This chapter covers the time period from when Annie first arrives to about 4 months after she arrives in Mali (so about four months after she left D.C.)
Annie Walker, now Katie Porter arrived about four months ago in Mali and began working with a small group of doctors, translators and health educators in the Mopti region of Mali its the surrounding towns and villages. Annie finds herself a small studio type apartment in a building that is a revolving door of foreign nationals in the region for research, humanitarian or missionary work. There are even some adventure travelers who visit the area while in the country to see Timbuktu. She takes a couple of days to familiarize herself with the city and makes an exit strategy should she need to leave in a hurry. She furnishes her place with just the bare essentials and finds secure nooks to hide her documents.
Annie has thoroughly prepared herself on the history and current state of affairs of her new home. She planned to stay there for as long as she could help and felt comfortable. She wanted to make a real difference in her new role, she was hopeful that she could leave her nightmare and shattered dreams behind, she knew as she read about the people of Mali that her couple of days as Ivan Kravec's captive was nothing compared to the daily suffering of many in the country.
The people of Mali constantly face the devastation of drought, extreme poverty and unpredictable violent conflict. It is a county in need of education and health care infrastructure. Mali has the second highest birthrate in the world, low literacy rates and high malnutrition rates, and nearly half the country's population is under the age of 14. Most people rely on farming to feed their families, however, drought has severely affected crops and resulted in malnutrition. The African Maternal & Fetal Health Initiative hired Annie or Katie Porter as part of their effort to focus on improving health, nutrition and education outcomes for the women and children of Mali. Girls have especially suffered in the country where discrimination against women and girls persist.
Mali's political instability has negatively influenced the lives of women and children on a daily basis. Armed groups have recruited boys for fighting and girls have been forced to marry members of such groups. Many families have had to flee, leaving their homes and livelihoods behind and becoming refugees in neighboring villages or cities. Children of Mali need to be protected from violence and the risk of human trafficking.
The official language of Mali is French and being fluent, Annie's language skills come in handy, but she also quickly picks up Bambara, a language that 80% of the people speak as a first or second language.
Annie is assigned to a clinic and office based in the city of Mopti. The clinic has a couple teams of doctors and educators that it sends out daily to offer prenatal health care and education. They give informal talks in villages about health, hygiene, family planning and nutrition when they visit villages. The clinic also performs check-ups and provides immunizations for babies and children. Recently, considerable political unrest has crept closer to the area. Annie begins to travel to the local villages with a doctor to help with translations and gives talks to children on how to brush their teeth and purify water before drinking. Annie loves the work she is doing and derives a lot of joy in spending time with the babies and children during her trips to the villages. She looks forward to preparing materials and giving talks to the women and girls she meets. Girls they really are so young, the mother's she's encountered who have had multiple babies, babies who look so in need of better nutrition. Occasionally they receive shipments of mosquito nets from various groups and at times they partner with churches and missionary groups to help a village repair a clinic or build a school or well. Annie keeps to herself the first few weeks, she makes little effort at small talk with the doctor she has been assigned to work with though he invites her to his home to eat nearly every other day.
The area is extremely arid and hot, by the end of the days she spends in open air vehicles visiting villages, Annie takes a long shower at the end of each day, but even that is unpredictable at times in the region. She goes home and eats alone, sometimes strolls the city's markets and goes out for a meal, but she essentially avoids people and it was easy to do so. It seemed she picked the perfect place to blend in and Annie never gets asked enough questions to probe too deeply into her past before her new colleagues, neighbors and acquaintances leave to return to school or a new assignment or quit because they couldn't take the heat and uncertainty of life in an area filled with despair and hardship. Annie spends many nights reading in her apartment and writing in her journals while starring out at the sunset and fighting her demons. She works hard to put her past behind her, but she can't escape her subconscious. At least a couple of nights a week she wakes up in a sweat caused not by the heat, but by the images, sounds, and feelings of fear, despair, and shame.
One night she wakes to loud knocking. Already in a sweat and with a racing pulse, she grabbed her gun from under her pillow and went to her door.
"Who is it?"
"Your neighbor, Matt Reynolds. I've introduced myself to you a couple of times since you arrived. I tried to talk to you last week on the landing out here remember?"
"What do you want?"
"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Why?"
"On account of all the screaming."
Annie closes her eyes, the walls were a bit thin in the old building. She could hear Matt Reynolds her neighbor play the guitar and his guests he had over every Friday night for Bible Study. She listened to their discussions sometimes intruiged by the ideas they discussed about God, forgiveness, grace and mercy, and God's will in light of the suffering they had witnessed in their daily lives.
Annie puts her gun away and grabs her robe before she opens the door.
"You're alive and in one piece, I'm glad to see that because from the sounds of it you were in some bloody battle and that wasn't your first."
Annie looks around the hallway, then at her watch, it's nearly midnight.
"Sorry I disturbed your sleep."
"No no, you didn't, I was just coming back from a prayer meeting and heard all the ruckus as I reached the landing here. I'm Matt Reynolds, by the way," says Matt reaching out his hand. "I don't think you've ever told me your name."
Annie looks at him for a moment, she had noticed him before of course. She made it her business to know everyone in the building though they didn't know her. He was a pastor and missionary from Australia, probably in his late twenties.
"Katherine Porter," says Annie reaching out her hand.
"Listen, I'm still too wired to sleep, how about some guava juice?"
"No, thanks."
"Are you sure? You look like you could use a drink."
"Guava juice isn't strong enough Matt, but thanks."
"Sure, if you ever want to talk, my door's just a few paces away and I'm a really good listener."
"I'll remember that. Good night."
"Oh, I have a Bible Study on Fridays, you're welcome to come at 7pm, hope we haven't disturbed you, it's a big group for a small place."
"No, you haven't."
"Come by then!"
Annie smiles and closes the door and tries to go back to sleep with her stuffed dog, but can't. On lonely nights like these she missed Ryan the most. She got out of bed and got his NAVY sweatshirt out of the closet. It was hot as hell, so she replaced the pillow she had for the folded sweatshirt and eventually fell back to sleep.
By 4 months Annie has become friends with another woman, an American like herself. They met a few weeks after Annie arrived in Mali, she was married to the doctor Annie was assigned to work with, Dr. Baba "Bobby" Musa. After weeks of invitations, Annie had finally accepted Bobby's invitation to dinner one week and as luck would have it, her neighbor Matt Reynolds was also at dinner that evening along with a two others from the clinic. Dr. Bobby as he was affectionately known, was a Malian educated in the West. He met his wife while he was at Duke medical school and she was an undergraduate studying anthropology and African Studies. He wanted to return to his native country to help his people and had been serving in the area for nearly five years. He and his wife enjoyed entertaining and meeting new people. Their home is open to many of the foreign workers and especially Americans in the area as they both missed life in the States at times.
Rachel and Bobby drop Matt and Annie at their building after dinner. "It's been quite unsafe lately hasn't it?" asks Rachel.
"Nothing to be worried about, it always comes and goes."
"You don't seem fazed by any of this Katie and you've only been here four weeks or so. . . " says Rachel referring to the soldiers and commotion of a roadblock ahead as well as the general chaos of driving into the city on a weekend night.
"I read a lot about the region before I made the decision to come here."
"Why don't you drop us off here, we're only another two kilometers out. It's best for you to avoid that roadblock ahead," says Matt.
Annie and Matt get dropped off and thank the Musas for the ride home and watch as they drive off in the opposite direction of the roadblock. Without the ride, it would have been unpredictable buses in the heat that never seemed to cease, so they were still in a good place.
Annie's not comfortable being alone with a man she didn't know though Matt seemed like a nice enough and trustworthy guy. She just didn't want to make more small talk than she had to. They walk in silence before Matt breaks the ice.
"So, you do seem pretty calm around all this chaos tonight. Did you grow up in a big city or something?"
"Strangely I feel safe here, I don't think the trouble has come this far south, it's all just a precaution." responds Annie.
"Hmm. . ." says Matt.
Annie doesn't let that vocalized commentary go.
"What was that 'hmm' for?"
"Well, for someone who feels safe, you have a lot of nightmares."
Annie is taken aback at Matt's observation.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Matt puts his hands up. "Okay, I get it, you don't have to tell me why you wake up screaming and shouting a couple of nights a week, but know that I've been praying for you Katie Porter and I hope your nightmares stop."
They walk the rest of the way to their building in silence.
About Four Months Later
As time passed, Annie noticed the Rachel's stomach growing, she was a researcher and traveled with another group doing a long range medical anthropological study as part of her doctoral dissertation. She studied how the region's cultural and political forces shaped women and children's health and nutrition. After her first dinner with the group, Annie learned a lot about her colleague, his friend and their friends. She took a liking to Rachel and her husband and it was mutual. Their evenings are spent playing Scrabble, discussing history, politics, foods they miss, places they'd visited and longed to visit, and books they've read. They invite her over for dinner weekly and soon Annie is part of their crowd of friends, which included Matthew Reynolds. The Musa's went to the church where he was working. With no family around the people drawn to the area have built their own family and Annie as an outsider, liked the affection, humor, and connection she observed within the group. But Annie still had her guard up and had not fully integrated into her new social circle.
One day Rachel and Annie visit the market together. "So what's your story Katie Porter? What brought you to Mali of all places?"
"No story, just want to make a difference and the people here need help, so I came."
"Really? Because had I not fallen madly in love with Bobby, I'd probably not choose to be in Mali, it's way too hot for me. I would have liked to be on the coast, maybe Tanzania. . ."
Rachel sees something in Annie. She's fit, unfazed by the unrest nearby, a quick learner, just blends right in and gets things done, she's good at connecting with the mothers and children and she loves holding babies. She's seen her run around the town, but she's also noticed the scars on her wrist. Rachel is curious about what brought Annie to Mali. "Are you sure it's just that and you're not running from something?"
Annie is taken aback by the question. She knew Rachel was intelligent and they were both closer in age than many of the other younger workers, they actually had a lot in common. Rachel had traveled the world as the daughter of a diplomat and knew a few languages though not as many as Annie. She studied anthropology and African Studies and was finishing up her dissertation, an academic. It was a path Annie might have taken when she returned from her travels had she not decided to apply for the CIA. Rachel fell in love with an African Muslim and much to the dismay of her very conservative Christian parents, she married him and followed him back to Africa where he wanted to devote his life to his people. Her family didn't attend her wedding and disowned her for her choice in spouse and work.
Rachel changed the subject since she saw Annie was uncomfortable. So you may have noticed, I'm expecting. Annie tries her best to be happy and surprised at the announcement. "Congratulations! I was wondering about that. When are you due?"
"In less than four more months. So I've been thinking a lot about things and the fighting seems to be moving closer to us. There was an attack on a village up north and now that it's more than just me to consider, I want to go back home."
"It would be safer there for you and the baby, but how does Bobby feel?"
"We've argued about it. He wants to stay. He thinks if life in Mali should be good for his own child and it would be sending the wrong message for us to flee. He doesn't want to leave his clinic and when I agreed to marry him, I agreed to this life."
"Does he think the fighting and rebel presence up north is a concern?"
"He grew up with it and he thinks things change so much he's not worried, but . . . after living here nearly five years, this time feels different to me. Maybe it's the hormones, but I'm not certain about the safety or the conditions of giving birth here."
"I think you need to talk to your husband and not me."
"You're about the only friend who is like me I've made here Katie, I think we're a lot alike and I just need someone to talk to, bounce ideas off of before I get into it with Bobby again. Doesn't any of what you see scare you?"
"Not really, okay, I'm listening," says Annie. "You're worried. . . ?"
Rachel replies, "You know what I am studying right? I've done the research for about five years now for my dissertation and this time around the conflict is more organized and real than it has been in the past. Women and children have been more negatively affected than before. The infant mortality rate is climbing and the girls are younger and younger, this place is going to hell soon and I don't want to be here when it does. I don't want my daughter to grow up seeing this."
Annie is wondering about Rachel and what she's revealed.
"Sounds like you know a lot about what's going on."
"I travel up north all the time to gather data and follow up on some of the subjects, I've lost track of so many of them over the last few months. The conflict and threats have made things really unstable, people are fleeing or worse. . . "
"What do you mean?"
"Three days ago when I was up north, we left a village that was burned to the ground, no homes were left. I knew several women there and their children. We couldn't find them."
"I haven't read about it, has the State Department issued any warnings to Americans?" says Annie wondering what was going on.
"Let's look at that stall, I always like the designs on their drums the best," Rachel says changing the subject.
"You know what? I'm sorry to burden you."
"It's no problem. I'm glad you trusted me enough to talk to me. You do have more than yourself to consider now, if you tell Bobby how you feel, if you tell him the truth, I'm sure he'll understand. Trust your gut."
"Thanks Katie. I have a friend I want you to meet one day. He's from the states too. You'd get along."
"No thanks, I'm not looking for any attachments. "
"Not in that way Katie!"
Rachel leaves Annie at the market and goes into an Internet café where she logs onto a secure site to email her contact.
Potential date, not ready for approach yet, but if you want to Google her, Katherine Porter, she appears to be your "type" and plans on staying here, so maybe a blind date is in the future.
It turns out Rachel Musa is an asset for the CIA. She wants out even if she can't get Bobby to agree to leaving Mali, she's done collecting "data" for the CIA because she can't risk her life or her baby's going into the danger zones up north to take pictures or gather intel on what is going on with the rebel and militant groups she encounters during her anthropological research. She has sized Annie or Katie up and thinks she can get her to agree to take over her role in the area for the CIA.
Annie spends the rest of her day thinking about Rachel and her predicament. In her shoes, Annie should have done to same, protect herself and her baby.
