Our lovely trip to Phalula (pronounced with a silent H)---a 3 hour journey south east of Lilongwe.
We embarked on our trip to visit Tristan & Richard Barkman & family at the very late hour of 9:15 am! This is a very late start for us as our normal start is at 6am—trust me this is not natural for 3 of us except sargeant-major Lydia who thrives on sunrises!
Here is a little background on the Barkmans. They are from Steinbach and are at the end of their 2 year mission work in Malawi. They have 4 children and the connection is that Richard's father drove for Penner International for forty years so Simone suggested we go visit them. She also knows many of their relatives at home. The family was more than welcoming!
In our 3 hour drive here we saw many many markets along side the highway selling tomatoes, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, papaya, woven baskets, straw mats, mice on a skewer, and coffins!The most eye catching sign was for a funeral parlour called Heaven Bound which of course got me to thinking about how they guarantee that...
The highway is actually quite good, lets compare to Hwy 10 in Manitoba, and what was interesting was that for quite a few kilometres we drove with the Mozambique border on the west side of the road and the Malawi border on the east side! Talk about porous borders.
The countryside turned very hilly and the mountains were not far in the distance. We constantly passed many small villages with varying degrees of poverty.
We arrived on time due to the great driving skill of our driver Esau.
We were graciously welcomed into the Barkman home and treated to a scrumptious lunch with home made buns and salad (OUR FIRST SINCE OUR ARRIVAL fresh lettuce—yumm).
After lunch Tristan took us to see the local hospital which is just a short walk from their home. We were toured by the nurse/midwife on call for today. The clinic offers HIV/AIDS counselling and check ups, medications and a pharmacy that holds 2 small cupboards that contains all their medicines for dispensing. It has a laboratory with no fridge that we could see, and a labour and delivery room. Interestingly enough in Malawi a family member is required to stay with you to be your care giver while in hospital because there are so few nurses and rarely doctors.
The best part of the tour was that there were 5 newborns to peek at with their mom’s in the maternity ward!
A point of interest: there is a major measles outbreak in Malawi. This hospital can see up to 7 cases a day.
The facilities are very basic with laundry done all by hand and hung outdoors to dry. The autoclave appeared to be just a large pressure cooker from another era, and a hot plate from the time of the dinosaur.
We then took a short drive to see some falls on the only major river in Malawi, the Shire River. We took some lovely pics and our Esau seemed truly caught in the magic of the place. The falls were not very high but they were still a force to be reckoned with.
We returned to the Barkman household to a short game of soccer (known here as football) with the children —short would be the key word here with these 50+ year old women!Their 7 year old Nicholas seemed to enjoy winning! Another delicious meal, some sharing time of our trip photos so far and now early to bed.
We will join the family for a church service here in Phalula if they unlock our bedroom door from the outside! Simone and I get to share a room in the guest house and as the night guard's new baby was sick he got the night off thus necessitating Richard locking and barring the door for our safety –though we did get to keep the keys! just not sure we can reach the lock!. We hope someone remembers we are here in the morning!
A wonderful day—not only did our bodies get a rest but so did our hearts.
After seeing so much poverty during the week with endless broken families it was wonderful and heart warming to spend such a peaceful time with the warm and inviting Barkman family.
Blessings to all, Nettie
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