A Story of Life and Death

At the village, Sacha and I together have witnessed and joined different villagers in their joys and sadnesses. In our month at the village, we have assisted the nurses in four births. When the first mother gave birth in the labor room lighted by kerosene lamps, my first “real” birthing experience was over in less than 30 minutes. The baby was delivered within minutes and with great ease. My first time seeing a newborn baby still with the umbilical cord attached was amazing. Then, when the placenta came out, it was incredible to witness God’s perfect design of the human body to create and sustain a new life. When the second mother gave birth, it was still a relatively simple birth. The mother and all her relatives were overjoyed and we felt consumed in happiness, laughing and celebrating the life of this new baby girl.

However, life is not easy in the village. Successful births are as common as miscarriages, stillbirths, and children never making it to the age of 5. Most of the mothers we met have lost at least one baby and some have given birth 5 times with only one surviving child. One Saturday night, we have met family members of an anemic patient who has come from another village for medical treatment. However, the dispensary was unable to give blood transfusions which the patient needed, so they were referred to another clinic about 3 hours walk away. The next morning, we heard that the patient passed away at the other clinic just as the family was arranging a car to take them to Iringa Hospital (the other clinic did not have the facilities to give the patient a transfusion). The patient, a 16 year old mother who had just given birth 2 weeks prior has died because she could not get a blood transfusion. The families and friends grieved and sang for 4 days and 4 nights. All we could do was to visit the family, pray and grieve with them.

On a Tuesday night, a mother was giving birth to twins. The first child was delivered successfully, but the second child was in the wrong position (his arm came out, but not the head). The mother was in excruciating pain. She was screaming and crying as the doctor and nurses waited for the baby to turn position. However, it was a premature birth, the mother started labor 2 months earlier than expected. After an hour of screaming, the doctor thought it is an emergency to take her in the dispensary vehicle to Iringa Hospital for a Caesarian Section. When we finally drove off, within 5 minutes, the baby came out, dead. The firstborn who was still alive was to be taken to the hospital to an incubator, but he also died within 40 minutes of the drive. The mother had lost all hope and gave up on the child when the child was still alive.

It is sad to think that both deaths could have been prevented anywhere else, but this is “real” everyday life in the village. Life is so precious yet so fragile. We laugh and we grieve, but with God’s grace, we live on, we continue breathing and living, we go on.

Description of Usolanga

After completing one month of Swahili language training in the town of Iringa, Sacha and I are sent to our placement site in the village of Usolanga.
Usolanga (also called Mboli Boli) is a remote village in the Pawaga region of the Iringa District, approximately 75km from Iringa town. Iringa is situated 1500m above sea levels while Pawaga is North East of Iringa at the bottom of the famous Rift Valley (A valley running from Israel to Tanzania). There is only one road that leads to Pawaga. Traveling to Pawaga is a steep descend that passes many mud hut villages and a large forest. During dry season, the scenery is a flat, yellow desert with dry tree frames. With the hot sun, the temperature can rise to an average 35°C in mid-day. Once the rainy season comes (it only lasts for 3-4 months), everything blossoms and a lush green landscape emerge.
The village of Usolanga has approximately 3000 villagers, 50 percent of which are children under the age of 15. It is therefore a “young” and “growing” village. The major tribes in the village are Gogo, Hehe, Masaai and Sukuma tribes and Swahili is the main spoken language. There is currently no electricity and running water. Water is scarce and the only source of water comes from a river 5-6 km away. The villagers either collect water at the only pump in the village or order river water delivered by donkey carts. Neither gives clean drinking water.
The village consists of mud huts, one central market, a Catholic church, an Anglican church, a primary school and St. Luke’s Dispensary. The dispensary was established by the Anglican Church and it is there that Sacha and I work as primary health care worker and community nutrition worker, St. Luke’s is the only health care centre serving the villagers and other nearby villages with vaccines, wound dressing, and medicines for simple treatments of the common diseases such as malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, etc. Some patients come from hours away by foot to see a doctor. Adjacent to the dispensary is the Reproductive Child Health Center (RCH) that provides services such as family planning, midwifery and monitoring of child growth. An average of 10 mothers give birth at the dispensary per month. The staffs include one doctor (Dr. Mheta), two nurses (Atu and Stella), an administrator (Simon), a janitor (Maria) and a night-guard (Yohanna or Marecani – he has 2 names). We work alongside the staffs to teach mothers about nutrition and health and aid the doctor and nurses in their work.