Insomnia
I don't know how many times this has happened.
He Zou awoke from a drowsy sleep.
It was still dark inside the tent, and you couldn't even see your own fingers. Occasionally, you could hear the urgent, chilling clucking of spotted hyenas in the distance.
She was exhausted, but unable to fall asleep, so she could only lie there quietly, lost in thought.
The daytime events were fragmented into countless shots, appearing haphazardly in her mind.
Then another sigh came from inside the tent—Lin Tang had also woken up.
As if knowing and awake, she asked, "Can't sleep?"
"Hmm," Kazusa responded softly, speaking slowly, "I don't understand."
She thought she had seen enough and understood enough that she wouldn't have those futile emotions, but she still couldn't calmly face everything that was happening before her eyes.
As soon as she closed her eyes, a series of faces, both strange and familiar, floated past her—innocent, foolish, friendly, twisted—one after another.
Lin Tang didn't say anything more, and the two of them lay in the darkness with their eyes open.
It was as if on their first night there, they stared blankly at the starry sky, thinking it was the worst possible start.
Yeah, it's terrible.
Poor sanitation, tribal residents lacking basic hygiene knowledge, and continuous rainy days.
As the number of outpatient visits increased, He Zou and Lin Tang gained a deeper understanding of the causes of tropical diseases.
But perceptions cannot be changed in a few words. The effect of Dr. Oluka's years of outpatient publicity has only made the people of the tribe aware that still water breeds mosquitoes.
But they absolutely refused to empty the rainwater from their bottles, jars, and water tanks.
Although Masabit has a rainy season, the rainfall is very concentrated, and there is almost no rain in other months except during the rainy season, so drought remains a natural disaster that plagues them.
Water is too precious for them.
Dean Oluka once organized a lecture on prevention knowledge, and when he suggested that residents clear the still water, many people looked at him with incomprehension and skepticism.
At that moment, a man who seemed to have considerable authority in the tribe waved his hand and said, "Rain is a gift from God. It is not something a believer would do to refuse a gift because of a few small insects."
He Zou still remembers that she was standing behind Dean Oluka taking notes when a young woman secretly came over to ask her about the mosquito net, but was pulled back behind her by her husband.
The man glared fiercely at his wife: "Why are you asking her? That stuff is ridiculously expensive and useless. Why don't you go buy some groceries!"
Vegetables are more useful than mosquito nets here.
Before leaving, He Zou handed a strip of doxycycline tablets to the woman. She couldn't speak Swahili very well, so she could only explain how to use it to the woman through gestures.
The woman looked at her blankly: "You're not sick, do you need to take medicine?"
He Zou pointed to her prominently protruding belly—which looked somewhat frightening against her thin frame. Afraid that the other person wouldn't understand, she tried to be concise and focus on the key points: "This is to prevent mosquito bites and is good for the baby."
Sure enough, upon hearing what He Zou said, the woman carefully hid the pills in her clothes, perhaps afraid that her husband would find them again. Then she looked at He Zou earnestly and said, "You are a good person."
He Zou understood and gave her a warm smile.
Later, she frequently came to the hospital to see He Zou.
The woman's name was Wanjiku, and she looked to be in her early twenties, but this was already her fifth child. She said that two of her previous children had died in the summer, so she was very worried about this baby and that's why she came to the hospital so often.
Unable to afford medical treatment, she unconsciously pinned her hopes on Hezou's pity.
Once, when Wanjiku was chatting with Hezou, he touched his belly and bluntly told her, "Both of my children died after being bitten by mosquitoes."
As she spoke, her bright black eyes held a naive question.
He Zou didn't know what to say to comfort her.
But when talking about her children who died young, Wanjiku didn't seem particularly sad. She said, "I will have many more children."
He Zou was stunned for a moment before she realized the meaning behind her words—like the people in the tribe, she believed that among the many children in the future, perhaps one of them would become a great person and help her escape poverty.
But Kazusa didn't want to lecture or criticize her for how unrealistic her ideas were; he would simply share some of the few nutritious foods he had with her each time.
Wanjiku held some food in his hand, his gaze still fixed on the other half of the food in Hezou's pocket.
But Kazusa ignored her.
Lin Tang had warned He Zou that she couldn't have it all, otherwise her husband would take it away and it wouldn't end up in Wan Jiku's hands.
Hearing this, He Zou thought for a moment and admired his friend's thoughtfulness, "You were able to predict this."
Lin Tang looked up: "Don't underestimate life experience."
He patted her head without asking about her life experience.
Perhaps seeing Wanjiku's complexion improve day by day, the local residents gradually accepted these two new faces.
When they go out for consultations, people often come to them, sometimes asking for things, sometimes just wanting to chat.
Their luggage from Germany became lighter and lighter, and their Swahili became more and more fluent.
Strangely, He Zou was popular with women, while Lin Tang was popular with children. The two of them lay in their tent for a long time, trying to figure out why.
That day, Wanjiku was supposed to come, but she didn't show up; instead, her daughter Ertapan came.
The child was shy and hid in a corner outside the low wall of the hospital, too afraid to come in.
No one knows how long she hid there before she finally mustered up the courage to throw a pebble at Lin Tang in the yard.
Of the two, He Zou was smiling, while Lin Tang was in "energy-saving mode," with a stern face, but she didn't dare to hit He Zou.
With a "bang," Lin Tang, who was spreading out herbs to dry, felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She turned around, about to get angry, but when she saw the child peeking out from the corner, she laughed again.
She waved cheerfully in that direction: "Ertapan, come over here."
The child dawdled up to the two of them and handed Lin Tang a small bundle of lettuce.
Lin Tang was surprised: "It's a gift for us." Vegetables are very rare in this nomadic region.
Seeing the child nod, Lin Tang first turned to look at He Zou. Just as He Zou was about to refuse, the child bared his teeth and pointed to his gums.
Lin Tang understood what he meant.
A chronic vitamin deficiency can cause gums to bleed very easily. Locals may not know the reason, but ancient wisdom has taught them that lettuce can prevent this condition.
"..." Lin Tang looked into the child's eyes, those bright, big eyes, as gentle as a fawn's, and a familiar bittersweet feeling welled up in her heart again. She patted Ertapan's hair, which was covered in red mud, "Thank you and your Mama for giving us such precious food."
The child, blushing with embarrassment after being praised, lowered his head and ran away in a flash.
Lin Tang took the bundle of lettuce and returned to He Zou's side, laughing, "You run really fast. This child has a good name."
Ertapan means earth.
In Masabit, where girls are often named arbitrarily using their birth dates, Ertapan represents Wanjiku's deepest blessing for his daughter.
Looking at the bundle of greens, He Zou asked Lin Tang, "There are still 17 days until the due date you predicted for Wan Jiku?"
"Hmm, it might not be accurate. Why are you suddenly asking this?"
There are no female doctors here.
"It's all because of that ridiculous rule that forbids women from studying medicine."
“There are no female doctors, but the Wanjiku tribe also does not allow male doctors to participate in childbirth.”
Lin Tang suddenly realized: "So she's been coming to you a lot lately because she wants your help?"
He Zou smiled wryly: "Medical standards and ethics do not allow me to do this, and besides, I only have theoretical knowledge."
Lin Tang tossed the herbs in his hand, revealing a mocking smile: "They won't let women see male doctors, nor will they let women study medicine. Are they trying to kill us?"
The two looked at each other and remained silent for a long time.
Although their internships were always filled with these frustrating and helpless situations, overall they were relatively peaceful.
However, this peace was soon shattered.
The first case of high fever appeared in the Gabra tribe.
When Hezou arrived with the doctor, the tribespeople gathered around the patient to pray.
She observed the patient's face through the crowd; it was a child, and his condition was visibly worse due to the delay in treatment. After all, a day had passed since he fell ill when the hospital received the request for help.
She frowned as she looked at the group and murmured, "What...are they doing?"
She knew about the rituals, but at this moment she couldn't understand them.
The experienced doctor said coldly, "He is possessed by an evil spirit and needs an exorcism. Do not act rashly."
He stood outside the circle, no longer moving forward—the ritual was not to be interrupted, and he already knew he could no longer reach the patient.
He Zou watched helplessly as they slaughtered a goat for sacrifice.
The blood seeped into the soil, attracting more mosquitoes. Before long, a dark swarm of mosquitoes hovered above the pool of blood.
During the long ceremony, Hezou saw a patient whose lips were dry and white due to a high fever and tried to give her water, but was stopped.
The Jabra man wearing a camel skull glared at her and said unhappily, "You can't interrupt the ritual, or you'll anger the evil spirits."
Under his domineering gaze, Kazusa looked directly into his eyes and said, word by word, "He is about to die."
The Jabra man dismissed it: "That was because he succumbed to evil spirits. Weak people don't deserve to be brave Jabra men."
After so many days, this was the first time He Zou felt that such a culture was incomprehensible, but she could not fight against an entire tribe and could only be kept out.
“It’s no use, Melodia.” The doctor, carrying his medical kit, stared blankly at the absurd ritual before him and said to the younger generation, “If persuasion were effective, this place wouldn’t be like this anymore.”
He Zou felt a chill run through him, and with difficulty, he looked away from the child and onto the woman who had run to the hospital for help.
She was probably the child's mother. Seeing that the doctor couldn't get close, her gaze changed from eager anticipation to numbness.
As a woman, she couldn't even approach the altar; she could only kneel behind the man, silently weeping and praying to the gods.
That evening, five people who participated in the ceremony began to develop fevers.
The number of patients quickly grew from single digits to twenty, then to hundreds, and the rudimentary hospital was soon overcrowded.
Later, deaths began to occur. Unsurprisingly, they were mostly elderly people, women, and children who were not in good health.
Some of them were familiar faces to Zou and Lin Tang.
Spotted hyenas, with their keen sense of smell, detect the putrid odor and begin to approach human settlements, their calls often continuing throughout the night.
They started having insomnia.
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