Some like it hot... and some don’t

As we write this article the temperature is a hot 55 degrees in the sun, 40 in the shade and a cool 35 degrees in our office. It is the middle of November and, yes, you guessed it, we are not writing this anywhere in the UK! In fact, if you are one of the 'some' that like it hot, sticky and dusty, then Madagascar in November is the place for you.

We are John and Mair Pugh and we are now living in a remote town in the north of Madagascar, called Mandritsara, and working at a Christian mission hospital called Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly (The Good News Hospital). The hospital was opened in 1995 and has grown from a one doctor G.P.-type surgery to a 32 bedded in-patient unit, with a laboratory, x-ray dept, out patients unit (seeing up to 200 pts a day), ophthalmic dept, three operating theatres as well as an almost-built maternity department. The hospital is also the base for a community health team which takes vaccinations and health advice out to the surrounding villages, as well as having in it's team two village evangelists, and the necessary administration staff.

The hospital is based on the premise that people need spiritual health as well as physical health, and to this end the gospel is preached morning and evening on the in-patient unit, and each day for 15 minutes before the outpatients unit opens. Tracts have been written for specific health needs, i.e. new parents, following bereavement and for when someone is ill.

So, why are we here? We are both Christian nurses with many years of nursing experience between us, who feel that God has called us to work here. What do we do? For many years now, the hospital management committee (yes, they exist even in remote Madagascar!) have had the vision to train Christian nurses to work here in the hospital. John has been a nurse teacher (both as a clinical teacher and lecturer in nursing studies) for 20 yrs in the UK, also spending time in Romania and Malta, and when he heard of the need he felt the God was speaking to him. Mair took a little longer to decide that it was the right thing to do, but now we both feel that this is where God wants us to be.

We arrived in Madagascar in January 2005, and are now getting to grips with the cultural differences, the heat, the dietary changes, the language and the many other things in life that are different to our work in the UK. The plan, God willing, is to put together a nurse training programme that will conform to the International Council of Nurses definition of nursing, and comply with WHO directives on nurse training, as well as meet local needs and acceptance of the Malagasy regulations.

The road thus far has not been easy; selling up our home in the UK, leaving our families and beginning to learn French and Malagasy, and we very much need the prayers of the CNM members for our on-going work. The students we will train will all be practicing Christians, as are all the employees at the hospital, and we hope to hand the running of the School of Nursing over to a Malagasy Director when we leave in about 6 years time, or so. The first group, of about 12 students, will begin (God willing) in the October of 2006 and there is much planning to be done before then; a curriculum to be written in French and the school to equip with all the things needed for teaching.

We will be in the Uk for May and June 2006, and would be happy to meet any CNM members who are interested in knowing more about this project first hand, especially nurse lecturers and those attached to schools of nursing in the UK. We have some specific equipment needs, too, and if you are interested in helping in a practical way we would be pleased to hear from you.

We read with interest, in the autumn edition of CNM News, the elective report from Rachel Bowen, and would be pleased to hear from anyone who might like to do their elective here. If that interests you, you might like to know that the weather is either hot (May to October) or very hot (November to April).

There are no landline telephones here, no Internet, no text messages or mobile phones, and so if you want to contact us you need to do so by email (accessed by use of a satellite phone), and send your message in plain text format only please. The address is davidmann@uuplus.com and you need to put 'for the Pughs' in the subject bar. Please do not send any attachments. We very much look forward to hearing from you.

You can read more about Hopitaly Vaovao Mahafaly at www.mandritsara.org.uk
John Pugh RN. RCNT. ONC. MN. was latterly a Lecturer in Nursing Studies at the University of Nottingham, having qualified in Shrewsbury in 1978. Mair Pugh RN worked latterly as a Palliative Day Care Leader in Retford, Nottinghamshire, having also qualified in Shrewsbury in 1977.