I’m just back from a tour of clinics with Flying Medical Service where I met our regular doctors/colleagues, Tanzanian doctors. We had nice chats about the healer in Samunge near Loliondo and they were not impressed at all, were even ashamed by all that frenzy.
They personally work with patients and doctors (!) who are going to pay a visit to that bonesetter. Doctors, dropping all their knowledge and common sense for a healer who has zero medical background…just please remind me to never pay a visit myself to those doctors. And I sadly know one of them! Another doctor we all know has even made a statement on the national TV, claiming he had proofs HIV patients had been cured by the concoction! Challenged by his peers he admitted it was only hear-say…too late and too bad he won’t have a chance to admit his crap attitude on TV again! He should be stripped of his diploma. Damage is done, seriously done. National TV, watched by most of the gullible people in this situation! How can one blame them for running like moutons de Panurge after that?
The health minister tried to put the all thing on standby till the potion was tested in a lab. The healer claimed that since part of the treatment includes a divine influence, it was useless to perform tests. Indeed. Divine influence can’t be proven in a lab unfortunately otherwise religion issues would have been settled long ago by the way and the world would turn much smoothly. Even without the healer’s claim, the minister had to back off after the national fury he created amongst various sick people, and entrepreneurs. Why put a hold on the healer’s services when there are so many ‘proofs’ it works people say…the TV news were interesting to watch at the hospital yesterday.
I heard an airplane from Dar es Salaam yesterday, at 700$ a seat I guess. Big profits to make. Another one from Kilimanjaro, some from Arusha have started too. All new routes.
The cops are accused to take a chunk of the business by setting road blocks! Looking at whatever is wrong with the vehicle, or pretending to enforce the temporary ban, they can extort money to the flock.
From the airstrip of Ngaresero, the vista is breathtaking, imagine the view on volcano Lengai and various mountains, a glimpse of lake Natron or the long cliff of the Rift valley. 2 days ago, during the one-hour clinic on the airstrip, all of that was a bit spoilt by 20 vehicles passing on that normally quiet dirt track. Motorbikes, trucks, pickups, dala dala (that is the dreaded minibus), saloon cars(!), fancy SUV’s…I was nearly expecting to see bicycles. At the clinic, Masai patients were talking vividly about that nightmare. The temporary ban was still being felt that day because some days ago, many more vehicles were passing by, so many that herders had problems crossing the track safely! With the ban lifted, people are bracing themselves for the worst.
Funny anecdote (though for the local people, probably not): a coach company, the only one apparently deserving a remote town called Mtwara near Mozambique had stopped its services from Dar es Salaam and diverted its fleet to Samunge, more juicy business obviously. Bad luck for the Mtwarans who are now somehow stranded. The sick Mwtarans are probably even angrier because they can’t take part in that rigmarole and meet their supposedly savior.
People from Europe are said to arrive too, with high hopes of healing. Arabs as well, which is even more surprising since the healer is Christian, should that mean that they will convert to Christianity? Should they recognise a god superior to the other? Rational question if any…The smartest people of the bunch seem to be the Masai who hardly go there apparently, knowing better than to believe a punk who thinks is in direct hotline with God. Beware of those guys, the last one we all know and who did a serious lot of damages to the world is George Bush!
Examples of collateral damages? People stop their regular treatment and die sooner. People who are not contagious only harm themselves but those with claps or Aids for instance think they are cured and could start to have unprotected sex. Others who might have had protected sex so far might drop the uncomfortable condom and roam freely since the treatment is that easy and cheap. People might start to check their status much later in life. See? Beware Bush and healers. We had some nice chats with the 2 doctors, local doctors, which provides a good insight in their countrymen. They try to convince their patients to keep on their treatments, no matter what they do but pessimism is the norm nowadays.
not even sure this healer does it for the money. So far 500 tshs is the fee, not excessive. He could extort a lot more.
Having said that, 500 times thousands of people can sum up nicely.
hugs
Posted by: ben wilhelmi | 17 March 2011 at 06:31 PM
wow! thanks for sharign this, it's very informative. It is sad that self-proclaimed "healer" is playing with emotions and lives of so many desparate people. What don't people do for money?
I continue wishing well to Tanzanian people and hope soon they will have a reality check and turn back to modern medicine.
xx
F
Posted by: Fatima | 17 March 2011 at 02:19 PM