A sad day in the village

As I mentioned in a previously entry one of my last days in the village was spent attending a funeral. I was working on the building site when we had word that a three day old baby had died and the funeral was that afternoon.

Immediately the men stopped working, as did everyone in the village, as they were expected to attend the funeral - as is the custom.

I was invited along and as callous as it sounds, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go.

Luckily we only had to walk about an hour to get to the family's house (people often have to walk for 2 days to attend funerals) and immediately we were segregated. The women queued to offer their condolences to the Mother inside the hut and the men gathered on the grass at the back.

Before I really knew what was happening I was thrust inside a hut where the poor little body was laid out and lit up by candle light. It was hard to make out much else in the room as it was so dark so I mumbled my perfectly rehearsed condolence message to a table leg and hurried out.

We'd been told that the funeral was at 12 o'clock but at 4pm the priest still hadn't got there (due to the fact that he had to walk) and the village 'midwife' was getting tetchy as the body had started to smell. By this time I had got talking to some of the women outside (obviously with the help of a translator). The story was so incredibly sad.

The baby was born with an open sore on its back and needed to go to hospital. The family had no money to pay the medical bills so the father set off to the market with a goat to sell to raise the cash. On his way to the market one of the family had to run to catch him up to say it was too late, his son had died.

I asked a few questions later and it turns out that women in Yamba have on average 10 children, of which six are likely to survive. Meaning they will attend four of their own children's funerals (except they don't actually get to attend as only men can go to the burials). As this poor woman's child (her first) was being buried, she was stuck in the hut wailing.

It was incredibly fascinating as an outsider to be allowed to witness it all but unfortunately it is a regular occurrence for the locals, and an absolutely heartbreaking one at that!