Bang For Your Buck

A missionary, who has lived in Ethiopia for the last 16 years, told me that dried papaya seeds kill giardia and any other kind of bad bacteria in your stomach. This is wonderful news. The only catch is that we have to take this nasty stuff twice a day for seven days. Since the kids have been sick recently I have felt that we were giving them so much medication. Their little bodies need a break from medicine. Since most of them have had some form of malnutrition they are more susceptible to getting sick – which they have been. So three days ago I bought some papayas and bananas and dried the seeds over night. The next morning I crushed them and mixed them with banana, cinnamon and honey. It was barely tolerable but everyone choked it down. Actually the kids really enjoyed it and asked for more. The only side effect is that their poop changed color.
It doesn’t matter that we have revamped the drinking water situation the little kids still drink from the tank or put something in their mouths. If I turn my back for one second something naughty is going on. If one kid gets something then it passes through all of them so quickly.
We only took it twice a day for three days because we could hardly stand to take it anymore.