Defrag

Yesterday was village day- where I chauffer and sit under mango trees with the women while they sing and talk and have meetings. I think I understood twice as much as last time – which was pretty encouraging. We had lunch (2.30pm) at Neptunes- my favourite Malawian restaurant (If you come visit, I’ll shout you a meal. Trust me its worth it!), caught up with some of my colleagues who where renovating some offices in that town, then headed home in good spirits.

Back to Mangochi we got a phone call saying one of those colleagues had been in an accident and a child had been hurt.
Troopy vs child.
I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. News filtered through in various phone calls. My colleague was ok. He was with the police giving a statement (uh oh-its 3yrs for theft here). Others were bringing the little girl down to the hospital in Mangochi – could my housemate (a nurse) meet them there? ‘What use would I be at the hospital?’ she asked in dismay- ‘An advocate for a little girl that needs it’ I answered. I hadn’t prayed so fervently for a long time.

My colleague had been driving on a straight bitumen road. He saw the little girl step on to the road and he hit the breaks. She kept running. He swerved hard. Thump. She regained consciousness on the way to the hospital. She was fading in and out from concussion but the prognosis was good. No broken bones. Pupils dilating evenly. Superficial grazes. They kept her in for observation overnight- but there were no beds so she spent the night on the hospital floor. This morning she had been moved into a bed – sharing it with a 4yr old in traction (plastered leg, string tied around the ankle, attached to a brick dropped off the edge of the bed). The hospital is SO under resourced, under staffed and over crowded!

Meanwhile my colleague gave his statement and was cleared of any fault. Praise God. It could have been so much worse in so many ways.

We’ve all had a scare. It could have been any one of us. I know I have complained about the driving conditions here before- but no matter how careful you are, it really is just a matter of time before you hit something/someone. Driving into a villages with clouds of kids around. On the open road; goats, cows, people, bicycles and broken down trucks can greet you anywhere and on any corner. I’ve swerved a drunk guy staggering out onto the road from behind a truck, had a woman stop in front of the car and put her hand on the bonnet, breaked hard to avoid a bicycle carrying mum, dad and baby on a corner with a truck carrying 50 odd people coming the other way- its nuts. Please keep our safety in your prayers.