Reality Check

Last week my parents visited us at St. Mary’s for two days. One of our activities while they were here was a walk through Cavala village, the largest village in our area. The walk started off very nicely; it was a pleasant day, the village was full of children, we had a sit-down with the Chief and my parents got a good feel for what normal life is like for the people who live around us. However, towards the end of our walk we all got a first-hand look at what some children are susceptible to as part of village life.

A 36 year-old village woman with five children, the youngest of whom is a 6 month-old baby boy, has AIDS and has an urgent need for medication. A little while ago she went to the district hospital to try to enroll in an ARV treatment course but because she was required to bring someone with her and no one would come with her, she received no medicine. In fact, her mother even said she didn’t care if her daughter lived or died, a telling illustration of the stigma people receive when they are perceived to have HIV/AIDS. This woman is in very bad shape and we came across her hut where other women were outside holding the 6-month old boy. As soon as we laid our eyes on the baby we were struck by the severity of his condition. Probably the best way to describe him is to reference the images we see sometimes on TV of severely malnourished children. He was close to dying because his mother was on her deathbed too so she couldn’t nurse him and no one was taking care of him.

The scene struck us so strongly for two reasons. First, seeing a child in that condition is truly something that you can never forget. Second, we were so confused by how the child advanced to that state. The hut where he lived was in the center of the village and many people knew about the mother’s condition.
I have no idea why people let the baby get so far along; why no wet-nurse was made available and why no one brought the baby to the clinic less than a KM away. Fortunately the boy is now at St. Mary’s receiving care for his condition and the sisters think he will recover. The day was a real reminder that although we’ve settled into a life here and have gotten used to seeing the poverty and the difficult lives, there are still things going on around us that we can never get used to.