As I look out over the sea of black faces from my slightly elevated pedestal, many memories come flooding back. My 14 grown children, 42 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren smile back at me as I am honored on my 70
th
birthday. I have truly been blessed by my decisions to come to this village and to stay beyond my initial one-year term. I've only been back home twice since I agreed to come here: once for my mother's funeral and once when my little brother got married. But let me start at the beginning.
My name is Janet Taylor and I was born and raised in Boise, Idaho. I'm a 5'7" tall blond and I weigh 130 pounds. I graduated with a bachelors and masters of science degree in nursing when I was 23 years old. By the time I was 25, I had completed all of the required coursework for one of the relatively new Nurse Practitioner degrees. I decided that I wanted to help others, so against all family and friend advice, I left for a planned one-year stint to use my healthcare degree helping those less fortunate in Africa.
The journey took almost 30 hours by jet, small puddle-jumper plane, truck and small boat, but we finally made it to the small village where I was to be working for the next year. The organization spokesman introduced me to my sponsoring family. He told me the family thought I was pretty and were looking forward to having me taking care of their village. After a big celebration lunch, he left. It soon became evident that I couldn't speak their language and they couldn't speak mine. I was the only white person in the community.
The family that I was to live with was considered wealthy for the small village. They owned a small two-bedroom cottage that had recently had a small room added to the back for me. My luggage was put in my room and I was given a tour of the village.
The family consisted of parents and four sons. All of their names were long and hard to pronounce so Janet devised shorter nicknames for the family. She called the parents Asa and Una. The four boys were Alton (18 years old), Ton (16 years old), Kabu (14 years old) and Mina (12 years old).
The first night as I got into bed, I was surprised to see Alton climb in next to me. I jumped from the bed and rushed to the eating area where Asa and Una were sitting where I tried to explain my dilemma. It took almost two hours and a series of grunts, hand motions, pictures and frustrations from all of us, but I finally understood that, due to the size of their house, I would have to share the new room with Alton while the three other boys got one bedroom and Asa and Una got the other.
I piled things between us and we both slept on our own sides of the bed. The next night was a community celebration of my arrival. My sponsoring family had built a small cottage next to their house where I would work, so we were celebrating my arrival and the new mini clinic. I have no clue what anyone was saying or what I was drinking, but they went down quickly and Alton had to help me back to my room.
When he rolled over and began moving his hands over my body, it felt so good that I let him continue. Within a few minutes, he entered me, and that was it. We became lovers.
I loved my work in the village. I treated cuts and wounds and set broken bones. I was left with a small number of drugs to treat fevers and other illnesses. I saw quite a few patients each day and even made house calls.