Internet has been down, power has been in and out, and we have all had the flu. I am sitting in an internet cafe where they are blasting Annie Lennox and the computer keeps turning on and off.
Ahh, what a week.
We have launched 'The Moon Project'. The issue of menstruation across developing nations is becoming bigger and bigger. Women want to use sanitary napkins because they are modern and yet they are often purchased in place of food in communities of extreme poverty. Secondly, there is no sanitation department coming around to collect trash- pads are filling/clogging up pit latrines. Last week at St. Monicas they pulled out TWO WHEELBARROWS full of used pads that were clogging the pit latrine. So pads are a burdensome cost, and there is no way to properly dispose of them. Women don't want to burn them because of a belief that if one burns menstrual blood one will become infertile.
Third issue is chlorine bleaching of pads- that chlorine when warmed against skin can emit dioxin gas which studies are showing leads to increased risk of cervical cancer, heavy bleeding and cramping and infertility.
So the moon project is a sewing collective of Child Mothers who are making re-usable cloth pads. They are AWESOME. Made with sofr terry cloth with inserts for lighter or heavier days. They have 'wings' that button under the underwear and are cute- sewn with bright aftican prints and are able to be folded into a little square for storage. We are making 'kits'- each kit includes a bucket for washing pads, five pads (three small and two large), a bar of soap and an information booklet.
The kits sell for the same cost as 3 month supply of disposable pads, but will last for 2 years. We completed our first order yesterday, which was sold to a dance troupe called 'Undugu Family'. The child mothers are taking home 2/3 profit after supplies, and the cost of the kits are still affordable to the community. We now have orders from boarding schools all over region. It is an exciting venture into a truly 'holistic vision' for Earth Birth and for women's health in general. We will post pictures on the website soon.
What else....Trainings have been amazing. Figuring out how to get creative when we hit information blocks because of language or cultural understanding. We have been trying to work on counting fetal heartrate, but are finding multiplication is a challenge (you have to listen for 15 seconds and multiply the number by 4 in order to get a full minute count)- so we have created a colored bead system. Strings of bead that you count off on your fingers as you listen. If you are in the white zone the heart rate is too slow, in the green zone it's good, in the purple, it's too high. When we were making them last night a priest asked if we were making molyo beads- which he explained are what women traditionally used to count the days of their cycle and know when they were most fertile.
Tomorrow is our workshop on labor management. We have made a large vulva puppet (out of bright african prints) that women can reach into and check cervical dilation and the position of the babies head, which we fashioned out of paper mache. It works really well and gets a laugh every time we whip her out.
In non midwifery related news, Chioke slaughtered a goat. They asked him to do it and without any apparant fear he took the dull knife he was handed and slit its throat. It was so dull he had to saw for a while until the goat stopped moving. I watched. It was both repulsive and impressive. The goat was then skinned and BBQed for a large feast. I made ground nut stew and stuffed peppers which were a big hit. The next morning, Sister Rosemary placed the roasted testicles of the goat on a plate and presented them to Chioke. For virility. He didn't say a word, just ate the rest of his meal around the jiggling balls. Finally when nothing remained but the testicles, everyone looked to him and he said 'no thanks sister rosemary' and everyone burst out laughing.
There are a number of American funders staying with us for the opening of a new counseling center. One of them is the host of a Cathlolic television show in the US called 'Focus'. She interviewed Olivia and I about the project. It was a difficult interview- I ended up having to sidestep a lot of questions like "tell me Rachel, are these the worst conditions you have ever seen for women giving birth'?
Which is a difficult question because yes, they are, but at the same time I feel a deep commitment to avoiding the Western Gaze onto poverty and the struggle of 'the other'. I know that evoking emotion in others creates commitment to change, but it's playing into a difficult and complicated discourse of 'west saving Africa' that I feel we need to more actively address in any kind of activism/outreach work.
Anyway, this is a national TV show and will probably bring lots of good attention/funding to the project- I suppose I will need to live with and write about my complicated feelings as it airs.
That's it for now. I am off to make broth for Chioke and Olivia who were both sick in bed this AM.
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