Spiders and Demonic Possession

D-Ahhh, it’s that time again… time for another blog update! This week was the first week of teaching in our new schools. So far, Jessie and I are both satisfied with our classes; however, with only 35 students to teach, it is safe to assume that they are only 2/3 full as more are expected to arrive next week. Why? I have no idea. It’s best not to ask. I find that most times the answers to my questions leave me more confused than I was before I asked. Perhaps you are wondering about the curious title of this post, and as I attempt to describe the following events I am reminded that I really need to carry my camera with me everywhere I go. I was finishing up my first class of the day; the students all stood up and uniformly said GOODBYE TEACHER!! I picked my jacket up off the floor (as it had fallen off of the desk), and in a manner becoming of a respected teacher in Ethiopia I briskly walked out of the room in a cool fashion. With my jacket over my shoulder, I suddenly felt a slight tickle under my collar. The floor was filthy so it must be a leaf or something, or so I thought. It was the latter. I reached back to remove whatever was bothering me, and when I brought my hand back in front of me…well, let’s just say for a second it looked like I brought a baby pet tarantula for show and tell. I started flailing around like the little sissy I apparently am. All of the other students outside were laughing hysterically, of course, until they walked up and saw this thing. Many of the boys walked up, and you could just see their faces sober up the second they saw it. It was black with a red tint and a big fat black ass. I am assured there are no poisonous spiders in the Highlands, but still. Still trying to recover my usual resting heart rate from the spider incident, I suddenly became aware of frantic screaming coming from up the dirt road leading to the other classroom. By this time I was standing with some of the other teachers. I noticed a girl who was being carried out of the classroom by five large (by Ethiopian standards) guys. This girl was moving her body in ways I have never outside of the movies. The girl was also screaming “MALO, MALO, WAYYO WAYYO!!!” which roughly translates into “PLEASE, PLEASE WHY ME? WHY ME?” Naturally, I asked the other teachers what in the hell was going on. The teachers replied with what sounded like “Satin, Satin.” Since I was a bit dense it didn’t dawn on me that they were actually saying “Satan, Satan.” I was about to ask where they were carrying her, but I noticed that they were carrying her in the direction of the Orthodox Church. Apparently, the consensus was that this girl had been possessed by a demon, for which she would presumably receive an exorcism. In the end, I counted over 8 people trying to restrain her. Donovan Gregg