I must admit that I was puzzled by the title of this book. The nine hills mentioned here figure in the story only as
obstacles faced by Ms. Erdman as she traveled on her bicycle to and from the village. It was only after reflecting on her description of the hills that I made a connection. “For each tortuous climb,” she says, “there is always a short breath of ecstasy. Nine moments that are worth it for the wind buffeting my face, ringing in my ears, filling my shirt, for the brilliant streak of rice fields beside me.” Perhaps the hills can represent her time in the village as a Peace Corps volunteer. The obstacles she faced there—the barriers of language and culture, the corruption of government at all levels, the superstition and poverty that hinder progress—these were more than made up for by the high points she experienced.
Erdman arrived at Nambonkaha, a small village in the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire, with a vague assignment to help the people improve their health. Unable to address all the problems she observed, she decided to focus on infant health. She began at the local market by setting up a station to measure babies’ weight and height After a shaky start (which included the ruin of her painted measuring board due to the inevitable accidents that accompany naked babies), she expanded the program with a series of lectures, scaled down to basic facts to accommodate her mostly illiterate audience. She also challenged the mothers to take charge of their babies’ health by creating a “healthy baby” competition. The climax and triumph of her work was a display at which the contest winners proudly receive their prizes and astonished her by repeating from memory the main points of every lecture.
The book is comprised of such stories, simple incidents made compelling by the characters one meets through them. The boys who gather in Ms. Erdman’s courtyard and become her pupils, the young men who assist her work, the mothers who attend her classes—every character is presented true to life, with humour, sympathy, and dignity, making me feel as if I had met each one myself. They became so alive to me that, as I reached the end of the book and Ms. Erdman reached the end of her mission, I shared in her sadness and sense of loss at the prospect to leaving them behind.
I was also captivated by the beauty of the language used in this book. With a combination of a keen sense of observation and the ability to choose just the right imagery, Ms. Erdman is able to make the village come alive for the reader. You can hear the incessant tok tok sound of the mortar and pestle grinding corn, feel the change in the air at the beginning of the rainy season, and recoil in dismay at the sight of the bush rat head she finds, as guest of honor, on her plate. From her first description of the village, in which she says “it looks as if someone shook the huts like dice and let them scatter,” I knew I was in the company of a poet.
As well as recounting her experiences and acquaintances, Ms. Erdman also offers her reflections on the philosophical differences she discovered between her and the villagers. What she saw was not so much a conflict of east versus west but of the traditional versus the modern. For example, she realized the futility of speaking out against female circumcision when even one of her health care workers expected his bride to undergo the ritual. Babies of uncircumcised women would die, according to the elders, and, while Dramane did not exactly believe the curse, he was not about to take the chance.
Africa remains a dark continent in the minds of many of us in the west. We expect to read about poverty, superstition, disease, death, and hunger in a book such as this. But, while all of those elements can be found in this story, the lasting impression is not one of tragedy but of laughter and triumph, as Ms. Erdman parades her remarkably resilient people before us. It is truly an experience you will not want to miss.