It was the song that got to me. This story starts in a grass hut, on a bush trail far from the main road, late on a Wednesday night. While most of Jiwaka Province sleeps, a young man, drunk, enters his aunt’s house with a knife. He intends to stab her. In his drunken stupor, … More The Worry Song

When 18-year-old Maria brought her tiny, limp newborn boy to our hospital, my first thought was: This child is dead. Three days before she had delivered her baby at home premature (eight months gestation). Earlier that morning, her baby stopped breastfeeding and had trouble breathing. Maria rushed the infant to a nearby health center thirty … More Baby Pack STAT!

As I walked to the hospital I thought, “How am I going to get the baby out?” I had just hung up the phone with our maternity ward’s midwife. A young woman in labor was referred from a small health center: the arm came first, the rest of the baby was stuck, and there was … More Destruction to Deliverance