The Script: Student pharmacist Daniel Brashear reflects on summer experience in Malawi
Daniel Brashear |
Dear Malawi,
“Timakufunani.” I wish to meet with you, again.
Your self-proclaimed Warm Heart of Africa has captured mine under the long day’s sun and endless sky. Your people always had a kind word and a genuine smile to carry with them, even if they’re scurrying in the market to barter for impeccably fresh vegetables, a “village chicken,” or some chips (not to be confused with crisps) was not successful.
Your children graced me with their joy and their desire to connect, teaching me to breathe from my lips your native tongue. Your rich, red soil stretched a perfect canvas to display the interplay of man and nature: elephant, hippo, warthog and Jeep-filled savannah, stray boulders and trees and stray dwellings, sugar cane and irrigation.
With each day, your sunrise crept over the mountains, stealing the breath of those willing to stray from their small huts to witness it.
You re-opened my eyes to the great needs of those without my privilege, humbling my heart in the face of persistent hope. You granted me walks down the halls of your hospitals, down the paths near organizations changing the face of hunger and health in your midst. You gave me a space to learn and grow: a small pharmacy needing tidied, inventoried, and staffed. I still see its chairs sitting beyond the half-barred window and the faces of patients patiently waiting for their better days ahead—their verified medical passport book, an often-translated set of counseling points, a brown bag of medication and sometimes a bag with a nutritious meal.
Yet, your gifts did not stop there! Little did I expect you to hide an old brick-computer with Office 2003 on it in the storage room: what a sneaky treasure!
You nudged me out of my nest, encouraging this fledgling to fly on the winds of collaboration alongside hospital administrators, clinical officers, nurses, medical students, accountants, hospital staff, volunteers and missionary nurse practitioners. You knew I would find freedom and challenge ideas that would prod the hospital to find new winds of its own—one to build an inventory system out of Excel to track pharmacy inventory, estimate hospital revenue and build a culture of medication accountability; and one to help the American nurse practitioner brainstorm how to transition nurses to a medication administration record.
Yet, always wise, you taught me that sustainable change takes time; that I may not always accomplish my goals with the moments I’m given. This didn’t stop me from exhausting myself to the point of burnout finishing the inventory system though (which, to my knowledge, is still being used today). Lesson learned!
You changed my story. How I wish a photograph could capture the warmth my heart feels when I think of you, could portray the beauty you have and freely give! I hope as strongly that my all-too-short month will serve as an encouragement to the loyal servants diligently serving your own into the unknown future. Wearing around my wrist a bangle made from your trees, I remember to think of you always.
“Tiwonana.” Until next time.
Thank you, beloved aphuzitsi (teacher),
Daniel Brashear
The Blessings Hospital in Malawi is supported by the Sarah Walker Foundation, a Nashville-based foundation that funds scholarships for students participating in Lipscomb’s health sciences mission trips to Malawi, and other medical mission trips and humanitarian efforts at the hospital and Mtedndere Orphanage. Lipscomb hosts the Sarah Walker Foundation’s annual fundraiser, the Sarah Walker Run, in September.