Day 7, Deep breath before a plunge

Sunday is a day of rest, even in Malawi. The morning was spent playing a few more rounds of tonk followed by saying goodbye to Jiayin, who left today to return to Chapel Hill.

I sat on the front porch, sipped on bottled water, and finished my first book of the trip, The Great Gatsby. I really enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure I attended school with at least half a dozen Tom Buchanans in my various phases of studenthood (present company at the UNC SoD excepted, of course).

After some cold chicken, I took a walk around the overgrown areas behind some of the hospital buildings. Having done some pre-reading on Malawi’s herpetofauna, I wasn’t in my usual mode of log-flipping and rock-lifting. I was, however, hoping to catch a glimpse of some animals.

The efforts paid off nearly immediately. At first, I thought it was a squirrel, before I remembered that I was in Africa. A small, slender mammal quickly hustled into a pile of debris, but after flipping through some field guides I feel confident in identifying it as a mongoose. Exciting, but now my “Well, here’s where Kev dies of cobra bite” radar was going off the charts.

The only other animal I found, apart from several pretty and too-fast-to-photograph birds, was a small gecko of a different variety than the ones living on the side of the house. This one was dark and speckled, but the enormous genetic diversity of geckos combined with his quick escape will prevent definitive identification.

I found no snakes, and it’s probably just as well. Today had fewer interesting pictures, but here're an unidentified fruit tree and some cool leaking sap.

For those expecting stories of my dominance on the Ultimate field, a scheduling conflict made it impossible to attend. Instead, we had been invited as a group to an early dinner.

The Baylor School of Medicine also runs an HIV/AIDS clinic adjacent to the central hospital, and at 3 PM we were driven to the director’s house. Again, the grilled goat and chicken were the prize winners, along with some delicious rice and potatoes. For the first time, I tasted the traditional dish of nsima, which is a mix of maize flour and water prepared to a consistently not unlike Play-Doh. It’s completely flavorless and eaten with your hands. The texture wasn’t particularly appealing, but the company was excellent.

We were fortunate to have eating with us several participants from the International AIDS Society’s July meeting. It was fascinating to hear the problems of sub-Saharan Africa straight from those at the forefront of confronting them. In addition, we were treated to the company of some of the few Malawian dentists in existence. Their efforts to bring health care to such an underserved population deserve particular recognition.

We then went home to get to an early bedtime. At 9:00 AM, we’re rotating through the pediatric oncology department at KCH, followed by work in the dental clinic in the afternoon.