Kande, Malawi Part 2

Our last full day here at Kande Beach Campsite in Kande, Malawi.  Yesterday Sara & friends had pancakes, scrambled eggs, baked beans and hot chocolate for breakfast, before heading off on a village walk.  Once out of the gate about 12 local guys started following them & trying to make friends (aka trying to sell their paintings & bracelets).  First stop was just down the beach away to visit a day care centre, run by an Aussie woman.  They have 70 children, 2 "classrooms", 2 staff members and 2 teachers.  The children are from 2 to 5 years old, they arrive at 06.30 have lessons until 08.00 when they have a break for tea, then back to lessons until 10.00 when they get porridge, and they are done by noon, when they go home to their families, returning at 14.00 for a similar schedule to the morning.  They were singing twinkle twinkle little star when Sara arrived & it reminded her of her first violin recital, when she played that song 5 different ways, to the agony of all the parents who'd come to listen.

Second stop was a 20 minute walk through a corn field, which was super hot & humid & of course in direct sun, to see the primary school.  The principle invited us in "chat" and explain that there are 1200 students and only 10 teachers, but the reason it works is that education is optional, so the students who are there are there because they want to be, which makes their behavior on the whole much better than Western children (he didn't say that, but Sara thinks that's what he was implying).

After that they headed over to the local clinic, which consists of 3 rooms, OB/GYN, Infectious Disease, and office.  There are 3 people working there, a training General Practictioner (from Europe), a self trained mid-wife (local man) and an assistant.  They deal with 2000 cases of malaria a month he said and second to that is HIV care.  They have the facilities only to deliver babies, give malaria blood tests, and hand out malaria drugs, anything beyond that gets sent to the local hopsital which is 70km away & with only one ambulance to service 7 "local" hospitals, they lose many patients before they even get to the hospital for care.  They'd just had a baby born the evening before we arrived & luckily all had gone well, especially considering their blood pressure cuff and stethoscope are both broken, so all they can do is assist her in a natural birth, if there had been any complications they're sure both would not have survived because it was after dark & therefor impossible to get to the hospital.  Glad they were there to hear about the happy ending!

From there, the group headed back through the village centre to have lunch with a local family, a meal of rice, beef stew, and spinach.  Then back to the campsite around 13.30.

Everyone was a sweaty mess from all the walking around all morning in the sun, so they all relaxed on the beach, before their lovely dinner of roasted lamb, fried green beans & eggplant, roasted baby potaotes, and cold slaw and a fancy dress party, where they all bought each other an outfit - the photos are too funny, Sara wishes the internet connection where faster so she could upload the photos, as they're hysterical, but once in Aus she should be able to get all these back logged photos up for your viewing pleasure.

Tomorrow we're off to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi for a night before heading into Zambia the following day.  Not sure when our next stop with internet access is, but will update when we can!