Nurse Saigo: Trailblazer in Amerindian communities

By Paula Gomes

A truly compassionate Indigenous patriot, Mathilda Saigo has, since 1961, been rendering outstanding service to her home community of Paramakatoi, Region Eight, and surrounding villages in regions Seven, Eight and Nine in both the education and health sectors; and she does not think it is time to retire just yet, notwithstanding attaining the age of retirement in 2012.
This phenomenal woman has served the country well, and could not be more deserving of the national award (Medal of Service) bestowed upon her in the late 1990s. To date, she has thirteen years of teaching service and almost forty years of subsequent nursing service to her credit.

Born in Paramakatoi, an Indigenous village nestled in the Pakaraima Mountains, to parents Iris Williams and Vincent Saigo in 1947, Saigo, commonly called “Nurse Saigo,” attained early basic fundamental education up to standard six (primary level), the highest available level at the time in the traditional community.
Sitting outside her mother’s residence on the peak of a hill overlooking the village, her usual “chill spot” on a Sunday morning, Nurse Saigo took Guyana Times down memory lane, narrating her life-long journey, while casually sipping on a bowl of casirie, a signature Patamona beverage.
Nurse Saigo confessed that teaching was her first passion and nursing merely happen per chance, but it was her inner desire — having lived the struggles of the Indigenous peoples — which drove her to be an advocate for change, advancement, and development through education and health in seeking a better life for her peoples.
Upon completion of her primary education, Nurse Saigo started to teach at the local school in her village at the tender age of 14, and it would not be long before she extended her services to the neighbouring regions of Seven and Nine.
“I taught for thirteen years, from 1961. I taught at Paramakatoi school, then at Philippai (Region Seven) for five years, then back here, then to Konashen (Region Nine) to teach with the Wai-Wais for three years,” she recalled with a profoundly commendable memory.
It was at Konashen that a new opportunity would present itself, and try as she may, it haunted at her door until she finally answered.
“It was not my choice to go into nursing, but I was at a meeting interpreting for the then Minister of Health, Dr Oliver Harper, (from the English language to Wai-Wai) when somebody came to tell me that there was a snake bite, and I asked for an excuse and left to treat the patient. When I came back, the minister asked why I left so suddenly, and when I told him, he asked if I was a nurse, to which I responded no. ‘But how can you treat patients?’, Dr Oliver asked,, and I said it’s because I can at least read the English language and understand the prescription,” Saigo heartily recounted.
Within the three weeks that followed, young Saigo made a life-changing decision, as she was summoned to an interview in Georgetown but it was around the same time that she was accepted into the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), having finally attained the age criterion for acceptance.
Upon conclusion of a two-year training programme she returned to her beloved community in 1977, and was appointed to serve henceforth alongside an American practitioner and state registered nurse, Nurse Wall, and it was there that she remained ever since.
“When I came back in 1977, they told me that I will be here for six months, and I will be sent to wherever they would send me. But the six months never came to pass… it turned into six years, then sixteen years, and almost sixty years,” Nurse Saigo humoured.
The persistent nurse seasonally returned to Dr Bacchus’s Outpatient Clinic in the city during the holidays, where she achieved a certificate in General Nursing and single Trained Midwifery.
Nurse Saigo became the sole staff at the Paramakatoi Health Centre in 1977, working both day and night for over eleven years. A Medex from the neighbouring community of Kato would pay occasional visits to the community after this period, yet the headstrong woman would continue to work mostly alone for many upcoming years.
“This time was very difficult. There was no electricity, I did deliveries without lights, holding only a torch light between my neck and shoulders. But I eventually came to love it…working at PK all on my own”.
To date, Nurse Saigo has done a total of 10,707 deliveries in and around the community, and wherever she goes, there always seems to be a sick person or delivery case awaiting the intervention of her gifted hands. She has visited many communities around the region.
In cases of extreme emergencies, medical evacuation by air was summoned via the use of a radio system at the missionaries’ residence.

Today’s difficulties
According to the nurse, in those days she had direct contact with the Health Ministry, and interventions were much more timely, flying in both day and night, as opposed to present. Having to go through the region causes a delay in the process, as the regional health personnel rarely answer their phones, the nurse said in a state of distress.
“We need more medication, equipment and doctors…there is no doctor at present.”
Today, sadly, the health centre has no basic drugs as malaria medication since the July-August period, despite several efforts made to contact the relevant personnel on the coast to rectify the issue.
Notwithstanding her retirement in 2012, the nurse expressed her willingness to continue serving her community. She is known far and wide in Amerindian villages, and is approached with medical cases wherever she travels.
“I am sleeping in the middle of the night and someone comes rapping on my door, or I have just reached into a community tired as ever, and someone comes with a case. You know, as they say, there is no rest for the wicked!” she laughed.
Nurse Saigo proudly declared that she is proficient in several Amerindian languages, learned over her years of travel and service in communities across the breadth of Guyana. Some of these languages include the Akawaio, Macushi, Wai-Wai, and of course her native tongue of Patamona. She has served as a translator at many forums: court, the National Toshaos Conference, and the Non-Aligned Conference, among others.