If you remember the story click here of little
Boubacar the 3 week old baby that
died on that beautiful night. We have
learned since then that he died from
an infection.
To help prevent this from happening
again I have told the people that in the
US it is the custom to bring mother and
baby to the doctors after 2 weeks for a
check up. Of course the people here
aren’t apt to do it and a lack of money
is usually part of the problem. Also a
need to instill in the people that it is
something that should be done is
necessary.
The custom here is that a week after
a baby is born (7 days exactly) they have
a naming ceremony called a ‘deneboo’.
Where they kill a goat and people may
give presents.
There were 2 babies born on the
same day. So I told the parents that
I would give them money for the deneboo
only after they brought the kids for their
checkups.
They did and it was a good thing that
they did as both babies had the same
infection little Boubacar had. The cost
of the antibiotics was about $8.35 and
they didn’t have the money. So I ended
up lending it to them which is really
more like a gift. A lot of people in the
development gig would call this
unsustainable. But I figure you can’'t
sustain anything that is dead.
Yesterday as we were shucking a
mound of corn for storage and after
shucking for about 4 hours I look over
and see one of the babies (a girl) as
she’s laying on a mat with her mother
just making noises and kicking her arms
and legs as healthy as can be.
It made me sit back in my chair put
my hands under my chin and think of the
last line of Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong’s
1925 song. “ And I say to myself what
a wonderful world Ohh Yeahh”.
Paul
Senegal
West Africa
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