Journal Entery

Date: August 5, 2007

Entery Number: 22

Page/Quote reflecting on: Pgs. 85-86

It's good that Ezinma is still alive because she's a cool character and she helps out some when Okonkwo comes back from exile later on. But ya. Okonkwo cured her with some type of herbs stuff and bark and other things. He put it in a pot and had Ekwefi put some hot water in it and boiled it but she had to be careful because if it boiled over then the power of it would be lost and Okonkwo, no doubtedly, would beat her for it. But Ekwefi watched it very carefully and it didn't boil over. What I thought the strangest part of this medicine treatment was when Okonkwo put Ezinma up on a stool, put the pot in front of the stool, and then put a thick heavy mat over her head and the pot. It must have been very hot under there. It seems almost cruel. That pot must have been extremely hot with all that heat and steam. It was no wonder why she started crying. She was woken up, put on a stool, covered with a heavy mat, and then had all this hot steam enveloping her and it was like in summer too. I would not have liked waking up that way. It did save her life though, so that was good. That's like the only plus though. But it is a pretty big plus and I would rather do those things than die of a fever which now a day seem simple and not so worrysome. But I don't get how it got rid of her fever. I know different herbs and barks can do different things and are now present in some of our modern medicine but how did the steam exactly cure her? I don't get it.