I am very grateful to MMN for their kind contribution towards my travel costs for my medical elective. I spent an amazing few weeks working alongside doctors at the Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly Mandritsara. The first week I spent settling in, getting to know the hospital and the town. I was shown how the hospital works, introduced to the staff and shown how to navigate the very hectic market (a much more stimulating shopping experience than Sainsburys). I subsequently spent time on the surgical, maternity and medical wards. I joined in on the ward rounds where the doctors would get me to take the histories and examine patients. The working language of the hospital is French, but all the patients speak a local dialect of Malagasy called Tsimihety. I enjoyed learning new medical French terms and some Tsimihety phrases. The day started at 7:30am with a gospel talk for all the patients on the wards and those sat in outpatients. Doctors could refer to the evangelism team as well if they felt it suitable. A notable example of this was when we had a patient with severe liver failure due to alcoholism, so we got the evangelism team to come chat to and pray with him. It was an incredibly encouraging opportunity to work in a Christian environment where Jesus could be spoken about freely and praying with patients was the norm.

My time in Madagascar taught me a lot about Malagasy culture. I was particularly struck by the Malagasy’s people sense of family duty and how they supported each other through sickness. Families had to provide nursing care and food for their sick relatives in hospital, the courtyards populated with loyal family members supporting their loved ones. On the flip side I found the social stigma surrounding infertility and gynaecological issues challenging. There were stories of husbands abandoning their wives after they developed vesico-vaginal fistulas as a result of complicated deliveries in their villages. These women would come to the hospital for life-changing fistula repairs that ended their incontinence issues and allowing them to return to society.

My highlight of the week was going to the local church next to the hospital and worshipping the Lord together. I was a particular fan of the hymns from the FFPM hymnbook, and I gained quite a reputation for loving number 12 and 22, occasionally breaking into song around the hospital to raucous laughter at how the foreigner knew some Malagasy hymns. Church services lasted significantly longer than what I was used to back home but I grew to enjoy the breeze cooling me down as someone kindly translated the sermon for me into French.

Outside of clinical duties, I spent time with the doctors and missionaries sharing meals and going for walks in the hills surrounding the hospital. Mandritsara is a very special place and I am so grateful to have spent time there. I am feeling encouraged in my future career to pursue working in low resource settings and perhaps even returning to Madagascar! The difficulty of working in those settings was apparent to me but so was everyone’s love for the Lord.