Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali

Holloway and John’s time of service in Mali is coming to an end. To Holloway, “leaving Mali meant leaving Monique, and that was a thought I couldn’t stand” (165). She makes plans for Monique to obtain a visa and visit them in America. They get the permission of the dugutigi, who looks upon Monique as Nampossela’s ambassador to the United States.

When Monique returns from her vacation, she speaks with Holloway about her time of reflection. Holloway tells Monique about the opportunity to travel to America to visit them. Monique mistakenly believes she won’t be able to make the trip because she cannot hang onto the outside of a plane for that long. After Holloway and John explain that she will be traveling inside the plane, Monique agrees to go. She especially wants to see a dentist there to have her sensitive teeth examined. Word spreads about Monique’s impending trip, and she becomes the talk of the village.

One day Monique’s boss, Mr. Mariko, arrives in the village. He demands to speak with the village chief and secretary. After dinner, in front of the whole Dembele family, Mr. Mariko declares Monique is the individual responsible for carrying out the national health initiative. He says that according to law, a person who receives a salary is the only person who can claim it. Mariko gives Monique a raise and tells her that she should come pick up her salary from now on. Monique is stunned at her good fortune.

As John and Holloway prepare to leave, the village elders pay them their respects. Unsurprisingly, Francois asks them to bring him a cassette player when they return, and they promise to send one back with Monique when she visits. Holloway leaves her oyster shell necklace to Monique, and Monique gives Holloway some wise advice on what makes a marriage work, as Holloway and John will soon marry.

They spend their last night celebrating with the villagers of Nampossela. This time when Holloway encourages Monique to join in the dancing, she does.

Six months later Monique visits Holloway and John for a tour of America, including cities like New York and Washington, DC. Holloway had worried that her friendship with Monique might be strained in this new environment, but the two women only become stronger friends.

Monique is amazed by the sights and sounds of the big cities, the wide-open greenery of the fields in Ohio, and the sweet nature of Holloway’s golden retriever. Holloway and Monique give many presentations about the health care provided in Mali, and Monique’s dental issues are solved after a few visits to the dentist. Finally, the day comes for Monique to return to Africa.

Soon after returning to Mali, Monique writes a heartfelt letter to Holloway and John, telling her best friend, “I don’t know how to live without you in this world” (181). For the following eight years, the two women keep in touch through letters. Monique continues her clinic work and has a daughter whom she names for Holloway. The author sends supplies and gifts for the children.

In April 1998 Holloway receives her final letter from Monique, in which her friend talks about an unwanted pregnancy that occurred after the hospital told her to stop taking birth control pills because they were causing her back pain. Holloway researches other birth control methods that Monique could consider and tells Monique that she plans to return to Mali to help her.

Then a letter is sent to Holloway from Monique’s cousin, Maxim. He writes that Monique died while giving birth.

John and Holloway return to Nampossela a year later, as the author feels compelled to discover the truth behind Monique’s sudden death. They find the interior of the birthing house in disarray, but the exterior is still sound. Holloway imagines Monique’s last moments on the birthing table. The Dembele family offers Holloway whatever she wants of Monique’s possessions, including the oyster shell necklace, but Holloway takes only the ring Monique was wearing when she died, placing it on her finger.

They meet with the dugutigi, who leads them to Monique’s in-laws’ house, where they pay their respects to and grieve with Louis, Francois’s father. Yvonne, Francois’s sister, tells Holloway of Monique’s death, emphasizing that a lack of education on the part of the hospital staff caused Monique to die. She had been given a uterine stimulant that, combined with the high blood pressure and malaria Monique was contending with, caused her to slip into a coma. A high dose of the injection could cause a stroke or heart attack.

Yvonne waited by Monique for three hours before a doctor arrived to cut her son out of her body. By then, it was too late for the child.

Holloway finds that she must come to terms with the manner of Monique’s death—from her uncaring husband who wouldn’t drive her to the city hospital, to the shot she was given, to the medical staff who treated her and her child terribly—and be at peace with it. She must do this to secure a future for Monique’s children and have them educated at the city school.

Holloway notes the cultural changes in Nampossela, evidence of the inexorable advancement of Western values and materialism.

Upon speaking with Henri at the clinic, Holloway examines Monique’s records and becomes acutely aware of the incredible amount of work this one woman did, alone, over eight years’ time. Henri mentions the further deterioration of Monique’s marriage and how her cousin Maxim wanted her to divorce Francois, but Monique didn’t want to leave the women and children of the village.

John and Holloway wait for the village elders’ decision concerning the education of Monique’s children. With Louis’s permission and without Francois objecting, it is decided that the children will be educated at a school in Koutiala. Holloway wishes Monique was there to celebrate the good news.

Finally, Holloway and John travel to Monique’s grave. There, John buries a ring, declaring that he is giving it to Monique to replace Pascal’s ring. Holloway contemplates how Monique’s headstone is like the old, flat birthing table in the clinic, and how the soil that she is buried in represents the growth that will continue to occur in her children and her village.