Troubled Students

Carolyn Banda is a secretarial student currently in her second year at the college. She is very bright, outgoing, fun, and sweet. She is a good student and always has a good attitude in my drama club. She is an orphan so she stays with relatives, but moves around quite a bit. Her sister, Delia, is also a student in the college. A few days a go, as if someone flipped a switch, she went hysterical. In the morning she was normal and then in the evening, students arrived at our door telling us that Carolyn was saying weird things and not acting like herself. Eva, Girlie, and Sr. Salo brought her to the hospital that night where she continued this strange behavior: crying, laughing at the Doctor's socks, and not recognizing people. They sedated her and brought her back to the boarding to rest. The next morning the situation was the same so they brought her back to the hospital for tests and more medication. Her aunt is a nurse so they sent her home with her. The doctor's here almost immediately treat everything like malaria, but she didn't show any of the symptom's. She was preparing for five secretarial certification exams this week and we believe that the stress of preparing might have caused some sort of nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, none of us here have any experience with that kind of thing and can't really say what is going on. We haven't seen anything like this before but there have been sudden illnesses and if it isn't something common like malaria then it isn't long before someone suggests witchcraft or evil spirits. With a student taken to the hospital in the middle of the night acting the way she was acting, it happened pretty fast this time. For me it doesn't seem like a good thing to bring up even if that's what it is because it makes everyone in the boarding is nervous. We went to visit her at her aunt's house with some college students that afternoon and the behavior was the same. To me, she seemed like someone unable to cope with the death of a close relative or something similar. She recognized everyone, was able to speak English, and could answer questions when asked, but was very distressed. Her actions and speech were very erratic. She would laugh and then start crying. When given some bread and tea, she went back and forth between stiring the tea and tearing the bread to pieces. Something is seriously wrong and everyone is very worried. We managed to postpone the exams so the other students do have to worry about taking tests while all this is going on. For those that pray, it would be good to remember her and her classmates; and for those that don't, it might even help to think nice thoughts for them.