I had gone to the mental ward before, so I knew the drill, I told Wisdom and Jennifer, how to talk to the people there, I warned them not to treat them like they were mad and I told them not to argue with them, and anything they said, you just smile and nod.
I remembered the last time I was there, I was with my bestie and a Eucharistic Minister, a lady there kept talking anyhow, saying Catholics are devils and they pretend to do good. The Eucharistic Minster told us to ignore her.
When Wisdom, Jennifer and I got to the ward, we were jittery, But I hide my jitters, but Wisdom and Jennifer showed theirs, in fact Wisdom said he was getting ready to dodge a punch. When we got to the front pouch of the ward a security man said be careful their are mad people here, that scared us but It was for God so we prayed and we knocked on the gate , a man with fully relaxed hair came to open the gate, he looked mad, can't blame him, you tend to pick some characters from where you always are. The guard by the door asked us what we wanted and we told them we came to see the sick, they told us to be careful, we told we would and walked it. We decided to go to the women's ward first, we felt they would be more gentle and calm.
The first bed we went to immediately we mentioned we were catholics, she told us to get away from her sight, that she doesn't listen to us, that she goes to a believers church, initially Wisdom and Jennifer tried to tell the woman that we are Christians and we just wanted to visit her, but she still drove us away. We went to another bed, the woman there was calm and quiet, I suspected she suffers from Depression, and we talked to her briefly because she gave us hints that she didn't want any company.
We went from bed to bed and there was this young girl we saw, I can't remember her name, She told us she was from Gwoza and she was fourteen years old, I am not really the kind off person that watches the news or read Newspapers, so I kept asking her where is Gwoza, she just looked at me and said Gwoza. Later I saw Gwoza on the news and the town was on fire , I wished I would have been able to hear her story, but a lady started to shout at us to leave the ward, her voice was so brutal, we were scared she would go ballistic on us, so we left and went to the male side.
Funny enough the male side was way better than the female's side, we talked to everyone, the person that caught my attention was Abduli, when we came to his bed, he welcomed us and started to talk. Abduli is crazy smart, He would make a fantastic lawyer, He is well read and informed, he kept giving us Bible verses and telling us things we have never heard before.
This is his story.
He told us that the reason why he was here was because of drug abuse, he said not hard drugs as in cocaine, he meant weed I.e Igbo, wewe, cannabis. He said it affected him badly, he started to lose his memory, he became violent and he spent money endlessly on weed, he told us, this was his sixth time here, he talked for a long time, my feet started to hurt but I didn't care, I was captured by Abduli's intelligence, he told us, he wanted to finish the bible before he left the ward and we encouraged him.
He told us he was getting better and he would quit smoking and I was praying in my heart that he would stop smoking.
Then he told us his need small money for us, that he was hungry and had no food ,In that request I saw the junky in him, We told him we didn't have any money on us, that when we go on missions we don't carry money, I suggested that I would go outside and buy him something, but he said no that it would take too long and he wanted the money now. He switched from an eloquent orator to a desperate beggar, I looked at him and I wasn't happy, I see some friends of mine smoking weed saying it Medicinal and does no harm blah blah, different rubbish statement,
Don't be deceived, there are a lot of young people in the mental ward and weed brought them there. Madness cannot be cure it can only be managed.
See you next post guys and If you want to share your stories , send them to Ifuekojemmy@yahoo.com
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