11/17/20. TWO VALLEYS AWAY
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| The clinic grounds |
Preface: Futurist Kevin
Kelly has talked ( see TED talk) about the Seven Kingdoms of life on our
planet. You may recall from school Biology that all life on this planet can be
categorized in 5 or 6 Kingdoms (depending on when you went to school). Kelly
and others postulate how Technology is, or will be, a life form of its own thus
Seven Kingdoms. We are not talking about religious or political kingdoms, this
is biological kingdoms. Its stuff you either loved or hated in school. This
story is about the boundary of the Seventh Kingdom.
I went to visit a good
witch doctor the other day. His name is
Pascal. My friend Ali took me. He came highly recommended (that’s always
reassuring). Ali has used him in the past and many local people speak highly of
him. He is way off the grid. We walked an hour and a half from the end of a
dirt road into the jungle, maybe 6 kilometers. It was beautiful; a steep climb
over 2 ridges and then we drooped into a lush green valley. No cell phone
towers, no telephone or power lines. Water and sewer? For real? Here
you’re on your own.
When we got
there things looked pretty normal. Pascal is a local healer aka a witch doctor.
He is OK with either title. As we
approached his clinic he was sitting on a broken plastic chair in his yard. The
seat was busted out but if you were careful you could still put your weight on
it. He had 4 other plastic chairs in the same shape and a plastic table
and some benches. They were scattered about the yard, tipped over at weird
angles as if a big wind had blown thru last night (it hadn’t). The
yard was hard pack reddish clay, nothing grew in the yard. Pascal was
busy with a big pile of local plants. There was a fire burning in the hot
equatorial sun. He was busy peeling a thin bark off them, saving the
green stalks and boiling the bark. As we arrived he continued to peel and
then, after he finished the plant he was working on he got up slowly and
greeted us. He was a gentle, smooth talking big man with a soft voice. He
didn't say much and was not an overpowering presence. His eyes were ruddy and
his teeth seemed in good repair. He was dressed in "fatigued" jeans
and shirt and rubber sandals. He was not alone. In his yard were
several chickens and ducks and several children. There was a single
cow in a stick and log corral and 4 buildings formed the perimeter of his yard.
There were 5 of us, my
friend Ali, 2 medical students, nurse practioner and myself. Pascal gestured
for us to sit and make a circle as we balanced ourselves on the chairs, some
with 3 legs all with missing pieces. Ali explained we were "doctors"
and had come to visit him and see his practice. He was OK with that. There were periods of
silence where we all just sat and waited for a sentence to appear in the
conversation. Pascal seemed to be translating Ali's Swahili, waiting 10 -20
seconds then responding with a soft thoughtful but short answer. Maybe his
primary language was some 'local tongue”. There are over 60 dialects or local
tongues in Tanzania. As we sat there I became aware of the sounds and smells
Pascals home. There were sheep nearby, there was yelling and laughter of
children. There was the smell of cows and cow poop very nearby, duck and
chicken poop, and a cool green breeze as we sat in the shade of a big avocado tree.
There were lots of flies and I wondered about mosquito's and night time here as
I looked at the glassless and screen less buildings in front of me. His kids
were nearby, dressed in hand me downs, shoeless, adorable and curious. They
laughed and giggled as we shared digital portraits. Pascal’s wife appeared, she
had a long red dress probably made from a Kanga. She was busy with kids,
animals, planting and preparing food. Ali explained Pascal and his wife are both
local healers and work together. I was introduced to his wife but her name was
unpronounceable to me. I looked at Ali? He pronounced a sound a couldn’t picture
in my mind. If I tried to spell it would look like Ajebishewa, Maybe more like &
(*$#@? |. I never did get her name right.
Pascal's
wife was more of a mystic; she did futures and clarified problems and troubles
in your life and family. The medical students all had their futures read by
her. I declined, deciding I liked uncertainty and besides I wanted to
somehow ask Pascal about his herbs and " talk medicine" with him.
With Ali's help we went into a dark un-lite hut and Pascal showed us his "pharmacy"
There were at least 25 jars of stored herbs and plant extracts, most were in
old Coke and Fanta bottles. Many of the herbs looked like ground up bark. I
reflected that maybe Pascal is not so far off base here, Aspirin is derived
from Willow trees and quinine, the original treatment for Malaria (rampant
here), is from Chinchona tree bark.
With Ali's translating
Pascal explained he treats fever, sore bones and joints and headaches
which by the way al all the classic symptoms of Malaria. He knows about Malaria and diabetes and treats
them with an herbal tea. There was a patient there who had broken his arm.
Pascal had made a cast of bamboo sticks that surrounded his upper arm immobilizing
the fracture and placed the arm in a sling. It was a beautiful piece of handi work
and the patient was happy with the result. I asked how long will he keep that
bamboo cast on and while the answer wasn't clear it sounded like days
after the pain is gone. Thinking about it I'm guessing Pascal and
his patient don't think of time in terms of days or weeks. This is not a calendar-based
society. I asked what does Pascal do when someone is really sick and looks like
they are dying. He didn't hesitate on this one, he is glad to send very sick
patients to the hospital. I thought about that walk we just taken through two
valleys and steep hills to get here, being sick, maybe delirious, maybe in the
dark......
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| Broken arm set with a bamboo cast and sling |
Later as we sat under
the avocado tree I showed Pascal a present I had brought him. I gave him my
stethoscope. He knew what it was but wasn't so sure how to use it. After a
quick 10-minute tutorial of how to place it correctly oriented in your
ears, where to listen on the body and some quick pathology he seemed pretty
happy to have it. I told him he had to practice every day. Wearing it around
his neck he suddenly seemed to stand straighter, maybe a little more credible
but still uncertain of its value to his practice.
You might think it is waste
to give an uneducated witch doctor who lives in the bush a $150.00 stethoscope.
But try this. Pascal is the primary provider of health in this valley and
probably several valleys around. He is educated, having learned what he knows
from his grandfather, handed down in the oral tradition He knows his purpose
here is to serve his people, to make them better and he is quick to say that.
And he has “good reputation”, not on the Internet but here on the ground.
Pascal brings medicine to the people, not people to the medicine. A stethoscope
out here is also bringing medicine to the people. While not technology it is a tool and a brick on
the road to the Seventh Kingdom. Next year I'll bring a blood pressure cuff and
see if Pascal has a breakthrough medicine for that.
It was a long hot walk
back to the civilization of Biharamulo. I thought about how important it is to
know our world and what is in it and about how close and yet so far we were
from 21 century technology. For Pascal
and is family, the Seventh Kingdom has not arrived here but it’s only 2 valleys
away.
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| Pascal and the stethoscope |
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