football!!

Everything goes about football in the last week or so, we are
following the eurocup, and the qualifiers for the world cup where
Malawi is playing. You will think that Malawi has no options to play a
world cup?? well, don't speak too fast, because last saturday we beat
Egypt here, the former champion of the africa cup!! amazing.

We went to the stadium ready to cheer and shout. we had expensive
tickets, because the cheap ones were finished in a few hours... so
there we were with the among Malawians. The stadium was full, and I
was surprised to see such a nice pitch, with beautiful (artificial)
grass and all. The match was great, vibrant, exciting. Malawi was
playing not so well in the first half, but the managed to control
Egypt. The second half things were different, with our team fighting
and fighting. we could not believe it, but Malawi was playing better
than Egypt! and then it happened, Malawi scored in the very last
minute, under the surprised look of the africa cup winners. We all
jumped at once and hugged each other, the party just started. Only a
black souvenir, the bag of one of our friends disappeared during the
goal celebration..

peer support meeting

Last week end I attended a peer support meeting of the "allied health
volunteers". That is all the vso volunteers of the health program that
are not doctors or nurses. We are a small group of lab technicians,
lecturers or business advisors. We shared experiences about our jobs
and we had a couple of teachers giving us some advise in teaching
techniques (many of us we are lecturing but we don't have much
training about it) so it was very useful.
The best part came on saturday. Joyce (lecturer at the college of
health sciences in Lilongwe) had an idea for a community project:
Blood type the minibus drivers!! You have seen the pictures of those
doggy minibuses, and I have told you about them. You will be not
surprised then to know that many of them get involved in road
accidents. We thought that it would be very useful to test drivers at
the station to find their blood group and give them a little card that
they could keep with them. Then in case of accident they could be
attended faster at the hospital.
Joyce organised everything, the cards, all the materials for the
testing.. we set up the "lab" and "office" in the minibus station,
explained people what we wanted to do and started to produce cards!!!
The most difficult part was explaining people what was it for, and
what is a blood group. But also, that if your group is lets say, B +,
the positive does not stand for your HIV status.. so many people came
and we had 100 people tested in 2 hours, great success!
as usual, you can find some pictures in my site.

last lecture (of this semester)

I finished the lectures for this semester!!! Great relief.. Now we
just have to mark the exam papers and see if the students are doing
well. Not many other things going on, apart for the PS meeting last
week end (wait for the next post:).
Is winter here, and Blantyre is cold in the mornings and evenings. Is
also dry, we have not seen rain in may be two months. The city is
getting dusty and you see people sweeping the walkways with their
short brooms. This is a funny activity, a bit like dusting in the
desert, but the soil looks very pretty with the round marks of the
sweeping.
Last week was my anniversary in Malawi! One year since I arrived, but
it looks much shorter. One year only to go, but I don't want to think
about the end of my placement. I feel really far living here, and I
miss my friends and family. but I know that the moment I come back
I'll miss the african life. I don't have plans to come back home. I
know it feels a bit too much another year here without visiting my
family, but my parents are coming next month, so it should be fine!