nothing more off-putting than sifting through 36 research articles! Thank goodness I managed to narrow them down to ‘just’ 22.

Other than the ongoing hassle of bureaucracy, pills, courses and seminars, health issues, lack of sleep and appetite, I guess I am just about scratching for a desperate escape from this awful and clingy westernized culture of stress.

The Africa trip will do me good. I know that over there I will be forced to rethink my lifestyle, and I hope that I can learn from them more than complain about them.

Health Tip: Avoid stress and you can avoid: Cancer, heart disease, stroke, stomach problems, headaches, mental health problems, and even problems in time management! Choose a stress-free lifestyle now and help save your own life!