of coconuts and local remedies.
yesterday, i wanted a coconut. you can get a coconut from a fruit-seller, but fruit-sellers tend to be in short supply on sundays. however, i happen to live in a place where palm trees abound, and they have coconuts. so emma and i went across the street, found a small boy, and gave him some money to climb up a palm tree and get me a coconut. the first boy got up the tree and hit one down, then came back down. another boy (there was a little crowd of them, as we'd interrupted some intensely complicated game they were playing that seemed to involve a soccer ball, sidewalk chalk and a bunch of rubber bands) immediately climbed back up the same tree and brought down two more. we split two of them open right there and shared them with the boys, then took the third one home, to be consumed later.
i've also had a cough for a couple of days now. i think this is the lingering effect of a head-cold that i picked up from my host-brother. i always blame the kid, but to be fair, he's two. he's a walking germ factory who delights in snotting and spitting on everything and everyone in sight. i've been sucking on cough drops for days, to no avail, so yesterday my friends convinced me to try the local cure for a cough -- chewing a bitter kola nut. the kola nut is a big deal here in nigeria -- it is used as medicine, a divination tool, and a mark of royalty. it's also an important part of social functions: you split a kola with guests, and kolas must be included in a bride price (umm, yes, there are still bride prices here. mostly ceremonial, but my friend who got married a couple months ago went for a bride price that included kola nuts, trunks of clothing, some cash, some livestock, some number of jugs of palm wine, and 40 pieces of yam) to bring luck to the marriage. but, for medicinal purposes, you chew a bitter kola nut to get rid of a cough. and, as my friend louisa just informed me, to counteract poison. good to know. it tastes DISGUSTING. so, the modern routine is that you chew the kola with a tom-tom, which is a menthol drop produced by cadbury that's popular here. so you chew them together until you can't stand it, and that's supposed to cure your cough. but it didn't. i'm still coughing. and everything i eat tastes like bitter kola.
sigh.
i've also had a cough for a couple of days now. i think this is the lingering effect of a head-cold that i picked up from my host-brother. i always blame the kid, but to be fair, he's two. he's a walking germ factory who delights in snotting and spitting on everything and everyone in sight. i've been sucking on cough drops for days, to no avail, so yesterday my friends convinced me to try the local cure for a cough -- chewing a bitter kola nut. the kola nut is a big deal here in nigeria -- it is used as medicine, a divination tool, and a mark of royalty. it's also an important part of social functions: you split a kola with guests, and kolas must be included in a bride price (umm, yes, there are still bride prices here. mostly ceremonial, but my friend who got married a couple months ago went for a bride price that included kola nuts, trunks of clothing, some cash, some livestock, some number of jugs of palm wine, and 40 pieces of yam) to bring luck to the marriage. but, for medicinal purposes, you chew a bitter kola nut to get rid of a cough. and, as my friend louisa just informed me, to counteract poison. good to know. it tastes DISGUSTING. so, the modern routine is that you chew the kola with a tom-tom, which is a menthol drop produced by cadbury that's popular here. so you chew them together until you can't stand it, and that's supposed to cure your cough. but it didn't. i'm still coughing. and everything i eat tastes like bitter kola.
sigh.