A Visit to Kalikumbi

Kalikumbi Health Center

Maternity Area

A guardian preparing lunch

Ben and Ishmael riding in the hospital ambulance

Inside the church with the Pastor and Head of Station for Kalikumbi and the pastor in training

Staff at Kalikumbi with Trey and Kim Dubose

The day started by learning that Kim delivered a healthy baby boy last night and was not called back to the hospital after the delivery.  Trey learned that the 14 year old who suffered a seizure died after he left the hospital last night.  He was able to give a lecture this morning to the staff before we departed.

We traveled in the hospital ambulance today about 28 km today to an outlying health center, Kalikumbi.  Our church helped build the original building.  We were very thankful to Ishmael for arranging our transportation and the opportunity to see one of the four health clinics that the hospital serves.  As we drove in there we passed many people walking, riding bikes, and several oxen carts.  Needless to say our group attracted a lot of attention and many cries in their language of a group of white people.  The didrt road was bumpy, and dusty.  We passed a very large market near Kalikumbi where our driver blew the horn for people move out of the way for us to pass.  This market only happens on Friday and is at the Zambia border.  There were thousands of people shopping and selling all sorts of wares from clothes, shoes, fabric, vegetables, radios, bike parts, dried fish, blankets, and just about anything you could need.  On the outskirts of the market was an area where people were drinking “Malawi beer.”  It sounded more like grain alcohol as Ishmael described the process for the beer.

Kalikumbi Health Center was busy but not overloaded like they are during the rainy season when they see so much malaria.  We met the chief clinical officer and staff.  The main focus is maternity with vaginal delivery, pre-natal, malaria, and HIV.  On average the health center sees 35 – 40 patients each day.  The four health centers then serve 23 health clinics, so you can see how vital each is in offering care to those who are not able to get to the hospital.  In addition to the main building there was a toilet area for men and women, cooking area (although the roof was collapsed so this was not being used currently it seemed), and two homes for staff.  We met some of the guardians for the patients on the tour.  They were all sitting together, some with mothers waiting to deliver their baby, and some were cooking for the patient and others were knitting little baby clothes. Most of the guardians are the mother or mother-in-law of the patients.  The health center has several challenges that we discussed such as a roof that allows dust and dirt to come in, lack of running water, lack of equipment for delivering babies, and lack of medicine.

We walked from the health center to the home of the Pastor and Head of Station for Kalikumbi where we learned that his church serves about 1600 people and includes the church plus prayer houses.  There were many similarities between our churches except that their pastors can only stay in one location for four years and then have to request to stay but it is not typical to stay.  We also met a pastor in training.  As congregations grow, they are divided and a new pastor is assigned once finished with his/her theology training.  The pastor in training calls the senior pastor, “Father” and is always connected to seek guidance as he/she grows into a congregation of their own.  We did learn that there are some women pastors.  We have observed that the culture is for women to be submissive to men.  Women curtsey or kneel on their knees to greet us as well as cross the left hand over the right elbow as an additional sign of respect.  The older women tend to always get on their knees when greeting and the younger women tend to curtsey.  The church was a beautiful building with stained glass in the windows.  It was built by First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA.

We ate our “to go” lunch inside the home of the Chief Clinical officer.  The lunch was packed by the guest house kitchen in my smallest suitcase and included chicken, rice, tomato sauce, and peas.  We sat on the floor and on crates holding Fanta and Coke bottles turned on their side.  Ishmael and our driver, Andrew, joined us for lunch.  The wife of the Chief Clinical Officer, brought out the typical Malawian tradition of water to wash our hands before the meal.  We were not sure this was happening because they were not joining us to eat and so we had just put our hand sanitizer away when out comes the bowl of water for hand washing! 

We met the next set of visitors after lunch who were also there to tour Kalikumbi which included the new Director of the Health Department and the Embangweni Hospital Chaplain plus several others.  The children enjoyed playing with a soccer ball while the adults did so much talking today.  They are having such a good time. 

On the way back to Embangweni, we stopped to get everyone a drink and then at the market.  We bought the traditional Malawi fabric.  Ishmael went and inquired on the prices before we went to look.  Trey and I were the shoppers.   Kimmie stayed in the ambulance with the children.  It was a different feeling to be the only white people in the midst of thousands of Africans.  While we shopped Ishmael bought tomatoes for his family.  On the way back to the ambulance, Trey snapped a picture of an interesting grill cooking chicken and chips.  He bought a piece of chicken for 250K which equals about .80 cents.  The ambulance attracted people in the beer drinking area that came to the window, trying to shake all of our hands as we maneuvered through the crowded road.  The containers for drinking the beer was an empty 2 L bottle filled with a white milky liquid.

Tonight we lost power while finishing dinner and so we walked back to our rooms with one small flashlight which allowed us to really enjoy the stars and see the milky way which was absolutely incredible.  Cara Dubose said, “Daddy, can we live here all the time?” 

We may be going to a Malawi BBQ tomorrow at Jospeh’s home as well as going to Rose’s house to see her 5 day old chickens, watch a Malawi football match, walk to town, and practice our singing with the children at the church.

I have my warm bucket of water waiting and will layer my PJ’s to stay warm tonight.  It quite cold at night and we are sleeping in our winter PJ’s, socks, and layering as many textiles on our bed as we have in the room.  The days have been beautiful, warm, and sunny, so by 10:00 a.m. you are comfortable in a short sleeve shirt.  The blue sky during the day is just as amazing as the bright stars at night.