Malawi Blog 4

Today was our first medical clinic held at the Madisi Methodist Church after morning church services here in Malawi.  Our medical team attended this church on Sunday morning and learned how to move with the spirit.  At the Madisi Methodist Church everyone sings and dances as a form of praise and they do it with no instruments or accompaniment.  The music from the children was inspirational and the singing from the adult women was moving and spiritual.

After the service, while the church members had a church lunch, we rearranged the church and made it into a medical clinic with an intake office, a lab facility, a physicians exam space and a pharmacy.  Last year we saw 121 patients on Sunday afternoon and this year we saw 216.  Last year we saw many cases of Malaria and this year we did not see one case of Malaria.

We did treat many things and saw some patients with serious illnesses.  We had a great team of US and Malawian doctors, nurses, pharmacists and translators.  We ended the day with a dinner and a lengthy discussion on what went well and what we need to improve on.  We have several improvements we plan to implement on our clinic tomorrow.

We will be on the road by 7:30 AM tomorrow headed for a rural clinic where we expect to see at least 300 patients.  We could not have asked for better weather.  The sun has been shining and we had a nice gentle breeze all day long.  Hoping for the same tomorrow.