WELS Nurses Association ť Central Africa Medical Mission

Central Africa Medical Mission

Monthly CAMM Update

Malawi – Lutheran Mobile Clinic - April 2013

Greetings,

The weather has turned cooler here. We have warm, sunny days and cool nights. The rains seem to be finished for the season. We probably won’t have rain again until October or November. The bright red poinsettias and bright yellow Cassia trees add much beauty to the landscape. The ground is quickly drying out and the grass is already starting to turn brown in some areas. The roads on the way to the villages are very dusty. The maize harvest is going strong so people are once again able to grind maize into flour for making nsima (the staple food here).
We’ve kept quite busy at Lutheran Mobile Clinic this month. We saw a total of 5,471 patients. As usual, the most common diagnoses were Upper Respiratory Infections (Common Colds) and Malaria. The government (through donations from USAID) has been providing plenty of Malaria test kits and our staff has been very busy taking turns doing Malaria testing.
Our new Sister-in-Charge has arrived! Megan Behl flew into Lilongwe on April 11. She’s excited to be here and we’re so happy to have her here! She has already proven to be a pro at driving the roads of Malawi. Megan is currently working on her orientation at the district government health center – Kamuzu Central Hospital (or locally known as KCH). While she was well aware of what to expect at the government facilities from her Mission Abroad Program (MAP) experience, it still doesn’t make it any easier being there and dealing with the day to day frustrations. She will spend a total of 20 days at KCH working on different wards throughout the facility and after that will be able to get her Malawi Nursing License.
While it sounds like there are more of the necessary medications available at the hospital, pain medication is unavailable to most people and the patients are told that they need to get their own and bring it with them when they come to the hospital. Very little paper is another significant problem so any paper that can be found is used for patient charts. Megan noticed hospital workers using sterile glove wrappers as paper for official documentation. One of the foreign doctors she met said that she provides the paper on her ward otherwise they’d have nothing on which to document their patients’ vital signs, etc. Oftentimes the nurses do not have pens either. There are many challenges here that I would not have considered before coming to work in Malawi. We are so blessed at LMC because we are able to provide supplies and medications as needed to do our work. We are very thankful for all of the prayers and donations we receive.
God’s blessings,
Kari

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4: 8-10

CAMM Commissioning for Megan Behl on March 13th, 2013

Commissioning of Megan Behl
Nurse in Charge of the Lutheran Mobile Clinic
Central Africa Medical Mission
Malawi Africa

March 10, 2013

Megan Behl was commissioned as CAMM’s next Nurse in Charge for the Lutheran Mobile Clinic at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ixonia, WI. Pastor Kenneth Ewerdt (St. Paul’s, Ixonia) presided as minister for the commissioning and Pastor Herbert Prahl (St. Mark’s, Eau Claire) delivered the sermon. Pastor Prahl’s sermon was based on Megan’s Confirmation verse of Ephesians 2:8-10.

Megan is the daughter of Dan and Chris Behl. She attended grade school at St. John’s Lutheran School in Watertown and high school at Lakeside Lutheran. After graduation from Lakeside in 2006, she attended UW-Eau Claire and graduated December 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. She began her career as a nurse at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and worked for about two years in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. She has also served and volunteered for WELS and other organizational programs in North Carolina, New Orleans, Ghana, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.

Megan recently participated in WELS Mission Abroad Program in Malawi as an intern and was able to observe different medical facilities including those associated with CAMM. Megan will be leaving for Lilongwe April 9^th and join our current Nurse in Charge Kari Belter and Clinic Administrator Maria Reese.

Cards and letters of encouragement may be sent to: Lutheran Mobile Clinic
PO Box 30339 Lilongwe 3 Malawi Africa