We recently got another Peace Corps Volunteer at the
Senior Secondary (High) School in my area. He has been writing letters to
students to help them practice their English. One student told him about some
medical issues she has been having, specifically vaginal discharge since over 5
years back. Upon sitting in a health class recently where they were learning
about STIs, she realized the symptoms she had been experiencing were not
commonplace. It turned out she had an untreated STI. She did not know the
source of the infection, only that it had been plaguing her for so long. At the
urging of the Peace Corps Volunteer, she phoned her mother to try and find some
answers. As it turns out, her grandmother had suspected witchcraft in their home and had brought in a man to have sexual intercourse with the virginal young
girl as a way to combat it. Years of suffering were clarified that day. But it still breaks my heart that it took so long for her to know that truth. And it will undoubtedly take her even longer to come to terms with it, if she ever can.
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