What the F***?????

I apologize for the crude title, but seriously this past week... in just the few days since I last blogged.... there have been a series of seriously unfortunate events in and around my village. It has been sad, to say the absolute very least.

To start off, I am in Bobo for just a day, as an unexpected trip, because I found out yesterday that a friend from a neighboring village, who I know fairly well, was sent to the hospital in Bobo because she fell into a coma. Apparently, about a week ago, she became sick with a serious form of malaria (it's really usually not that serious), which developped into a broncheal infection, which turned into a severe medical condition, until she fell into this coma. And even sadder than that is what the hospital is like. Imagine being that sick and being in a room that has six cots in it, dirty floors, flies buzzing, and creaking ceiling fans for cool air. I know that she is being taken care of, but I suppose when I imagine being sick and in a hospital, I think of sterility and cleanliness and porcelain toilets and little buttons you can push when you need something from a nurse.

So that was today. But just when I got back to Padema last Tuesday, I found out that another one of the kids from the school I taught at passed away Monday morning. He was this really bright kid, who had passed the BEPC test last year. That meant that last year, he could have enrolled in high school. However he never gained the permission for entry into high school, which I don't really understand the meaning of but I think is something like a lottery of choosing who can and cannot attend school. Anyhow, it meant that he just had to take the same year of school in Padema a second time, even though he already passed the national exam to be done with that year. So, for a second year in a row, this year, he passed the BEPC and was in the process of getting his papers ready for high school. He boarded one of the transport vehicles Monday morning to go to Bobo. One of those beaten down open-backed cars from the 70's or something that loads luggage, bikes, animals, etc on top of it. Anyway, since there wasn't room IN the vehicle, he was told to climb on top of all that clutter, which is normal and something everyone here does,... but just a few miles out of village, they hit some rough spot, and he fell off the car, and died when he hit the ground. Well that made two kids from my school that passed away this year. Not the best news to absorb, especially since I was travelling back to Padema with three of his classmates.

THEN, two days later, I am finishing up my laundry at my house and stringing it up to dry outside, when one of those same cars comes driving into my courtyard. It was bringing the body of the old man that was the landlord of where I lived, that had been living in the same court yard as me since I got to Padema. He had been in Bobo getting treated for stomach problems for a month or so and had even just had an operation. Well, anyway, apparently it was his time to go, so all day the rest of that day, I heard the wailing cries and screams of his very old, little sister, his wives, his duaghters, etc... as they came in from their work in the fields and from surrounding villages, one by one, as they got the bads news. After a few hours, some men started digging at an area of the courtyard about 20 feet from my house, and it seemed that that is where they were planning on burying the old man. Thank the lord, they had to change areas. I don't know why, but if I had to live with him buried just outside my door for the rest of the year I don't know if I could have done it. Muslim burials require that the body be buried within 24 hours, so I saw many of the rituals that go on. For instance, the body must be washed by men before being wrapped in white cloths, ready for burial. There are no coffins, they are just buried right in the ground in these cloths. Also, all of the linens (bed cloths, towels, etc..) of his wives are to be brought out of the house and washed that same day, too. Some other stuff, too, but I don't feel like writing anymore.

So really, is there a curse in Padema right now? Is it me? I don't know, but it has been a sad, weird and crappy six days.