Monique and the Mango Rains follows the life of a Peace Corps worker named Kris and the Midwife that she works with named Monique. Kris spent two years together with Monique in the country of Mali in Sub-Saharan Africa providing support and care for many of the women and children in the village she lived in during her time in the country. There were also a variety of challenges that Kris writes about witnessing that women in the Sub-Saharan region faced. These include the pearls of childbirth for women, the lack of adequate health care, and gender and pay inequality. The issue that is most well described throughout the telling of this story is the parallels of childbirth that women in this area of the world face. The birthing process in this
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This greatly increases the risk of complications going into and after childbirth. However, something that may have an even greater risk to a woman and her child throughout the birthing process is the onset of malnutrition. There is one very scary example in the book of a woman who was very malnourished and her birthing process was extremely traumatic. Luckily she was able to survive, but she immediately got back to work almost within the same day as giving birth. One of the most somber moments in the book was when Monique had to diagnose a woman with breast cancer. There was little that Monique or Kris could do in the situation and the woman was just sent home to die a slow death from her cancer (p. 123). Many of these situations could be dealt with with much more success in a country with greater resources, but for countries like Mali, women just have to do the best that they can and hope to survive their situations. The final example of challenges that women in Sub-Saharan Africa face that developed throughout this book are two that often walk hand in hand: gender and pay …show more content…
Monique was the hardest worker in her village and could even be described as the most knowledgeable person in her village but for a large portion of the book she was not paid fairly and the money that she was paid was given to her husband who spent the money carelessly instead of giving it to his wife who put in the hours and work to earn said money. As the story progresses Kris advocates for Monique several times and eventually Monique's boss comes to the village to give her the well-deserved pay she should have been receiving and gives her the right to get the money that she made doing her job. This was unheard of in the area where she lived and drastically increased the happiness of Monique, letting her take some vacations and even letting her go to the States when Kris left to visit for a couple of weeks. Up until Monique received the recognition and pay directly from her boss, the few “wealthy” people that lived in the area were men. They viewed themselves as above others and often wore Western clothing as a symbol of their higher status. Western items to the people of this area were highly coveted and the status that came with them was more than worth the price to
This greatly increases the risk of complications going into and after childbirth. However, something that may have an even greater risk to a woman and her child throughout the birthing process is the onset of malnutrition. There is one very scary example in the book of a woman who was very malnourished and her birthing process was extremely traumatic. Luckily she was able to survive, but she immediately got back to work almost within the same day as giving birth. One of the most somber moments in the book was when Monique had to diagnose a woman with breast cancer. There was little that Monique or Kris could do in the situation and the woman was just sent home to die a slow death from her cancer (p. 123). Many of these situations could be dealt with with much more success in a country with greater resources, but for countries like Mali, women just have to do the best that they can and hope to survive their situations. The final example of challenges that women in Sub-Saharan Africa face that developed throughout this book are two that often walk hand in hand: gender and pay …show more content…
Monique was the hardest worker in her village and could even be described as the most knowledgeable person in her village but for a large portion of the book she was not paid fairly and the money that she was paid was given to her husband who spent the money carelessly instead of giving it to his wife who put in the hours and work to earn said money. As the story progresses Kris advocates for Monique several times and eventually Monique's boss comes to the village to give her the well-deserved pay she should have been receiving and gives her the right to get the money that she made doing her job. This was unheard of in the area where she lived and drastically increased the happiness of Monique, letting her take some vacations and even letting her go to the States when Kris left to visit for a couple of weeks. Up until Monique received the recognition and pay directly from her boss, the few “wealthy” people that lived in the area were men. They viewed themselves as above others and often wore Western clothing as a symbol of their higher status. Western items to the people of this area were highly coveted and the status that came with them was more than worth the price to