Mom & Baby Elephant

Elephants, also known as the African Bush Elephant or the African Forest Elephant, are so named because the shape of their ears resembles the shape of the continent of Africa. An elephant's lifespan is typically between 50 and 70 years!

This was a mother and baby elephant we spotted on the second day of our game drives at S Luangwa NP. The elephants were standing less than 15 feet from our Safari Jeep. At first the baby elephant was timid, as you see here, hiding behind his mother. Then, as the elephant became more comfortable with our jeep, he began to frolick and "play" with us. He kept charging forward and back between his mother and our jeep, as if to let us know that this was his mother and his territory. He was absolutely adorable!

Lions

Lions - Panthera leo

Lions are the second largest living cat, after the tiger only. Lions can live for ten to fourteen years in the wild. Lions are unusually social, compared to other cats. They travel in a pride consisting of several female and a few male lions.

Spotted on the first night drive of our Safari, this was a mating pair of lions. These two lions were a part of a pride of nine lions; seven females and 2 males. This female was in heat, and would remain so for 4 days. During these 4 days, she was deemed "a mating pair" with the male lion.

Safe and Sound!

I've reached America, and am currently in Philadelphia! I'm safe and sound and absolutely exhausted after one of the most amazing experiences of my life!

Special thanks to Jenn and Africa Burn Relief, the incredible organization that made this unbelievable trip possible. If anyone is interested in donating to support Africa Burn Relief and the wonderful work they do, you may give donations to me or send them direction to:
Africa Burn Relief
PO Box 45346
Phoenix, AZ 85064-5346
Please be as generous as possible in order to support this awesome organization!

I'll be posting some pictures with posts and labels of what they are, now that I have high-speed internet here in the US!

SAFARI!

I spent the last 4 days on an incredible Safari on Kiboko Safaris in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. The group I went with ended up being 14 people from the United States, most of them from New England, some of whom attended Hebron Academy or Bates College, both in Maine. This coincidence just goes to show how small the world is and what crazy coincidences happen! These guys were a blast, and made my trip so much more fun!! Over the course of our trip, we went on 4 different Safari Excursions in open air jeeps. Each time I saw something more incredible than the last!!

Thursday - We left Lilongwe, left Malawi, and entered Zambia, heading for the National Park.

Friday - After sleeping in a tent, I was woken up at 3am by a full grown and very hungry hippo, snacking on some grass right outside my tent window. There was only the screened in windows of my tent and less than 5 feet between myself and the hippo. It was absolutely incredible. Then we went on an early morning safari... we saw elephants, hippos, giraffes, lions, and many other animals. We came back to camp for some rest and relaxation around the pool and in the sun. Then we went on an evening safari.. where we saw lions mating and hunting a hippo, a buffalo, and other animals.

Saturday - We did two more safaris: an early morning and an evening, again. In the morning we saw two adult male giraffes fighting each other, an amazing sight. Also, we saw a mother and baby elephant about 10 feet away from our jeep. The baby elephant was playing around and charging back and forth at our jeep, warning us that he was protecting his mother. During the night safari we spotted a leopard and a couple of incredibly large porcupines.

Sunday - 4 fully grown elephants and 1 baby elephant woke me up by munching on the grass and the trees surrounding my tent. There has never been a more interesting alarm clock than these massive animals 5 feet outside your window. We got up early, packed our things, and headed back into Lilongwe! P.S. For anyone who is concerned, I took over 500 photos while on Safari! There are tons of pictures to be seen of all the amazing animals I saw!

If any of you ever gets the chance to go on a Safari, DO IT. Absolutely it is an incredible experience I would recommend to everyone and anyone who is traveling in an area with these types of animals. It is an experience like no other!

This week I will be working at the hospital Monday through Thursday. I'll be in surgery with Jenn, teaching a presentation to the nursing students about burn contractures, and doing some more burn prevention education in the primary schools at the orphanages. Friday I leave Lilongwe and Saturday morning I arrive in New York City. I cannot believe that my time in Malawi is almost over! Time has absolutely flown by! I'm going to treasure every moment of the upcoming week and savor the rest of my adventure!

Thanks for reading!

Learning About Life...

I spent a very relaxing weekend enjoying Lake Malawi with a bunch of other volunteers. We stayed at Cool Running's backpacking lodge and campground in Senga Bay on the shores of the beautiful Lake Malawi. On Saturday we enjoyed the afternoon sun, water, and gorgeous beach. We had a fabulous dinner and slept in tents on the lawn. Sunday morning I got up early to enjoy the full day of fun in the sun. We hung out on the beach and even managed to get a bit of a tan. They fed us a delicious breakfast and again a delicious lunch before we departed for Nkhoma again. The eleven of us that went enjoyed the journey crammed into Jenn and Will's Eye Hospital Ambulance, which was quite the experience. This is a photo of an wooden boat, found on the beach as I walked the shores of Lake Malawi.

Today brought an early morning visit to the Nkhoma Orphanage Project, located about 15 minutes by car away from the Nkhoma Hospital. I arrived, expecting to be able to teach 90 kids about burn prevention, only to find 9 students in attendance. Due to the ending of the national holiday that spanned next week, the attendance is expected to trickle in the beginning of this new week. I taught these 9 kids my burn prevention book and we all had a blast. They were adorable, and really enjoyed getting their pictures taken. I'm hoping to return later in the week, and teach the burn prevention lesson to more kids! On the left, this is a photo of the kids clapping and jumping up and down in celebration of my burn prevention book. The orphanage didn't have classrooms with windows and doors. Instead, as a way to save money, the orphanage coordinators built open windows and door spaces, as you see here. Although this saved on money, it doesn't offer very much shelter for the kids or teachers from the elements of mother nature. On the right, this is a photo of the kids leaning out the "window" of the orphanage building to say goodbye.

After returning to the hospital, I helped Jenn to teach the first year nursing students about burn wound dressing changes. We showed them how to change both the skin graft and the donor site dressing changes on Post Op. Day 3. We will change the dressing again Post Op Days 5 and 7. Hopefully our patient will be walking by Wednesday, when we go to change the dressings again. Both leg graft sites look wonderful, and the dressing changes went smoothly.

Everyday I learn something new about burn care, medicine, faith, and life in general. Malawi has taught me so much in such a short time!

The Week at Nkhoma:

A lot has happened in Malawi since my last blog post on Tuesday! Here is the Reader’s Digest version of my week at the Nkhoma Hospital:


Wednesday: I again did ward rounds with Dr. Morton in the Pediatrics ward. We had 23 children currently admitted for the measles. This outbreak is surprising because the Malawi government claims that over 90% of the population has been vaccinated against the measles. Either this data is not up-to-date or there is some failure in the effectiveness of the vaccines that are being administered.
I also observed Will, Jenn’s husband, as he performed his eye surgeries in the afternoon. I spent 3 hours in Operating Theater with Will and saw 3 different surgeries. I was observed both a glaucoma and a cataract surgery. The precision with which the eye surgeries are performed was absolutely amazing. It was very interesting to be able to see all of the ocular anatomy I learned from Father Burns with my own eyes on a actual patient through the microscope.

Thursday: Jenn and I had to cancel the hand contracture release surgery because the patient was first missing and then abandoned the hospital. The nurses told us that the Mom became scared that the anesthesia would harm the baby and the baby would be unable to wake up after the surgery, and her fear caused her to leave the hospital. This is a problem that Jenn often faces with her burn patients because they don’t understand the operations and the words used to explain them are very foreign.
Instead of surgery, I rounded on the male and female (also known as general or medical) wards with Dr. Rhona, a doctor from England. We saw patients with a wide range of conditions. Some of the interesting patients were stroke victims, a woman with Congestive Heart Failure, and a young girl with nephrotic syndrome and systemic edema as a result. In the afternoon I worked on a presentation about burn wound contractures around joints, which I will present the last week I am here to the first year Malawian nursing students.

Friday: I observed a skin graft on a bilateral leg burn patient. Jenn did an awesome job and the surgery was amazing. She harvested skin from donor sites on the patient’s thighs, meshed it with the skin mesher so it would cover a greater area, and then grafted the skin onto the burn wounds on the patient’s lower legs. Jenn then sutured the skin grafts to the borders of the wound and then to each other in the central areas. The wounds and the donor sites were then dressed and splinted over the left knee, to help avoid joint contracture at the burn wounds heal. Today was an awesome experience that made me want to further explore surgery as a possibility in the future of my career!

Weekend: Camping adventure to Lake Malawi! It should be a nice, relaxing weekend away from the hospital.
Thanks for reading!

Life goes on...

Life in Malawi continues to amaze me!

I was able to do rounds this morning in the Pediatric ward at Nkhoma Hospital, after our hand burn contracture surgery was pushed back until Thursday. The hospital conditions here are absolutely astonishing. The Pediatrics ward had 85 patients today, in 10 beds, with 1 doctor, 1 clinical officer (the equivalent of a physician assistant in the US), 2 nurses, and 1 patient attendant (a nurse's assistant in the US). The medical treatment here makes me thankful for the services in the US. I wish everyone could see what it is like here, in order to better appreciate all that we are blessed with at home and in other developing countries. I was able to see a few interesting patients, when rounding and was able assist in a burn dressing change and a lumbar puncture of two pediatric patients.

The child with the burn dressing change was a young girl, about 2 years old, who had been burned when her mother spilled a pot of boiling water on her face, stomach, and knee. The burns were second degree and should heal within the week with the use of Silvadine and regular dressing changes.

The child with the lumbar puncture was an 8 year old girl suspected of having contracted meningitis. The child previously presented with otitis media (ear infection) and now is presenting with a stiff neck and confusion. A lumbar puncture was drawn in order to determine if the child had an infection present in her Cerebral Spinal Fluid.

Tomorrow I will be going to the Nkhoma Orphanage Project to share the burn prevention books with the children there.

The "Real" Malawi

After getting settled in at the Nkhoma Hospital Guesthouse and getting a tour of both the Nkhoma Hospital and the Nkhoma village, I am beginning to get settled here in Malawi. I went to the market on Saturday and was overwhelmed by the selling of food, cloth, clothing, and other trinkets by the Malawians there.

Last night I stayed overnight in a village, in what the natives call the "real" Malawi. I was lucky enough to spend the night with Elisabeth, a housekeeper in Nkhoma, and her family in their mud hut in her village. Elisabeth showed me her village, and I was able to take lots of pictures and meet lots of the natives. This is a photo of Elisabeth's house, in the village, where I stayed. I had a traditional dinner in her hut with her family, and played with the children outside. We then read them a book about Burn Prevention, and had a question and answer session with the kids. In the morning we had bread and tea for breakfast, and some kind boys walked me back to the guesthouse, where I will be staying.

This is a photo of me, sitting in front of Elizabeth's house with a few of the children I read to. The kids in Malawi are all absolutely incredible and they thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the magical rabbit, Luka, and the children, Precious and Manny, in their quest to be safe around fires.

I have been greatly humbled by the little that the Malawians have, and yet they still remain positive and happy all of the time. They are some of the the friendliest people I have ever met and, despite the language barrier, are quick to say "Hello, how are you" to anyone who passes by.

I'm having a wonderful stay in Nkhoma so far, and will start work with Jenn in the hospitals and be going into schools this week to teach them about burn prevention!
Talk to you soon!
Thanks for reading!!

I'm Here!

I have arrived, safe and sound, in Malawi!! After two flights, a visit to the city, grocery purchases, and money exchange, I'm in Nkhoma! I'm headed to the guesthouse of the Nkhoma Hospital soon to meet fellow volunteers, to unpack, and get some rest. I cannot wait to get "home" unpacked and settled in for the next 3 weeks!

This is the photo of the Nkhoma Guesthouse - a place I would call home for the rest of my stay in Nkhoma. The people at the Guesthouse made my time in Malawi so fun and wonderful. Thanks to everyone!

The scenery here is to die for and this promises to be one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. I've decided to try everything I can, be as adventurous as possible (while still being safe, MOM), have a positive attitude, and always wear a smile. Here goes nothing!
Tomorrow brings a tour of the hospital and the village, getting my bearings, and a futbol (okay, for you Americans, soccer) pickup game in the afternoon.
Blog soon!

Ready or not!

Ready... Set... Africa!
My bags are packed and I'm ready to go!

I'm a little nervous and very excited.
I cannot wait for this new adventure to begin.
Ready or not, Africa, here I come!

T-minus 5 days!

Finals are finished! School's out for the summer! Vacation time is finally here! I have enjoyed a wonderful beach vacation with some of my very best friends! I am so thankful for this week we spent together. I am rested and ready for my next adventure: my 21st birthday.

T-minus 3 days - Monday, May 24th 12:01am - I am 21! Eeeek! Finally, after all these years, the last birthday that marks legal eligibility... and I will be legal to consume alcoholic beverages!

T-minus 5 days - Wednesday, May 26th 11:15am - My flight leaves from JFK on the adventure of a lifetime - my journey to volunteer in Malawi!

I have much to do in the next 5 days in preparation for my amazing trip. I am both excited and nervous and cannot wait for this new adventure to unfold.

Stay tuned for updates, (as often as possible) pictures, and stories from Africa!

Hippos, Giraffes, and Cheetahs! Oh My!

When mentioning my African trip to friends and family, I have received several suggestions about an African Safari! I am pleased to inform you that, God willing, I will be going on a 4 day safari while in Malawi. Although there is no guarantee that one will see such amazing creatures as Hippos, Giraffes, and Cheetahs, I am hopeful that a few exotic African animals will be spotted on this trip. It should be a wonderful opportunity! No one panic – Pictures will be taken!

Checkout the Safari I will be taking: http://www.kiboko-safaris.com/framesafaris.html
Kiboko Safari:


P.S. A geography lesson: In case you are unaware – Africa is a continent, not a country! Malawi is the country I will be staying in, which exists within the continent of Africa. There are 7 continents in the world! A prize will be awarded to the first reader who can comment on this post listing all 7 of them!

Where the heck is Malawi?

Malawi, you say.
Where the heck is Malawi?
In Africa!
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa. Officially the Republic of Malawi, Malawi is a country with a population of 15,028,757 people. The official language is English, although Chichewa is a recognized regional language, and the language of most of the native people. The currency is Kawacha, with a current exchange ratio of 1 US Dollar: 140 Kawacha.
The Climate of Malawi is hot in the low-lying areas in the south of the country, and temperate in the northern highlands. November to April brings warm temperatures with equatorial rain and thunderstorms. May to September bring almost no rainfall and is deemed the "dry season"
These are a few brief tidbits about where and what Malawi is. For more information, to see pictures, and to do further research on Malawi see the following websites:
The ever-trusty Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi
Or CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mi.html

I'm Going to Africa!?

Hello Loyal Blog-Fans,
I'm going to Africa!? In less than 4 weeks!? I cannot believe it.
Two weeks ago, Jennifer Wall, a previous graduate of the DeSales University Physician Assistant Program of which I am now currently enrolled was a guest lecturer in one of my classes. Jenn spoke about the Africa Burn Relief Program and the work she is doing in a Malawian hospital in Nkhoma. Jenn is the president and founder of ABR and is graciously allowing me to fly 10,000 miles to volunteer my time to help her. I will be going on a 25 day adventure to learn about burn care, the Malawian people, and hopefully a bit about myself in the process.
One week ago, my parents came to visit! Going to school 500 miles from my home doesn't allow me to see my parents on a regular basis. My amazing Mom and Dad stopped by at DeSales on their trip from Maine to Virginia, and beyond! My parents reluctantly, eventually agreed that it would be OK for me to go to Africa.
AFRICA. I'M GOING TO AFRICA?! I have so much to do and so little time! I absolutely cannot wait for the next 4 weeks to fly by!
4 weeks?! That is 28 days, or 672 hours, or 40,320 minutes, or 2,419,200 seconds! I better get packing!