Getting Rid of the Evil Spirits With My Healer

 

 

 

There’s a famous healer in my village in Lesotho, who can get rid of the evil spirits, and cure anything. People flock to him from all over Lesotho, where I’m serving as a Peace Corps volunteer as well as South Africa, to seek treatment, and cures for all kinds of ailments.

For weeks, I’ve been asking Mary, my ‘M’e, “host mother” to meet the healer and she kept telling me “He’s very busy.” It wasn’t until he wanted a solar battery, from my contact in Maseru, that I finally got my appointment.

I had no idea what to expect, but I was hoping he would predict my future. I wanted to hear something positive, about meeting the love of my life, and a fulfilling future job after the Peace Corps,

Mary and I walked along the red, dirt path to his tin-roofed house. He has nice leather furniture inside his one bedroom house. I sat down, and expected him to read my palm, or to sit opposite me.

Instead, he filled a plastic bottle with Coke, and told Mary in Sesotho, that he knows I wash my face every morning with a cloth. “Wow,” he knows I wash my face before I go for my 5:45 a.m. walk. I was already hooked. What else does he know about me? I thought.

He told Mary he had a plant for me to add to my water to get rid of the “negativity.” I had mentioned to Mary, that I wanted more positive thoughts and that I wanted to think about everything going well in my life.

“He knows,” she said.

I asked, “How much does he want?”

“20 Rand.”

That’s only $1.28.

“He wants to give you a special remedy to get rid of all the evil while you’re here.”

“Ask him why I always think of the negative rather than the positive.”

She told me that his “medicine” which I shall put in my water, will get rid of that forever.

I could not wait to see what happened.

Mary told me the healer gave her the plant, but that she had to dry it first. After that she used her stone mortar and pestle to make something that reminds me of “Herbes de Provence,” to put in my early morning water to sprinkle on my face.

It’s been two weeks now since I’ve used it, and I have not met Prince Charming, but I have had a nice sight-seeing trip to Kobe caves and a home-made espresso with a British/French photographer.

(More on that trip in another post.)