6 weeks to go - heading to Madagascar

Off to Madagascar… 28^th September. As it’s officially six weeks today, this seemed like a good time to start the blog. Why am I going to Madagascar? To serve God. More specifically, to spend two years with the Tsimihety people of Mandritsara in a rural area in the north east of Madagascar, at Hopitaly Vaovao Mahaly. HVM – or “Good News Hospital” is a Christian missionary hospital with 40 beds, which cares for an area of the country the size of Wales, and has the only surgical facilities for a 200 mile radius. It is a place where all are welcomed and cared for, irrespective of background, religion, or ability to pay.

A few facts about Madagascar:

Population: 20 million

Location: Indian Ocean (it’s the big blob off the coast of Mozambique!)

Languages: French, Malagasy

80% of the population live in rural areas

Only one in ten people have access to clean drinking water

One woman in 50 has access to facilities for a caesarean section

One woman in 4 has access to a ‘skilled birth attendant’

A child born in Madagascar has a one in 8 chance of dying before age 5

Most children die from preventable conditions – malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malnutrition.

I was trying to decide on the title of the blog, which got me thinking about how to describe what I’ll be doing there. “Medicine” in Madagascar just doesn’t capture it. Ministering in Madagascar? Maybe slightly closer. But that still sounds too one-sided, as I know the Malagasy always give me far more than I ever give them. Sharing, serving, loving, caring, discipling, standing beside the broken… I think all of those fit. HVM is a place where whole-person medicine happens – physical, psychological, spiritual. It is unashamedly a Christian hospital, where Jesus is shared openly, but where all are free to make their own mind up.

I will spend the first two months in Madagascar learning the local language, Malagasy. As Madagascar’s official languages are French and Malagasy, I’ll be learning Malagasy via French, and also conducting all my clinics and ward rounds in French until I master the Malagasy sufficiently. After language training, I’ll start full time work at the hospital – mainly in medicine and paediatrics. However when there are fewer staff, and also when I’m on call, anything goes – and I’ll have to deal with anything.

I finished my job in the UK two weeks ago, and since then it’s suddenly begun sinking in that Madagascar is getting ever closer. I’ve been lucky enough to keep up with lots of paeds locums at SWBH, which has punctuated the packing and organising, as well as funding all the unexpected last-minute costs that seem to be arising everywhere. Meanwhile, the organising progresses slowly but surely. Following the closure of the London embassy, I am due to fly to France on 8^th Sept to obtain the specific visa I need. This has been a source of much stress, not least the telephone French when discussing bureaucracy and equivalent documents. We’ve established that I just won’t have equivalents of all the French documents – so far, they seem typically African in their laid-back approach to this; hopefully this will continue to be the case when I arrive in person. Booster rabies jabs, wind-up torches, my surgical hat with geckoes on it… And the big job of packing up the flat. Since moving from Worcester, my life seems to have expanded to fill the space available, so I’m now once again sorting through everything and boxing up my life for two years. This is proving to be a big task, as I won’t have a home in the UK whilst I am away – so everything needs to go somewhere, distributed between various friends’ attics. I have a week to spend in Cardiff for my MSc (how terrifying) just before I leave, and a CMF conference to speak at, three days before I leave the country. Time is going to fly. This afternoon I have my interview with “Living Stones” – the international mission ministry at St John’s Church in Harborne, Birmingham, and next week another meeting with the hospital charity in London.

There are times when I can’t wait to go, and be back with my Madagascar ‘family’. And times when I feel utterly terrified and wonder if I’ve made a huge mistake and should have stayed in the UK. Times when I feel very inadequate for the task ahead. But then I remember that throughout the Bible, God used inadequate people to do His work. He used then despite their weaknesses, so that people would see that it was God at work and that he would be glorified. Nothing done in our own strength is worth doing. I know God told me clearly four years ago that this was his plan for me (a story for another post) and my Christian walk to date has been a testimony of God’s incredible faithfulness to me. So I once again go in faith. Last week during paeds nights I read Helen Roseveare’s book, “Living Faith” – and her honest and candid description of her journey of faith was very humbling and encouraging.

Micah 6v8: “Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God”

Here’s to the two years ahead…

Answers to prayer last week:

• Provision of enough locum work to fund rent etc during these two months of UK preparation, as well as all the unexpected last minute costs
• Safety in travelling to and from nights during the Birmingham riots (most of you know I’m not allowed to drive, and it was a bad time to be a public transport commuter.) I got caught right in the middle of it on the first night, but managed to get away unscathed, and for the rest of the week God provided for me fantastically.
• Visa woes – everything is getting there. Flights to and from France are booked, all of the Madagascar paperwork is completed, just the new CRB check awaited now.