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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Hysteria or Demons

The other night, as I was about to tuck in to bed, I hear a knock at my door.  One of the neighbours had come over to see if I could help out in an interesting situation.  Apparently a young girl at one of the secondary boarding schools had passed out, and so my neighbour wanted me to go out to the school and pick up the girl and bring her to the hospital or clinic.  Sure, I could offer my car and services.
Upon arriving at the school, I see about 20 girls and a few teachers surrounding a girl who was lying down on the verandah.  Girls were crying, praying, and singing together.  I wasn't sure if the girl had died, but as we got closer I could hear moaning, and then I heard many of the girls praying prayers to cast out demons in the name of Jesus.  Wow, culturally shocking for me. 
One young lady stepped up as a leader and told us how this girl had been healthy all day, and then, in the evening, as they were heading back to Preps (class) she started to have an attack.  My neighbour thought it would be good for us to take the girl to town.  About 8 people tried to pick up the girl... she began shouting, and struggling with incredible strength. 
I hopped in behind the wheel, extremely nervous that this young lady was sitting right behind me.  I didn't know what stayed of mind or physical strength she was in, and I didn't want her to attack me while I was driving.  As we started to drive away from the school, the girl was moaning loudly, crying, and unable to speak.  It was decided that we would take her to an Auntie's house, rather than the clinic. 
Pulling up to the house, many people came out of the darkness (11pm) to help remove this strong young girl from my back seat.  They laid her down on the verandah, carried Bibles, prayed for the demons to leave and for the peace of Christ to take over.  The young girl was gripping her stomach a lot during this time, so a few people also thought it was for us to now take her to a clinic.  She was calming down enough that people thought maybe now she could get tests and an IV treatment.  There's always a possibility that this is cerebral malaria.  Others were throwing out words like female hysteria (which is a common occurrence in girls boarding schools apparently) - uncontrollable emotional outbreaks. 
Once again we loaded the car.  This time my Subaru Forester carried 7 passengers plus myself.  I drove back to Main Street and dropped her off at the clinic.  After she was admitted in to an tiny room for assessment, all the friends and family thanked my for my services and told me that I could go home.  I drove back to my flat, pondering about how I had never had this kind of cultural thing happen around me before this night.  I prayed for the girl... and today I received word that she is out of the clinic and doing much better.  But I don't think I ever understood the cause. 
May the Lord watch over our children in schools and boarding.

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