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A letter from Martha Sommers in Malawi |
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July 2003
Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings from Malawi during the cold season. I am sitting in
layers of clothing, hoping the power comes on soon so I can make
hot tea. This season there is much to be obviously thankful for.
The rains have ended and the harvest has begun. So, hospitals
are quieter with much fewer malaria and malnutrition patients.
People have been very gracious to me, evidenced by my kitchen
full of gifts of oranges, ground nuts, sweet potatoes, pumpkins,
and maize. I am now back at Embangweni filling in, as the staffing
went from three doctors to one doctor, including Dr. Maclean having
to return to Scotland with his family. Alexander, his four-year-old
son, was diagnosed with multiple developmental delays, and could
benefit from services available in Edinburough which are not available
in Malawi. Please pray for them all. |
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An Islamic Malawian craftsman.
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Returning to where I worked from
1997 to 2000 has been joyous. Good to see what programs, initiatives,
and efforts continue and what has fallen to the wayside. Great to
work with friends from those years. My colleagues, Dr. Kamwana and
clinical officer Ishmael Nyrenda, and the clinical officer who worked
here during his yearly holiday from another hospital, Kennedy Chirwa,
were all in training when I worked with them before. Aside from
giving me far too much respect, they are a complete joy to work
with. Compassionate and competent. Besides participating in training
doctors and clinical officers, we had began training patient attendants
in a six-week courses back in 2000. Of the first four, now one assists
in surgery, one functions as a nurse in female ward, one is the
clinican at a health centre, and one is in nursing school. Quite
remarkable how they are able to help the country, especially during
this shortage period while more nurses, clinical officers, and doctors
are being trained. |
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There is new sorrow in the land.
Riots and confusion were in the cities. Large groups of Moslems
took to the streets, and some mobs attacked churches, Save The Children,
and any organization that symbolized American or Western influeence.
This violence is new to this country, which has had the delicate
balance of an Islamic president being voted in by a Christian majority.
The protests were in response to the unlawful actions of our U.S.
government. The CIA rounded up five men they suspected of Al Qaeda
links and removed them to an unknown location. (Some say Botswana.
Some say Cuba.) This action was against the law of the land and
contrary to a high court injunction that ruled against private residents
being kidnapped, in essence, without ever being charged of a crime
and maybe never to be seen again by their family and friends. When
one of those men was reported to have died, the riots began. |
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The resentment of America's present disregard
for international laws, human rights, and the laws of a sovereign
nation cut across religious lines. If I joke about being a prisoner
of the hospital, the automatic comeback is that I am treated better
than the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Quotes from a Christian editorial
during the Iraq invasion follow: |
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Clinical officer Kennedy Chirwa and Mr. Tembo inserting a chest
tube in a patient. |
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Fair? Fair? Probably no nation state in the world is consistently
fair, but to suppose that America is, is especially absurd.
Given the overwhelming power of America, we have to put up with
being tyrannised by it, but we should not have to listen to
sanctimonious hypocritical twaddle.
The cost of one or two of the missiles they're being so generous
with in Iraq is greater than their foreign aid.
I wish to believe and for my Malawian friends to believe that
this abuse of unchecked power will not continue. I wish for Senator
Byrd to be right when he stated in his May 21, 2003, address to
the Senate that “the calculated intimidation that we see
so often of late by ‘the powers that be’ will only
keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long.” Malawians
know and love many Americans through well-wishers, visitors, volunteers,
and church partnerships. They have seen God's love in the hearts
of these friends. Yet they and their parents and grandparents
knew many good volunteers, visitors, and missionaries from Scotland
and England during the colonial period of the British Empire whose
abuses they have not yet recovered from. So, they are not as hopeful
as I am that Americans, who have been schooled since childhood
on the concepts of “innocent until proven guilty”
and the right to be tried by a jury of one's peers, will force
our government to reign in its lethal power. An area we all need
to pray for God's intercession.
Peace and Prayers,
Martha
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, p. 48
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