The White House in Malawi: Gusu Clinic July 6-8

One of my favorite things I get to be a part of in Malawi is mobile medical clinics. Becky Epperson, the nurse I work with at the clinic, and her husband work with Sam & Malla Kawale to run E-3 International. Below is their organization’s purpose:

"E-3 International is a Malawian initiative that aims at developing Malawian communities in a holistic approach.

What is our vision: to minister to the whole person- spiritually, emotionally, physically, socially, and economically.

What is our mission: to build schools, farms, and businesses, all designed to minister to the whole person.

What is the driving force behind us: we are inspired by the example set by Jesus Christ as He was meeting the physical and spiritual needs of the people.

Our sustainable development projects enable communities to achieve a better quality of life and escape the spiral of poverty.

Malawi being a developing country is versed with a lot of challenges. These are the challenges that E 3 would like to address: Health, Education, Food Security, Micro Enterprise, and Spiritual Growth.

Currently, we are working in Gusu Village to address these needs."

I’ve gotten to do many mobile clinics with Becky, but this one was huge. We had over 100 people helping with the various responsibilities. Not every volunteer was medical based, but everyone was able to participate and played an important role in getting the patient from vital signs to the pharmacy.

Becky and I are usually in the pharmacy dispensing medications since we know what we’re dealing with and we know how to substitute meds when we run out. Usually, we don’t have enough translators so Becky and I have to dispense the meds then tell the patients how to take the meds in Chichewa, but we were fortunate to have a lot of ABC students come and help translate.

Three groups from the USA/Canada joined in on the fun. The first day was the mobile clinic where we saw 820 patients total. The second day was a big soccer tournament that surrounding communities participated in. Cos, Jeff, and a few other ABC people participated in the tourney under the S.O.M. team. A concert was also held during the soccer tourney. Yami (ABC grad) produces 1Lord records and brought his equipment, his friends, and the gospel to the event.

Chief Gusu in the hat

Danford

Dr. Sonia seeing patients

Gramma Iris imparting her wisdom

Dr. Walker, from Alabama, seeing patients

Verson seeing patients

Line outside the Dr's room

Sometimes, the patients are too sick to come to the mobile clinic, so Becky will take the truck and clinical officer to see the patient. This particular woman was significant because she had sold the land to E-3 for the water well. This woman is blind and when we drove up to her house she was laying outside, head covered by a blanket with flies buzzing around, and she could barely sit up to see the clinical officer. We ended up bringing her back to the schoolhouse where the mobile clinic was set up and gave her IV antibiotics.

Nursing students giving IV ceftriaxone

One of my favorite pictures of the day

The pharmacy chaos

setting up the rapid malaria test station

Dr. Brown said his job of putting thermometers under arms was, "the pits"

Every child receives iron, deworming medicine and multivitamins

A baby's hand after debridement. The baby is only 4 mo old

Pharmacy Gals

I just like this picture because I think the caption should be, "grr what u looking at azungu?!"

Malla, the feeder of the 5,000...or 100+

Football teams actually do have a cheering section. Don't think it's strange if the cheering gets out of hand and stops the soccer match for a minute....they're just showing team spirit! This picture shows the "cheering section"