21. Aromaterapy in Timbuktu: ringworms and other

Ringworm is a disease that affects children. It makes them suffer a lot, the itching is so strong that they scratch their heads until they bleed, the sores spread and the pain prevents them from sleeping at night. Ringworm makes children’s lives miserable. The remedies from the Timbuktu hospital or from traditional healers are so expensive that most families cannot buy them.

Traditional medicine in Timbuktu is no alternative to hospitals for health problems. The remedies prepared and sold by the “tradithérapeutes” (traditional therapists) are also expensive and they convince patients that their case necessitates several remedies, asking for a sum that amounts to several days of a poor person’s wage.

There are several scalp diseases in Timbuktu, each worse than the last. I don’t know their names but I know how to cure them.

Fortunately, I brought a notable supply of the best remedy for all these scalp diseases: Anti Squali (Anti Sharks). A blend of Lavender, Peppermint, and Geranium.

subcutaneous pustules…

Purulent sore on top of skull

Ringworm!

In Timbuktu, the Anti-Shark cured all these issues with no problems. You don’t even have to know what they are, you just have to know how to use anti-shark. It should be used in olive oil, 60 drops per 50 ml of oil, three times a day, after washing the shaved head with soap. From the first day the inflammation, itching and pain disappears, and sores’ regression is visible by the third day.

A traditional therapist told me that they also gave a remedy to drink, as well as an ointment, “because the disease is in the belly”. I have therefore always given children who are old enough to take it, in addition to the Anti-Shark oil, a cube soaked in 3 drops of this essence a day, before sleeping and without water.

In two or three weeks the cure is complete.

Anti-Shark is to be used for all itching disorders such as these scalp diseases or for pus-producing disorders such as Ibrahim’s infection (see previous page).

It was the remedy I used more than any other here in Timbuktu.

Treating people and seeing them heal as if by a miracle is certainly a great satisfaction because it is a sign that one’s efforts have been accepted, but the satisfaction becomes joy when it is the children who are healed.

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