Sunday, October 13, 2013

Death in Malawi

Many times I like to write funny stories to make light of the tough situations that we are faced with everyday. But regardless of what I write I must face the fact that I am living in a developing country where the life expectancy is 57 years which has grown dramatically (almost a  by a decade) when it was less than 45 years, and the average person lives off of less than $1.25 a day. When I was home I never had too many people that were close to me pass away so often, here it seems more common. I know I've talked about how the funerals are the most beautiful part of the culture here but it is also the saddest. Because death is so common, you mourn as much as you can that day, then you recover quickly. Here in the past month I have lost 2 people in my life who were so supportive of me in my first year in Malawi. First a priest who died too young and next my Abambo ( father like figure)  of my village. Both them were so supportive to me when I was building my clinics. The priest came all the way out to my village 15k away to support me and see the opening ceremony. We he died I never had real closure. Then today my abambo died suddenly. I used to visit him during my first few months in the village. He would give me whatever he had in harvest and always told me he loved me and was so proud of me. When I got to busy to come and visit him at first he was sad. But when I opened my clinics he also came riding his bike 20k. He said to me "now my daughter I see why you were so busy". Now this is sad. But people do die. So all we can do especially here is just know that your time with each person is precious. That no matter how busy you are you should always take your time to greet everyone. I used to get annoyed at having to great every person throughout the day. But now I get it. You must acknowledge them, let them know you appreciate their presence and give respect as though each time you see them, you may not know if you were see them again. In America we move to fast never really looking in a persons eye to actually greet them and send them love. Look into someones eyes today and just thank them for their presence.

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