An uneventful week so far. I can't believe i have 10 more days in malawi. I really will miss malawi, but I definately am looking forward to return to the city of Pittsburgh. I must say, it'll be weird going back... i still can't fathom how completely changed my lifestyle will be. I arrive on May 1st. which is Saturday and then on Monday I start medicine Wards and luck would have it I am on call. It'll be interesting to see how i react when i have every lab at my disposal to work with to make a diagnosis and every prescription i could ever want at my disposal, and ancillary staff, SW readily available. that being said, I definately feel I have changed in many ways from my experience thus far-and to an extent kind of have a fresh perspective on life--- how i want to lead it, what i want to do with and how i want to help people in the broader sense.
On Sunday, I went to the Maula prison which is the central prison located here in Lilongwe. It was such an eye opening experience- i can't even describe it in words. Overcrowded prisons sometimes over 100 prisoners per "cell" which basically is a small tin shack. No beds just mats on the ground. One toilet, one shower. Ppl for the most part wander outside. No wonder TB, and other communicable diseases are so prevalent in the prison population here. No wonder ppl are malnourished. When the government just feeds you Nsima and you have TB and are spreading it no wonder you are malnourished and waste away. I was lucky to get a tour in each cell. I saw a few foreigners imprisoned. One chinese gentleman who was caught with a lot of foreign exchange. Some white ppl who got busted for drugs. The prison is sectioned off into the women's side- approximatly 38 prisoners. It's not that bad on the women's side. One hut, they have goats and chickens e.g for eggs, milk and even have a small potatoe farm. Then there is the convicted side. they walk around in a white outfit and lastly the ones waiting trial.
A lot of people are held in prision for small crimes things that would just be considered a misdemeanor here in the US. stealing, pickpocketing, bribery. Unfortunately the judicial system is not the most organized and ppl just get lost in the system, files getting lose and are condemmeed for eternity. The lost souls of africa. the forgotten ones. I did a google search of the prison and found a NYT article about this very same prison.
I took a look at the clinic. One small hut. doctors come out to the clinic extremely rarely and the doctor who is staffed there is extremely overworked.
Besides the tour, felt that we should contribute someway to the health of prison population. I went with the lawyer from the UK and we purchased enough soap for the entire prison population. costed us about 30,000 kwacha almost 200 dollars. but this assured one bar of soap for each prisoner. we meticulously counted each bar and handed the exact number of bars to "group leaders" from each cell where they would distributed it. whether they get into the right hands that's another question.
It's interesting, within each cell the group leaders and the prisoners have established their mini court system- so if a prisoner breaks a law like "yelling a police officer when he enteres the room", or "walking around naked" or "fighting" the person is referred to a jury which is selected by peers and is setenced to labor to work within that cell. "clean up, do certain tasks". hence it's kind of like ppl serving a sentence within a sentence.

Other happenings this week.
not a whole lot. My malawian mentor returns tomm. On thursday-tuesday i decided to see malawi a bit. this is also an important part of the experience as i also have to learn about the country the regions. I am headed to liwonde where i will go on a safari and from there head to mount mulanje and hope to capture some breath taking views.

looking forward to it!