Lots to See Here
My final week in Monkey Bay/Mangochi was memorable for so many reasons.
More Hospital Visits
The week started with a trip to the hospital with the young mother from Monkey Bay who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, as she had a follow-up appointment with the psych specialist in Mangochi. In the two weeks since I had last seen her, there was a slight improvement; she still isn't speaking, but she was certainly more engaged with what was going on around her. The consultant was pleased to see some progress, amended her medication slightly, and has arranged to see her again in three months time. F, the manager from Open Arms, has promised to keep me updated.
The next day was another visit to Mangochi hospital, this time at the eye clinic with the six people with albinism. The optometrist wanted to do some final measurements at the hospital before taking us to a private eye clinic where he had negotiated a good price for the production of their glasses. It was another happy day and thanks to the generous support of friends in the UK, I was able to pay for all the glasses with their donations, leaving enough to pay for a test and a prescription for the remaining person in the group who has been away visiting family for the last couple of weeks. F will arrange this as soon as she's back in Mangochi.
We hadn't expected the glasses to be ready until after I had moved back up to Nkhotakota, so it was a very pleasant surprise when I heard from F that they would be ready for collection on Friday. Again, it was such a happy day - the smiles in the following photos speak volumes. For me, one of the absolute highlights of the whole experience was witnessing the joy of the youngest boy, who couldn't contain his excitement at being able to see things from the car on our drive back home. Priceless.
Fabulous Friend!
A final treat for the end of the week - Madam C took a long and gruelling public transport trip to come down from Nkhotakota to visit me in Monkey Bay for the weekend, with a view to also being my road-trip buddy for my drive back up there.
It was great to spend a couple of fun and relaxed days with her and we managed to laugh lots and catch up on everything we needed to (we can talk for Britain/Malawi...) and she helped me to improve my skills at playing bao over a gin or two! I've still got a long way to go before I'm any good, though!
Blogging Off
I'm now back up in Nkhotakota (a long, tiring journey, hence the lateness of this blog post) but more of that in my next post. In the meantime, please feel free to follow me on Instagram @malawi_enjoying_ourselves, if you don't already do so.
Thanks for reading.
Clare