| Mysterious Deaths in Ecuador’s Jungle Expose Clashing Worldviews |
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Grief and an intermingled sense of relief gripped medical missionary Richard Douce as he visited a tiny Ecuadorian village struck by a mysterious outbreak that left seven people dead. An HCJB World Radio infectious diseases specialist, Douce felt especially sorry for a couple whose loss was greatest. Two of their young boys died in the outbreak last summer in the jungle village of Jatún Molino on the Bobonaza River in eastern Ecuador’s Pastaza province. Later a third son, 13-year-old Washington, died after being rushed to the capital city of Quito. “I can’t even touch the pain of what they must have felt losing three sons,” Douce said after his late-August trip to the remote village. “Basically, you cry with them.” The story began in June when a villager killed an animal in the dark -- a bat about the size of a pigeon. “The next morning the first dog started acting funny, and eventually died,” Douce wrote. “About a week later the first child died.” When four more deaths followed, government health workers responded with blood tests and vaccinations. But villagers viewed the mystery differently. “The community thought that witch doctors had cursed them,” wrote Dr. Jerry Koleski, a missionary physician at HCJB World Radio’s Vozandes Hospital in the jungle town of Shell. A short flight to Shell from Jatún Molino, Koleski was the first to see Washington whom he described as a “very frightened boy. We did all sorts of blood tests, but they all came back negative. In other words, we couldn’t figure out what was happening.” Further medical study in the village was hindered by traditional animistic religion and lack of knowledge about germs. Douce wrote, “There seemed to be mass hysteria. Many in the village believed that they were going to die.” That hysteria pushed Jatún Molino’s residents into a practice of their Quichua Indian ancestors -- witchcraft. While many in Jatún Molino are evangelical Christians, witchcraft still emerges at times, according to Lloyd Rogers, a missionary for four decades in Ecuador. He directs the Quito-based ministry Misión Evangélica Ecuador para Cristo (Ecuador for Christ Evangelical Mission). The gospel’s effect is evident “just as light drives out darkness,” said Rogers, and in general, witchcraft has been forced farther into the jungle as people learn of Jesus Christ. Tensions rose with rumors that Western medicine couldn’t solve the riddle which began around the time the bat was killed in June. A nearby witch doctor was hailed as a “savior” by some villagers and reviled by others who were desperately searching for answers. Tensions increased even more later in the summer when rumors circulated about his torture and drowning by villagers. What was killing dogs, children and adults in Jatún Molina? Was it something akin to the Ebola virus discovered several years ago in Africa? By the time Washington died, Ecuador’s Ministry of Health had ordered autopsies of outbreak casualties at Douce’s urging. Autopsy results revealed paralytic rabies as the cause of the deaths. It manifests itself differently than furious rabies (also known as classic rabies or canine rabies). A vaccination campaign ended the immediate crisis, and the autopsy results from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control confirmed that rabies was spread by vampire bats. The bats inflict wounds with razor-sharp teeth while the victim sleeps, then drink blood for several minutes. The bats prey principally on livestock, but also on birds and other mammals and “rarely on humans,” according to Encarta Encyclopedia. But Douce said villagers (whose shelters have no walls) consider bat bites almost as normal as mosquito bites. And on visits to jungle villages, Rogers has himself been bitten and has seen evidence of bites on students as well. The outbreak exposed more than the lack of medical care and clashing worldviews among the Indians of Ecuador’s rainforest. Development of the petroleum-rich jungle is controversial. Jatún Molino’s favorable view toward petroleum exploration had angered residents of Sarayaku, a neighboring village. When children began dying, that animosity gave rise to Jatún Molino residents’ suspicions they’d had been cursed by a witch doctor from Sarayaku. The small, obscure jungle villages’ conflict garnered a much higher profile in late October when the InterAmerican Commission of Human Rights in Washington heard a legal complaint by Sarayaku residents on the attempted reactivation of oil exploration. The complaint included various charges against a state-run firm, including attempts to kill the Indians. The state-run firm countered with its own charges against the Indians, including the kidnapping of some of its oil workers. The result of this disagreement is unclear. In this environment of human and spiritual struggle, Rogers is optimistic that his jungle schools are preparing children for what lies ahead. “The kids now are the ones who are reading and writing -- reading the Scriptures,” he said. ¨They’re the generation that is going to make a big difference in all these villages.” Source: HCJB World Radio |
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