Malawi - home now shattered yet elated

The flight home with broad smiles on our faces. Met some wonderful people and a life changing experience for us all….go to NEWS tab below for the full story…

Malawi - on our way home now

Phew…….what an incredible working trip..Audrey - top nurse trainer and security trainer, Louise - top sunburnt nose nurse and protocol writer and Mark - who claims it was the hardest he has ever worked putting in an inverter and plumbing and put all the kit together…I’m not quite sure what I (Adam) did but I feel exhausted and exhilarated after a whirlwind of vet stuff.

A quick recap…..It all started when I phoned Donna from the RSPCA about training Malawian veterinary students very quickly realising there are no Malawian vet students as there is no Malawian vet school, in fact there are only 3 practising vets in Malawi (a population of 13 million). She said she was sending a container over to LSPCA in Lilongwe to help set up a veterinary practice…..I suggested she would need someone to help set it up and train the staff on how to maintain it and help with all the other bits that make a modern veterinary practice….a couple of emails later Richard (LSPCA Director and Vet) threw in a few more ideas….by this time I realised we had to go and very fortunately Audrey, Louise (both Inglis Vet Nurses) and my friend DIY guru and Max Fordham engineer agreed to come too..without whom we could not achieved a quarter as much.

All our fantastic clients, staff and suppliers gave us tools and many other bits (including football strips and pens and paper) to leave behind. We set off and after a few diverted flights and visits to other countries we got there. Richard picked us up and we went straight to the surgery……….The LSPCA staff were a dedicated and very established team but the facilities were very basic..Andrew and Bram were volunteering at the centre and were incredibly helpful during our stay too……We were a little overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that had to get done but everyone was enthusiastic for the challenge (read below for the day to day thoughts)…..Xray machine set up and dark room created and adapted, Inverter and battery supply set up alongside rewiring the building (in order that the surgery could continue to save pets during the plentiful power cuts), plumbing in scrub sink, organising a ops room, re-arranging the layout of the practice to be more client friendly including the reception area and consulting areas……most importantly setting out outline training and writing protocols for current and future staff and trying not to tread on anyone’s toes….in fact we couldn’t have hoped for a more welcoming response to our ideas and the result was a fantastic integration of Inglis Vets ethos and ideas in Malawi…we’ve brought some fab ideas home too….We hope most importantly that we brought some confidence in how we like to run our own veterinary hospital and they took the best and most appropriate of those….either way we loved their company and it was a privilege to meet and work alongside everyone there..

Animals we saw……Lucy a rescue dog gained confidence and lifted her head when she was stroked, Anna the wee ginger cat survived almost being stood on many times but most of us as she played, Zela had the first anaesthetic with the new machine……and finally Scruffy…just as we were packing our bags to leave on the friday for a day away a phone call came in….he had been hit by a car and his condition was worsening at home…the owner had tried to move him but he was in so much pain that he had bitten the owner very badly (which was hugely out of character)…..We set off on the back of a pick-up at night going pretty fast……which is a pretty terrifying thing in Malawi as people tend to turn there car lights off to save fuel! We got there ok and managed with sedation to bring Scruffy back to the surgery……..Scruffy will be remembered as the first animal (pet) to ever have an Xray in Malawi’s history (but definitely not the last!)……..he had fractured two ribs and had air escaping from his chest under the skin which was tenting up…he looked in a very bad way….he was given intravenous fluids and spinal pain relief and kept in the surgery overnight…….the great news is Scruffy went home two days later still a little sore and on pain killers…….it was a huge thrill to have installed then used all the equipment and skills there to help him and was definitely the cherry on the cake for the whole trip….We also got 24 hours to see some more of Malawi (poor Mark hardly saw daylight all week as he spent most of the time in a cupboard fixing up the inverter or in the attic sorting the plumbing)…..and managed to see some villages and also some wildlife..

We really enjoyed the company of all the staff at LSPCA and they wanted to show us where they lived……so on the last day they took us to a village some of them had grown up in and an orphanage (the parents like many of their generation had been lost in the main to HIV/Aids) that some had relatives in……..the children were gorgeous and so friendly and it was a truly humbling experience. See the photos below…..

In Malawi all health services to people are limited and we share the anxiety regarding having a vet clinic with facilities that outstrip many human health centres……but I think the work the LSPCA and Richard does in the community (half the staff are out training and teaching in the field (farms and schools) and the whole centre as a beacon of light in pet health care and hope for animal and human welfare and alongside the fact that this not for profit organisation will be so reliant on raising funds for its community projects from the veterinary practice. Not withstanding the employment it gives to the fabulous staff, we all feel truly privileged to have been involved in some way in the evolution of what will be one of the best veterinary practices in Africa. A link we will maintain in the future with Inglis Vets for many years to come…..