bridges newsletter 2008

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A

Br idgesAfrican

Update


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2 | Bridges Newsletter Feb 2009

ell friends, it's that time of year

again. That time when, long after

the Christmas tree has come

down and the brussel sprouts been consumed,

Kate and Dan realise that their grand idea to

make the 'Spridge's Christmas newsletter' a

regular occurrence has quite definitely failed.

Apologies for the neglect. Still, moving on from

our failure to give you a yuletide update, we now

bring you the wonder that is the 'Spridge's

sometime-between-New Years-and-Easter

newsletter'. Chances are you won't feel that

you've missed out.

So 20 0 8 eh? What a year .The new year began in

Liverpool with Dan

immersed in his

postdoctorate at

Liverpool School of

Tropical Medicine and

Kate doing a masters in

Humanitarian Studies at

the same place (we just

can't get enough of each

other). In Liverpool

(referred to by some asthe Glasgow of the

South - both boast

extremely friendly and completely

indecipherable locals), we were blessed to make

some great friendships through studies, work

and church. Since it was only the first of the 4

countries that we are scheduled to be living in

during Dan's three year postdoc, and seeing as

we only had 9 months there we decided to get

actively involved with people from the outset.

We don't regret the proactiveness one bit, but

when it reached April and time to say goodbyes,

we realised that doing this four times is going to

be a tad harder than we initially thought!

Travelling is fantastic, but making friendships

and leaving them behind just a few months later

does bring a tear. Thank goodness for the joys of

online social networking eh? Despite the fact

that internet in Malawi is something of an

epileptic sloth, our virtual relationships live on

Liverpudlians...

Wor kingwit h t heUN......Kate spent the first 2

months in Malawi

writing up her master's

dissertation and has

since been working

with the UN World

Food Programme as a

programme assistant.

Some days she's visiting

the field to ascertain

why cereals have not

arrived or maize has been stolen, other days

she's heading up distribution plans for the

delivery of food to over a million vulnerable

groups and at others she's meeting

governmental officials and NGO partners. At

one point she took over the head of programmes

job and just recently she has been running the

suboffice nutrition programme (Bear in mind

that this is the same person who believes that if

you eat a chocolate covered banana then the

good of the fruit counteracts the bad of the

chocolate to make the meal calorie neutral. Not

really nutritionally au fait let's say). Theexperience has been a worthwhile one, and of

course, not too shabby for the ol' CV. Like all

humanitarian organisations, WFP has its

darksides. Too much action and too little

reflection for the most part. And can we blame

it? Though we all know unthinking aid can

cause more harm than good, few donors pay

their NGOs to 'reflect'. Still... this is an update,

not a dissertation ;)

Par asitesandper plexity......There are lots of

different aspects

to Dan's work,

from sample

collection, cell

culture and of

course peering down microscopes to view

malaria at work. The labs are right next door to

W


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3 | Bridges Newsletter Feb 2009

the paediatric department and

our own research ward, where

children suffering from

cerebral malaria are treated.

On a busy weekend there may

be 300 patients admitted in

the main ward its 2 to a bed

and the rest on the floor. More

chilling is the number of under-

5's who die more die in a

week than in the whole of

Merseyside in a year. Not being a medic often

conjures up feelings of guilt for Dan of not

addressing the most obvious needs. And yet,

without advances in understanding the disease

the dream of a world free from malaria is

unlikely to ever come to pass. Unfortunately the

experimental work hasn't progressed quite as

Dan would have liked and at times it has been

very challenging to keep going. Fortunately he

has always had an encouraging wife who helps

him start again! There is real promise in the

work, but Dan has recently felt thwarted at

every turn. We are praying that the last month

in Malawi yields the results we're so desperate

to get.

Fr iendsandfamily.....Both our parents

and Kate's sister

(Jen) have visited

us whilst we've

been out here.

Being so far from family has not been easy so

this was a real blessing. We've managed to

squeeze in trips to Zambia (where we watched a

leopard make a

kill 20metres

from our vehicle)

and Mozambique,

both of which

have been

awesome. We've

made some

fantastic

friendships in

Malawi, and when we fly off to NZ (to visit Dan's

bro and sister) and then Sydney on April 4th

(with a 5 day stop in Capetown on the way life

is hard) it will be with a lot of sadness at the

relationships we leave behind. Sad to leave but

thankful for the time we had. And of course, just

a leetle bit excited about the surfing to come :)

Time flies and it's already almost 3yrs that we've

been married. Kate celebrated her 25th birthday

in January and Dan his 30th in February.

Marriage continues to be an incredible gift for

us both and being able to travel, make new

friends, visit new places and eat strange foods

together makes life feel like a fantastic

adventure. We thank God for it!

To Oz.....In Sydney Dan will carry on with his postdoc,while Kate as a lady of leisure and kept woman,

will spend her days contemplating life's

complexities. Ha! In the real world, Kate will

hopefully find work in something of the political

analysis/ advocacy/ policy variety. If that fails,

she'll write a best-seller ;)

We'll be in Sydney until December 2009 and

then it's onto Dublin for the last 9 months of

Dan's postdoc. After that,... who knows.Zimbabwe has a particular pull on Kate, and

Dan's not opposed to revisiting Papua New

Guinea. Hopefully by August 2010 we'll have an

idea of where God wants us. In the meantime,

come visit. We'll always find space and would

really reeeeally love to see you. Kate's cooking

has improved remarkably with marriage if that

helps.

Much love,

Dan and Kate

bridges newsletter 2008

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