Bridges Newsletter 2008

A Bridges African Update

2 | Bridges Newsletter Feb 2009

W

ell friends, it's that time of year again. That time when, long after the Christmas tree has come

Working with the UN......

down and the brussel sprouts been consumed,

Kate spent the first 2

Kate and Dan realise that their grand idea to

months

make the 'Spridge's Christmas newsletter' a

writing up her master's

regular occurrence has quite definitely failed.

dissertation

Apologies for the neglect. Still, moving on from

since

our failure to give you a yuletide update, we now

with

bring you the wonder that is the 'Spridge's

Food Programme as a

sometime-between-New

programme

Years-and-Easter

in

Malawi and

been the

has

working

UN

World

assistant.

newsletter'. Chances are you won't feel that

Some days she's visiting

you've missed out.

the field to ascertain why cereals have not

So 2008 eh? What a year. The new year began in

she's heading up distribution plans for the

Liverpool

with

Dan

delivery of food to over a million vulnerable

immersed

in

his

friendly

groups

and

at

others

she's

meeting

postdoctorate

at

governmental officials and NGO partners. At

Liverpool

of

one point she took over the head of programmes

Tropical Medicine and

job and just recently she has been running the

Kate doing a masters in

suboffice nutrition programme (Bear in mind

Humanitarian Studies at

that this is the same person who believes that if

the same place (we just

you eat a chocolate covered banana then the

can't get enough of each

good of the fruit counteracts the bad of the

other).

School

Liverpool

chocolate to make the meal calorie neutral. Not

(referred to by some as

really nutritionally au fait let's say). The

the

In

the

experience has been a worthwhile one, and of

boast

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

Glasgow

South extremely

arrived or maize has been stolen, other days

-

and

of

both

completely

humanitarian

organisations,

WFP

has

its

indecipherable locals), we were blessed to make

darksides. Too much action and too little

some great friendships through studies, work

reflection for the most part. And can we blame

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

it? Though we all know unthinking aid can

countries that we are scheduled to be living in

cause more harm than good, few donors pay

during Dan's three year postdoc, and seeing as

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

we only had 9 months there we decided to get

not a dissertation ;)

actively involved with people from the outset.

be a tad harder than we initially thought!

Parasites and perplexity ......

Travelling is fantastic, but making friendships

There are lots of

and leaving them behind just a few months later

different

does bring a tear. Thank goodness for the joys of

to

online social networking eh? Despite the fact

from

that internet in Malawi is something of an

collection,

epileptic sloth, our virtual relationships live on

culture

and

Liverpudlians...

course

peering down microscopes to view

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

aspects

Dan's

work, sample cell of

malaria at work. The labs are right next door to

3 | Bridges Newsletter Feb 2009

the paediatric department and

bro and sister) and then Sydney on April 4th

our own research ward, where

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

children

from

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

cerebral malaria are treated.

suffering

relationships we leave behind. Sad to leave but

On a busy weekend there may

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

be 300 patients admitted in

a leetle bit excited about the surfing to come :)

the main ward – its 2 to a bed and the rest on the floor. More

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

chilling is the number of under-

been married. Kate celebrated her 25th birthday

5's who die – more die in a

in January and Dan his 30th in February.

week than in the whole of

Marriage continues to be an incredible gift for

Merseyside in a year. Not being a medic often

us both and being able to travel, make new

conjures up feelings of guilt for Dan – of not

friends, visit new places and eat strange foods

addressing the most obvious needs. And yet,

together

without advances in understanding the disease

adventure. We thank God for it!

the dream of a world free from malaria is

makes

life

feel

like

a

fantastic

unlikely to ever come to pass. Unfortunately the

To Oz.....

experimental work hasn't progressed quite as

In Sydney Dan will carry on with his postdoc,

Dan would have liked and at times it has been

while Kate as a lady of leisure and kept woman,

very challenging to keep going. Fortunately he

will

has always had an encouraging wife who helps

complexities. Ha! In the real world, Kate will

him start again! There is real promise in the

hopefully find work in something of the political

work, but Dan has recently felt thwarted at

analysis/ advocacy/ policy variety. If that fails,

every turn. We are praying that the last month

she'll write a best-seller ;)

in Malawi yields the results we're so desperate

We'll be in Sydney until December 2009 and

to get.

spend

her

days

contemplating

life's

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

Friends and family.....

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

Both our parents

idea of where God wants us. In the meantime,

and Kate's sister

come visit. We'll always find space and would

(Jen) have visited

really reeeeally love to see you. Kate's cooking

us

whilst

we've

has improved remarkably with marriage if that

out

here.

helps.

been

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

have awesome. made

which been We've some

fantastic friendships

in

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

Much love,

Dan and Kate