Friday, October 21, 2011

The Rainy Season and Garlic Remedies

The rainy season is back. My body told me so as it decided to get a head cold the first day that it wasn't five hundred degrees outside. About a week ago I noticed that violent thunder and lighting storms were becoming more and more frequent. Apparently that's what happens when the rainy season starts. It just doesn't switch over like you think it would. It has to do it violently. As for now? It was nice today. So nice that my usual cold shower felt....cold. There was practically no hot part of the day. As mentioned before, my body did not like this and decided it would contract a cold. The rain is nice though even though it seems to have scared away tourists.

Going back to health. I haven't had real bad stomach issues in over a month now which is a record for me in Panama. I've tried my hardest to remind myself not to put my fingers in my mouth, go barefoot anywhere, and bleach and filter all my water, but I really think that my success is due to one thing that I have been religious about. I have started eating one raw clove of garlic a day. I chop it up and swallow it down with some water. Almost instantly I feel a little bit more energy and if I'm lucky it will make me want to go to the latrine about thirty minutes later. People in my community kept telling me about this among other remedies and garlic is so available here I thought why not. Well it seems to have worked.

After taking mounds and mounds of medicine including probiotics, hippie drops, Grape Seed Extract, and prescribed stuff that literally tears your stomach to shreds killing everything, apparently the answer has been on my counter all along. I have a theory about this though. As far as I can tell, the garlic isn't killing amoebas or parasites if I have them which I'm quite certain that I do. I think it is merely controlling them to a point that is tolerable. Whether it be killing a lot of them or just subduing enough to make a difference, I still feel like there is something in there, it just doesn't bother me anymore. As you might have read in most of my posts, I've had parasites and worms here about every 3 weeks and sometimes right after I use the medicine they come right back. From what I've learned is that the medicine kills everything in your system. Even the good stuff. So when I was done with the meds I would just contract whatever was around really easy. Now I'm running at about 85% which is good enough for me here as I spent months just laying on my floor in pain.

The woman or girl I took to the hospital apparently is having pain every five minutes now and if you don't know what I'm talking about read the post before this one. Her brother came and got me so I could call the American doctors to see what she should do. The doctor sounded concerned on the phone and said she should go to the hospital as soon as possible. I'm a little worried just from the information I know. I really don't want to hear about another baby dying on the way out and really really don't want anything bad to happen to her. Fingers crossed.

Been doing a little more hiking lately as it has become more necessary. Once was to climb to the top of the mountain that my house faces to take a look at the complete water system and assess what can be done to filter it and to get the flow going better. I found out it's not only doable but cheap. The other hike was really early up into the mountain to a house with 16 people in it. They don't have a good water source and are interested in a tank system. I don't have funds for it now, but they are definitely on the list if money comes around. The older guy living there is an enigma to me as he speaks almost no Spanish.

Days are stretching out longer as the rain keeps the air colder. Next month we will have all new posters for our tour, a new article out in a large newspaper, and we are also traveling to boquete to sell a bunch of our chocolate. Should be a good one. Just need to put something on the calendar for December to look forward to and I should be set. After that month. Its all down hill.  

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