Chapter 1 follows Kris Holloway as she accompanies Malian midwife Monique Dembele to assist a village woman about to give birth. Monique is Holloway’s assigned host and is two years older than Holloway; she radiates a wealth of maturity and knowledge despite her youth. Monique refers to Holloway as Fatumata, the Malian name the Nampossela villagers gave Holloway.

Holloway reflects on the poor conditions of the women’s birthing house, with its deteriorating mud brick walls and the torn roof corner, which prevents the building from being used for births during the rainy season. Despite its condition, it is a rare place for women only in a highly communal society. Men are not allowed in the birthing house.

Holloway is taken aback by the lack of supplies and unsanitary conditions in the birthing house: “Set out beside the dented trunk that served as a supply cupboard was a plastic tub for the afterbirth, and a frayed birth ledger. So this was childbirth in rural Mali in the late twentieth century” (3). Holloway watches with a mix of awe and terror as Kadjatou gives birth with the help of an injection that Monique supplies to her.

Holloway places the baby at the new mother’s side, observing how very young she is and pondering how she will have more babies in the future, which might not be in the mother’s best interest. Kadjatou asks Holloway to name the baby boy, whom she names William, after her father.

The author then recounts her first few months with the Peace Corps in Mali, including how she received her Malian name Fatumata, a common Muslim name, and the surname Dembele when she arrived in Nampossela. She shares her daily experiences working alongside Monique in the clinic and trying to assimilate into Malian culture, including understanding the local religion which worships a Supreme Being through intermediaries in the natural world.

The chapter ends with dinner in the Dembele compound with Monique’s in-laws, sisters, and husband. Monique serves the men in the family first, not eating herself until they have finished. Monique’s husband does not thank her for cooking dinner, and after the men have left, Monique admits to Holloway that she does not know what to do about the trouble brewing in her marriage.

Holloway is helping to harvest chickpeas, a more difficult and painful process than she realized, alongside the village elder, called the dugutigi, and his pregnant wife Mawa. During a brief rest, the dugutigi discusses how difficult things are for Monique; despite her skill, many women refuse to come to her for birthing help because of her youth. Holloway finds a double chickpea in her basket and cheerfully gives it to Mawa, as two chickpeas stuck together is supposed to predict the birth of twins. The dugutigi solemnly remarks that twins are rare in Mali and only one tends to survive birth.

Resuming her duties with Monique, Holloway helps the midwife prepare to weigh the babies in the village. Monique tracks the weight of every baby using color-coded graphs, since most of the villagers are illiterate. This process allows Monique to check on the growth of the children—or the lack thereof. In one case, a one-year-old girl weighs in at only 17 pounds, several pounds below average. Monique notes that the baby girl has lost weight.

This is a common trend in Nampossela. Many babies do well for the first year of life, then quickly begin to falter in health. Some of this is due to poor education on the mother’s part; one mother stops nursing her baby and begins to feed her adult food because she has become pregnant with another child, for example. Monique patiently explains to the women the need to wean children slowly and to put more space in between pregnancies.

The resistance Monique contends with daily is exemplified by her sister-in-law Elise, who will allow Monique to treat a cut finger but won’t allow her baby to be weighed. Holloway assists Monique with weighing other children, including some ravaged by malaria. Monique notes how well her own two children have grown but says she will wait to have another, no matter what her husband says.

The two women talk about their relationships, how Monique’s marriage to the selfish Francois was arranged, and how Holloway’s romance with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, John Bidwell, is progressing.

Although she sometimes still struggles with the Malian language and customs, and although the guesthouse she sleeps in at night is unbearably hot, Holloway begins to feel more at home in Mali. One day she walks with Monique and the dugutigi, searching for the ideal spot to build her own three-room hut.

When Monique later invites Holloway to spend the night in her home, the author is shocked to see that the hut is small, consisting of only two rooms. As one of the few villagers with a paid job, Holloway thinks that Monique deserves a better home. They conclude their evening with Monique admitting to Holloway that her husband is sleeping with another woman in the village, something she can do nothing about.