On Our Way to the North (by Chuck DuVivier)

Today we set out with three vehicles, the bus, a different tractor, trailer, driver and crew, hauling a full container of wheelchairs and a Land Cruiser that belongs to Frank Dimmock, member of the Lilongwe Rotary Club.  Frank is going to accompany us for a few days and is dropping of his daughter, Jessica, and son, Andrew, with friends in Mzuzu.  He is from the states but has spent many years in Africa and in Malawi and currently is head of administration for the five Presbyterian hospitals here in Malawi.  He also acts a health coordinator consultant in western and southern Africa.

Our first delivery was at  Kasungu district Hospital where we  unboxed and set up 35 wheelchairs in the entry hall of the hospital.  It has proven difficult to make our deliveries and set-up the chairs unless we can control the area in which we are working,  so being inside is less convenient but we can watch how we are doing.  In this case, the room still managed to get filled with people watching or trying to take home plastic or cardboard, even with someone at the door trying to keep people out.

At Kasungu, we were greeted by Akiko Matsunama, a young Japanese physiotherapist who Bill, Larry, Dick and Philippe had met two years ago.  Then, it was her first day on the Job, today was her last as she is heading back to Japan.  In fact it was at this hospital that Larry first saw her pushing a battered wheelchair and was inspired to put the Wheelchairs for Malawi program together.

From Kasungu, we headed on to Mzimba District Hospital, with ten chairs on the roof of the Land Cruiser.  At Mzimba those of us who were with the Land Cruiser unloaded and waited for the bus to arrive but everyone was at lunch.  This hospital was fairly empty, no staff, few patients and no lines of people milling around.  The bus and the hospital administrator finally arrived and we were able to turn over our delivery.

The road led on to Mzuzu up over higher hills and mountains covered in forest and pine plantations. In the Land Cruiser, we decided that we couldn't stay behind the bus, not only because it was much slower, but for our own health.  The bus is smoking so badly now that sometimes when you are only 50 feet behind it, you can't even see it. Thick black soot covers the back of the bus and anything behind it.. 

The pine in the mountains were planted in anticipation of a pulp mill opening on Lake Malawi years ago, but for environmental reasons, the mill was never built.  the trees were never thinned so they are not very useful for the plywood plants that was subsequently envisioned, so now they are poor timber and firewood.  We passed  lots of bicycles with racks of wood headed to market in Mzuzu.