Folk Medicine

 There are certain folk medicines that has been passed on from one generation to another. When I was seven or eight years old, I had an incident that allowed me to observe one such remedy. It's not for us to judge the action or behaviour of people in those times because things were different back then. They did what they had to do for survival. On the other hand they were honest and hardworking folk and cared for their family. Neighbours shared what they have with one another and cared for each other.

We had a big yard for us to play. Some of the neighbours children came over and we decided to play hide and seek outside of the house. At that time the house was built on concrete pillars, so there was space underneath the house to play. It was a hot day and we felt the cool breeze as it circled among the pillars. There was some construction being done at the time and we were told to be careful where we walked.

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I tried hiding behind one of the pillars where there was an old barrel at the side. It looked safe but in doing so, I stepped on a rusty nail which was turned upside down on a piece of wood. My heel was punctured and thought nothing of it. I did not say anything to anyone at that time. As the day wore on, I was in some pain and could not walk on the foot. I thought it would go away after a while.

It was close to bedtime when my mother saw me limping and ask "what's wrong with my foot." I told her what happened earlier in the day with the nail and she immediately examined the spot where I was punctured. It was painful and she saw that it was infected. She acted quickly to help me because she knew that if nothing was done soon, it can possible lead to tetanus.

Now, what I am about to say should not be tried at home by anyone. Remember I am giving my life experiences.  As I said previously, this is folk medicine passed on from one generation to the next. My mother grew up with her grandmother and there are things that she learnt that helped at that time, because that's what they knew for survival. It was a different era and somehow it worked for them. I would not do what they did because times have changed. I respected my mother's efforts and loved her dearly.

My mother examined my foot, then she took a clove of garlic and pressed it. She took a piece of cotton and soaked in the kerosene oil that was in the lamp, and placed it with the garlic. All the while I am observing everything she did. The following is what caused my eyes to open really wide. Looking around she found a  cockroach which she took and cut open the belly. She then placed the garlic and the cotton with the kerosene oil on the open belly of the cockroach, and put everything on the punctured wound and bandaged it. Mother was so calm that I was not afraid. She told me I should be fine in the morning and send me off to bed.

I slept soundly without pain and believed every word my mother told me. When I awoke the following morning, there was no pain, no infection and I could have walked on that foot without a problem.

My mother loved us deeply and will do anything to help her children as any loving and caring mother would do because life is like that.

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