Main Menu

VSO - Sharing Skills, Changing Lives

Where we do it > Malawi - Eric Taylor

Consultant Surgeon to Inverclyde Royal Hospital Eric Taylor left Scotland in February 2007 to undertake his biggest challenge yet: working as a Medical Officer at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. Eric is the first health professional to volunteer as part of VSO’s new partnership with NHSScotland. He is joined by his wife Celia, a Project Manager and Senior Adviser for Communities Scotland who is now working as an Administrative Manager at the same hospital.

In his first 3 months in Malawi, Eric has dealt with a ‘staggering’ range of pathology, assisted in operations he’s ‘only ever read about in books’, and witnessed first hand the crippling shortages of staff that compound the clinical challenges his colleagues face. Here he describes a chance to unwind on a weekend exploring Malawi with Celia and some other VSO volunteers.

We had a great time at Lake Malawi last weekend. The weather was good and the scenery stunning. We all stayed at one of the ‘lodges’ on the lakeside. They’re really just small hotels situated along the lakeshore, each with a few rooms. Ours provided very good food but some do no catering at all. They’re intended to provide weekend breaks from the city and also a pleasant stopover for those travelling from one end of the country to the other.

A short walk along the beach brought us to a small fishing village where the beach was all but obstructed as dug-out canoes mixed with slightly more modern brightly coloured boats. None had an engine; all were propelled by hand. In between the boats fishing nets were drying on the sand and further on women and girls were washing colourful clothing in the lake, clothing that was then spread out to dry on the sandy beach.

The village had a main shopping ‘street’ of small stalls running out along a short, narrowing spit of sand that separated a lagoon on one side from the main lake on the other. The spit ended where a shallow river ran from the mouth of the lagoon into the lake. Small boys played in the stream. We swam later in the day when we were taken by boat to the appropriately named Lizard Island where we saw a lizard about three feet long and snorkelled among a few tropical fresh water fish.

All round the lagoon trestle tables up to 50 metres long had been permanently erected on which small fish called Capenta, rather like whitebait, were being dried in their millions in the sun. Young men supervised the drying process which involved frequent turning of the silver fish and, when they were ready, packing them into 5kg bags to go to the shops and markets.

Surprisingly there was not a fly to be seen. We’d seen these fish on sale in the street markets in Lilongwe but always under a cloud of flies - most unattractive and unappetising! The boys at the Salima beach assured me the flies were there because the fish had not been dried properly, and so they couldn’t possibly have come from Salima!

As we walked back from the village that Sunday morning we passed the church which was full to overflowing. Many extras were sitting outside in the shade of the trees. The music and the quiet peace and calm of the village were quite restoring before we travelled back to town in the rather noisy, clapped-out bus.

Bangladesh
Cambodia
Cameroon
China
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Guyana
India
Indonesia
Kenya
Malawi
Maldives
Mongolia
Mozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Nigeria
Pakistan
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Tajkistan
Tanzania
Thailand/Burma
Uganda
Vanuatu
Vietnam
Zambia
Zimbabwe