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!