Ethiopia: Towards Integrating Traditional, Modern Health Care System

When I was only 12, my mother took me one day to Churkos Church here in Addis Ababa; because I was sick of hepatitis or commonly known as Yewof Beshita. Inside the church lived an old lay in a house near the cemetery. My mother had the comprehension to assert the syndrome; after she saw the change in color of my eyes, finger nails and the skin pigments. She bought a new handkerchief and seven lemons before we went to the woman in the church.

The old lady prepared a kind of hard baked traditional bread. I don't remember now why the lemons were for. Then she told me to eat that sour bread holding it with the new handkerchief. After I finished eating, she told me to stand up and wave the handkerchief over my head three times and throw it to the back. I did exactly as I was told to. 'Don't look back' she screamed when I was about to.

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