Nkhate Market

Today is an oddity. Weekends included, the water shuts off here in Blantyre almost precisely at seven every morning, returning at its evening counterpart for some hours, giving us just enough time for some showers and a quick restock of our supply in 50 gallons containers. Yet today it wasn't the liquid but the usually reliable power that cut out, leaving us dark but delighted to take afternoon showers after another dusty morning in the dry season. Today, Monday, brought us to our every week sites of nkhate market and makwila in chickwawa district--one district and 3000 feet below blantyre. Though I may prefer two-wheeled man-powered transportation, I'll be the first to admit that its quite a spectacular drive. 10 minutes south of blantyre the road begins to drop precipitously, switchbacks included, as the mts of blantyre give way to the tschire valley below carrying its namesake for hundreds of miles through the lowlands of subsaharan africa, connecting with the zambezi in mozambique before spilling into the indian ocean. They say that on a clear day you can see mozambique from one of the turns--the third of three distant mountain ranges.

On reaching the bottom we quickly take a sharp left back to the west, leaving the lone malawian highway in the south, bisecting the country east and west. In fact its referred to as the 'tarmack' for its actually concrete, unlike the rest of the dirt roads in the south. Even I have been surprised at how undeveloped the basic infrastructure of the country actually is. The road is often packed with traffic not of the motor kind, but those on foot or fortunate enough to have purchased a chinese bike carrying sugar cane, pvc pipe, grasses, even bricks are transported. As we barrel down this one lane dirt path at 40kms an hour these transporters ditch right and left into the fields to avoid our machine. A bridge over the tshire is as good as it gets--thereafter are a series of smaller rivers to be forded, rutted roads left over from washed out rainy seasons past, and boulder obstacle courses. What I'm trying to convey is how far removed a place like nkhate is from the world of globally traded goods. Just to get to the tarmak is a days walk, and blantyre and nsanje from there is a minibus ride costing you your monthly wage. And it means that you live off of what you and your neighbors produce and what you can sell or trade at the market. Being strapped brings a whole new meaning... Are the children going to be able to eat this year? (In Chichewa they describe the two seasons as the current 'masika' (harvest) and the coming 'njala' (hunger).)

As you might imagine, nkhate has no medical facilities. The binder with charts we keep is labeled 'nkhate market,' for we literally hold clinic next to the basket and mat weavers every monday on the side of the market. Its the most logical place in a 10km radius to hold clinic, where all can meet in a central location. Most mothers are there to do business or buy food anyways, so we often pull interested passer-byers. But the bulk of our population at clinic are referred by governmental 'health surveillance assistants,' or HSAs as they are known. Assigned to 2-3 villages each and armed with a MUAC tape and a bike, they refer kids under 12.5 cm to our clinic on monday morning. By disseminating through their communities the info in chiponde clinic and performing initial screenings, these HSAs are positively the fuel that powers our whole project, and for this they are thanked copiously and fairly compensated.

Today we had 30-40 women with their 6month - 5 year olds that came to be screened, of which we treated about 10. I understand this number could as much as triple or quadruple in the hungry season--which I also understand is approaching by as much as 3 to 4 months earlier than normal this year, due to a variety of factors I should write on later. But suffice to say, there is a general feeling of unease regarding the time at which the family's surplus begins to run low this year. So we are now getting the hang of things around here before they get completely crazy...

I'm off to Namindanje tomorrow for the weekly overnight. We are way up in the northeast part of central region--too far to return to blantyre. I realize now that I haven't written at all about what I had planned, but for next time I'll write about the study--yeah I am doing research here I promise:> mugano bwino to you all--sleep well. I know I shall myself.

Jay