Singanga

I know it’s been QUITE a long time since I have posted. I sure hope everyone had a great holiday season. Believe it or not, the holiday season in Lilongwe was still just as busy. Even though we didn’t have the constant commercialized reminders that it was Christmas time, we were still just as busy. So, I figured I’d post the latest happenings one post at a time until I catch up to current day.

On Monday, November 29^th it was a normal Monday at the clinic. About 7:45 am a woman arrives with her husband. Her husband said his wife woke up in the night unable to move her legs. I immediately thought, “oh great, drama before 8am.” We get her to lay on the bed and when we ask what’s wrong, the woman can’t speak but mouths that her belly hurts and she’s unable to move her legs. We take her vital signs and nothing is abnormal. Dr. Young looks in her mouth and there’s nothing obstructing her throat or anything. We start asking her husband multiple questions and the woman starts heaving violently. Becky and I grab an emesis bucket because she looks like she’s going to puke. After a full minute of the woman heaving, a rock, piece of plastic and piece of paper come out of the woman’s mouth. No mucus, no vomit, no spit, the paper was dry and the rock was about an inch in diameter. We were puzzled. Then the woman was grabbing her stomach so we pulled her shirt up and saw a red piece of cloth tied around the woman’s abdomen. This is a sign that the singanga, or witch doctor, had been to visit her. I opened the piece of paper and it had 3 crosses written on the top. The letter was in Chichewa, but the husband said it was a death note. It was a definite indicator that the witch doctor had come to visit this woman. The husband was spooked and asked if he could take the contents to his church. We wanted to burn them, but he insisted that he take them to the church the couple attends weekly. We allowed them to take them, but not before we got a picture of everything. The husband was asked to gather family members to pray and sing over his wife. People arrived and they sang and prayed. About 2 hours later, the woman was able to walk out of the room on her own two feet with no problems. Weird? Yes. Crazy? Yes. Explanation…Jesus is in control and the devil is very much alive.

            Jeff and I constantly say how much we try to rationalize things like this when in fact they’re complete evidence of how God is in control and the devil is working. Could there be some scientific explanation of why this woman’s airway didn’t close up? I’m sure. But the truth is the devil is alive and working all around the world. We were very scared and spooked by this whole situation. When asking some of the college students around campus about these types of incidences, they all can give some sort of account of an experience they had with a singanga. But if these things were to happen in the States we would blow them off and give some sort of “rational” excuse of why it happened. It’s very interesting to me how much we can “rationalize” situations in the States, but here in Malawi they accredit these incidences to the singanga. I almost feel as if they have it more figured out than we do, like they give God the “credit” more than we do in the States.