TRUE STORY
I was talking with a dear sister from Sudan the other day and she showed me the scars on her throat and arm. When I asked what they were she told me.
"The scar on my throat was from a hot metal poker that the doctor used to burn my throat to make my cough go away when I got the flu. It took three months for the burn to heal. The scars on my arm are from the burns of a hot iron to keep me from getting malaria. All of us were forced to do this in Sudan. It didn't work, but it didn't matter. It made the people feel like they were doing something to fight the disease and it was expected that everyone pretend it was working."
"Wow that's crazy," I said. "Everybody doing something that they know doesn't work, but makes them feel better about doing it anyway."
"Like wearing a mask?" she replied.
WOW! Puts it all into perspective. She deflated my western pride. In some ways we haven't advanced so much.
My Sudanese friend is a medical doctor and now lives in America.