Wrinkly Roots....

As part of the Health Day in our training programme we went to see a traditional healer at work. It was quite a long way out of town and on the way I thought to myself of what I might see. It was completely different, not at all what I was expecting…no man dressed in skins and feathers sitting in a smoky hut shaking gourds of beans and swishing a fly whisk, no bubbling pots of potions over the fire, no sacrificial chickens sitting quietly in rings of ash.

We all piled out the bus and stood among the mud huts for a while before we were greeted by a man dressed in a grey sweatshirt and grubby trousers. He looked fairly old and wizened but he wasn’t the wizard! He had left for another village as there had been a mix up over dates and he’d been expecting us the previous day – annoying. Never mind, the Wizard’s Wife stepped in and agreed to show us some of their treatments. We all trooped into one of the bigger huts, which was pretty dark inside and as slipped off my shoes I noticed there was someone asleep on mat in the corner – an inpatient as it turned out. It wasn’t a village we were in, it was a traditional ‘hospital’. They admit people for treatment and if they don’t get better after a couple of days, the healers write a referral letter to the local health centre and the patient goes there instead.

So we all sat on straw mats in front of several piles of wrinkly looking roots and bits of bark. Lots of their current patients came in and sat down too and then the Wizard’s Wife, through a translator, began to tell us what each different thing was for. It seems that most of the roots or bark shaving are soaked in water for while and then that water is drunk or used to make a tea. Sometimes the person must wash in the water (particularly if its treatment for an STI, although, sceptic that I am, I should think a good wash would help in most cases anyway!!) She then showed us a bowl of what looked like tiny white granules – this was for impotence – three cups of it made into tea for a couple of days usually does the trick. The next thing was a pot of black stuff which is used to get rid of all sorts – a cut is made in the skin over the site of the problem and this paste smeared in. It creates a sort of raised tattoo which stays there for life – I’ve seen so many patients in the real hospital with them all over their bodies.

Although practices obviously differ throughout the country, most Traditional Healers do not claim to be able to cure HIV/AIDS. They may well be able to ‘see’ that the person has the virus but will then refer them to a VCT (voluntary counselling and testing centre) for and HIV test and ARVs. They will treat HIV positive people for any opportunistic infections though, but if they aren’t improving they are urged to seek western medicine too.

It wasn’t awfully clear how people become traditional healers and how they know which plants to use but this chap apparently became ill himself and after he was well again ‘knew’ from spirits what to do and where to go. Its hard to believe how it all works but maybe people don’t worry about that, as long as it does what its meant to. It would have been great to see him in action though – if we’d come the day before we’d have seen him doing a ‘ward round’!! I had second thoughts as we got ready to leave though, as I saw a girl, with a very swollen looking leg standing behind us. It wasn’t so much the jagged gash with little rivers of blood and goodness knows what dribbling out that concerned me, more the fact that there appeared to be a big twig sticking out of the middle – literally poking out of the middle of her leg. If she hadn’t been walking, I would have been tempted to think it was a nastily broken bone. I just can’t think what it was doing in there and actually I think I’d like to keep it that now, fascinating as the answer might have been.