Che Ntemba & the Blue Elephant

If you look on a map of southern Africa you'll find Malawi wedged between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania. Blantyre is one of two major cities in Malawi, the other being Lilongwe - a few hours north. The city is very small relative to our standards but it is full of life - we travel to the market everyday to pick up food and people-watch...(sorry, just lost my train of thought - all our lights went out, you see electricty is a luxury here, as is water and we fill up buckets of water at night to use the next day when at some point the water goes out). Anyway, there is so much to see at the market, people going to and from carrying all sorts of things, most of which is balanced on their heads. Live chickens for sale etc. The vendors either sell their items from mats on the ground or use wooden kiosks (if I can call them that). Quite funny are the "telephone bureaus" which sell cell phone service from these very basic wooden structures.

This past weekend I ventured out to check out the night life. I set out by car from my flat in the hills of "Sunnyside" avoiding as best I could the potholes and the wild dogs on my way to the Blue Elelphant, a restaurant/bar that is popular here among the locals and expats. I located the Blue Elly by following the sound of music that I could hear as I drove down Haile Selassie Rd. on my was to Kumuzu highway. It is a nice "pub" with a large outdoor area that is covered by a tent. The dance floor is adjacent to the tented area - it is not covered so that when it rains, as it inevitably does, you get a bit of a shower. I've become used to the showers at this point and no longer look for shelter or carry an umbrella. There is a very good DJ at the Blue Elly and he plays a very wide selection of reggae, hip hop and african dance. I grabbed a drink and a burger while I listened to the music and checked the place out. After about fifteen minutes one of the medical students I have seen at Queens Hospital came up to me and introduced himself. He then introduced me to all of his friends and for the rest of the night we hung out, playing pool and listening to the music. Eventually they decided we should go to another place and I tagged along and ended up at two other places that I could never find again even with a GPS. We stayed out very late and when the crowds started to thin and I decided I should get some rest and save some of my energy for later.

The next night it was back to the Blue Elly and then to Che Ntemba, another club more in the center of town. From the outside Che looks a bit dodgy, but I've never let that stop me before so I decided to take a look. I payed the 500 kwacha cover (approx. $3.25) and was let into the gate. Iwalked in and quickly noticed that there were 2 floors. I went upstairs and began looking around when I ran into Job, a Malwian I had previously met at the Blue Elly. He is a very vibrant and animated Malawian and greeted me as if I was his long lost friend. We grabbed a drink and walked over to the balcony that overlooked the dance floor below. After a few minutes he pointed into the crowd below and said, "She is so beautiful, that one! I must go speak to her." I looked down and amongst the sea of people I saw a beautiful Malawian women. I agreed with him , patted him on the back, and wished him luck. He left very excited and determined to talk to this beautiful woman. I kept my eye on the woman but never did see him walk up to her. Later, I decided to go downstairs. "Ah, there you are! Let me introduce you to such a beautiful woman as this," he said. He bent over and whispered to a woman that was seated facing the opposite direction. She stood and faced me. All I could think of was "Shallow Hal" because she was not the woman I thought he had been pointing too but the woman that had been standing next to her. I thought it was so funny because she was not an attractive woman, at least to me western eyes, and (the funniest part) she was so much larger than he, nearly doubling his 5ft 120lb frame. "Such a beautiful woman," he said beaming with pride. I spent the rest of the night with them and their friends and realized it didn't matter what I thought, she was beautiful to him.

Sunday I woke up to beautiful singing - church music from a distance. Many of the Malawians are Christian, but there are also a number of Muslims and Hindus as well. I left the flat and sat outside to listen to the music and catch the bit of sun that was out before the rain came. On my way out I scared a bunch of monkeys that were hanging out under the tree that is next to my flat. I wasn't sitting for more than a couple minutes before Zendi, my 8 yr old neighbor, came out with his soccer ball. He gave me a big hung, as he always does when he sees me and asked me why I was just sitting there. "Let's play," he said as he kicked the ball to me. I got up and we started playing. Shortly after Otis showed up and then Zeithwa, then Oath (Otis' sister). Yemlak, a 13yr old aspiring actress from Ethiopia came next followed by Alex. We played all types of games until I was dead tired, then I sat down and they sat next to me and started asking me all sorts of questions - did I know any celebrities, did I drive a fancy car etc. Zeithwa told me if he had a car he would "Pimp my ride" (he's seen the show on MTV). Once the rain came I decided to head inside so i said goodbye and they started playing again.

Monday I operated on a 25yr old teacher that is unable to walk because he has tuberculosis in his spine that has destroyed two veterbrae and left him with a deformity that is compressing his spinal cord. With a rickety old anesthesia machine and one unit of blood we opened up his chest & abdomen and decompressed the area including the large absess under his psoas muscle. The case took us 6 hrs and we shipped him off to the ICU in stable condition, thankfully. We postponed the second cases - a boy that has a football sized mass in his forearm.

Post op day #1 and our 25yr old teacher is out of the ICU sitting up in bed doing his breathing excercises and telling me he is ok.