Jul 08

Assassin On A Dark Night

Medical, About Malawi

        The night sky has embraced the tiny African village in the same way a traditional wrap crowds out the night cold from around a woman’s body. The sounds of the villages long ago abated and everyone has retreated to their huts near the center of the village area. All is quiet now except for the sounds of a few insets that continue their cadence of sound across the landscape of the sub-Sahara. Unable to be seen by even the most alert eyes, a nondescript shadow crosses the landscape and approaches the door of one of the huts. For a moment there is no movement. It is as though she contemplates her next move. Or perhaps she listens to make sure there is no sound from within the walls of the hut. She enters the first room. Silent. Unseen. Deadly. At this hour everyone in the family is in a deep sleep and there is no warning or her deadly presence as she moves silently toward the room where the residents sleep. They had thought, only a few hours earlier, that they were safe inside their house. It is an illusion. Death creeps ever closer. The expert assassin hovers near the bed where the adults sleep. There is not a rustle or twitch from either of them as she turns her attention to the baby laying in the bed next to his mother. A boy. Eleven months of age. This innocent child will be her target. She moves in closer. No one in the house has detected her presence and there is nothing that will divert her from her intended purpose.

Malarial Misquoto        The female Anopheles mosquito lands so softly that human senses do not detect her touch on an exposed surface. The family maintains a deep sleep and are unaware of the deadly act that is about to occur. The thrust of her weapon is not felt, nor is there even a whimper from the small child. As she removes the hemoglobin in order to nourish the eggs she will soon hatch she injects a deadly amount of saliva into the surgical opening. She has released thousands of tiny single-celled parasites called plasmodia. Only one of them is all that is needed for the disease to begin its deadly work. By the time dawn breaks over the distant horizon she has retreated way from site and the tiny boy child will be alert and crying for his mother to feed him. The family will begin a new day never knowing a deadly disease Read the rest of this entry »

Jul 04

Malawi Plants Its Future

Conservation

On the Slopes Near Dedza

        The problems keep coming, and the delay in getting away from Blessings means we will be late getting to the office of the Minister of Forestry for the nation of Malawi. I hate being late to any meeting, but to be late to a meeting with a government official is doubly uncomfortable. When we arrive at the offices of the Forestry Department we are immediately ushered into the office of Kenneth M. Nyasulu, the Minister of Forestry, along with his Deputy Secretary of Forestry. Beside them are seated Gilbert Mtsendero, the assistant Director of Forestry, and Mrs. Myula, the District Forestry Officer for the Lilongwe District Office. Napoleon, Suzi and I take our seats. No one seems to notice, or even care, that we are late arriving. The customary greetings, introductions, and conversation continue for an hour. It is all part of the Malawi tradition and custom of getting to know you, and what you are all about, before getting down to the business at hand. Malawians are masters at determining character, and they will size you up in short order. After the time of greeting five of us get into a Nissan Patrol 3.0 Di and head out of the driveway.
The sun is climbing high in the sky, and the customary fog on distant mountains is already burning away. The green landscape from the recently ended rainy season still punctuates the landscape as we scoot hastily south through the countryside. Family plots of ripe maize spot the landscape brown, and white clouds drift slowly across the African sky. Cassia Spectabilis trees topped with beautiful blossoms of yellow warn of the coming dry season.

They Appear To Tear Long Gashes In The Clouds

        Within fifteen minutes the changing landscape begins to roll the road into a slow rollercoaster of curves and hills, and the distant mountains move in to surround us. The farther south we ride, the higher the peaks, and it appears they are tearing long gashes in the

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Jul 01

Priority Mail From The Girl Scouts

Kids Helping Kids, Be The Change

Girl Scouts Collect For Malawi

The mailman backs his truck up to the door at the headquarters for the Malawi Project in Indianapolis, Indiana and starts gathering box after box after box of priority mail from Girl Scout Troup # 1611 of Folsom, California. The boxes are making a short stop in Indiana before being loaded onto a forty-foot trailer heading for Malawi.

The items contain things that are second nature to any mother or child in America. They sit ready in nearly every medicine cabinet in the nation.

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