P
paseo
Guest
Hi everyone,
Happy Holidays!
First off, I apologize that this post is long - it should be a simple question but to get to the point has taken a few more lines that I thought. I had to cut it into 2 parts (this has never happened with any of my posts before!)
Here’s part 1:
A bit of a background before I explain the situation I’m facing:
My parents and I currently live in a Muslim populated neighborhood, there are only 2 other Christian families near by, both have been a part of this neighborhood for years and years. We just moved to this city a couple years ago - moving from a Christian populated city to a heavily Muslim populated city, we’ve had many reservations and are cautious in our interactions with neighbors while staying charitable and continuing to practice our faith daily. We don’t take to the stereotype, but at the same time experiences’ of friends and acquaintances have proven that prudence is very important. I live in Indonesia, and just to make clear, it is not a Muslim country, not governed by Shariah law, but it is heavily Muslim populated.
Now, onto the situation:
Every morning, for the past month or so in my neighborhood there has been this free (donations encouraged) checkup-meeting involving traditional medicine. Neither my parents nor I have ever gone to it even though our neighbors have invited us to join them. My mom has become friends with a few of the neighborhood ladies (she’s even a workout buddy with one of them), so they like to hang out on someone’s porch had just talk. Some of these ladies have gone to the check up-meetings pretty much every morning and then they would talk to my mom (and sometimes to me) about it, like what kind of treatment the people are giving, what illnesses they treat, and the medicines they distribute.
I call the event a checkup-meeting, because it is much of like a meeting, gathering or assembly. People gather at the community courtyard and sit down under an open walled tent. The event starts with a prayer, followed by the leader conducting a health talk+sermon where he would relate the teachings of their religion to the healing practice that he does. Finally, one by one the attendees would go to the leader, tell them their illness to which he would give an herbal medicine (a powder mixture which you’d drink by adding warm water).
Now, if it were just to the point where they talk, give health tips, even with the herbal medicine, I wouldn’t feel like I should say anything. Even though some of what they’ve said are just plain misinforming people. For example, something that I heard directly (since they use a loud speaker, and it’s an open yard, and it’s just around the corner from where I live I can sometimes hear the sermons), they discourage people from seeking professional medical assistance if they are afflicted with Leprosy, because the leader says, going to a doctor would cost them $500-$600 while if they just drink the herbal medicine he gives to them for whatever donation they’re willing to give they’d be healed just the same and be healthier. The reality is the government actually has a program specifically for anyone with Leprosy to be able to receive treatment for free since the government’s recognized how dangerously this disease can spread.
It’s the part where they actually perform treatments/procedures right then and there, in the middle of an open yard, it is this that concerns me the most. One of the neighbors mentioned that they performed an “operation” to “eliminate” one woman’s myoma, and another woman’s nasal polyp. The operation was done with needles according to the lady who had her polyp removed (she is friends with my mom and was also there when they performed the myoma procedure). While the woman who had her myoma removed, a cloth was used to cover her legs so people weren’t able to see what exactly it was that they were doing to her.
My mom warned the lady who had her polyp removed to make sure she take antibiotics because she was very concerned with how the procedure was conducted: in plain sight, dust and all, with instruments that are questionable, by a person who has no knowledge/education/training in medicine.
I don’t want to judge the motives of the people conducting this event, for all I know they might actually believe that what they are doing is helping people. But 2 reasons still have me doubting this and after hearing about the operations, both my mom and I feel like we need to say something to the ladies who still continue to go to this meeting, so they’re better informed and understand the dangers they might not know they’re putting themselves in.
First of all, this neighborhood/community that I live in is a poor, lower income family neighborhood. The average highest education level in this neighborhood is high school, and that is with the current young generation. while for their parents - the people who attend the checkup-meeting, it’s more between kindergarten to junior high. Some of these woman can’t even read and write.
People should already know the dangers of having unsterilised objects inserted into their bodies, but I believe because these woman are so under-educated, this fact doesn’t even cross their mind.
…contd
Happy Holidays!
First off, I apologize that this post is long - it should be a simple question but to get to the point has taken a few more lines that I thought. I had to cut it into 2 parts (this has never happened with any of my posts before!)
Here’s part 1:
A bit of a background before I explain the situation I’m facing:
My parents and I currently live in a Muslim populated neighborhood, there are only 2 other Christian families near by, both have been a part of this neighborhood for years and years. We just moved to this city a couple years ago - moving from a Christian populated city to a heavily Muslim populated city, we’ve had many reservations and are cautious in our interactions with neighbors while staying charitable and continuing to practice our faith daily. We don’t take to the stereotype, but at the same time experiences’ of friends and acquaintances have proven that prudence is very important. I live in Indonesia, and just to make clear, it is not a Muslim country, not governed by Shariah law, but it is heavily Muslim populated.
Now, onto the situation:
Every morning, for the past month or so in my neighborhood there has been this free (donations encouraged) checkup-meeting involving traditional medicine. Neither my parents nor I have ever gone to it even though our neighbors have invited us to join them. My mom has become friends with a few of the neighborhood ladies (she’s even a workout buddy with one of them), so they like to hang out on someone’s porch had just talk. Some of these ladies have gone to the check up-meetings pretty much every morning and then they would talk to my mom (and sometimes to me) about it, like what kind of treatment the people are giving, what illnesses they treat, and the medicines they distribute.
I call the event a checkup-meeting, because it is much of like a meeting, gathering or assembly. People gather at the community courtyard and sit down under an open walled tent. The event starts with a prayer, followed by the leader conducting a health talk+sermon where he would relate the teachings of their religion to the healing practice that he does. Finally, one by one the attendees would go to the leader, tell them their illness to which he would give an herbal medicine (a powder mixture which you’d drink by adding warm water).
Now, if it were just to the point where they talk, give health tips, even with the herbal medicine, I wouldn’t feel like I should say anything. Even though some of what they’ve said are just plain misinforming people. For example, something that I heard directly (since they use a loud speaker, and it’s an open yard, and it’s just around the corner from where I live I can sometimes hear the sermons), they discourage people from seeking professional medical assistance if they are afflicted with Leprosy, because the leader says, going to a doctor would cost them $500-$600 while if they just drink the herbal medicine he gives to them for whatever donation they’re willing to give they’d be healed just the same and be healthier. The reality is the government actually has a program specifically for anyone with Leprosy to be able to receive treatment for free since the government’s recognized how dangerously this disease can spread.
It’s the part where they actually perform treatments/procedures right then and there, in the middle of an open yard, it is this that concerns me the most. One of the neighbors mentioned that they performed an “operation” to “eliminate” one woman’s myoma, and another woman’s nasal polyp. The operation was done with needles according to the lady who had her polyp removed (she is friends with my mom and was also there when they performed the myoma procedure). While the woman who had her myoma removed, a cloth was used to cover her legs so people weren’t able to see what exactly it was that they were doing to her.
My mom warned the lady who had her polyp removed to make sure she take antibiotics because she was very concerned with how the procedure was conducted: in plain sight, dust and all, with instruments that are questionable, by a person who has no knowledge/education/training in medicine.
I don’t want to judge the motives of the people conducting this event, for all I know they might actually believe that what they are doing is helping people. But 2 reasons still have me doubting this and after hearing about the operations, both my mom and I feel like we need to say something to the ladies who still continue to go to this meeting, so they’re better informed and understand the dangers they might not know they’re putting themselves in.
First of all, this neighborhood/community that I live in is a poor, lower income family neighborhood. The average highest education level in this neighborhood is high school, and that is with the current young generation. while for their parents - the people who attend the checkup-meeting, it’s more between kindergarten to junior high. Some of these woman can’t even read and write.
People should already know the dangers of having unsterilised objects inserted into their bodies, but I believe because these woman are so under-educated, this fact doesn’t even cross their mind.
…contd
but then again that makes complete sense.