Welcome to Cure International

Today I had my first day (half day, really) in the hospital where I will be working in during the next following months- Cure International.

7.30am: Brief chat with my supervisor, who informed me that the physio team consists of herself and me(!)

8.00am: The Chapel, a gymnasium with chairs, is where we meet every morning with our group of 9 or 10 collegues. By collegues, I mean doctors, nurses, cleaning ladies, pharmacist, receptionist and cooks. We meet for "Prayers time"- there is nothing like a bit of dancing and Gospel singing to break the ice between strangers! The first 30 seconds were slightly awkward whereby I stood there taking this all in. Nevertheless, in no time I was partying it up to "THERE'S NO ONE LIKE JESUS".

8.30am: During my 15min tour of the hospital I was warmly greeted by everyone I met, which was practically everybody working there. A lot of smiles, "Hello's" and "Muli Bwanji?" ("How are you?" To which initially I answered with a bit of a puzzled face).

9.00am: As I waited in the physio consulting room on my own, two Malawian ladies walk in carrying a baby, 3 days old, and kneel down in front of me. I had no clue what to do. At this moment I decided that I must learn some Chichewa, the other language spoken in Blantyre. Oh, just realised that I hadn't yet explained the name of my blog- well there ya go.

9.00am-12.00: Chatting to the very nice Executive Director of the hospital for 1.5hours (even invited me to go to chill in his pool with his family this weekend).

Meeting another volunteer girl who is working for the media department. She started working there recently, and when I suggested that I could hang out with her she said "Yes! I need a friend!" to which I replied "Me too!" You see, when you're "alone" there is not time to be shy or to be picky with your bff's.

Found a tennis buddy, chatted to an italian physio who has also just arrived in the city, got an email account for the hospital (no turning back now!), going jogging on Monday with a group of people I don't really know and got an assistant to give me some quick Chichewa lessons.

Overall, a pretty good day and a brilliant way to start my experience.