End.
I thought it would be really easy to write this last piece but having spent a few weeks adjusting to the old routine of work and home I am still struggling to come to a conclusion about my time in Malawi.The most frustrating thing for me, looking back at the few entries I did get to write during my time away, is the sheer volume of things ommited and the brevity of things I did mention, simply because I was always in such a rush.The biggest thing for me is realising just how stressed out planning the trip had made me. I feel now like I have shed about six skins of anxiety and am less worried about pretty much everything in my life. Now that I have seen a different wo

Final days...
Wawa! So my final night in Malawi is upon us and it has been a really lovely if not painfully hot couple of days. We had four new arrivals yesterday and said our goodbyes to Anna and Josh. Yesterday I was at Chilombo orphanage on my own as Gill caught the sore throat virusy thing I have been harbouring. Esnart spent most of the morning dissapearing so the teaching was a bit hit and miss and the kids ran riot as always. We carried on with learning the time and the usual songs and rhymes that they know. We have adapted ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ to ‘The Wheels on the Matola’ and they seem to enjoy that, they join in when they can and mostly just like anything with actions.

Three days left...
Yesterday I said my goodbyes to Namakoma orphanage with a sports day hosted by myself and Anna. I say sports day but we use the term pretty loosely with children that age!We had a bottle lid and spoon race, an egg hunt, a sack race and a three legged race that never quite made it off the ground....All in all the kids liked it and I've only been there three times since I arrived so yesterday wasn't so sad when we left. There is one little girl called Irene who has lost both parents and she definitely has some kind of learning disability or something - she doesn't really communicate is very aggressive and is well behind her peers in terms of her behaviour. She's the si

Monkey Bay Hospital.
Today I was working at Monkey Bay Hospital, we are limited by what we can do whether we are qualified or not. So basically it means doing blood pressures with broken stethescopes, weighing people on broken scales and taking temperatures with faulty thermometers...The wards were not actually as busy as normal today and I spend my time in maternity and paediatrics...it is incredible what the women here do and I don't know how the patients that survive actually do so. Put it this way, I wont be moaning about the NHS EVER AGAIN!The women come in to give birth in huge numbers, they give birth in a small room....together, there are two beds so if more than two are in labou

Hardest day...
Today has definitely been my hardest so far. This morning I was back at Monkey Bay orphanage and happily awaiting the arrival of the children when Wyson mentioned that Grace had been taken to hospital with malaria. He was so blase about it I thought he was just messing around but he did pop over to her house and came back saying she was feeling better and may be back at school tomorrow. I am going there again tomorrow for sports day with Anna so if she doesn't show I will go round and see her aunt and see if she really is ok.Yesterday I was back at Chilombo orphanage and I noticed a toddler called Kevin sitting very quietly and looking very sad. I'm sure he has been there the ot