Well they say that in every cloud there is a silver lining. Before the end of flaming June we have deluge Saturday. Our plant sale to raise funds for Friends of Sick Children in Malawi at the Lion’s Show is a complete wash out in every sense of the word; sadly it rains all day so only the hardy brave it to Abbey Fields.
I take a large boot full of plants into work to sell on the Monday, and as they are such fantastic quality and value courtesy of the generosity of the nursery one our Soroptimists works for, they sell very easily.
Someone in the office buys an African daisy as a gift for a consultant she is working with.
Another amazing co-incidence, the consultant has worked at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital supporting the training of paediatric medics! And knows some of the people I’ve been in contact with very well. Another welcome connection for me. We meet up and have an interesting conversation about the issues of medicine shortages, and the problems with sustainability and continuity of supply.
He gives me some valuable advice about the shopping list they’ve sent me. He points out that the digital thermometers will only last as long as the batteries. For us, £5 for a digital thermometer is not much, and we may not even bother to replace the battery although they are relatively cheap.
The average wage in Malawi is £500 pa compared to the UK average of £26,500. Batteries are a similar price to those in the UK apparently. It’s difficult to comprehend that items may be useless all for the want of a battery. I seriously consider taking out spare batteries, but maybe it would be better to buy them out there as this would help the local economy.
