Breakfast at the Ritz

Lilongwe, Limbe, Malawi

The day began with a beautiful English breakfast at Wendel’s, a small piece of paradise tucked away in Lilongwe, and my favorite place to stay in Malawi. We call this place the “Ritz” of Malawi.

After breakfast, we went to Kamuzu College of Nursing to meet with the dean of faculties. She took us on a tour of David Livingstone’s Memorial Clinic, which is run by nursing faculty members. There is a an antenatal clinic, a birthing ward for non-complicated births (However they deliver breech babies, multiple births, vacuum extractions, etc..), an outpatient post-partum clinic, an under-5-years-old clinic, and a primary care clinic for male and female adults. The facilities are beautiful with nice beds, pretty room décor, showers, etc. They are the best I’ve seen in Malawi.

We then went off to see the pediatric HIV clinic, which is part of the Baylor School of Medicine initiative. The facility is 2 years old, and is absolutely gorgeous. I visited the pharmacy and saw a pharmacist providing medication counseling to a mother. During our visit, we saw two pediatricians who completed their pediatric residency training at UCSF, and they were happy to see me and my colleague Ellen. They have been in Malawi for a year working at the clinic.

As we journeyed back to Limbe, we passed several outdoor markets because Friday is “Market Day”. There are crowds of people selling fruits, vegetables, and clothing – lots of stuff. I must say that the fruits and vegetables looked beautiful. It’s all organic! The tomatoes are a rich red and the carrots are bright orange. They had lovely eggplants, onions, peas, green beans – just about anything you could want. Our driver got out, making a few purchases, and I stayed in the car. A mob of people, hoping we would buy something, swarmed the car offering what they had. I was afraid to step out of the car because I did not know how to choose which seller.