June 25, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

We leave Malawi June 26 to begin our interpretation assignment in the States. We are looking forward to visiting with friends and family as we travel home but saddened to leave friends and co-workers here. When we say goodbye to people here, we often discuss the differences and similarities between where we live in Malawi and where we will live in the United States. These conversations are useful and amusing as they help us to identify the many new and confusing experiences the children and we may experience when we return to the States. A few customary experiences that we anticipate are related to language, protocol, and shopping.

For example, the English used in Malawi is based on British English merged with vocabulary from the local language, Chitumbuka. Several words that we use here are not used at all in the States or are used in very different ways. If we were to put together a sort of interpretation dictionary for us it would include the following:

In schools here, children are expected to stand up when the teacher enters the classroom and when they want to answer a question they raise their hand and shake it in such a way that the first and second fingers hit each other making a snapping noise while simultaneously they shout out, “teacher, teacher.” If the child is lucky enough to be chosen to respond, then he or she is expected to stand up to give their answer. Children are also expected to shake hands with everyone, and when they greet an elder they are to do a sort of genuflection while shaking that person’s hand. Also it is very common for people of the same gender to continue to hold hands after they greet each other and will often be seen holding hands while walking and talking with each other. These are not part of the common school etiquette in the United States.

Lastly, there is the dreaded yet simultaneously heady first trip to the grocery store, where it takes an hour to figure out what type of breakfast cereal to buy and 10 minutes to walk from one end of the bread aisle to the other; where you walk around in a place totally lost and mesmerized by the choices of everything from salt, flour, sweets, meats, and produce; and you find yourself converting the price of items from dollars to Malawi kwacha and back again to make sense of the cost, only to realize that the item is sold in ounces not liters.

In preparation for our interpretation assignment, Jodi went out with the palliative care supervisor from Ekwendeni Hospital to visit a few clients. One man had a tumor extending from his head into his neck. He had been advised to travel to Blantyre (about 450 miles south) to see if he could be helped. The family chose not to make the trip, as it would have been expensive, would have taken literally all day to travel by bus, they had no relatives to help them with food or provide other support while they were in the hospital, and the chance for finding curative medical or surgical intervention was very slim. For them, being told to travel to Blantyre was akin to traveling to a foreign land.

Paralyzed palliative care client who received the bed from funds raised by a youth Sunday school class.

The palliative care team had been visiting him for several months, and the tumor was growing rapidly. When they first met him he was able to walk, converse, and had little pain. On the day Jodi was there, he was unable to stand, his speech was slurred, and his pain had greatly increased. Because of a donation recently made to the palliative care program, the supervisor had been able to procure some oral morphine which she gave to the client. Prior to that, he had only received the equivalent of low dose Tylenol.

Another client was a 45-year-old woman who had a stroke and was paralyzed. Her youngest child (of 5 children) was 16 months old. She was sleeping on the dirt floor of her house on a reed mat and was developing a deep pressure sore on her buttocks. A Sunday school class had provided some funds that were used to buy her a bed and mattress so she could lie more comfortably on her stomach, which we hope will allow the sore to heal. 

We look forward to being able to share more stories with some of you in person during our time in the United States.

Jim and Jodi McGill

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 23