By Irvine Syazyombo
When the 16 year old boy and her 18 year old sister entered the house, their father, Joshua, realized at once that something special had happened to them because they were unusually excited.
The widower whose wife had died of AIDS five years back was impatiently waiting for the good news because genuine excitement was rare in the poverty stricken Shangu City of Holi Island.
“Praise the Lord!” James shouted.
“Hallelujah! Glory to God!” Judy replied.
That even puzzled her father more. Had any of them gotten baptized? Had they been given money by any of their fellow worshippers that Sunday?
But the children passed through the sitting room where their father was but dashed straight to their individual bedrooms and reappeared with a tin of tablets each.
The children hurried outside where James threw the ARVs in the pit latrine before the two returned to the sitting room to tell their father the cause of their happiness.
Once the two children were in the sitting room again they could not keep the excitement to themselves any longer.
But they sung a Pentecostal church song before revealing the cause of their sudden joy.
“Daddy, we have been cured of HIV. We have been freed of HIV demon. We are HIV negative,” Judy revealed while James continuously nodded.
“What do you mean? Do you mean you have attended VTC and the results are negative? How possible is that anyway?” he wondered.
“What Judy has just said is the truth. We are okay starting today. We are fine,” James said confidently.
Joshua wondered what was going on. He had lived with HIV for twenty years. His two children were luckily alive since birth because of consistent ART medication .What were they suggesting when they said they were both suddenly HIV negative?
The children noticed their father’s impatience. They had to lift the lid of suspense without wasting any more time.
“Daddy, a prophet from God has prayed and exorcised us of the HIV demon .We are proudly HIV negative. We have as a result thrown the ARVs in the latrine,” James disclosed.
“What! Who is that prophet! Listen to me. That is crazy. ARVs are your lifeline. That is all. That prophet is a devil if he…”
“Daddy, do not call the man of God who has healed us of the demon of HIV a devil. He will curse you. He even prays for evil people to die,” Judy interrupted her father.
Two days later the family of three was watching television in the evening when James suddenly developed a fever .He plunged into violent fits five minutes later.
Because of his poverty, Joshua borrowed a wheelbarrow and wheeled his son to a nearby clinic where the condition of the patient became critical.
The clinic diagnosed him with tuberculosis before referring him to Shangu Teaching Hospital where he died after two days.
Mourners had just started to make burial preparations when Judy suddenly developed diarrhea.
Soon the disease worsened .Therefore the attention of the mourners shifted to her until they had her taken to hospital where she was admitted after being diagnosed with dysentery.
The doctors soon discovered that she also had meningitis. Before they cured her of meningitis, malaria joined the war.
Four days later Judy also died .Poor Joshua was left without any child just because of the false prophet.
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