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
down and the brussel sprouts been consumed,
Kate and Dan realise that their grand idea to
Working
with the
UN......
Kate spent the first 2
months in Malawi
make the 'Spridge's Christmas newsletter' a writing up her master's
regular occurrence has quite definitely failed. dissertation and has
Apologies for the neglect. Still, moving on from since been working
our failure to give you a yuletide update, we now with the UN World
bring you the wonder that is the 'Spridge's Food Programme as a
sometime-between-New Years-and-Easter programme 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. arrived or maize has been stolen, other days
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 groups and at others she's meeting
postdoctorate at governmental officials and NGO partners. At
Liverpool School 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). In Liverpool chocolate to make the meal calorie neutral. Not
(referred to by some as really nutritionally au fait let's say). The
the Glasgow of the experience has been a worthwhile one, and of
South - both boast course, not too shabby for the ol' CV. Like all
extremely friendly and 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.
We don't regret the proactiveness one bit, but Parasites
when it reached April and time to say goodbyes, and
we realised that doing this four times is going to perplexity
be a tad harder than we initially thought! ......
Travelling is fantastic, but making friendships There are lots of
and leaving them behind just a few months later different aspects
does bring a tear. Thank goodness for the joys of to Dan's work,
online social networking eh? Despite the fact from sample
that internet in Malawi is something of an collection, cell
epileptic sloth, our virtual relationships live on culture and of
Liverpudlians... course peering down microscopes to view
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 suffering from is hard) it will be with a lot of sadness at the
cerebral malaria are treated. 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 makes life feel like a fantastic
without advances in understanding the disease adventure. We thank God for it!
the dream of a world free from malaria is
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 spend her days contemplating life's
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. then it's onto Dublin for the last 9 months of
Dan's postdoc. After that,... who knows.
Friends Zimbabwe has a particular pull on Kate, and
and Dan's not opposed to revisiting Papua New
family..... 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
been out here. helps.
Being so far from family has not been easy so
this was a real blessing. We've managed to Much love,
squeeze in trips to Zambia (where we watched a
leopard make a Dan and Kate
kill 20metres
from our vehicle)
and Mozambique,
both of which
have been
awesome. We've
made some
fantastic
friendships in
Malawi, and when we fly off to NZ (to visit Dan's