Monique And The Mango Rains SHORT

The title of the book refers to “the small rains that come, in February and March... to make the mangoes sweet” (p. 78). Kris Holloway described them as “the brief rains that came when I least expected them” (p. 78). Monique and the Mango Rains is a story of the friendship that develops over time in between a local health care worker in the village of Nampossela, Mali and the author, Kris Holloway. Holloway is on a two-year assignment (1989 to 1991) with the Peace Corp. The book shows how the villagers eat, farm, socialize and celebrate but one of the most important themes of the book is health care and how it affects the lives of the women in the village. The life of the native people in Nampossela, in regard to social aspects, was one of great difficulty. It was not uncommon for girls to be married with 7 children by the time they were are eighteen. According to the book, there is a “sobering statistic that placed a Malian woman’s lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth at one in twelve, compared to a U.S woman’s risk of over one in three thousand” (p. 8). They role was to be confined to her home; and from a young age are put into domestic roles such as doing housework and looking after younger siblings. From the moment they are born, girls were expected to be subservient and blindly obedient to their husbands, who were usually, more often than not dramatically older than them. The women endure horrible treatment and are treated with no respect or appreciation. They are abused and raped by their husbands and fear for their lives because they aren’t able to support themselves. They feel that the only thing that will keep them safe is to bear children. After being accused of infidelity and beaten by her husband, Korotun begs and pleads with Monique to give her some medicine to make her pregnant because she hopes that the wrath of her husband will lessen as a result. (pg.52) Unfortunately, all they are able to offer her are vitamins that may or may