This One's For the Gogos

This blog mostly revolves around the more interesting parts of our mundane lives. I largely refrain from posting anything *too* depressing, although that picture tour of Malawi was no bucket of laughs. However, today I felt really crushed and sad and I would like the rest of you to feel crushed with me for a moment.

I spent the morning at Baylor' Clinical Centre of Excellence in Lilongwe. That's a pretty snooty name but they largely live up to it, I'd say. They provide the most comprehensive (and friendly and kind) care for HIV positive children in Malawi. If you're looking to give away some money, please click the link.

Today was a Friday so there were very few patients. For that reason a granny sitting by herself struck me as odd. I asked why she was sitting there alone. She had been caring for her HIV positive 12 year old grandson until last week, when he finally died of diarrhea. No child should die of diarrhea and no child should be born HIV positive, but that's a whole other blog post.

She was a very devoted gogo while he was alive and she's devoted even now I suppose, since she brought his unused medication back to the clinic and is sitting a sort of lonely vigil in the lobby of a place that was very important to the two of them. Clearly she has lost her child as well, since she's caring for the boy in the first place. It was something about the combination of her immaculate white shirt (which I promise is the result of intense hand washing) and her dusty black cloth shoes that made me think about how hard life is for so many people. I immediately went back into the meeting and messaged my own grandma, which is the natural thing to do.

So - cheers to that gogo (which means grandma in many African languages, if that wasn't clear) and to two fabulous gogos who read this blog (Hi Gwen and Marie!) and all the other badass gogos out there who work their butts off to keep their families moving forward.