Senga Bay, Malawi … The “Cool Mobil Clinic “was visiting the home of Jane, a 65-year-old villager who lives not far from the Cool Runnings Lake Resort on Lake Malawi. The Clinic and the resort are located in Senga Bay, a short distance from the Salima Trading Center.
“I had to come to the house to clean and redress Jane’s wound,” notes Samantha Ludick, who owns the resort, and at the same time carries out the medical outreach program in the villages along the lakeshore. Ludick continues, “Her leg was healing nicely, but still needed careful attention. We were still not out of the woods.”
As Jane sat quietly in her chair Samantha carried out the painful cleaning and dressing of the wound. Tiffany, one of the volunteers assisting the clinic watched in amazement as Jane handled the pain and distress with such calmness. She knew it must be extremely painful, but Jane gave no indication as Samantha continued to dress the wound. Everyone knew if it had not been for Samantha and the supplies from the Clinic this case could be going disastrously in another direction.
Then suddenly Kamuenda, Jane’s 91-year-old husband said something that surprised and alarmed Samantha and Tiffany. She recalls his calm words,
“Kamwenda expressed his concern with the strong medicine (mankwala) his wife was taking since their only food in several days had been maringa leaves boiled in salt. While maringa leaves are full of vitamins and high in protein, they are not healthy when that is all you are eating,” she notes. “I asked why he had not told me they had no food.”
“’How could we,’ he asked me, ‘when you have already done so much for us? They had gone four days without any food.’”
Sam continues, “How could I leave these old people without food? I told them I would be back. I headed off to get some food, then see the chief about giving them a small plot of land so we could bring one of the V-Tractors (Ferrari’s are what Ludick calls them), and prepare and plant them a garden. I could not leave them in this plight.”
In Malawi, even in good years the ability to raise enough food without anything more than manual labor, and hand hoes, leaves most of the people teetering at the edge of starvation. The slightest change in weather patterns, sickness, or old age can tip them over. For many the V-Tractors, or the new walk behind units are, and will be, their hope for getting out of the constant threat of starvation.
When it comes to medical care the plight is similar to the one with food production. In most cases they have inadequate resources, insufficient funds and no way to reach other, more distant, health care facilities. Cool Mobil Clinic is an extension of the Clinic at the Gate, a medical outreach to the community that is conducted from the Cool Runnings Resort. These medical programs are supported by the Malawi Project through funding and supply shipments from various supporters in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Additionally Agricultural Aide International and the Malawi Project have donated two V-Tractors to a major agriculture outreach called “Cool Agriculture.” This program is also conducted through the Cool Runnings Resort.