Report - Challenges

During our stay in Malawi, we learned a lot and we were really happy, but not everything was pleasant. There were also difficulties and challenges on the way.

One of them was that JoĂŁo had bacterial infections. At first, the symptoms of muscle pain, coughing and fever, were a bit ignored by us because it was just one day. On the next day, he was fine, so we thought that was an isolated event. After some days, started appearing the wounds that are shown in the pictures, but not all at the same time so again, we thought that was some injury until that started appearing in other places. One day, JoĂŁo was freezing, with fever, very strong headache, lots of muscular pain so, that time we went directly to the hospital. It was a bacterial infection and because it was already attacking the skin, it was prescribed large doses of a strong antibiotic, 4 times a day.

Other problem that we faced were the plague of beetles in our beans. They destroyed a lot of different species of beans that we brought from Portugal. Later we discovered that a natural/organic repellent for these beetles are ashes, people apply that at the villages. We started doing so and we never had problems again.

The rainy season was also a challenge because of the rivers.

Sometimes the waters had strength, sometimes not really, but often we ended up with the shoes completely wet. We decided to try to cycle always with sandals.

Other problem that we also faced in our journeys to schools were the roads. The communities and primary schools that we worked with, were in the mountains and isolated. Plus, we were in rainy season so sometimes the roads to that places were even more destroyed and muddy.

These roads meant that sometimes, happened some falls.

Other problem that we faced sometimes were the blackouts of electricity.

We were lucky because we bought solar panel, solar battery and energy converter so we could charge for instance the computer when we needed to do something important.

Other problem was the reappearance of the bacterial infections to JoĂŁo. He still had the antibiotic from the previous time and we decided that he should take before consulting again a doctor and indeed he could cure. After two months, there was a third time reappearance but the treatment lasted one week, going to the hospital to get two injections every day.

One of the biggest challenge was to solve the problem of a small children that we met in the Mtangatanga Forest in the way to Kamwilo school. His name was Petros, a boy with an infection in acute phase, already with a hole in the leg.

Fortunately, we could mobilize the DNS car from DAPP. We paid the fuel to can go with this child and his mother to the hospital in Mzimba town.

He was hospitalized for 3 days, receiving immediately penicillin when arrived due to the stage of the infection. After that time, they went home but needed to continue to do the treatment.

JoĂŁo and Plamen had malaria. JoĂŁo got the treatment at home but Plamen needed to be hospitalized. The recovering was more or less 3 days for both of them.

A lot of things can be considered problems and challenges on our stay in Africa but if people look from the positive side, one does not desperate. After a while a person gets used of not having everything for granted.