Hello everyone! I’ve been sick for a few days now with what can only be described as gripe rixu. Nearly every sickness imaginable here is referred to as gripe and many people pride themselves on their personal gripe cures. I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some of the remedies that I have been offered as my sickness as transformed from body pain and a fever to a sore throat and runny nose. Last Saturday, I had a fever and spent the whole day in bed wishing I had the energy to do something. The day was not entirely lost however because I was showered with kindness from my community and offered these cures for fever:
● Drink txeu (a lot of) fresh cow milk
● Make lemon tea
● Climb up the mountain, pick a weed that grows laaaaa riba (way up the mountain) and make a tea from it (As I was told this one, I couldn’t help but envision the epic hunt for the eagle eggs of Nacho Libre)
So after a few days of lemon tea, milk, and some non-aspirin fever reducer from my Peace Corps med kit, the fever was gone, but I was left with the same painfully sore throat that half my community has and a bunch of snot. That’s where the second round of remedy suggestions came in:
● Take a shot of hot (flaming is best) grog (local, barely refined, super forti alcohol made of sugarcane)
● more lemon tea, but this time mixed with sumu de tambarina (tamarin juice)
●Very bitter tea made from one of the grasses in front of my house… who knew that I was living on top of a natural pharmacy??
That’s when my landlord, a Cape Verdean woman who now lives in Boston, Massachusetts and is here visiting, intervened. She gave me her “bon remedi de America” – Dayquill, calling it the best medicine in the world and bringing my healing, cultural experience full circle.
Don’t worry, with all of the Cape Verdean remedies and a little help from my well stocked medical kit, I’m getting better and even have my voice back, which is convenient for teaching stuffed classrooms of teenagers! So who knows if it was the tincture from the mountain, the flaming grog, or the Dayquill, but Im glad to be feeling better! Love to you all and enjoy the picture of the mountain (actually the backside of the volcano) -home to the mysterious fever-reducing leaves!
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