The Tourtured Toubab

A few days ago I was sitting on my porch, chatting with Ida, my 22 year old neighbor who just happens to be a Gambian college student, and also a feminist. Out of nowhere she looks over at me and says ''You know, people in Brikama say that there are devils that live in that giant baobab tree at your school and they come out once a year and attack the girls in your school. Usually just the fair-skinned ones. The girls will fall down at school and start screaming and then they are fine, but the devils follow them home and only the girl can see them." She pauses and looks over at me. I'm sitting there with my mouth wide open, staring at her, thinking 'where the hell did that come from?? Is she trying to scare me?' I ask her if she believes that's it's really "devils" making these girls have fits or if she thinks it could possibly be something else, like ohhhh say...maybe they don't want to be at school and they are faking it? And this girl, one of the most educated women in the Gambia, tells me that she thinks it is real. One example of how superstitious Gambians can be.
The day before yesterday, I went to school, completely haven forgotten about the conversation which can be attributed to my unbelievable lack of memory. I wandered into a random office, as usual, to find a teacher to talk to. There is not really much for me to do at work because I am currently in my three month challenge and will be for 2 more months. This means that I am not supposed to leave Brikama so I can build relationships in my community and get to know my workplace. We are also advised not to start any big projects. SO I have been going to school and talking to the teachers, trying to learn how the school works, attending meetings, and sometimes observing them teach. Its been really hard for me to go there every day with nothing to do, I have been feeling unproductive, although I know that my future work cannot really start until I have the trust and respect of the teachers I will be working with. So sitting around just talking has been my work so far. Anyway, the day before yesterday, tired of feeling useless I walked up to every teacher I saw and told them all that I would be sitting in the office, doing nothing, willing to help anyone make teaching aids if they come. After sitting in the office for about 2 hours alone, teacher and teaching aid-less, Mr. Gomez (my counterpart) walked in bearing construction paper and a few mostly dried-out, black dry erase markers. I was fairly sure the only reason he came was because he felt sorry for me sitting in there alone, but I didn't care, I was THRILLED to finally have something to contribute and so excited to get something/anything done!! He sat down and we started drawing a frog diagram together. Twenty minutes later and right in the midst of telling him the importance of making the teaching-aid hands on and interactive for the students, his ears perk up and he says "do you hear that?" Side note: Gambians have superb hearing, something I will always be jealous of. I didn't hear anything, of course. But he got up, looking concerned, and started walking to the door with me following behind. We walked out and I hear it. A girl screaming at the top of her lungs. We were on the third floor of the block building so we're leaning over looking into the courtyard-ish area to see what was going on. The screaming and sobbing got louder and louder and I see a teacher and three male students carrying out a girl student who looked like she was having a seizure, thrashing around, limbs flailing, eyes wide open, and most shocking of all...knees revealed. They carried her into the principals office and shut the door. Mr. Gomez and I just stood there staring for a few moments and then he asked me if I knew what was going on. I told him yes, but he went ahead and told me the same story Ida had told me a few days ago, but that it had started the day before. I had been at home sick that day so I had no idea and no one had bothered to tell me. The muffled screaming continued out of the principals office but the teachers resumed teaching and we went back into the office to keep working. Not even five minutes pass, and it happens again, I see students running to see what's going on and it's another girl. Same screaming and thrashing fits. Teachers were carrying her into the principals office also. By this point I think that the female students started getting really scared and started running toward the gate to leave. Chaos ensued. Students running around everywhere. The principal came out of his office and told all of the girls to go home, but for the boys to stay. So girls AND boys all start running home, so he ended up closing school altogether for the day. As the students were leaving in a huge stampede, another girl falls to the ground and starts convulsing. The teachers run out and grab her and pull her into the principals office too. I stayed after with all of the teachers. I could see the girls in the office laid out on the floor clawing at it, still screaming, kicking, and flailing about. The principal called the town Imam who came and saw the girls, I wasn't allowed in the room, but they are all open air rooms with holes cut out of the cement for air ventilation and I could see him in some kind of exorcism-like stance, arm outstretched, palm out, eyes closed, face turned away, muttering something...that ended up not working. He came out and was talking to the teachers in Wolof, another local language. I asked the woman next to me what he was saying and she said that from watching their behavior, he thinks that some are faking but he isn't sure about all of them. Since there are no ambulances here, a few taxi drivers were called and came to take the girls to the health clinic, where I am told they received shots...for who knows what. Again they had to be carried by 3 grown men into the taxi because the kicking still wasn't letting up. Can you imagine being that cab driver who has to take the possessed girl to the health clinic? No thank you.
Whether or not these 'devils' are real, I don't know...they were pretty convincing and everyone around me is taking it seriously. I'm nervous that all of the girls are going to stop coming to my school or that Kabafita will get a bad reputation. My host mother already transfered out Mariama, my host sister, to another school nearby. School was canceled for the rest of the week and there is a meeting tonight for the community to I suppose to discuss devil irradiation strategies. I hope they figure something out. I would love to get back to my teaching aids.
It figures that the first time I start to do something meaningful and productive, I am interupted by possessed children...this is the best job ever.