Today is the d-day. We are going to extract the plastic teeth. So I give Mama Seth a call and she asks me to pass by her house as she is readying for the journey. This day stands out. There are less vehicles at the stage. The ones coming are either full or are charging a little over the normal bus fare. Haidhuru. We board a Utimo Bus (a matatu that operates in Umoja-Tao using Jogoo road). Unluckily I sit on the middle-back seat. Inside the matatu, it is so full, hot. The pot-holes are making the bus go in a shaky manner, thus rubbing each other's shoulders. I am sweating. The baby is sweating and fast asleep.
The Estate
The Estate
Our destination is Makongeni (Okongo). Makongeni borders Kaloleni Estate. From the gate you can see the full of life in this estate. At the gate, a man in his early 30s is selling candies at the entrance of the gate, it is evident people in this estate are living in abject poverty. Many people here are hustlers, they are struggling to make ends meet. Others are pulling carts (mkokoteni) loaded with jerrycans of water, tuk tuks are busy going round the estate picking and dropping passengers. The estate is dirty, blocked sewage are emanating a foul smell, a pungent smell, litter is all over, used cooking fat containers are carelessly thrown all over, used polythene bags are also all over. This indicates that the estate's management is not so concerned about the hygiene of its inhabitants.
We stroll past a big field where we meet boys roughly 8-13 years are playing football, a ball made out of polythene paper bags. They are shabbily dressed. We cross through a path that leads us to the mama who was to extract the false teeth from the baby's mouth. I am so freaking out because I do not know what to expect. I hear it is a painful ordeal. My God! I cry for my baby.
Our Arrival
Upon arrival, we meet the old mama cooking. She is cooking murenda and posho, (posho sounds too odd). Actually it's ugali, sembe, sima. A meal with such many names. You should have seen her sweating while swirling that ugali. That cooking stick was dancing to the music. Before then the house. The house is hastily built, it is a mabati house, used mabati. Rusted-mabati. When inside, you can clearly see the sky. When it rains, she says she practically removes all her things and puts them on a higher place. The woman is in her sixties if I guess right. She quickly serves her people then we start on the baby.
'The Cure'
She asks me for Robb and Vaseline. I hand over and witness her do her thing, what she does best. She says I have been giving this baby nightmares for not massaging her, yes I haven't been massaging her but is that how to do it? She undresses her and pulls her hands and legs, presses her thumb finger on her stomach and back and says that's how to massage the baby. She cries uncontrollably. This mama also is also a midwife. She says she has assisted many women who cannot afford the 'free' maternity hospital fee give birth at only Kshs 2000. By now maybe she charges higher because people especially her neighbors and those who have tasted her services regard her as 'creme de la creme' loosely translated to as 'the finest of them all'.
The Extraction
As the baby cries wildly, she grabs her and squeezes her cheeks to open her mouth. This is heartbreaking. She takes some dried herb-like powder, she says it is ginger and other herbs she did not disclose, and scrubs them onto baby's lower and upper jaw while saying that it is going to cure the baby. She says the gums may bleed. After finishing her thing, she says the baby is now okay. She is wailing. Her gums are red. She is sweating. God why?
We stroll past a big field where we meet boys roughly 8-13 years are playing football, a ball made out of polythene paper bags. They are shabbily dressed. We cross through a path that leads us to the mama who was to extract the false teeth from the baby's mouth. I am so freaking out because I do not know what to expect. I hear it is a painful ordeal. My God! I cry for my baby.
Our Arrival
Upon arrival, we meet the old mama cooking. She is cooking murenda and posho, (posho sounds too odd). Actually it's ugali, sembe, sima. A meal with such many names. You should have seen her sweating while swirling that ugali. That cooking stick was dancing to the music. Before then the house. The house is hastily built, it is a mabati house, used mabati. Rusted-mabati. When inside, you can clearly see the sky. When it rains, she says she practically removes all her things and puts them on a higher place. The woman is in her sixties if I guess right. She quickly serves her people then we start on the baby.
'The Cure'
She asks me for Robb and Vaseline. I hand over and witness her do her thing, what she does best. She says I have been giving this baby nightmares for not massaging her, yes I haven't been massaging her but is that how to do it? She undresses her and pulls her hands and legs, presses her thumb finger on her stomach and back and says that's how to massage the baby. She cries uncontrollably. This mama also is also a midwife. She says she has assisted many women who cannot afford the 'free' maternity hospital fee give birth at only Kshs 2000. By now maybe she charges higher because people especially her neighbors and those who have tasted her services regard her as 'creme de la creme' loosely translated to as 'the finest of them all'.
The Extraction
As the baby cries wildly, she grabs her and squeezes her cheeks to open her mouth. This is heartbreaking. She takes some dried herb-like powder, she says it is ginger and other herbs she did not disclose, and scrubs them onto baby's lower and upper jaw while saying that it is going to cure the baby. She says the gums may bleed. After finishing her thing, she says the baby is now okay. She is wailing. Her gums are red. She is sweating. God why?
Why me? Why should this baby go through this? Is it true that this plastic teeth were to kill her? Was the diarrhea caused by these false teeth? Isn't this too hard to bear alone. I start chanting Burdens are lifted at Calvary silently.
I give the mama her cash then we leave the place with Mama Seth. The baby is asleep. We take a matatu back home.
Your comments are welcome on this menace on plastic teeth. Is it true? Or it is a way of minting money. Do babies die if they have plastic/false teeth. Let's get talking.Is it an old myth? Who let the plastic teeth grow with other milk teeth of the baby? Did they interfere with the dental formula?
Or rather, whom do we share the same story?
I give the mama her cash then we leave the place with Mama Seth. The baby is asleep. We take a matatu back home.
Your comments are welcome on this menace on plastic teeth. Is it true? Or it is a way of minting money. Do babies die if they have plastic/false teeth. Let's get talking.Is it an old myth? Who let the plastic teeth grow with other milk teeth of the baby? Did they interfere with the dental formula?
Or rather, whom do we share the same story?
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ReplyDeleteHe tenido una mirada en ella . Es tan bueno.
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