Today was excellent. I woke up on my own time, relaxed and read, then my counterpart came to get me. We biked about 8 k to the local witch doctors house/ office. Dr. Siliya Mbewe. He is a certified traditional healer and has traveled to Indonesia, Spain, south Africa, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. He was trained by his grandfather who was also a traditional healer along with his father. He is the assistant director general in the Traditional Health Practitioners Association. He studied up to grade 12, and has taken other classes in HIV and other things. He can use traditional medicine such as herbs to cure many illnesses such as asthma and primary stage of STDs. He can also cure infertility. I was happy to hear that if someone has malaria or HIV he refers them to the clinic, and if his medicine fails he refers them also. I asked him directly if he recommended for people with HIV to sleep with virgins to which he.said no, that isn't traditional healers advice. I was also happy to hear that he encourages people to use pit latrines and drink clean water. He sees 50-75 people everyday. We had lunch together and he was very nice and answered all my questions and invited me back to teach me. I plan to work with him, to learn from him, and also try to encourage him to teach about condoms, nutrition, and bed nets. He is well respected in the community.
How he diagnoses someone is that u take a pinch of ground herb medicine and drop it into a stump in his office. He sits behind a desk and theres a small ceramic pot in it facing him which he calls a screen and he reads ur prognosis off of. I asked to do it and this is exactly my medical reading:
Body medical report
1 blood water, brain and synoviol fluid just fine and good in reproduction.
2 Peace coorps.
3 no STD, no HIV/AIDS, no TB no asthma no bronchitis NIL
4 nothing danger.
5 no one is after you be free stay well till you finish your 2 years with us here
6 anybody who may trouble you just report to us. For action to the trouble maker
7 nothing danger
On the way home we passed about 10 guys making bricks and my counterpart asked me to stop. Apparently as soon as these guys saw me they asked ro take a photo with me. I got off ny bike and went and held a brick while standing with them for the picture. It was the first time I've ever felt so famous haha. Afterwards my counterpart said to them it would be 5 pin ($1) for the print out. And after we got back on the bikes he let me know they're a bunch of drunks and work for beer. Haha
After coming home I was super lucky to get to talk to my brother for about 2 hours. Nothing better than that.
afterwards, I changed a flat on my bike (first time in my life hehe), bathed, and went to sit with my family. I saw some of the smaller kids from my compound walk up and they had a tiny little dog. I immediately ran over and picked him up and havent put him down since. I convinced the boy who acquired him to give him to me and once he agreed I was so happy I jumped up and down saying zikomo kwambiri (thank u very much). I've named my little guy Biscuit Bernard and I already love him. He's so malnourished and sweet how could I not?! I even kept him on my lap during dinner which my family didn't like but afterwards 2 different people actually brought me nsima to feed him. My amai asked where he was sleeping and when I said "bedi" she thought it was hilarious. Today has been the best yet and I feel even more at home now that I have a fuzzy friend.
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