Saturday, August 18, 2007

Folk Medicine

Secrets are hard to keep in this corner of Asia and our little neighborhood is aware that we should be on the road to eastern Turkey but have been waylaid by weeks of sickness. Yesterday, they decided it was time for action and conspired to administer some Turkish folk medicine to these "Amerikan Yabanjis".
At 11pm last night our upstairs neighbors came to visit...Ercan stayed with me in the living room while Reyhan walked to the bedroom to check on Ann. After talking with her for few minutes she returned and issued commands for me to fetch powdered Turkish coffee, a tablespoon, 1 lemon and a glass of warm water.



Taking a generous portion of dry coffee on the spoon she squeezed the juice of half the lemon on it and told Ann to eat it using the glass of warm water to wash it all down. Ann obeyed and was struck mute for a few minutes.

Reyhan made sure Ann was OK and wiped away the tears caused by the concoction then looked at me and said it wouldn't hurt for me to take a dollop myself. I protested but found myself a few minutes later bent over the sink snorting powdered coffee and lemon juice out my nostrils...it seems there is a trick in learning how to swallow the finely powdered coffee without sucking it up one's nose.
This morning when I opened our door to get our bread from the basket I heard Reyhan's door open up at the top of the stairs. She asked how we were feeling and said she would be around to check on us in a bit.


The Dose

After-Taste


Half an hour later she arrived and was happy to see Ann out in the living room and sitting up markedly improved from yesterday. Reyhan's makeshift apothecary appeared and another citric-caffeinated fusion was whipped up before our eyes. I don't know whether it was coincidence or what...but the doggone stuff seems to have brought some relief and it seems that Ann is on the mend, albeit slowly.
Which brings me to this; After 2 weeks of doctors, antibiotics, emulsions, salves, and a variety of digestive prescriptions with little improvement...you never know when a late night visitor with a spoonful of goo may be just what you need. It just goes to show you that life is never dull when you live on the far side of the world.

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Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World

Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World