Every day, my new friend Jane, who makes me breakfast, tells me 'there has been a death in the village'. Three days ago it was a young man of about 30. His wife is pregnant for the 4th time. She rarely goes to the clinic because it costs 70p but she had been two days before because she was concerned that the pregnancy had been 12 months long. Te examined her and told her it was twins.
When she gave the news to her husband, he went down with a 'stress headache' and died 2 days later.
She now has to bring up 3 children, has no money and needs to go to hospital for a scan and plan for the birth. The hospital is 15 miles away - at 5 miles and hurt on the dirt track. If she gets there she will have to stay until she gives birth and will need to take her sister with her so that so can buy and prepare food. That is another bus ticket.
Jane worked out that the total bill would be 20,000 francs (20 UK pounds). I agreed to fund it. I am spending no money on food as Jane is cooking for me, so that is my food money. Jane will pack up a basket of vegetables to give to her sister and I hope by the time I pop round for tea at 6pm, she will have gonbe on her journey to the next town.
Yesterdays death was a man of 28. When I asked what the cause of death was I am just told that he was ill! People do not go to hospital because they cannot afford the treatment, so, I think that simple infections kill a lot of people as they just get more and more weak.
Jane thinks that the pesticides that farmers are sold by disreputable companies, is poisoning people. Her food is all organic and she runs an organization that attempts to train farmers not to use chemicals.
She prepares me grated vegetables and hard boiled eggs for breakfast, all swilled down with Ndu tea with lemon. Delicious.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment