Samarou's wife, meanwhile, served drinks and prepared food. We chatted and relaxed while this woman and her child sat five feet away. Samarou and some other villagers randomly and intermittently yelled at the poor mother for not going to the hospital. She always had the same reply: Il n'y a pas les moyens. There's no means. Realistically, her child might die anyway, even after spending lots of money at the hospital. So why bother? Such is the fatalistic attitude of villagers. So she waited.
We continued drinking the local drink as I watched the mother and her child from my perfectly positioned seat. She alternately cradled the baby girl in her arms and laid her on a cloth on the ground. The infant couldn't have been more than 10 months old and didn't appear malnourished or suffering from another obvious illness. She was just very pale and limp.
Samarou set the table and served us dinner. Seconds later, I watched the life literally leave the little girl's body. The mother saw it too. The 10-month-old child, previously unconscious, abruptly went lifeless and completely still. I had never actually witnessed someone die. How sad that my first run-in with death had to be a small child, whose life ended before it really began.
The mother cried with despair. Such a sad, pitiful sound, that of a mother keening for her dead child: a low, heart-wrenching shrill originating deep in her throat. At that exact moment, the father finally arrived to bike them to the hospital. He was too late. She swaddled the corpse in a pagne on her back, her husband helping her move the unwieldy body into position. They covered the head with a scarf wrapped around the mother's neck. It reminded me of the white sheet we Americans use to cover the dead.
I was shocked. And speechless. I had no idea how to react. I felt selfish because I had more than 50,000 CFA (about $90) in my pocket to give the carpenter for my furniture. I could have rented a taxi and paid the medical bill. I was torn because I knew if I had offered money, I would have set a precedent and others would begin asking for and expecting money. The child probably would have died anyway, and I would then be expected to pay for the burial. But I was deeply saddened, and my heart goes out to all the children of the world whose lives are extinguished far too soon.
If only I spoke French better. If only I had gotten here earlier. If only I had already provided general health knowledge. If only …
