trust me and take it!

Weeks ago i scared a chameleon into taking a suicide leap into the depths of the well. it splashed around for a helpless 30 seconds or so and then sunk to the great unknown. i didn't mean to and in fact i've been thinking about it ever since. not because i'm that much of an animal lover, mostly because the well is my main water source.

sakola told me he was sick and instantly i thought of the lizard. he drinks that water straight. i buy mine filtered and bagged. i asked him what hurt (i've gotten good at pretending i'm a doctor) and he patted his stomach.

when i was at senam's i too was suffering from an irritable stomach, and i assumed i had parasites. i thought back to a time when i spent a summer backpacking Hawaii with my best friend Sara. i went out dancing with friends and returned to her throwing up. our close friend who had been on the island for quite some time knew of a local remedy. skin a piece of aloe and eat it. then swallow 2 spoonfuls of papaya seeds and whaalaa!

i asked senam if there was aloe in Africa. he said of course and had some to me by nightfall. i put it in some water, and never took it due to my paranoia. i didn't see the plant it came from and wondered if there was a strand of poisonous aloe that i hadn't heard about yet. the headlines would read "WHITE GIRL DIES FROM EATING FLESH OF POSIONSOUS CACTUS" and everybody would look at each other wondering what in the world i had done that for. i wouldn't even be around to explain.

so instead i carried it a half day and 3 bus rides later into Boamadumase. i stashed it in the corner of my room and didn't think about it until Sakola was groaning holding his belly.

"stay there. i have aduro (medicine). i'm coming back."

i ran in my room and grabbed the aloe. then i went in the kitchen and got my papaya i had bought earlier that day. i was going to fix his problem and wow him with my use of all natural remedies!

he was stretched out on the ground with his eyes closed. i walked over and bent down with my goods.

he looked at me like i was insane.

i completely understood.

then i tried to explain. in twi.

once he got the gist he refused to be my patient. i yelled at him and told him he had to be! i was trying to tell him the papaya seeds wouldn't taste all that bad if he just swallowed them whole. he still would not budge, so i just kept saying the same thing over and over.

"if you take this you will feel better."

i wasn't very certain myself, still clinging to a minute worry about the plant. but i was having too much fun, i couldn't ruin it by asking if he knew whether or not the food i was about to give him was poison.

"take the papaya seed and-"

he put his hand over my mouth and said very slowly in english.

"this" he held up the papaya "is bor-efre." and then he knocked me on the side of my head.

we both laughed hard.

i had been telling him to eat the seeds of a yam for the past 10 minutes. he had been kind enough to give me the respect and act like what i was saying made sense.

"okay, whatever." i said in english. "eat the seeds."

"no. it's cold."

we had already had this conversation. he didn't like eating papaya at night or when it was cold.

"you don't have to eat the borefre, just eat its seeds."

he sat there like a child refusing his peas. then, his stomach got the better of him.

he swallowed the aloe just as i had remembered Sara doing it, with a soured face and a struggle to make it happen. then he took one spoonful of the seeds. he spit a few out through the gap between his two front teeth.

"okay" i said handing him the last spoonful.

he was convulsing his body. it was the first time i'd seen him be over dramatic.

"take it!" i yelled. i felt like Ma. she would have been proud.

10 minutes later he finished the dosage and looked at me like i had just drowned his kitten.

then i decided maybe it would be a good idea to pray for his stomach too. Sakola is a prayer warrior, and he thought it would was a fine thing to do.

"dear God" i said. i made sure to do this all in english. i didn't want him to understand. "i'm asking you to improve the state of Sakola's health, and i pray that the aloe was the kind i know of. if it wasn't, it'd be great if you could perform a miracle for me, thanks, in Jesus' name, Amen."

"Amen" Sakola said.

He woke up the next morning looking great and feeling great. His stomach had been cured. I'd like to think it was my late night nursing session, but if it wasn't that is even better.