The Epidemic

That´s right, an epidemic bullied its way through our household...and the greater metropolitan area of Santo Tomas and Union. What was it? I tell you: PINKEYE! It started out simple (perhaps an eyelash in the eye?), then exploded into mayhem over the next several days. Within the week all of our girls and workers and volunteers (a number of about 25) had pinkeye except for 4. We soon discovered that most of the community had it as well.

Now for the interesting part. Everyone had a magical remedy that worked, supposedly. Here is a brief rundown of the various suggestions given to the girls in various encounters:

1. Antibacterial eyedrops: My first suggestion, but proven ineffective.
2. Achiote leaves: My personal favorite due to its natural charm. Google achiote and you will discover this plant has a huge list of medicinal properties, including a phlem that relieves conguntivitis. Way to go, Amazonia. We have one in our back property. Still fairly ineffective, unless healing takes about 5 days.
3. Eye ointment from the pharmacy: My next suggestion, which felt like it should be effective since it burned...but still didn´t work any miracles.
4. Breast milk: Yeah, one of our workers tried that while I was investigating the proper application of the eye ointment. I asked what the white liquid was, and found out it was from our currently nursing mother. Weird.
5. Iced Tea: I think it is just the cold that eases the irritation, but they are convinced that it is only the manzanilla tea and the one that smells like Fruit Loops. Still didn´t work very fast.
6. Coconut milk: Better to drink, I think.
7. Lemon: By this time I had it and felt hopeless to any remedy. I let the girls try whatever natural thing they wanted to try. Squeezing fresh lemons into the eye (just a drop) sounded painful—and was confirmed to be painful! I decided to wait and see if it worked before I would try. Good thing I waited—pain for nothing.
8. Urine: A motorcar driver suggested it and I vetoed it…but I think Keyla tried it later…if she did, it didn´t work.

We have all recovered, or almost recovered. In the end, it was viral so it didn´t really matter what remedy we used. The next time you get pinkeye, just take a look at this list and take your pick! Enjoy!