Jamaica

A lifestyle in Jamaica provided children with a good education , picturesque atmospheres, as well as strict principles and social mores.

However, part of growing up and going to school in Jamaica also included being immunized against infectious diseases such as polio, smallpox, measles and chicken pox.

Because most Caribbean Scientists believed that in warmer climates, germs and bacteria tend to spread like wild fires. During the ‘70’s there was an outbreak of polio and everyone was panic stricken.

Schools in Jamaica made it part of the curriculum for all children to be immunized.

I remember dreading the immunizations because the needles always seemed larger than life. My friends and I thought that once we tried being vaccinated we would surely faint from the mere sight of the needle.

One afternoon while visiting Granny, I was playing in her garden when one of her rosebushes pricked me on my arm. As usual, I ran into the house to Granny yelling,

“Granny, Granny macca juck me!”

I was visibly upset because I began to have an allergic reaction to the flowers in Granny’s garden. One tiny prick turned into a huge welt and the itching began.

Granny came running out of her parlour, “What’s the matter with you child? I think everyone can hear you all the way in New Kingston.”

I was like any child who had a traumatic experience, I was jumping up and down with anxiety and discomfort.

Granny urged me, “Calm yourself, tell Granny what happened.”

“Well, Granny, I know I’m not supposed to play with the flowers in the garden, but they were so beautiful…….Anyway, the rosebush stick me on my arm. Look Granny it is swollen and I think it is getting infected by the minute.”

“I always tell you children that the devil finds mischief all the time. Come with Granny, I think you’re having an allergic reaction to the green leaves on the bush.”

Granny took me to her medicine chest and poured some iodine on the bruise. Then she made a poultice of garlic and onions,then wrapped the area tightly with gauze.

She scolded, “Now go and have a seat on the settee in the parlour, I’m going to draw some cerasee tea to get the toxins out of your system.”

“Toxins Granny? What are toxins?”

Granny continued, “Apparently you had an allergic reaction, so the rosebush must have some poison that doesn’t agree with your system. So, Granny is making cerasee tea for you, to cleanse away the impurities, the swelling and redness should go away.”

I smiled reluctantly at her, secretly hoping she was right. I feared the worst, I was thinking that if her remedy didn’t work, my arm would be the size of a jack fruit….then what?

Granny sat with me on the settee cradling my arms . We both started reminiscing about all the childhood maladies she had experienced with me.

She commented, “Remember the time when you were on Summer Holidays and you had made cherry juice from the tree?”

“Yeah, after I drank the juice I started itching.”

Granny started to laugh, “I came home from church and saw you drenched in powder from head to toe. Not to mention you were wreaking of limacol, rosewater and ponds cold cream. Every piece of furniture within the house had baby powder all over it.”

“Granny, I remember that I tried everything, and the next day you took me to the Doctor and it was the MEASLES. Till this day I swore the cherry juice gave me the measles.”

“That’s absurd,” Granny remarked.

“I later found out the little girl you were playing with had just gotten over the measles, so it might be possible you got it from her. The Doctor wanted you to take all kind of medicines, and I thought you were much too young to be taking all those pills.”

“Granny, those pills were like horse pills just looking at them made me anxious.”

Granny chuckled, “There is nothing like old fashioned remedies. I put those odious pills into the medicine chest and boiled up some tamarind leaves and poured the juice into the tub. For a week straight, I sopped you with the tamarind water and then rubbed you up with calamine lotion. In no time you were up and about and it was like the measles never happened.”

“You know what I remember Granny?”

“No, what?”

“I thought you were koo-koo sopping my head with bayrum every night.“

Granny patted me on my shoulder, “That was to break the fever, with the measles you had a very high temperature. You know a high fever can give anybody a stroke.”

“Well it’s a good thing you were on task Granny.”

I was still confused as to how I got the measles, because I was immunized. But Granny always called me her delicate grandchild. If a breeze swept through the place, I would be most likely to catch it.”

So my Grandmother began a disinfecting and cleansing campaign. She made sure I carried “wet ones” with me everywhere I went. When I visited her house, Granny made sure everything was disinfected and spotless.

Commenting, “One man‘s folly, could be another man’s death.”

This phrase meant, that what others may take for granted, might be detrimental to some.

At the tender age of seven Granny introduced me to Pinesol and it became my closest friend. She also made it her business to remind the school teachers not to send their sick children to school. She knew that every time I became ill, it was because a neglectful parent sent their child to school with chicken pox, measles or the mumps.

Although Granny brought in reinforcements, such as ferroll, cod liver oil and anarexol to build my resistance. She knew the only way to stop germs from spreading were to make sure parents were more diligent about quarantining their children when ill. Therefore, the bacteria doesn’t have a ping-pong effect.

Whenever a grandchild was ill, Granny made sure they utilized their own utensils and it was kept separate from the other members’ of the household. Phones were always disinfected, door knobs and light switches were cleaned regularly.

Most people might think that all these efforts were displays of scornfulness. However, Granny always knew that I was not like other children. I was different.

That old saying, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” has a special meaning for me.

It means that wherever I may go, I have to travel with my own “things” because I am functioning on a different frequency than everyone else.

As an adult, I have tried to travel lightly, but it always comes down to being, “Ms. Bag and Pan” Let’s be honest….Germs are lurking everywhere!

I know Granny would say an emphatic Amen to that.