Gabriel

Gabriel. I don't think I mentioned that his name was Gabriel. The second time I went to the village to collect him along with grandma, Anije (who actually turned out to be his great-aunt, but that will come later in the telling), I asked her his name. She just shook her head. Thirty minutes later when the admitting nurse at the hospital asked her she said, "Gabriel." And so, just like that he became someone. From the time of my last entry until this Monday grandma and Gabriel were regulars on the malnutrition ward. I stopped by every few days to check-in on the two of them, and usually found grandma roaming around with peanut strapped to her back. He was so tiny, sometimes you had to consciously look at the form of her chitingi to see his small bulge.

On the ward his health improved significantly; his little bum healed, the thrush sores in his mouth healed, his little cheeks started filling out a bit, and my fantasies of seeing him as a chubby little kid took flight. The stay was clearly doing much good for Gabriel but it was a strain on Anije. Everytime grandma saw me or Clement or Lisa, the pediatrician, she always asked brightly when they could leave. About two weeks ago I called a social worker Friday evening to see if I could get the baby placed at a nursery in town. The nursery, "Crisis Nursery" is run out of a home, and staffed by a mix of paid Malawians and many volunteers. It's clean and the babies get plenty of attention and good care. The social worker met me at the hospital Saturday morning and interviewed Anije, me, and the nurse after which she decided that the baby would not survive in the village until it was at least six months old. She made a deal with grandma - they would stay in the ward until the baby weighed 3.2kgs (at that time he weighed 2.9kg) and then we would take him to the nursery and I would pick grandma regularly from the village to come and visit until he was 6 months to 1 year old. The social worker called the nursery and the director said she would come and visit baby and granny the next day. I was so thrilled and impressed by the speed of the process - that would never have happened so quickly and smoothly in the States.

From that point, the program continued . . . my visits, grandma clearly loving but eager to leave, and the little one, improving but failing to gain weight. He hovered around 2.9 for at least a week, reaching 3 on some heavy days but always returning to 2.9. Monday night Clement told me that grandma left without being discharged. She sought him out so he could convey the message to me that her son-in-law was very sick at a hospital in Likuni and she had to go see him and her daughter, and that I should find her there to take little Gabriel. I had to laugh when I realized that she was probably stashing away the money I was giving her for food to fund her escape - without that I was her only way out.

Yesterday, I called the director of Crisis Nursery and she said she had come to meet them previously but couldn't find them. She found another abandoned baby instead who she gathered up and took with her to the nursery. She said she would meet me Thursday to go to Likuni together and collect Gabriel. I wanted to make sure they were at the hospital so yesterday afternoon I went to Likuni and combed every corner of the grounds with the help of a few nurses and maid but did not find them. I thought about going to the village but thought again and decided to go this morning.

Today was not a good day. On my way out of town I dented my car at a gas station (they have these big cement blocks that are low to the ground, too low to be seen, but high enough to do damage) and that was the beginning.

About a kilometer from the turn off of the main road towards the village I met grandma walking with a group of women with no little bulge on her back. I stopped and she told me so many things with incredible emotion but I only picked out that Gabriel died Wednesday. Thankfully her daughter-in-law who was present, spoke English and filled in the details. Apparently she went to see her son-in-law at Likuni but he died shortly thereafter and so she returned to the village to help with preparations for the funeral. The seven women were on their way to Lilongwe for the funeral when I met them. Wednesday, Gabriel began coughing and as they were heading back to the hospital, he died. Anije said we should go together to the house to see the body and then I could give them a lift back to Lilongwe.

As soon as I heard he died tears starting spilling on to my cheeks. We drove the 600 meters back towards the house, parked the car and then walked the last 500. There were so many women the whole way, lining the path to the house, silent, watching. Anije led us, moaning and crying with each step, her daughter-in-law took my hand in hers and we cried together silently. When we approached the house an older woman I didn't know took my other hand and the two of them led me inside behind Anije. The small dark room was filled with women and in the middle on a single thatch mat was the little wrapped body. A path opened for me, someone pulled the cloth down to reveal his face, and instantly the room filled with wailing and sobbing. . The scene was heartbreaking but I also felt so much love and support in that small room, in a way I have never previously experienced.

I just sobbed, loudly, messily; the women around me, touching my arms, crying with such love and pain. What really broked me was when one by one, all the women got up, came to me, looked me in the eyes, and silently shook my hand. Their immense gratitude surprised and overwhelmed me. I felt I had failed them and failed Gabriel, but at that moment I also felt, that I would never leave this world whether it's Malawi or somewhere similar. I will give them anything. I will give myself. We stayed only thirty minutes or so before we headed back to the car. Along the way Anije's husband and Gabriel's grandfather intercepted us. They each shook my hand and said thank you and sorry. Gabriel's grandfather said, "He has died, but he has really been loved. Don't worry." (I'm a slobbering mess again as I'm typing this in the internet cafe.)

From there, seven women piled into my 5-seater sedan and we drove to Lilongwe. Along the way Eliza, Anije's daughter-in-law told me that Anije was the aunt of the girl who died and the woman, who I thought was the 17-year-old's older sister was actually her mother and Anije's sister. Discerning blood relationships is difficult because the bottom line is that many women care for the children around them as their own. In the end, blood in only one of many lines of love and connection.

I dropped the women outside another house of mourning. Anije said thank you and that I should continue to visit the village. Eliza said there was so way to thank me. I said, "I wish I could have done more, I'm sorry." And I do, I know I shouldn't go down this path of thinking but it's difficult not to, what if I had gone to the village Wednesday afternoon or Tuesday morning to Likuni hospital???

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My mom told me that all my entries are too sad and that I need to write about the good moments and the beauty of Malawi. Several friends have also told me that the stopped reading because it is too depressing. I promise I was planning to write a happy entry and I will but I appreciate your presence and compassion through this most recent heartbreak.