Back to work

A beautiful slow rain known as "handiiri fin" in Sonrai--a Seattle rain, one that starts in the morning and clears up by noon--has it's own word!

I tried to find a laundry lady who lives by the river, but she had to move her tent (she is of the fisherman class) and was no where to be found. I've decided doing my laundry is just a waste of time. And hey, lots of my co-workers have someone do theirs too, so I don't feel too patronne-y about it.

On the way to the hospital many people greeted me as "way hiiji" or "wedding girl" cause of my henna. I got frustrated at the hospital because in the month I was gone many many new stagiares came who don't know me. I got a lot of "Who is this Anasara who knows Sonrai?" So I just started saying, "And who are you?" I mean seriously, I am probably older than most considering DEF+3 (9th grade education with three years at the health-worker school). Yet there is no initial respect. Even with the more seasoned staff, no matter how close I feel we may get, I still am an outsider. And it is easy to get discouraged when Bebe didn't do baby weighings the whole time I was gone. The worst past is that the women who came this morning asked me where I had gone. They said they came but no one was here. This is how we lose people. Bebe claims there is no interest at the hospital to help her out--but this morning two nurses, a stagiare, and a matronne all helped me out off and on. I am thinking of doing a training to get people energized. It is difficult when people who help don't know how to use the scale or put the charts in the wrong order or can't find charts...it makes women frustrated and not want to come back. Plus, the Gao representative from the regional bureau came down to review our program and declared it insufficient. We need our own room dedicated to nutrition and another re-hab room so mothers understand how to make the milk and porridge and can stay at the hospital until their baby is better.

I passed out the stuffed animals to the maternity staff for their kids and a few for babies who were just born. As much as I wanted to use them as incentives for mothers who frequent the baby weighings, it would get problematic when the toys ran out. And some kids are frightened by the somewhat lifelike cats! Bebe made a girl cry with the frog and Diarra tricked Denbele with the panther holding it as if he had come in from hunting...from afar, Denbele thought it was real! Ah, fun and games...