Health and Money

No, this post is not about the two keys to personal happiness...though health and money are high up there for many. This post is about an update on health issues one faces when traveling to Africa and about the money needed to accomplish the work.

Health

I was relieved to find that Yellow Fever, a common African disease, is not an issue in Africa. However Malawi has the "usual" list of ailments to prepare for:

• Malaria - high occurrence, spread by mosquitoes
• Hep A & B virus - contracted through contact with an infected person or food handled by an infected person
• HIV/AIDS - estimated 20+% of population have HIV/AIDS, since the disease goes widely unreported, some agencies estimate a much higher percentage
• Dysentery & heat/sun stroke are also common for Mzungus (i.e. white people not used to the climate)
• Tuberculosis - in smaller percentages, transmitted though cough, sneezes, direct contact with an infected person
• Child Malnutrition - though we are not likely to contract this health problem, it may be more difficult to deal with as we encounter it, than the above listed, infectious diseases

Fortunately, there are many simple ways to protect oneself against most of these ailments, so we have our malaria meds (I prefer the homeopathic ones), mosquito nets (apparently we have to bring our own as they are not "installed" in the places where we will be sleeping).

Also on hand are immunity builders and lots of anti-bacterial hand wash.

Money

Our fundraising is rather low-key. Neither Richard nor I have much time to devote to it, we seem to trusting that the costs will be covered.  We have distributed letters informing relatively few people of the mission and we are grateful to report that at this point we have a raised a bit over 1K. A heartfelt thanks to all who contributed thus far.

So, this is the budget today:

Financial Needs (in US dollars)

-         1,500   Cost of travel for 30 pastors to the city of Blantyre (about $50/person)

-         1,000   Food for all those in training (we are cooking it, this is the cost of purchase only)

-            500   Rental cost of the training/lodging facility for everyone for 5 days

-            500   Various supplies – notebooks, pens and shelving for the new Pastors’ Library,
               which is an answered prayer for them   

-            500   Funds to locally purchase clothes and shoes for children (many come naked to                  the church asking for clothes), fabric for women who want to start a sewing                       business, dress shirts for pastors etc.

    $4,000   TOTAL

 -  $1,000   raised so far

---------------

    $3,000 to go

To contribute financially please write a tax-deductible cheque to The Dwelling Place with Malawi in the comment line. Cheques can be mailed or dropped off at

The Dwelling Place
546 Belmont Ave West,
Kitchener, ON, N2M 5E3

Prayer Need:

• that our health would stay intact during our time in Malawi so that we could carry out the work
• that we would not contract anything serious
• that God would move in the hearts of those who are able to help to cover the costs