Episode 6 Take My Hand
Working Title:“JOVIA’S BATTLE”
SCENE I
LOCATION:INT-HEALTH CENTRE-MORNING
B/G SFX:SICK CHILDRED CRYING
CHARACTERS:MILDRED, JOVIA
MILDRED:Jovia, the wife of Matia, who now had a 6 months old baby, came to see me at the health centre. She had 7 children – and, honestly, she was in no rush to have another. When Jovia brought up the idea of Modern Family Planning with her husband, Matia, he didn’t exactly say, “Yes, go ahead.” But he didn’t say “no” either. And so, Jovia was very unsure of herself when she stepped into mycounselling room. I had the feeling she wished she was somewhere else – anywhere else but here.
SFX:SIGNATURE MUSIC FADES UP AND OUT
MILDRED:So you want to take up Modern Family Planning?
JOVIA:(UNSURE) I think so.
MILDRED:Well, you won’t be the first, my dear. There are many women like you-with, um families like yours-who feel reluctant about coming here. But relax, Jovia. Once you try Modern Family Planning, believe you me you will be hooked!
JOVIA:Matia and I have had just too many problems looking after a large family.
MILDRED:That is quite a challenge for most parents here I noticed.
JOVIA:Times are hard, Mildred. And now even with the brick-making business we have a big challenge with transport.
MILDRED:Transport is a challenge for everybody everywhere.
JOVIA:I think Denis will soon not be so forth coming with his truck. These days people get tired, even with family.
MILDRED:But don’t you think if Matia bought his own truck things would be easier?
JOVIA:Of course. But then again some people would think: why buy another truck when there is already a truck in the family?
MILDRED:I see. Except that Dennis needs that truck…
JOVIA:And Matia was only borrowing it.
MILDRED:Anyway, I am sure you haven’t come to the health centre to discuss transport. Hmm… Does Matia know you are here?
JOVIA:Yes, but he doesn’t like to talk about Family Planning…
MILDRED:Well, it is better though for a couple to make a decision together.
JOVIA:Matia would rather be dead than be seen near a Family Planning clinic! You know how it is…
MILDRED:I know. Men think it’s a women’s problem… And your baby is now 6 months old so you need to think about Family Planning? Have you started menstruating again?
JOVIA:Yes, I have. And that is what concerns me. You said I could fall pregnant as soon as I start menstruating or when the baby turns 6 months—whichever comes first. And I really don’t want to get pregnant again – not so soon anyway…
SFX:FADE OUT AND FADE IN NARRATION
MILDRED:And so, I explained to Jovia what her Modern Family Planning options were. She felt, with a 6 months old baby and 7 heavy-appetite children, thatbecoming pregnant was the last thing she needed right now. Even though her husband Matiadid not actively support Modern Family Planning, at least she felt she could have the discussion. She decided she would start using family planning injections. This would mean she could have the injection and not worry about family planning for the next 3 months at least. She said she would go away and discuss with Matia, but then she never came back! That was it! She seemed to avoid me like Ebola. Later, I heard that she had wanted to come but something, or rather, someone,had stopped her. Now…Jovia was an expert hair braider…
SCENE II
LOCATION:INT-JOVIA’S SALON-DAY
B/G SFX:OCCASIONAL MOTOR VEHICLES AND BIKES
CHARACTERS:JOVIA, TEACHER CLAIRE, SSENGA DORA
JOVIA:Your hair is lovely now, Claire – what do you think?
T CLAIRE:I like it, yes.
JOVIA:(PUTTING FINISHING TOUCHES) I’ve been meaning to ask you, Teacher Claire: what is your experience with this Modern Family Planning?
T. CLAIRE:Who says am on Modern Family Planning, Jovia?
JOVIA:Come on Teacher Claire, I am sure you are…
T. CLAIRE:(LIGHT-HEARTED) Are you trying to make me reveal my secrets, Jovia?
JOVIA:Oh no, Teacher Claire!To be honest, it’s for myself…am on the injectable but am scared.
T. CLAIRE:I would recommend you go see, Nurse Mildred. She knows everything you need to know about Family Planning.
JOVIA:I have already seen her but still, I am not so sure...
T. CLAIRE:She is the best, Jovia. Believe me, you’ve no reason to be scared.
JOVIA:But I have never done this kind of thing. And Matia does not know. He does not believe in family planning.
T. CLAIRE:That, my friend, is written all over your 7 children!
JOVIA:This is no joking matter, Teacher Claire. I find it really hard to talk to my husband about this.
T. CLAIRE:As far as I know, family planning injections are very convenient. They won’t damage you and you won’t lose your fertility. If you want to reconsider having a child, you just stop taking the injections and you will get pregnant again.
JOVIA:That’s what Nurse Mildred told me.
SFX:DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING
T. CLAIRE:And she is right. Believe me, am happily on the pill.
JOVIA:Ah welcome, Ssenga Dora!
S. DORA:(COMING ON MIC) I hope my appointment hasn’t been grabbed by Teacher Claire. Huh, I hope you are not filling Jovia’s head with Modern Family Planning nonsense! I heard you mention the pill.
T. CLAIRE:Well it works for me, Ssenga Dora. How are you?
S. DORA:Not pleased to see you in my chair. This is my appointment time, Teacher.
JOVIA:Calm down, Ssenga Dora. As you can see am done with Teacher Claire. Help yourself to some tea while I finish up.
S. DORA:If you are done with her then what finishing up does she need?She needs to leave and carry her bad counsel with her. I have to take my rightful seat.
T. CLAIRE:(STANDING UP SATISFIED) It is okay, Ssenga. You can have the seat. Jovia and I can just finish up on the side.
JOVIA:Sit down, Teacher Claire, I’ll be finished quickly… there! I am sure Ssenga can wait just another 5 minutes. Please Ssenga Dora, take a seat. I am really almost done here.
S. DORA:But, Jovia my daughter-in-law. Why in heaven’s name would you be wasting time talking about this Family Planning provided by that witch Mildred?
JOVIA:It’s nothing, Ssenga Dora. We were just talking.
S. DORA:And I heard you well enough, at the top of your voices! Did you want me to shut my ears when you are talking? I could hear you from outside!
T. CLAIRE:That’s how you end up being late. You will be late for heaven too, still eavesdropping someone on earthly issues. (LAUGH)
S. DORA:Hey, don’t get clever with me, young lady, especially if you were stupid enough to get the pills from Nurse Mildred.
T. CLAIRE:It’s my choice, Ssenga, and I am quite happy with it so can you not turn it into a funeral?
S. DORA: You think am just turning it into a funeral? Oh! Coming from you, Teacher Claire! You are childless yet you want to kill all your eggs or any chances of ever giving birth to a healthy baby?
T. CLAIRE:That won’t happen, Ssenga Dora!
S. DORA:What! You want to damage yourselves forever!
T. CLAIRE:You shouldn’t scare Jovia, because she is considering using the injectables. Lord knows, that would be a good thing for her.
S. DORA:Bones of my ancestors turning in their grave! No wonder you two are completely lost. Why are you young women running to this Nurse Mildred? Tell me, Teacher Claire and you Jovia, why are you two committing suicide?
T. CLAIRE:Oh dear. What is wrong with deciding how many children to have and deciding when to have them?
S. DORA:And how would you know anything if you don’t have even half a child? You young women of today are misled. That woman Nurse Mildred is out to kill you with all kind of funny poisons she is putting into your bodies.
T. CLAIRE:They are not poison.
S. DORA:Do you knowthose injectables will even give you cancer?
T. CLAIRE:That is not true, Ssenga.
S. DORA:Will you stop talking to me like that until you have a baby of your own? You are too damn educated for your own good. You have lost any traces of good traditions from your blood.
T. CLAIRE:So now my education is bad too?
S. DORA:You know what the problem with you young educated fools is? You embrace western ways without thinking. I tell you the Whiteman is just making money off you.
JOVIA:But Nurse Mildred says the service is for free, Ssenga Dora.
S. DORA:Are you also trying to be like the educated teacher here, trying to sound all clever, Jovia? If they are for free then it’s only because they are no good. But if you people think I, Ssenga Dora a Katasi, will just sit back and let this Nurse Mildred poison Bukulu community then you have got another thing coming.
T CLAIRE:You know that is not true. Lots of women use modern Family Planning happily and safely.
JOVIA:(NOT AS SURE) Teacher Claire is right, Ssenga Dora…
S. DORA:Why should I bother coming here? Jovia, I am shocked. I am not going to braid my hair with you if you too are going to be a sell-out.
JOVIA:What! Ssenga Dora, wait!
SFX:DOOR OPENS
S. DORA:Good bye, Jovia. And don’t try to look for me.
SFX:DOOR SLAMS SHUT
JOVIA:(SIGHS) Now what have I done? And I needed that money. Oh this whole Modern Family Planning business is not just going to spoil my relationship with my husband but ruin my business too.
T. CLAIRE:Well, now you are talking utter nonsense, Jovia. Ssenga Dora is just a bitter old woman. Besides, she forgets all the terrible things that there have been quite a number of babies and mothers who died under her care as a traditional midwife.
JOVIA:But she is a good midwife who has delivered lots of babies too.
T. CLAIRE:Yes, Jovia. But she can’t come here preaching against Modern Family Planning when she knows nothing about it herself.
JOVIA:Okay, let’s just finish up your hair, Teacher Claire. I don’t believe this. One minute she is arriving angry and the next minute she is leaving mad like an angry hound.
T. CLAIRE:Well, I just want to say: don’t you give up like that. If you have doubts, get more facts from Nurse Mildred before you go along with Ssenga Dora’s opinions. Anyway, thanks for braiding my hair, Jovia. Wow! Meddie is going to swallow some hard saliva.
JOVIA:I hope you too don’t disappear forever, Teacher Claire, now that you are going for further training.
T. CLAIRE:I’ll always come back here. This is my home. And believe me, Ssenga Dora has made a huge mistake dumping you. But she will come to her sense.
SFX:FADE OUT AND FADE INTO NARRATION
MILDRED:But Ssenga Dora didn’t come to her senses. Instead she came straight to me… With a challenge!
SCENE III
LOCATION:INT-DENIS AND MILDRED’S HOME-DAY
B/G SFX:
CHARACTERS:MILDRED, SSENGA DORA
SFX:LOUD KNOCK ON THE DOOR, BANGING IN FACT.
S. DORA:(OFF MIC) Nurse Mildred, open this door.
MILDRED:(ON MIC) Oh Ssenga Dora! You are welcome.
SFX:DOOR OPENING
MILDRED:Come right in.
S. DORA:(ON MIC) Why? Why Mildred do you want to infect young women with this deadly injection.
MILDRED:Uh, what are you talking about Ssenga Dora?
S. DORA:Do not feign ignorance with me now, Nurse Mildred. I am reliably informed that you want to inject Jovia with something that kills her eggs so she will fail to produce children.
MILDRED:But family planning injections don’t kill eggs!! And besides, Jovia already has 7 children,Ssenga Dora, and what Jovia or any other woman has decided to do about Modern Family Planning is not up for public discussion.
S. DORA:So you are killing her quietly and secretively, huh!
MILDRED:I don’t have any intention of discussing my clients with you but I can assure you, Ssenga Dora, that you are totally WRONG.
S. DORA:So you think am ignorant and backward?
MILDRED:That is not what I said. Just so you know, I provide Modern Family Planning injections called Depo-Provera and it’s a temporary method. This means it only prevents pregnancy for 3 months. After that if the lady wants to produce, she simply doesn’t take another injection and she will conceive perfectly. And healthily.
S. DORA:I have not come here for a lesson in Modern Family Planning. But you have already poisoned far too many women… and not just their fertility but minds too. Women like Teacher Claire who doesn’t have even a child and now sadly will never have children!
MILDRED:Ssenga Dora, that is simply untrue. Family planning pills do not permanently stop a woman from conceiving. But, it’s obvious that you don’t want to listen to reason or hear the truth, so it’s pointless continuing this conversation. If you would like to have some tea then perhaps we can talk more quietly and sensibly.
S. DORA:Why do you modern people think tea calms everything? I would never eat or drink anything from this household anyway! Just stop misleading young women of this community with your wild town ideas! It is an abomination to the gods and ancestors and this family needs cleansing, I tell you.(MOVING OFF) Stay away from the women of Bukulu!
SFX:FADE OUT AND INTO NARRATION
MILDRED:Soon after Ssenga Dora left, Matia also came to see Denis. He too was up in arms. It seemed that Ssenga Dora had been attacking Matia for letting his wife take family planning injections.
SCENE IV
LOCATION:INT-DENIS AND MILDRED’S HOME-DAY
B/G SFX:OCCASIONAL MOTORS PASSING FROM A DISTANCE
CHARACTERS:MATIA, DENIS, MILDRED
MATIA:I won’t mince words with you, little bro. Ssenga Dora already went to the Katasi clan leader. She went to the Golooba, Denis.
DENIS:But why?
MATIA:Ssenga Dora believes that the community is being led astray by your wife.
MILDRED:(SIGHS) But this is ridiculous! Modern Family Planning is used everywhere and it works. But here in Bukulu village we have to follow the law according to Ssenga Dora, which is ignorant and ill informed.
MATIA:Woman do have some res…/
DENIS:Come on you two. Let’s talk about this rationally. What happened, Matia?
MATIA:Ssenga Dora told Golooba Ssemanda that Modern Family Planning is a conspiracy by foreigners to undermine our way of life, and as the traditional head of the clan, he should know this and do something about it.
DENIS:And?
MATIA:Am told the clan leader was less impressed by Ssenga Dora’s argument and said that Modern Family Planning is part of the health ministry. That he went further to say quite frankly that we all need to think about the size of our families before rushing to have more children.
MILDRED:He is as sensible man that clan leader.
MATIA:He apparently even chided Ssenga Dora to have babies delivered at health facilities and stop unnecessary deaths during childbirth.
DENIS:Well, he is right.
MATIA:In fact, the Golooba even went on to tell Ssenga Dora that he sees so many family disputes over land now because where somebody’s grandfather owned a piece of land, now there are 14 or more grandchildren squabbling over the same land.
MILDRED:(LAUGHS)Sounds like you agree with the Golooba, Matia!
MATIA:I just don’t want a war between my wife, Jovia and Ssenga Dora!
DENIS:Well, it sounds like Ssenga Dora should be less noisy in her arguments. The clan leader himself has endorsed Modern Family Planning.
MATIA:(SIGHS) I don’t know. We have to respect our Ssenga also…
MILDRED:Sure – but not to the point where she won’t see sense.
MATIA:I sometimes wish you had never brought modern Family Planning to Bukulu.
MILDRED:Oh? You know who cries about Family Planning? The same ones who don’t know that it works safely and effectively! The same men who drink their days away and don’t care how many children they produce! Who have no clue what is good for them and their families…
DENIS:Can we talk about this without antagonizing others please, Mildred. Matia, so do you want more children?
MATIA:Uh..Umm..I..Umm
DENIS:It doesn’t sound like you know enough about Modern Family Planning, big brother. Why not just go with Jovia to the clinic and talk some more to Nurse Mildred and get a clear picture of the choices available to you? It can’t be bad to find out!