It’s been a very busy 5 days of clinics. We treated over 100 patients per day and a variety of conditions ranging from malaria to coughs. Some shots, breathing treatments, stitches and a few referrals to specialists.

On Friday we delivered filled prescriptions to the church and then toured the Madisi Mission Hospital. A highlight was seeing some newborns.Then off to see ZOE. It was a joy seeing recent graduates that have successful businesses. We were also able to see a first year group. They entertained us with singing, dancing and a poem. They have been learning about health and hygiene, child rights, and busines planning.

Saturday morning we loaded up the pink bus and headed to Lake Malawi. First stop Kuti Wildlife Reserve. Sadly, it was in the heat of the day and only saw a few animals; giraffe, zebras, and monkey. But it was an adventure! We are now enjoying the beautiful lake and relaxing. Lake Malawi is the 3rd largest lake in Malawi, bordering Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Tomorrow after some relaxing and exploring we head back to Lilongwe for our last night in Malawi. We head head on Monday with full hearts, wonderful memories and new friends. Until next year.

Listen to Episode 11

Call to Action:

When a disaster strikes, do you want to help? If you live in the Kansas City area, you can sign up to be Early Response trained or attend a Chainsaw training but the first step is to become Safe Gatherings certified. Visit the disaster response page to learn more! If you live outside of the KC area, consider engaging in disaster response organizations in your area. For instance you can become CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) trained by your local fire department so that you can help professionals respond to a disaster in your own community. Visit the FEMA CERT website to learn more!

BIG IDEA:

Relief is the response everyone immediately thinks of after a disaster strikes. With that said, it's only one of five stages in a response -one that we often get stuck in - which can cause a whole host of other problems.

A few key takeaways from our guests:

• Send money, not "stuff" unless specifically requested by the community affected. Oftentimes donated items lead to a secondary disaster.
• Go only after the emergency phase. Trained volunteers are the most helpful - they know what to say and do.
• Disasters should be owned by the community and outside help should only happen if the community can't recover on their own.
• If you stay in the relief phase too long, it turns into dependency and more importantly, "it strips aways someone's dignity by taking away their ability to respond to their own crisis." Yikes! This is a healthy reminder to pay attention and listen to local leaders!

Acronyms, Definitions, and Rules... Oh My!

• The 5 "R's" /Stages of Disaster Response

1. Readiness - be prepared on what to personally do during a disaster as well as being trained to help others
2. Rescue - initial phase after a disaster where medical, fire, police, electric companies and others work to rescue survivors and make the area as a safe as possible for the next stage
3. Relief - focused on providing survivors with their basic needs (water, shelter and food) and securing the disaster site so that recovery work may begin.
4. Recovery - the longest phase of a disaster response where you work with survivors to find long-term solutions to fit their needs
5. Review - evaluating the response for lessons learned to prepare for future disasters.

• The Rule of 10's

1. A general rule of thumb in determining how long each phase should be is the "Rule of 10". This means that the relief phase is typically 10x the rescue phase and the recovery phase is 10x the relief phase. If that confused the heck out of you (totally understandable - it's like a riddle...), here's an example:
2. A tornado strikes and it take 3 days to rescue the survivors. You can expect the relief phase (clearing debris, helping prepare food for people, tarping roofs, mucking out homes, sorting debris, etc) to last about 30 days. If the relief phase does actually take 30 days, then you can expect the recovery phase (repairing homes, businesses back up and running, etc) to last about 300 days. Glorymar mentions the recovery phase for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria is expected to last 10-12 years!
3. One thing not mentioned in today's podcast is the importance of listening. Whatever phase you help respond to, you should always take time to listen to the survivors. To mentally and emotionally recover, they need to share their story many times. You compassion and listening ear is the most important thing you can do in any phase besides the rescue phase!

• Definitions

1. United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) - is the disaster response branch of the Methodist Church.
2. COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) - is a local group of community organizations that coordinate emergency human services while working with partner agencies, social services, and the local emergency manager in response to a disaster. Each community should have their own COAD.

Meet the Voices

As always, thanks for listening!

Love, The Podsquad

The last few days have been very hectic. We leave at 8am to try and have the clinic up and running by 9am. I say "try" because it hasn't happened yet! That's the flexibility part of the trip ;). With that said, this has allowed us time to talk to the Malawians who are a part of our team. I think that has been one of the best things!

We have seen and treated over 325 patients in our 3 days of clinics. There have been a lot of children under age 5. This means there have been a lot of bubbles, songs, coloring sheets, and peek-a-boo. Babies don't like peek-a-boo in Malawi, lesson learned!

Our evenings can be long. We pack pills, have dinner, then devotions. The dinner often takes a long time - we've learned to pre-order! I'm writing this on the bus - it is Wednesday - and we are on our way to Wandikweza, a clinic that Resurrection has partnered with. I can't wait to see it!

During the day, the medical team has been going into rural villages identified by Mercy & her clinic, Wandikweza. They utilize churches, the outdoors, and an ambulance to see patients and distribute medications through their mobile pharmacy. In the evening, they fellowship while organizing medication for the following day's clinic. Any patients needing follow up will be done by Mercy and her team. They were able to visit one of the boreholes funded by Resurrection donors as it was near a village they were serving in. It's great to see Malawian and US medical professionals working side-by-side to serve people in rural villages that have little-to-no access to medical care!