Women crowd around a young mother giving birth, unsure of why there is so much blood or how to ease the labouring mother's pain. Sarah Erdman watches on, trying to help, but hesitant in her inexperience.
So begins Erdman's memoir of her two year sojourn in Africa, Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, a snapshot of African life from Erdman's discerning eyes.
Erdman's lyrical chronicle of her life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa takes readers through the north of Cote D'Ivoire, in a Muslim community with a strong animistic background.
Before arriving in her village, she is repeatedly warned of how she will find it insufferable for its backwardness, with warnings of the land's overbearing heat and the people's shortage of modern necessities.
The author's open-mind, innocence and affable nature guarantee, however, her delight in Nambonkaha and its warm reception of its white, or "toubabou" guest.
Erdman struggles throughout her stay with the ever-daunting questions health workers must face when entering a community - "Where do you start when health is so vast and so elusive at the same time? How do you promote behavior change so that people have more control over the state of their bodies but stop at the threshold where important traditions get destroyed?"
She manages to succeed in helping the community raise awareness of birth control, developmental nutrition, sickness prevention and AIDS.
Where her attempts fail, Erdman's writing picks up, bringing her readers closer to an understanding of African culture and the obstacles yet to be overcome in treating the tragedy of AIDS.
One of Erdman's own right-hand-men, a young volunteer for the cause of health awareness, Bakary, refuses to wear a condom, with the simple word, "Jamais." Erdman's colleague, Nambonkaha's only nurse, Sidibé, insists Africa is doomed to be devastated by the disease unless a vaccine is made.
Despite the sometimes grim picture Nine Hills to Nambonkaha paints of Africa's future, the book is by no means a grisly depiction of a country in ruin. It is a singing and dancing portrait of a culture upheld by joy, tradition, laughter, and respect among people for people.
If anything, Erdman should not be criticized for the dark forecast she paints for Africa, but for the darker present she returns to in describing the Western world. She is jaded by modern 'conveniences,' going so far as to mourn Nambonkaha's transformation by electricity at the end of her stay.
Erdman has gone to Africa partially because she has rejected something in North American culture, and while this makes her less objective in her analysis of African culture, it also helps her assimilate more quickly into it because she grasps onto her village's traditions so easily and eagerly.
Now, remember the woman in labour whose birthing Erdman detailed at the start of her work? Well, the blood of women in labour is the only blood spilt in this book. It is not a work heavy on drama, suspense or intrigue.
It is a chronicle of the realities of everyday life in an African village, and a beautiful, endearing one at that.
Perhaps it lacks fast-paced action and explosions, but it is a testament to the challenges and joys of everyday life - and a life that, readers won't help but agree with Erdman, is a nice break from modern 'conveniences.'
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village
By Sarah Erdman Henry Holt & Co. September 2003 336 pages
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