Sept 25, 2010 (Sat) – 11:48am (GMT +2)

Last Wednesday the guys from Loma Linda got here rather later than they were planing due to the fact that they missed their flight in Johannesburg and ended up taking another flight up to Lilongwe and then back down to Blantyre. There luggage was supposed to come in yesterday and Jere went with Elisa to pick it up but I haven't heard yet whether that was successful. They were also going to be picking up some more switches and Ethernet cable for the network we are working on setting up for the Hospital. While they were gone yesterday the other two guys and I ran cables to the cashier's desk as well as a cable to the general ward and one to pediatrics. The distance of some of the other wards and especially the Annex is going to make running a single Ethernet cable impossible due to signal degradation. For some of the closer ones we are going to just put up switches to act as signal amplifiers but for the Annex we would like to do fibre optic but the cost may be prohibitive. (Side note: The Annex is what we call the private in-patient area where, if you have the money, you can get a private room and catered meals and the like. Whereas in the general area a family member has to stay with the patient at all times and provide things like meals.) We are going to have to figure out how to get power to the switches we want to hang in the hallway to extend cable range. There is a power conduit running the length of the hall that is for lighting but we traced it out and one switch controls several hundred meters with dozens of lights so we decided that would not be a reliable source of power.

On Tuesday Dr. Fam moved in with Anthony and I and will be staying here for awhile before he heads to Nigeria. This next week a new family is coming who will be using the house he vacated. He brought with him enough food to feed a small country so we should be good on that front for awhile, my only concern is that it will go bad before we can get through it. One item he brought was a bunch of mangoes so I have been learning how to cut up and eat a mango. They are not one of the easier fruits when it comes to separating the edible from the inedible but once accomplished fresh mango makes for a very enjoyable breakfast.