Diagnosis: The Dwarves Envied My Daughter

A phone conversation between myself and my friend, Cheryl.

Me: Che, Paige was sick.. blah.blah.blah. So we went to the doctor and brought her to the hospital and they couldn't find anything wrong with her. blah.blah.blah. We brought her to the quack. Amazingly, her diarrhea and vomiting stopped altogether. blah.blah.blah.

Che: That's what I learned to. Now, before I bring Jade to the doctor, I make sure that I go to the quack first.

This conversation really happened. And yes, she really did say that.



Being mothers living in a country where there are beliefs like a child can get sick when a dwarf envies her or likes her, you learn to bring your child to a quack doctor before bringing her to a real MD.

I learned this after Paige got sick and we had to bring her to the hospital where she stayed for a week. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with my daughter, so we were forced to bring her out. She was still so sick. We decided to bring her to a local quack and after a 15-minute healing session, Paige slept. When she woke up, she was feeling so much better.

This taught me to bring her to the quack to avoid unnecessary medical expenses. Unbelievable, but true. true. true.

Today, Paige was vomiting all over the place. We then brought her to the quack again because we thought that she might be suffering from "sibang".

In our place, there is a belief that if someone is really really hungry and you came across that person, he or she can caused you to be really sick. There is a belief that only when that person puts his saliva on your stomach that you'd get better. The condition is called Sibang.

The session with the quack was pretty weird. First, she diagnosed Paige with Sibang, Lapo, and Suba.

*Sibang -- someone who's really hungry caused her to become ill.
*Lapo -- It's like a broken bone or a strained ligament. I do not really know how to define it but the idea is the same.
*Suba -- dwarves envied her so they made her sick.

She then rubbed a lot of leaves on her. What amazes me is that the healing process seems to change with every visit. One time she rubbed a lot of paper on Paige. Now, its leaves! leaves! leaves!
The whole thing lasted about 30 minutes.
When we came home, Paige slept.
She woke up half an hour later
And amazingly... she was whole lot better.

My friend, Sussette, a doctor came over and I insisted that the quack cured Paige.
She answered dismissively, "ah...huh."