Life and Death

We have finally got internet at our home again and I am able to post some belated blogs.

A friend of ours recently tried her best to help but the story did not have a happy ending. Our friend, who I will call Susan, works with a church group in Malawi but is from England. From contacts that she has she heard that a woman in a village outside of Lilongwe was in an advanced stage of HIV/AIDS. This woman had had a baby one month ago but due to her health she was unable to breastfeed her newborn. For the last month the baby had been fed a corn meal porridge like substance called nsima and was close to starvation. Susan having heard about this baby through her church group decided she would take her car to the village to bring the baby to the hospital for access to baby formula and medical care. Susan arrived at night and the mother was glad to have someone help her with her sick baby. Susan put the baby in a borrowed car seat and began to drive to the hospital, but the mother did not accompany her. While Susan was enroute she realized that something was wrong the baby. When she stopped to check on the baby she discovered, despite her best efforts, that the baby had died. The only option (in a Malawian context, things are different here than in Canada) was to return to the village and return the baby to the mother. I don’t know how she felt but I know that Susan’s efforts were appreciated despite the outcome. What is so telling about this story is that death is seen in such a different context than it is in Canada. The average lifespan in Malawi is 37.58 years and death is such a regular thing here that it is hard to imagine how different the occurrence of death is in Canada. The low lifespan is largely due to HIV/AIDS but that said it was only in the mid 40’s before the occurrence of AIDS. My heart goes out to Susan as I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in her position, she tried so hard but was so unsuccessful. My best wishes to the mother and to Susan for her efforts. (End of February 2008)