Sure she can cure seizures, but can she cook?

Today, I again ran into a total dichotomy that I have noticed before in the village. Frankly, it astounds me. It all started like a normal day……

I don’t treat patients on Wednesdays. Never the less, I spent a great deal of time on the porch today, explaining that to people. These are not people from town – we are talking people from hours away. One man came from nearly 20 HOURS away – solely to be treated here. I was amazed. I kept saying, but did you come to greet your family or do SOMETHING else???? The answer was no – he had heard from a friend in Conakry (whom I had treated for the same illness he had) that I was here and could help. I spoke to someone else from another far away town – here with a kid who is having seizures. People who suffer from seizures are coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. I saw a girl from Conakry this week who suffers from them. Word is spreading like wildfire that I can help people who suffer from seizures – and they are coming on a weekly basis.

At first, I was reluctant to treat them. I am not a doctor, after all, and, though people here do not believe it, there are MANY things that I am not qualified to treat. (I do say that I can cure seizures tongue-in-cheek because I always give the big, long speech about how some illnesses can be cured (malaria) and some can just be controlled (diabetes, seizures) –they always say, Oh, I see. Well, I will bring this patient until they are ALL BETTER. And I say, Um, OK….) People have an amazing amount of trust in me – it is a little scary sometimes. I do a lot of praying and a lot of researching. And the Lord is blessing.

On the other hand, later today, I went to visit Isatu, who usually comes to learn about the Jesus road at my house on Wednesday afternoons – but who got caught at the farm today. She felt badly that she was late, and I said, no problem. Let’s just go and visit at your house. So we went and she brought out a bucket full of okra that she had picked and that needed to be sliced to be set it the sun to dry.

I offered to help, so she gave me a knife and we worked and chatted. Their backyard is a main path in the village and many people passed us, stopping in amazement as they watched me working. What is she doing? they wondered. Does she know what she is doing? Isatu said, She is learning how to cut okra. I am teaching her. People kept saying – Look at the work Gulun-nga (me) is doing. Others picked up the slices to inspect my work. Some have never seen me do that kind of work before today.

I loved the time I spent in town today. I love to prove that I am capable of manual labor and I love hanging out with women as they do the daily chores of life. When I got home, I was sharing what happened with Jim. I told him – you know, it amazes me that people have this incredible trust in my ability to treat sick people – undoubtedly much more than I deserve. It is humbling and scary. On the other hand, they have absolutely NO confidence in my ability to cook a meal or do other menial tasks – undoubtedly much LESS than I observe. That is also humbling.

Oh well, I guess I just need to keep proving myself. Tomorrow I get to learn how to cut sweet potato leaf to make sauce for my husband……….