I am feeling half lonely but half relieved for the silence this morning. Everybody is still in Kumasi for the funerals which I mentioned earlier, I did want to pay my respects as well as a trip to Vienna City (it would be rude to go all the way to K’si and not go there). Then there’s the trip to my fathers home town this morning. Actually on second thoughts I am tired just thinking about it, I’ll see them when they get back.

First thing I do in the morning is check out the posts on facebook, it’s on my phone, what can I say. Everyday my mainly Ghanaian friends post something like “Lord I lift your name on High”, “Lord you are my guiding light”. Now I’m all for praising the Lord but he has a lot of people to take care of, give it a break mate.

Then there is the misinterpretation of the bible. Always a thrill to hear someone read a passage and then spin it in a way that suits them. I was listening to the radio this morning. The usual relationship talk show. One guy calls in and says that the bible says that the woman must stay sub-missive and respect her husband but all it says about a husband is that he must love his wife. He then started some crap about if a man respects his wife she would see him as a weak man, the obvious ignorance about the meaning of the word respect made me switch off. I feel real pity for the woman that married this guy.

So how does this tie in with the Kumasi trip. A young man died. He was in his 30s. A very quiet guy, he didn’t really drink much, maybe a guinness and even at that, it was on the odd occasion, most times it was a Malta Guinness. The last time I saw him he had a large lump on the side of his neck. It had been there for almost a year and it had got to the point that he couldn’t move his neck. He was in a lot of pain but he was that quiet that he suffered in silence. That was the last time I saw him. The next time I heard his name it was when my cousin called to say the boy had died. The lump on his neck was cancerous. By the time the doctors caught it, it had spread and it was too late.

I can’t help but wonder if he had gone to the doctor early enough he would still be here today or if it was inevitable that his time had expired on earth. You see, it is not that he refused to go to the doctor. No, instead of taking the boy to the hospital, his family people took him to church. Even though modern technology has advanced so forward, the mindset of some people is still so very backward. But can you really blame them totally. You see it on the God channel on cable TV. The evangelist pastor with just one touch heals the boy who has been in a wheelchair since birth or makes the blind woman see. The congregation stands in awe thinking pick me, pick me.

Is it real or is it all staged, that is the question. I am a strong believer that God created man, and he created a certain type of man who would be a doctor, who would use science to heal. So if that is the case, how can one lone ranger with a magic finger heal the sick. Why is he Harry Potter?

I went to a church once, it was one of those all night ones, I wasn’t in support of it but I was supporting the person I was going with. She was in pain and wanted some hope, so I said I would accompany her. I left the service in the early hours of the morning and asked her not to bring me there again. The hall was full of desperate women, all had marriage problems and for those that didn’t, I am sure going to that church would cause it. The pastor would walk up to a woman, tell her life story, hey I saw it, man doesn’t respect woman, always having affairs, she is struggling to bring up the kids more or less alone as he spent his money on booze and women. The next thing he would say is that it is the witches. It was either his sister, his mother on occasion it would even be the woman’s own mother. That old chestnut.

A lot of the women their were Ghanaian. He would say, do you know an Akua, or an Ama. They would say yes, of course you would know such a person, even my non-Ghanaian friends know someone of that name. It’s like asking an English person if he knows anyone with the surname Smith or Jones.

So they would pray, he would take collection. At the end of the night, or morning I should say he asked 10 people to come to the front and give I believe it was either £50 or £100 each, he didn’t say what for but the ladies flocked down to the front. He even got 11 people and woman number 10 and 11 were fighting to be the last person.

This is all keeping the faith but some people put their whole lives in the fate of these pastors, these pastors too will not advice to go and seek the professional help that they need but will instead take the donation say some prayers and send them on their way. There is always witchcraft involved. An accident, a fall, a scrape, an STD, has to be a witch that put a spell on it.

I remember when the ex had his accident. His mother who was in Ghana then called, pastor in tow. The pastor said that he saw the accident coming. It was a witch. Asked the boy to send some money to buy some holy water and a prayer. I said, if the pastor saw all this, why didn’t he say something before. Secondly, do you need to pay for a prayer. I passed him my bible and told him to pray himself, utter tripe.

I’m not saying all Pastors are like that, I have been to some very good churches where I have heard the word of God and it has really touched me. I even went to one church where the pastor said that if we shouldn’t pay our tithe to his church if we were visitors but to our own.

It’s good to keep the faith, but seek the appropriate treatment first and pray that the medicine works.