Tanzanian "Witch Doctor"

Towards the end of my trip to Tanzania, two of my roommates, Claire and Anna, traveled to Loliondo. Along with one of our CCS drivers, Richard, and a local family of seven, the ten of them rented a safari truck and drove the fourteen hours over a Friday night.

They were going to Loliondo to see the "witch doctor" who supposedly has found the cure for HIV/AIDs. The cure is a herbal drink that you only have to take once. The family they were with was going because they planned on drinking the medicine, while Claire and Richard just wanted to learn more about the doctor and his cure, and Anna was hoping to get ahold of some of the medicine and bring it home to try and find out what was in it.

It was said that the wait in line once they got there to see the doctor would take no more than one day, so that's what they all planned for -- only enough food and water for 24 hours. Well, when they got there, it was definitely not what they were expecting. The line was much longer than they ever imagined and barely moving at all. Their 24 hour wait turned into a 72 hour wait. The family they were with even had babies and little kids with them and they didn't have enough to feed or give them to drink. Claire and Anna decided to take a walk while they waited in line and started counting how many people were already there. They estimated there was about ten people in each car and after counting the cars, they said there was over 30,000 people already there and many more were still just getting there.

The first day there the doctor decided to close early. The next day was Sunday so everyone had to wait for him to go to church before he started seeing people, but then he found out cars were sneaking in from another way and cutting in line so he got angry and decided not to see anyone that day. Claire and Anna said the smell there was absolutely horrible from everyone going to the bathroom on the side of the road and leaving their garbage everywhere. They also said they heard at least seven people died while they were there waiting in line because they were so sick and dying from AIDs and the cure was their last hope.

The problem with this cure is that after someone drinks it, they take an HIV test a few weeks later and somehow the medicine produces a false positive so the person thinks they are cured. But, if they were to keep taking HIV tests down the road, they would realize they are still HIV positive. Because of the false positives, people will go around having unprotected sex because they think they do not have HIV, but in reality they do and they end of spreading it even more.

Not only is the witch doctor's medicine said to cure HIV/AIDs, but it is also known as "The Mother of All Cures." A single dose also is supposed to cure cancer, diabetes, ulcers, asthma, and hypertension.

The ten of them never made it to see the doctor. After three days of waiting in line and barely moving, they were out of food and water and needed to go home. Claire and Anna said it was a great learning experience, but it was definitely very scary to see how many people really believed in the doctor and his medicine because it was their only chance left of surviving.