KAREN:  So how did you deal with the losing people?
 
CLARA:  Drink.  Yeah.  It was hard. 

KAREN:  Yeah.  That's what I was wondering, too, being a health aide --

CLARA:  Not all the time.

KAREN:  -- in the village that you're from.

CLARA:  Uh-hum.  Yeah.  It's really hard, you know.  And for the health aides, too, in their villages, everybody's related, whether they are biologically or not, you know.  Everybody knows everybody. 

And depends on how the person dies.  If they are terminally ill, you know, you know they are going to go sometime, and the family kind of prepares for it, you know.  But sudden deaths are, you know, you don't know, especially if it's from drowning or -- or a bad accident or shootings.  But those are -- are the hard ones, you know. 

They are -- now with the counselors and stuff, they can do debriefing and help the whole village by going out to the villages and do debriefing with -- with the family and with the community.  I think that helps the most.  To have them get out how they feel and -- and be able to talk about their feelings and how they feel about their loss. 

KAREN:  Is that something that you did as a health aide, how you dealt with it?  How did you... 

CLARA:  There's people there, like elders that we'd get to go and talk to the family, you know, that lose someone.  We pretty much turned to -- to the elders, you know, before all this come out. 

And then in -- some villages they have groups where they have their own meetings and things, and when anybody needs debriefing and stuff after loss, they are available.  They involve younger people and elders in there, too. 

KAREN:  Yeah, I mean, because anybody that loss is hard, but I was thinking as a health aide, you might have to deal with it on a much more frequent basis. 

CLARA:  Uh-hum (affirmative).  Because, you know, you're taking care of the person --

KAREN:  Right. 

CLARA:  -- and losing them, you know, affects you, too, like, and then you have to deal with that, the family, and then the siblings.

KAREN:  For years and years, you did this for a long time, how did you manage to keep doing it? 

CLARA:  I don't know.  I don't know.  Just -- like when you have an accident, you don't stop and think, what am I going to do, it just comes natural.  You just do -- do what's needed.  And then afterwards, when it's all done, you sit back and that's when it hits you.  Yeah.