Nate's Birthday

Good morning friends and family!
As you can guess from the subject line, yesterday was Nate's 26th Birthday, and I think that it might be one of his most memorable birthdays - not because his wife pulled a miracle and threw a big party
in his honor here in Ntcheu (I am no miracle worker!). Instead it was
memorable because it was probably the hardest day - emotionally and physically - that we have experienced here in Malawi. We set out early yesterday morning in the SOM truck for SOM's second impact area (Songa being the first). This area is in the southwest portion of Ntcheu district (for any of you who are trying to figure out our locations on a map). We traveled there with Lonely (HIV/AIDS coordinator) and Manuel (driver). Lonely and I sat up front with Manuel, and Nate sat in the bed of the truck- trying to stay warm in the cool morning breeze. In order to reach this area, you first have to go north to join up with a dirt road that will take you south and west. This road also forms the boundary between Malawi and Mozambique. When we looked to our left, we saw Malawi, and when we looked to our right, we saw Mozambique. Pretty amazing to think that there is nothing dividing the two countries, especially when we think about how our own country is building a wall between itself and Mexico. In fact, many of the Malawian people have farms on the Mozambique side because it is less rocky and therefore better farming land.
As we set out on the journey, we were expecting bumpy ride, but the road far surpassed our expectations. It seems that the government has been promising for a long time to pave the road as a shortcut to Blantyre for the many Irish potato farmers and traders that live along the border.
However, like most of its promises, the government has yet to follow through, and because the land is so rocky and mountainous, when the rains come, all the dirt is washed away, leaving only rocks. This caused some discomfort for us but not necessarily concern until we were about 10 km from our destination (of approximately 60km for the whole journey). This is when we experienced flat tire number two. There wasn't necessarily a lot of danger of us getting into an accident because we were only going maybe 15 to 20km per hour (or about 10mph) for most of the trip. However, the spare tire that we thought Manuel had done a good job picking out in Lilongwe after our first flat tire seemed to not be holding up to the pressure either, because by the time we reached our destination 20 minutes later, that tire was already showing signs of being flat as well (flat tire number three).
We left Manuel to figure out what do about our situation and followed Lonely to a government primary school. We were joined by Frecious who is the volunteer coordinator for the area (soon to be a paid employee).
He led us to the first patients we had come to visit. They were at the primary school and were two young children (seven years of age). Both are HIV positive. The young boy lives with his father and grandmother, having already lost his mother and sister to HIV/AIDS. His father is also positive, so his primary caretaker is his grandmother. The good news for these children is that they've been able to start the ARV drugs, so their immune systems are doing relatively well. Lonely, as she did with all of the subsequent visits, spoke with the children about how they are feeling, how their treatments are going, and to tell them that she would be back next week to check-up on them. After starting out our day with these two young children, Nate and I knew we were in for a difficult day.
We left the two kids and had Manuel drive us as (on the barely inflated
tire) to the area hospital. Lonely needed to stop here to speak with the director of the hospital about the following week's VCT testing (government sponsored HIV/AIDS testing week). As she later explained to us, the government has done a poor job of communicating the VCT testing times and locations to community members, so our job for the day was to get the word out. At the hospital we were joined by more SOM volunteers who are in charge of the HBC (Home Based Care) programs in the area.
Their job is to know who is sick in the community and follow-up with them. They are then to report to Lonely if they have anyone they think might be showing signs of having HIV/AIDS. These people have an amazingly difficult task...
>From the hospital, we went by foot to area villages (since the truck
was not in great condition). We walked probably 1 1/2 - 2 miles to the
first village. The whole time we were followed and surrounded by school children who had just been let out for lunch. They stared at us the whole walk, closing in on us from all sides. Nate and I started to get really uncomfortable, realizing that these kids weren't going to leave any time soon. We felt literally almost suffocated by the kids, and we think that Lonely was feeling a bit like this as well as she commented to the students about how they are just staring but not talking to us or practicing their English with us. Even when we sat down with the next patient, the school children didn't leave but instead crowded around the outskirts of our circle to stare at us. This is when I started to feel bad not for us but for drawing attention to the patients.
Unfortunately, I cannot explain each and every story of the 16+ patients we met with yesterday, but I can say that there were a couple of common themes. Number one, most of the patients had not yet been tested for HIV/AIDS, which is why Lonely wanted to meet with them to convince them to do so on Monday, but showed clear signs of having the disease (fever, diarrhea, TB, or open wounds). Number two, most had been abandoned by their husband or wife and left to be taken care of by their mothers or sisters. Lonely says that the problem with Malawian people (a HUGE generalization here) is that they run from their marriages as soon as the going gets tough. Finally number three, they had family members (children or spouses) who will probably also end up being positive.
A bit more history behind this area is that it is a huge Irish potato farming area. Traders come to the area looking for potatoes to bring back to the markets in Blantyre or Lilongwe. They find wives in the area (even though they probably already have a wife back in the city), so they can have a place to rest their heads when they are there. They begin families with these women, creating sometimes large families.
However, as soon as their wife shows signs of illness or the potato crop runs out (whichever comes first), they run back to the city and their first wives - leaving behind a trail of disease. Many times they know that they are carriers of HIV/AIDS but never disclose the information until it is too late. Thus the region has been an area filled with death and sorrow.
For example, we met a young woman, only 25 years of age, who was the mother of three young children. She had been abandoned by her husband who went back to his first wife. This young woman was not only left destitute as shown in the clear signs of undernourishment in her children (yellowed eyes, protruding bellies) but also sick. As Lonely said as we walked away, this young woman has big problems. She will probably find out next week that she is HIV positive, and then she will probably also find out that her children are as well - all by the young age of 25 (which happens to be the same age as me).
Or take Frecious for example... Frecious is a role model to the community because he was one of the first to be willing to be tested.
He came back positive and so did his wife and daughter. Thankfully his two sons and other daughter have not returned positive results yet, but death has become somewhat commonplace to him and his family. He now cares for his brother's ten children as well after both parents died, and he looks after his sister's child after her husband ran away.
However, because of his courage to stand up and accept his HIV positive results, he has helped many others in the community figure out what has been ailing them and helped to educate the community so as to slow down the spread of the disease. Plus, he and his wife and daughter are now receiving the ARV drugs, and they are doing remarkably well. Nate and I both said to Frecious that we admire him for the amazing work he is doing and for his courage.
We ended our day of visiting around 3:30pm, completely exhausted from walking many miles and from facing such grief and despair. We felt very ready to climb into the truck and head back to town. However, this is where the issues of the truck came back into view. Manuel had said that he thought he figured out a way to get the tires patched by a local mechanic, so he had left us around 2:30pm to have the man fix the tires. At around 4:15pm, Manuel met us at Frecious' house (after we had enjoyed a lunch of nsima and scrambled eggs), and we set out with two patched tires (one as a spare). About 30 minutes into our journey (with a good hour left), the first patch gave out. We had by this point taken on another passenger to join Nate in the back, so the three men climbed out to change the tire to the spare. We were all a little worried by this point the second patched tire wasn't very "patched," so we all said a little prayer that we would make it home. We all climbed back in the truck and were headed on our way again by 5:30pm. About 30 minutes later, the second patched tire gave out. We were then feeling pretty low as we were in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black night.
Manuel found someone to pull over who had a bike tire pump, and they tried pumping up the tire enough to get us to a better location (more off the road and in a little less of a desolate location). We had by this time called Picard who was back in Ntcheu, and he said that he thought he had found us a tire that would be brought to us. All we had to do was wait... :) By about 7:30pm, after the tire had given out completely 1km from where we had pumped it up, we were met with our hero
- the man with the good tire. By about 8:00pm, we were on our way, praying that this tire would in fact make it. At 8:30pm, when we pulled into Chando, completely exhausted and hungry (and Nate freezing from sitting in the back of the truck), we found ourselves simply amazed at how much one day could bring and how blessed we really are.
Next week we will be going back to this area to hand out "AIDS Buckets"
to some of the patients that we met. We know that these buckets will be welcomed necessities, but we also know that they will never be able to provide the comfort and strength that they will need to face the days ahead. We will pray that God, the great provider, will cover them in his protective arms.
So...HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!... :) Another a year of life has been granted to him, and it has started with the stark reality that we are truly blessed.
Blessings and prayers,
Nate and Bekah