At 8am we had the big staff meeting/indaba to discuss the year ahead, tell everyone an update on Nick’s condition, and tackle any concerns that anyone might have.  Was a great time to have everyone together in the same place, and closed with a nice prayer by Church elder Mr Banda.

We saw a few patients, and then lept into a series of meetings with senior staff, tax consultants, drivers, and cataract case finders.  Finally we met with Stefan, CBM National Coordinator for Malawi and Dr Ter Haar the Nkhoma General Hospital Medical Director.  It was a very productive day  and we got a massive amount of issues sorted.  I’m not a fan of having meetings for meetings sake, but find it a pleasure to sit down with all the staff and people involved with Nkhoma Eye Hospital, to really hammer out and resolve important issues.  A real blessing to be able to do this now, as in 2 weeks time we will start to screen patients in the villages and bring them to Nkhoma for surgery or other help; and that is when we start to get very busy.  Looking forward to it.

It is great to have to weekend ahead to try and find my prodigal dog, and sort through some more work.  What astounds me always is the view from the hill here of the valley beyond.  Just to give an idea about the changing seasons:

Dry season

This is a photo last August in dry season, after the maize has been harvested.

And this is the exact same view from the house yesterday morning, some two months into the rain season.

Rainy season

The landscape now is a real garden of Eden.  The great thing is that the rains have been good over the past two months, interspersed with sunshine, and the maize crops are flourishing.  Crucial really as this one harvest will sustain villagers for the entire year.

I’m off to go and find that prodigal dog.

We have done our first few cataract operations.  I also saw a 12 year old boy who had a penetrating  pen injury to his eye.  Managed to sort it out in theatre.

Steve and Kambewa are driving 200 miles to Mangotchi and Machinga, near the lakeshore, tomorrow to meet the district health officer for his permission to work for patients in his area.  It’s actually a very under-served area of Malawi, so a perfect place to start our outreach activities this year.

We have had fantastic rains here in Nkhoma, interspersed with beautiful warm sunshine, so the maize crops in the villages are doing really well.  In fact the rains and storms were so good here at Nkhoma, I had lightning strike my house twice last Friday.

So here we are.  All safe and well; scorpions, spiders, malaria, tame snakes and lizards, and my trusty dogs Ellie and Malu; ready to tackle the house; and with the amazing staff at Nkhoma, the year ahead.

We are all missing Nick.  And we continue to pray daily for him and his family.  The work that he built up here absolutely must continue.

Sadly the gentleman, Mr Efuloni, who came to Nkhoma from Salima last year, having been referred by the Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) has died.  He was a wonderful man, a village chief.  The cataract surgery on his first eye was the 25,000th cataract operation at Nkhoma since 2000.  I remember his smile very well after we operated his second eye!

before the cataract operation

Mr Efuloni after surgeries

He had spent the last few months with his family in his Salima village.  But, as a small blessing to his family and Mr Efuloni, he could see his family, his children and grandchildren; and his wife.

Let’s get this year started, trying to help more people like Mr Efuloni who have been robbed of their sight.