The demon on the hill

A few weeks ago, I was sitting beneath a jackfruit tree with my neighbors when I started to hear drumming in the not-so-far distance. Bwaita told me that there was a demon up in a tree on a hilltop. Wait, what? Drumming means there is a demon in a tree? That can’t be right. I asked for clarification, which I didn’t get because he kept leaving out imperative information that he took for granted as common knowledge. So, I went to my other neighbor for the missing links…

Rachel told me that some company started drilling big boulders around that hill, which was disturbing the peace. Alright, now we’re getting somewhere. She also informed me that spirits like to live on hilltops instead of down in the village.  So, apparently the spirit on that particular hilltop was the one being bothered. You know, not some random spirit/demon causing problems in the village. Okay, so now I’m beginning to make sense of the whole thing. But it just wasn’t good enough for me; I had to see it to believe it!

Rachel, Bwaita’s mother, and I decided to head toward the drumming to see exactly what was going on. So we’re walking, the sky is super ominous, the wind is really picking up, I see lightening in the distance, and hear the rumbling of thunder as we approach the hill. All I’m thinking is, it is not the brightest idea to climb to the highest point in my village as a storm is fast approaching. But of course we proceed anyway. As we near, the sound of jackhammers breaking rock combats the amplified drumming. We reach the epicenter of it all: there are dozens of villagers crowded up on the summit and dozens more scaling this surprisingly steep hill. The three of us decide to make our ascent. We’re half way up when some kids tell us there are no shoes or phones allowed. I of course didn’t have my phone on me and immediately removed my chacos.

So, here I am, the only white person for miles, climbing a rock face barefoot, heading toward a demon while being serenaded by drums, with a storm soon approaching. Yeah, totally fine. We reach the top and I’m greeted by several familiar faces, a group of men drumming, women singing and dancing around, and an inconspicuously placed animal skin tarp. Again, totally fine. Oh, and the view from the top was absolutely spectacular! Beautiful green rolling hills as far as the eye can see. However, I wanted to get the full scoop and get back home as fast as possible due to the imminent storm.

So, what I figured out was that the spirit became unhappy due to the noisy drilling and had possessed a girl in the village a few days prior. It then manifested itself into fire, which was what was beneath that tarp. The men were drumming and the women were singing and dancing to entertain the spirit while the drilling persisted. Makes sense! After getting our fill, we returned home without ever being disturbed by the weather. It turned out that the rain never came. I heard drumming over the next several days and then it stopped. I recently asked about what had happened with everything. I was told that the villagers were complaining that the drumming was causing the rain to delay, so they were relocated to a nearby village. As soon as the drumming stopped, it rained… and it rained hard. Yup, just another day in the village!