Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

With the fever of revolution overtaking larger cities and towns like Bamako and Koutiala, the villagers listen with trepidation to updates on Monique’s radio. Schools have been shut down, students have been shot. Pascal sends word that rioting has occurred in the prison.

Monique is worried about Pascal’s safety, as he is being transferred to the Liberian front to stop the war there. Holloway uses an apt simile to describe the growing danger she feels for Pascal, saying, “I could feel it creeping closer, waiting, like a scorpion wedged into a crevice of an old wall. Out of sight and poised to strike” (124). Monique admits there is nothing she can do but listen to the radio for the names of those killed and hope that Pascal is not mentioned.

Monique shows Holloway her hand, where a new ring rests among two older ones, a masculine ring bearing Pascal’s initials. The ring symbolizes Monique’s love for Pascal, and she refuses to take it off.

A friend of Francois’s lover comes to the clinic for help with gonorrhea that she contracted from her current boyfriend. Monique does not charge the women for her services but expresses anger that men can infect women but are not required to pay for the damage they have done.

John and Holloway’s plans to repair the birthing house hit a snag when the village men refuse to work without being offered food, millet beer, and some money.

Holloway procures some literature about a movement against female mutilation from a group in Bamako. She and Monique sit down to review the information, which points out the dangers of both the excision and the infections that come from it. Monique recognizes the action for what it is: another way for a patriarchal society to control women and make sure they are suitable for marriage and motherhood.

Both women find that they unexpectedly have more in common: Monique’s first sexual experience was a rape, and Holloway admits to having suffered the same. Monique states that this is typical for African society, saying, “It happens” (132).

One afternoon the dugutigi tells them that there has been a coup d’état in Bamako and that President Moussa Traore has been arrested by the military. The ensuing conflict results in hundreds of deaths, and John worries that the Peace Corps will remove its volunteers from the area.

Monique is unconcerned about the end of military rule until Holloway explains that the Peace Corps might send her and John away to safety, separating the two friends. Monique moans, “What will I do here without you? I will be all alone” (134).

The next day the two women talk about trimming back some of their plans for the birthing house to conserve money and have enough supplies to entice the villagers to help with the building. They bring their plan to the village elders, who agree to move forward with it.

Holloway suggests that she and John appeal to their family and friends back home for private donations to make up the rest of the funds needed to fully restore the birthing house. Monique tells Holloway that she has met with the director of World Vision and a deal has been made: If Monique teaches the women of the village to make her oral rehydration drink, World Vision will supply the clinic with free birth control pills. The women will have to pass a test, but if they pass, the birth control pills can be stored at the clinic.

The birthing house restoration project is in full effect, and the countryside has settled down from the coup d’état, although some uneasiness remains in Mali. As the summer approaches, however, the biggest worry on the villagers’ minds is whether the rains will come. Holloway notes, “Healthy rains mean life and poor rains mean death, and there was no telling which a year would bring” (142).

When Holloway returns to the clinic, Monique is distraught because she lost the ring that Pascal gave her. Monique believes this is a sign that something terrible has happened to her lover.

A committee from World Vision arrives to test some of the village women on making the oral rehydration tea. The women pass with flying colors, and Monique believes they will receive the birth control pills as promised.

Gawssou, a villager, comes to Monique, Holloway, and John looking for help for his sick young daughter. Monique tells Gawssou he has to take his daughter to the hospital at Koutiala; it will cost more money than he can afford. Holloway and John give Gawssou the money, but it doesn’t prevent his daughter from dying at the hospital.

While giving herself a haircut, Holloway is interrupted by Monique, who has just heard Pascal’s name on the radio as being killed in action. Holloway holds Monique as she grieves. Then Monique gets up, washes her face, and heads to the clinic, her expression showing nothing of the loss she has suffered.