Karonga!

I’ve been in Karonga since Sunday afternoon, and am staying in a nice little spot – more of a guest house than a hotel. I had an amazing chicken curry at the “restaurant” last night, but learned that I should order well in advance because it took about 45 minutes to be cooked… since the establishment is rather small, I wouldn’t quite call their food service a restaurant – they have a menu, but it took a few tries to decide on a meal, because the first three things I ordered they didn’t have J. Now I know to ask what’s available right away and just go from there.

I started working in Karonga today. In the morning, I visited an information session that Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) were presenting for women on family planning. They were very engaging, singing songs, asking the women questions, and playing with the babies that were there. They discussed the benefits of family planning and asked women for input. The women were eager to share that with FP, they could feed all their children, women could participate actively in the community, budgets could be met more easily, and the mortality rate for children under five drops. They sang songs about how family planning benefits their communities.

After the presentation, the HSAs offered various services – weighing babies, offering FP counseling, and giving vaccinations to babies. These clinics take place once per month and women were eager to take advantage of the opportunity. Some volunteers even prepared a cooking demonstration to show women how to prepare nutritious food for their children.

The downside is that all of this was conducted in the local language, so I had to rely on some translation. However, the general atmosphere and emotions broke through the language barrier, and I was able to tell that people felt comfortable in counseling sessions with the HSAs. It was interesting to me that all the attendees were women and only two people presenting were female – I wonder if the gender issue affects women coming for counseling, but from what I could see it didn’t seem to pose a major barrier. This afternoon I’m writing up notes from my visit, clarifying my schedule for the two weeks I’m here. I hope that soon I’ll be able to explore the town a little bit more and find some restaurants to frequent, markets to explore, and sights to see for the time that I’m here. The internet connection is a bit slow, but I’ll try to be online when I can!