Karonga

Travelling to Karonga in the north took us a long 11 hours in our little minbus which would be part of our home for the next few weeks. The scenery was beautiful... vast landscapes, glimpses of the lake (anticipation and reminder of temptation - No to swimming! ) and monkeys chilling in the middle of the road .

Our time in Karonga was educational and obviously fun, we were to spend two full days there testing all the children at the school for the deaf and have a clinic at the karonga hospital. Peter informed us that due to a oil australian company working in this area they were to help fund health facitities for locals especially the school for the deaf therefore every 3 months he was to be flown up to Karonga to the school. So the main focus of our visit was to test and establish those needing hearing aids, and to train or refresh the staff in the basics and peter can later fit the children. I spent both days at the school. The first day we were welcomed greatly by the headteacher who was so pleased to see us, especially peter who he had met before.  the first day we tested all 50 children age between 6 - 18 and some of the family members too (some children and parents had there health passports which helped to understand their hearing loss if they had meningitis / mumps or malaria - quninine or anything else ototoxic written down) The teachers at the school put on a fabulous dinner each day we were there enzema , sauce, meat and vegtables.. delicious. . Day two- was to focus on those possible non-organic cases and training sessions for teachers. I was given the task of training audiometry with the teachers. At first i felt a little nervous but then I realised I know how to do this inside out so just go with it naturally, I really enjoyed the teaching session and tried to make it an interactive as possinle so they learnt they basic principles and then had a go testing me and testing eachother. 

one of the class's at the school

Jean one of the lovely teachers and I 

 Two others teachers at the school which I did my teacher training session with

 children waiting under a tree in the shade to come in for their hearing assesment

 my testing station 

 some of the fab children at the school - very good at their ASL 

the school raise there own chickens and pigs that can be sold to raise money for the school or for food to feed the children. 

Leaving Karonga was difficult, 10 children had been found suitable for HA's, others were not and it was diiffuclt to explain that it thier hearing was too bad for  a hearing aid. They felt disapointed i guess because as soon as they new we were coming their was hope thier hearing would get better. One older girl even offered to pay to have one however her hearing was just not suitable, it was all a little heart breaking and it was something I had not prepared for coming on this trip.