Last day in Zomba

Last full day in Zomba, tried to walk to the office but the rains started mid journey and the monsoon type downpour gave me a complete drenching.

I met with MacBain the Chief Exec to talk about the project progress, go through the workplan and work out how we were going to make progress. So many areas require attention that its going to be a difficult process. Whilst it’s clear that there is a very strong staff team in the organisation, the challenges of distance, lack of good telecommunications and differences in District level infrastructure all conspire to prevent staff from achieving the goals of the project. We will need to put our thinking caps on.

After writing up notes from the previous session I was met by Rev Silas, from the CCAP theological college. He drove me to a village on the outskirts of Zomba, very rural with no road and a river crossing , to see their progress on the local clinic.

The challenges of infrastructure were again so obvious; donations had been made to help build and equip a new clinic in the village which opened last December. Less than a month in, tragedy struck, and the new water-tower was blown down in a storm, unleashing 10,000 litres of water on the village and closing down the clinic. As ever, funds available only just meet basic costs, and without contingency funds, there is no way to weather an emergency. So, the clinic lies empty, with just the clothes of the night watchman who is sleeping there, and the electric cable which was being used to run the pump for water has been stripped out by thieves.

Silas is retired and looking after three different Parishes, each with their own challenges, despite all this, he is relentlessly upbeat, and laughs constantly, what will happen to the clinic ? I ask- “well, we will now try and raise the money we need to make the repairs, God willing…” and I know he will.