Eychule is a young woman that lives a 30 minute walk up a mountain we call Mamo’s mountain (after the chief that lives there). Eychule comes regularly to our women’s Bible time on Thursday mornings and also to church on Sunday morning. She is quiet, stoic but always cheerful.
We were all excited about the impending birth of her baby. She was the first Gumuz lady to hear her baby’s heartbeat when the medical team was here. She had lost her first baby in childbirth as it had only lived 6 hours.
A few days ago, another young woman that I know well came to tell me the news that Eychule gave birth to a girl but it had died before delivery. How devastating! We were so sad to hear the news. And in this culture, bearing children is the reason for marriage. A woman’s life here is meaningless without children.
Yesterday afternoon, I joined Travis and Andrea to go and visit Eychule. (Andrea also knows her from church.) Joel and Sonia came along and I was certainly happy to have my active 7 year old running along beside me.
In fact, Joel ended up carrying Sonia up the last 10 minutes of the mountain path while I trudged along at a slower pace. It was still 35C at 4pm and I don’t have mountain legs. It took us about 45 minutes to the top!
After spending ½ hour with several other women, Eychule’s husband arrived and told us about the birth. We were told the baby was the kind that could kill a mother. Babies here are generally very small so this might have been a “normal” sized baby by our standards birthed by a very young woman.
He led us to his house and we met Eychule who looked tired and sad. They were keen to host us properly and kill a chicken after we sat with them for ½ hour. By this time, we were keen to get back as it was nearly 6pm. They were willing to serve us keya instead which Joel was thrilled about. He drank 2 cups while the rest of us shared one.
We prayed for Eychule and her husband and then returned home. Joel was our photographer and took some very nice pictures of the village and people including the local witchdoctor who was carrying her newborn baby.
Joel had renewed energy and basically ran down the mountain while my legs were feeling rather jello like. (I did have a sleeping 1 year old on my back.)
I tried calling Rolf from the mountain but the network was down so they had no idea when we were coming home. Thankfully it took ½ the time coming down the mountain and we were home by 6:15.
My last visit to Mamo’s village was in July and although it is a very pretty village and has a magnificent view, I don’t plan on returning for awhile!
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