Climate Change and Mental Health - part 3

And now for the prequel.

Scenario 4

Climate change worsens or compounds effects arising from other phenomena. Take conflict or war for example. Still back home. In a particularly hot year, the hottest in a long series of hot years, conflict broke out between the community A who were farmers and  community B who were pastoralists. Gathoni or Mso, as she is affectionately known, lives in a town that borders the huge mountain she hopes to climb one day, when she is all grown up. She dreams about it sometimes when she is hiding behind the bush that is in front of their house. This time round, she is woken from her childlike reverie by the playful hands of Kamau, who yells joyfully that he has found her and runs quickly to tap his win on the huge log which serves as the central point in their game. They are playing hide and seek.

At dinnertime, Gathoni often asks her father to tell her a story. Like how they came to live here. Today, as she asks her father the same question, she observes a shadow linger in her father’s eyes before he quickly shakes it off. Her mother looks away as Kimani, the man of the house, takes his daughter upon his knee and begins to tell her another story, the story of the clever hare and the lazy hyena…..

Kimani and Wanja, Gathoni’s parents came to live here after fleeing from the clashes that broke out after a disputed election. They were tired of the cyclical violence and decided to pool resources and settle permanently in a place where they would be safe. This lovely town with plenty of land, a respectable amount of rain, a lot of wildlife and welcoming people proved to be home for them. Here they could bring up their family in relative plenty and peace. And so they settled. And prospered.

But this year, things were particularly hard. The rains simply refused to come. They had become a bit less each year but somehow the farming folk had managed to sail through. This year though the dry season extended to drought. The wild animals had invaded their farm and it had been reported that some herdsmen had invaded some farms in the village over the hills.

Wanja was scared. She abhorred violence and had witnessed first-hand what it could do to innocent parties.

Still, she continued to weed her farm daily and pick out the best sweet potato tubers for Gathoni and Kamau, who loved the yellow ones. They said the more the yellow, the more the sweet.

The yellow the sweeter - Gathoni and Kamau's favourite sweet potatoes

Wanja dearly loved her children and wanted to give them the gift she herself never had : to grow up in peace. Only in peace could they be educated and be on their way to good lives.

But news coming from the East worried her. Her friend, Wairimu, told her that the herdsmen with their cattle were advancing this way. She knew that they were looking for water and food for their animals. She also knew they were armed. Their animals were their life. And you protect your life at any cost.

For Wanja, her life was her children.

That evening, she talked to her husband and though concerned, Kimani could not immediately offer a solution. He went to sleep hoping that his wife’s fears were unfounded, or else….Kimani remembered the past he had tried with varying degrees of success to forget.

Over the next few weeks, clashes did eventually erupt between the farmers and pastoralists and both Gathoni and Kamau were hurriedly pulled out of school by their mother, who arrived one day in school with a torn skirt and bloodied hand. They fled to the direction of the town and sought refuge in the police station. Gradually, law and order was restored as the police were poured by the trucks into the inflamed areas.

Slowly, life went back to normal, though uneasily. Kimani got his land back but decided to move to another part of the country, closer home. His children were enrolled in a new school and both scored good grades and went on to college.

Though she never talked about it, Gathoni and Kamau noticed that something had changed with their mother. She was often short and curt and nervous around crowds. She couldn’t sleep at night and couldn’t go to the market by herself. She was easily scared by sudden noises.

The children were worried about their mother, and comforted her the best way they knew how. They hung around her and made her countless cups of her favourite sour millet porridge. They tried to create a light atmosphere. They prayed for her. They hugged her often. They loved her as a child can only love her most precious possession.

Another person who noticed these changes in Wanja was the pastor at the neighbouring church. A qualified reverend, she started visiting Wanja at home and often brought along her friend, Mama Wanjiku. Mama Wanjiku was a retired counselor who used to run a big consultancy firm in the city.

Mama Wanjiku talked to Wanja for months until Gathoni, ever observant and naturally curious,  noticed that her mother could now go to the farm alone. One day, she asked Mama Wanjiku what she had done to her mum. As she listened, Gathoni made up her mind that this was the course she wanted to do in college.

Gathoni went on to be a stellar student in campus, specializing in counseling in war torn areas. She learned that her mother had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On gentle questioning, one morning when Mso was home visiting, she learnt that her mother had been attacked by a herdsman but escaped after a struggle. Apparently, the incident re-ignited the previously untreated PTSD Wanja . Below is the picture of a Vitnam Veteran affecte by PTSD.

Embed from Getty Images

already had from the previous clashes. Gathoni also learnt of the causative factors of the land clashes.

The hitherto dependable but now insufficient rains had caused scarcity of water and food. But what caused the rains to fail?

As she was to later learn, a phenomenon called climate change did.

Nowadays, Gathoni runs her own establishment and is a noted and regularly consulted counseling practitioner.

Mama Wanjiku helped Wanja deal with PTSD

She also has a program on TV where she teaches people about climate change.

Her wounds turned into gold.

She spun gold out of wool.

Thank you for indulging me as I tested out my storytelling skills. It might turn into a novel soon, yes? 

I hope you enjoyed it.

And learnt something new at it!

Climate change affects every facet of our lives. Sometimes it turns things upside down, upends them. 

But we can turn around the story. We are a resilient race, the human race.

As usual, spread what you have learned.

Young readers, arm yourselves with knowledge.

Old readers – thank you for the loyalty

New readers – welcome and have a seat!

Do have a good, good day.

Be ye well, all.