Emma and
Stephen wanted to go to Mwera to get a haircut, and I wanted to
adjust my diet a little, so I asked to venture along. They said ‘yes’
and we started up the long dirt road to the village of Mwera next to
the paved road leading to Nansana. We joked and became great friends.
When we entered the town we noticed all of the shops were closed -
every door, every hut, except one. We stopped there. Emma bought some
airtime and learned that there had been a murder the night before. We
ventured on and came to the Nansana road. Across the road from us
were all the towns’ people gathered together. I saw there were
police present and not wanting to be arrested for a bribe that I
would not pay, I avoided the scene all together. Emma went on
ahead to listen to the meeting.
I was
surprised at how many people lived in this one little town. Once the
meeting ended Emma came back with the news. A girl had been killed in
her sleep the previous night. She was a shopkeeper of the market and
lived in the back of the shop. The shops are heavily guarded with
bars between the customers and the merchandise and have the ability
to close the shop with a metal door. There are no windows, and I do
not know if a back door is present. In fact, now that I think on it
there are some I do not remember ever seeing a door on at all, but I
never ventured around to the back of the shops. The murderer had
chloroformed the room, and had dug out the side of the house,
removing bricks to enter, and then he slit the girl’s throat
raising her head in such a way as to collect the blood running down
her natural body cavities into a jerry can. The murderer then left a
stick of sugar cane on the dead girl’s bed and exited.
I
bought the men a chapatti each and a soda, and Emma and I played pool
at a bar while Stephen got a haircut. Then I waited outside the shop
while Emma got his hair cut. As it was getting dark we could not play
another round of pool. I talked with a Muslim man for a bit, when he
asked me “Do you hate us?” referring to the fact that I am a
Christian and he is a Muslim. “No, no that would be ridiculous.”
I replied, we are not encouraged to hate, but to love. The verse of
Christ saying” love your enemies” was on its way out when I
realized that implied we were enemies. I was in a tender situation,
but my answer had brought a smile to the man’s face and he jumped
up to attend to the next customer now entering the barber shop. I
waited there, then Emma was finished and I waved goodbye to the man
and we headed off, racing the last rays of the sun.
The next
night at devotional after much singing and praising of Jesus’ name,
Josh, the manager, took charge of the devotional. He told of how he
saw the young girl’s face. He had carried her out of her house
himself. He ended with a warning against fear, and he prayed against
the dark forces and for the capture of the murderer.
The next
time I went to Mwera a few days later we, Emma, Stephen and I, passed
a house with a large crowd around the open door. Men were working on
the house. I assumed it was a construction project and I paid it no
mind, but my companions lingered to hear the news - a second girl
murdered in the exact same way, her blood stolen from her corpse, the
sugar cane on the bed and the removed bricks. (I would have you
note this is the last concrete evidence I have to tell you, the rest
of the information has come through from the manager, the town’s
people and Chris.) Church that Sunday addressed the fear issue among
the citizens of the town. An excitable man in a mustard-colored
Dwight Shrute shirt stood up and spoke in Luganda, his head charging
forward dragging his torso and with tugging on his thighs at the end
of every shouted sentence, with wild hand gestures above his head.
He, as it was translated to me, addressed the fact that the
inhabitants had started to double up in housing. His advice was to
trust in the Lord, for protection and not to fear evil. “Greater is
He who is in you than he who is in the world.” comes to mind, even
if it was not spoken. This was the end of the first week.
The blood
was drained for the purpose of black magic. I am unfamiliar of the
practices and hope to remain so; but animal blood is used in
consecrating a new field or house in that region. I was told by
Joseph that those wealthy enough would buy children and babies from
the desperate to kill and use the blood for the same purpose (I
cannot attest to the truth of this, although children do get kidnaped
often.)
The Witch
hunt
I was
awakened by Joseph, who was very excited to tell me the news. “They
have killed the murderer!” said Joseph. He was neither happy nor
sad, only excited to spread the news. “They have the body in
Mwera.” But to this he was corrected by the manager, “No, it is
in...” I could not remember the town, only that it was a long
way in a place I never went to. News came a few days later that the
town’s people had killed another murderer. With only two crimes
both exactly alike I suspected an innocent man had died, but I do not
know the details. That was the end of it for a time.
The eve
before I was ready to depart with Chris back to Jinja I was lying in
my bed waiting for my evening allotment of rice and beans, when
Stephen entered the room shaking with fright and sweat had beaded up
on his forehead. It glowed blue under the artificial light. “The
murderers are serious now!” He shouted “They are going to cut my
neck!” referring to an incident where the six of us had to sleep in
one room with the windows shut on a hot night because Stephen was
afraid to have his throat slit sleeping next to the window. I assured
him that night there was more danger inside the room than out, and
eventually I was forced to open the window myself, which he shut once
I was asleep. I put my hand on Him and prayed for his protection and
the removal of his fear. He felt better he said. I figured him being
the youngest and well proven to be the most excitable of the crowd to
be jumping at shadows.
But
when I exited the dorm I saw all the men talking loudly in their
native languages and with that tone of fear in their voices. The
murderers had slit the throat of a farmer man in daylight while he
had gone to milk his cow in the morning. And later that day they
tried to kill another man who had escaped and reported that it was
not one murderer, but five. Chris later told me that a threatening
note had been left in Mwera stating that, as Chris put it later, “We
are really going to get you now... or something like that.” I
stepped out onto the concrete patio and drew closer to Joseph,
expecting him, due to his stillness in the commotion, to be more
levelheaded. Then I saw the blueness to his skin. He told me of a
dream where he had been chased by a man with a panga out of the
fields. He had run to the compound and the man was attacked by a
great snake that Joseph had passed by freely. This was enough for me.
I did not
figure a murderer to attack a farm of ten men, but fear would, so I
entered the room again to see Emma, Stephen and Tony. “If you think
the situation is serious enough, we can take watch tonight,” I
said. Three yes's came from bobbing heads, and I drew on the
board the watch terms - 10:00 – 12:00 first watch. It was
Tony and I. Twelve to two - Stephen and Emma, the inseparable duo,
two to four - Joseph and I, though I was never awakened since we had
other men come to stay in our bunks and they kept all but poor Tony
from double shifts. We brought in from the garden shed all the pangas
(teardrop shaped machetes). The plan was to have two men armed
with pangas watch in the dark, and walk anyone to the bathroom that
got up at night. It was decided later that if a wave of attackers
came, we would quietly wake the men each with his own panga, wait for
the attacker to come to the door or window and then we would charge,
hacking them to bits. It is just as laughable to me now as it was
then. We played riddle games during and after lunch. This did wonders
for the nerves. Emma started with something like this “I am born
in cold water, I die in hot... something about eyes... I am so
delicious.” It was guessed at for a while then Joseph, I do
believe, answered “a frog” and his share of high fives was
distributed. I went to the board and wrote from memory “I have
no wings, yet I fly, I have no eyes, yet I cry.” They puzzled
over the riddle for a while and never got it and so I was pleased and
wrote another, “Never thirsty, always drinking, clad in mail,
never clinking.” To this Stephen, who has a gift for riddles,
answered correctly on the first try before I was finished writing; so
I had to do another, “a chest without hinges, key or a lid, but
inside golden treasure is hid.” Then Emma had a riddle. “I
have skin, flesh and bone. I am so delicious. What am I?” This
had me and the rest of us, and we needed to write the riddles on the
board and number them, so we did not get mixed up as we almost did
when the answer to the golden treasure riddle was given for Emma’s
skin, flesh, and bone riddle. I was decided that we would think on
the riddles over night during our various watches to pass time.
For the
devotional we all prayed sincerely against the murder of innocents
and the dark powers at work. Emma earlier that day had gone to
another community meeting and the community, seeing that he was the
only one there with a piece of paper and pen, made him village
secretary. A tax was taken from all the residents of two hundred
shillings for buying a set of flashlights for a community watch. The
money and responsibility were given to Emma and he brought it back to
the farm that night. I phoned Chris and asked to stay a few more
nights. He said he would be in Kampala on Saturday for a radio show
he was advocating Farming God's Way on and I could meet him in
Kampala then.
The men
went to bed and Tony put on all dark clothes, including a black
plastic hoodie. He drew the hood stings till only a beady pair of
white eyes shone from a black hole. He climbed under the table and
crouched with his panga at the ready and I understood it was all
business to him and my hopes of humorous conversation were crushed.
So I sat in the corner eating groundnuts as they call them. We call
them peanuts. I almost fell asleep, but the one thousand shilling tax
for sleepers kept my eyes at half-mast. The only thing that happened
of note other than the relief of sleep was when I thought to myself
of the scene in Signs, when the alien in the bush at the Spanish
children’s birthday video walks in front of the window and glances
at the screaming children. I imagined a man with the same Sasquatch
gate and momentary glance going past the front glass door. At that
moment a wild dog, starting in the same corner as I was imaging,
moved past, giving that same casual glance inside and disappearing
just as quickly, leaving me just a little bit paler that I was. God
has a pretty good sense of humor. Time was up and I woke Emma and
Stephen and I fell asleep.
I woke the
next day, everything was alright. We adjusted the night watch and
Chris phoned to let me know that I could not stay till Saturday. He
needed me the next day to work at Amazima, Katie Davis’s orphanage,
and to get ready. I said my goodbyes, gave hugs and loaded my things
in Chris's jeep. Chris stayed to give back test results to the
students and to teach a lesson, during which it started to rain.
Remembering last time we dropped the lesson and got in the jeep to
leave before the road got muddy. No such luck. Already the tires spun
and he went nowhere but down. Then all the students ran down through
the torrent and lined up on the front of the jeep. They shoved and
off we went. We turned around in the grass and jumped out the gate
onto the muddy road. We slid only a little to the right and to the
left and we were off. I don’t know any more about the witch murders
or how the students were the next few nights. I will let you know if
anything happens. My first meal away from rice and beans was a
hamburger, and that was a mistake.
Spiritual
Warfare
There have
been reports of a spike in murders all across Uganda. Massese has had
several and the north, where Tony and Joseph were from, has seen a
lot more violence lately. This is Satan’s forces moving in. We as
Christians are co-workers with God through our prayers and petitions.
It is no exaggeration to say that you are a bigger part of this
ministry than I am. I ask that you pray that the Lord of hosts would
send his forces here to combat and take back ground from under the
enemy’s feet.
Psalms 91:
3-8
“Surely
he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly
pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings
you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and
rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that
flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the
plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten
thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will
only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. “
In Christ,
David
Greene
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