18. THE PERFUME HOSPITAL

With the month of March, the season of the sand winds has arrived

Sometimes you can’t see anything more than 3 metres away as if it were in an all-red pea souper fog.

But it’s not just sand. It is the dust of the city, full of all the spit of wind-dried phlegm and the dust of sun-dried excrement. It is a poison that enters through the nose, into the ears and eyes.

It is responsible for most diseases of the eyes, ears and respiratory tract.

It is no longer possible to treat people under the tent. The poor people’s hospital can no longer function. I got sick there myself.

So I rented a villa, as all NGOs do in Timbuktu, from a wealthy businessman in the city.

It is a really beautiful house.

It’s a pity that the owner doesn’t want me to use the rooms to treat people, even though I paid him the full price. I understand him, he surely fears that the sick will spit everywhere.

I myself struggle with spitting; the sick cough and spit everywhere. I had to put tins with sand for spittoons and I threatened to stop treating those who spit in the sand of the tent where I walk barefoot and where small children play.

In the end I won.

The lack of rooms is not important because I have two porches at my disposal, one for women and one for men.

Those who enter are very happy. The sick come by the dozens and I can only admit about thirty a day, because I not only have to examine them to understand their problem, but I also have to put needles in them and prepare their medicines.

There is a crowd waiting outside every day. People who come sometimes from the desert and also from distant villages. The reputation of aromatherapy is now established in Timbuktu. It succeeds when hospital remedies have failed.

There are far more sick people than I can treat, and I am alone.

Some days I only receive women, so I can put needles in their backs, something I could not do until now, due to lack of adequate privacy.

But on the contrary, I can’t do one day just for the men because every day the women bring me their children and the latter have absolute priority. They always come first.

I can accommodate sick children on the terrace as long as it is in the shade. There are many illnesses that can be cured very easily with aromatherapy.

Eczema and mycosis

Ringworm

Wounds

Acupuncture is an excellent treatment for all joint and back problems.

But there is also the disease that itches to the point of madness, the strange scalp diseases that produce patches of pus, diseases that I have never seen before.

Don’t ask me their names, I don’t know them, I only know how to treat them and cure them with my aromatherapy essences.

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