The Family Brought Jollof to the Ward Again

postpartum ward. family of the new mother brought jollof rice in a cooler at 11pm. security let them through because auntie knows someone. i ate two spoons while charting and felt guilty and grateful in the same bite. the mother hadn't slept in thirty hours. the grandmother kept saying "she is strong like us." maybe. or maybe she's just out of options. we don't have enough cots. we never have enough cots.

The family brought jollof rice in a cooler at 11 p.m. Security let them through because Auntie knows someone. On the postpartum ward, rules are porous when hunger is involved.

I ate two spoons while charting and felt guilty and grateful in the same bite. The mother had not slept in thirty hours. The grandmother kept saying she is strong like us. Maybe. Or maybe she is out of options and strength is the word we use when support should have arrived earlier.

We do not have enough cots. We never have enough cots. Families fill the gap with food because food is the one care plan they can still control. The hospital calls it a protocol violation. The ward calls it Tuesday.

I am not romanticizing this. A cooler of rice is not a substitute for staffing or pain management or a system that treats postpartum recovery as medically serious. It is evidence of what people do when the system stops short. They feed each other. They show up loud at midnight. They insist on flavor in a building designed for sterility.

I finished charting. The jollof was excellent. That fact does not fix anything. It still mattered.

Know someone who should read this?