Jonathan - Registering at the College of Medicine

Another update... this one is out-of-order, but I thought it would be a nice intro to Malawi. And it’s fresh in my mind since it’s about today. What do you think it takes to register at the University of Malawi College of Medicine (after you’ve already sent them some paperwork, they know you’re coming, and students just like you from MSU have been doing 4- or 6-week long rotations for the past ten years)? Well, it took more than we expected, that’s for sure.

We went to the College, told ahead of time that we’d have to pay our fees at the registrar’s office. We thought that was all we had to do. We got there, though, and the guards at the gate didn’t really know what the registrar was, but let us inside after signing in on their log of visitors. (We had to wear visitor nametags, too.) We asked the first security guard we saw inside the gates (there were lots of them all over) where the registrar’s office was, and I don’t think he understood what we wanted, so he gave his default English instructions which took us to the Reception Office.

The woman at the Reception Office told us that we didn’t really want to see the registrar - instead we wanted to go to the cashier’s office. She gave us directions there (just around the corner, in the same building), so we went. The cashier’s office wasn’t labeled or anything, but we went inside, and there was no one there. There was another door off to the side once we entered, so we went inside that one as well. There was a woman there who confirmed we were in the right place and invited us inside. It wasn’t until we were in the small office that I realized there was already a young man and woman inside, with a baby. They were very nice and offered us their seats but they didn’t leave. I don’t know who they were, but they stayed the whole time we were there.

We weren’t there long, though, as it turns out, because she asked us where our forms were, and our blank stares prompted her to direct us to the dean’s office to get checked in or something. She told us the building the office was in, but no more information. We made it to the building without difficulty, but none of the rooms were labeled, and we had to ask several people where to go before we found one who understood English and knew where to go.

Upon arriving at the Dean’s office, the secretary (I think that’s what she was) was trying to figure out who we were. She asked what electives we were doing. We told her Libby was doing OB/Gyn, and she found her name. But when she looked for my name among the surgery students, she couldn’t find it. Only when we mentioned that we were from MSU and she pulled out a different book did she find my name.

She gave us our forms and we filled them out (in duplicate), and then she suggested we sit and wait. After about 5 minutes or so the cashier appeared. She had come up to meet us there. I’m not exactly sure why we weren’t just told to return to her office. We paid our fees, but the cashier hadn’t brought the proper receipt book, so we all went back to her office anyways. Before going to the cashier’s office, though, the dean’s secretary gave us four envelopes: one for the head of OB/Gyn, one for the head of surgery, one for the IT dept, one for the librarian.

In her office, the cashier wrote up all of our receipts, and then we made our way to the IT department. The envelope’s contents were a mystery to us, but we were told that we would get internet access if we gave it to them. That wasn’t something we were amazingly concerned with, since we have internet at the house, but we figured we might as well. The only person in the IT department, though, had no idea what to do with us or our envelope. He told us the head of the department was giving a lecture and would be back at 5pm (it was currently 3:55). We asked what time the office closed, and he told us 5pm. So, we could either wait and make sure we catch him when he stops by before going home, or come back another day.

We decided to try running our other errands and then return to see if the IT person had shown up. So, Libby went to the library while I went back to the dean’s office to find out if whatever was enclosed in the envelope had to be delivered in person to the dept head, or if it could be dropped off. Turns out it had to be delivered in person, but it could also be given to someone named Benjamin. I went back to find out if the gentleman with whom we had spoken was Benjamin, but no such luck. He called Benjamin for me, though, but Benjamin didn’t answer his phone. Back to square one.

Libby, on the other hand, was trying to get us privileges checking out books. She handed the envelope to the librarian, and the librarian opened the envelope, inspected the contents, and laughed. It turns out that the letters inside simply said that we had paid our fees. The funny part, apparently, was that Libby was by herself but there was a letter for each of us. I know. It didn’t seem that funny to me, either.

But Libby was then directed to fill out a form and then go to a different desk in the library. She did that, and at the other desk, she received a couple more forms that we were to fill out and then get signed by the heads of our departments (surgery and OB/Gyn).

Another item on the agenda was trying to get access to the College of Medicine’s Sports Complex - a pretty modern place with a gymnasium complete with tennis court and volleyball court, an outdoor running track, a few squash courts, a weight room, and some treadmills and exercise bikes. It really is pretty nice. We were told by Terrie Taylor (the MSU physician who coordinated our trip) that previous students had gotten access by virtue of their tuition payment.

We were directed to the assistant registrar’s office to inquire about this perk. I went, still while Libby was at the library, and the gentleman there seemed very confused. “You want to go to Sports Complex? You want work out?” When I said yes, he seemed very excited. “Ok!” He then made a phone call and then promptly left the room for about 5 minutes. He returned, made another phone call, and then told me that we should go to the Sports Complex, and the manager there would get everything set up.

By this time Libby had arrived, so we were off to the Sports Complex. It was about a five-minute walk away, so not too bad. As we walked by the fence before the entrance, we saw a group of Malawian girls playing what we learned was net ball. It’s kind of like basketball because there’s a metal hoop you throw a ball through. There’s no backboard, though. And you’re not allowed to dribble or to move with the ball (kind of like Ultimate Frisbee). It seemed like you weren’t allowed to block shots, either... unless the girls were just being really nice to one another.

We entered the Sports Complex and asked for the manager. We were told that the manager wasn’t in, but we could speak with an assistant manager, and we were led inside. After a few minutes of waiting, we got to meet with the assistant manager. It took awhile for us to explain to him that we were paying tuition at the school, but he explained his dilemma: we weren’t on the school’s list of students because we were temporary, but he acknowledged us as students, especially when we showed him our receipts from tuition, and regular students have access for free.

He decided that we should pay 5000 kwacha (about $30) for the remaining three weeks that we’d be here. That’s a big discount from their normal rates, but there’s no way we would make use of the facilities enough to make it worthwhile, so we passed. He said maybe he could even, just for us, give us the rate of 1000 kwacha, and again we told him that we expected it to be free for us, especially since we’re paying almost as much as the Malawian students pay for an entire year, and we’re only around for a month. He called his supervisor and got the same 5000 kwacha recommendation and then he called the registrar and found out that none of our tuition goes to the Sports Complex, and at that point he firmly held to his opinion that we needed to pay.

We declined, so he decided we needed a tour before deciding. I was curious, so we went on the tour. They had nice facilities. The gymnasium, though, only had one tennis court, and it was in use, making me wonder how readily we could access it. Since tennis was about the only thing I was interested in, it didn’t seem worth it. So we thanked him and went on our way.

This entire process took over three hours. That’s apparently how long it takes to register at the University of Malawi College of Medicine. And reflecting on the experience, we didn’t get that much accomplished. Sure, we paid our fees, but we never met with the IT people, we still have more work to do to get library access if we want, and we failed miserably at getting access to the Sports Complex. It’s nice that all of these amenities are available, but Libby came up with a good analogy - it's kind of like how people used to register for college classes: all in one big gym or something, standing in random lines and hoping your class didn’t fill up before you got to the front. In other words, chaos.