Lake Malawi

By Selise Miller, member of St. Philip Lutheran Church

We awoke to the lapping of Lake Malawi in front of Luther Cottage at Monkey Bay. It was so peaceful to lay in bed, reflect over the past 2 weeks, and give thanks to God for bringing us safely this far.

We gathered for breakfast and then headed out to Malembo Health Center where patients are tested and treated for malaria. We meet John Bvumbe, an ECLM worker with the HIV/Aids-Malaria Program and Dr. Faustin Kabanmand for the clinic. We ask many questions about this disease and what is being done to help eradicate malaria, a disease that is deadly to many, especially babies and children.

Patients walk as far as 12- 15 miles for a simple finger prick and are told within 20 minutes if they have malaria or not. If a patient should test positive, they are given medicine (if it is available) and are told to follow up if symptoms should not improve. All pregnant women and babies are given a mosquito net to cover their beds at night. John told us that through educational programs they have seen a drop in malaria cases but they have a long way to go.

We left the clinic and headed to the village of Malembo, where once again we were greeted with singing and dancing. John introduced us to a group that have established a "savings and loan program" for their village. If they are a member, they can buy shares and receive dividends monthly and take out loans that have to be paid back within 30 days.

The members meet once a week, have no age limit to be a member, and will never have more than 25 members. Many members have a small business; maybe selling rice, oil, sodas, cookies or goats, that they were able to start with a small loan.  They are able to buy netting to sleep under, improvements to their home such as iron sheets, or donate money to the Health Clinic with their profits.

After eating with the new Abusa, we headed back to Luther Cottage to see what the vendors had made for us and pack as we were headed back to Lilongwe in the morning.