“What is something we can’t live without?” I asked the group assembled before me for the health lecture.

The responses came, “Air,” “Our Spirits,” “Food.”

After each, I responded that that wasn’t what I was looking for. Finally, no one could think of anything else. After asking the group a few more questions, I told them that the answer to all of them was water. No one had thought of that.

I stepped into a side room and quickly put on a T-shirt with life-size felt cutouts of the organs pinned on it. Step by step, we talked about the different parts of the body and how each needs water to function. We also talked about the sicknesses that can be avoided by just drinking enough water each day.

At the end of the talk on water, Bazile, a church member, asked if he could get a drink of water since all the talk about water had made him thirsty. (Heidi: Bazile is the guy in the blue shirt in picture 51-4). We all had a good laugh.

Next, I introduced some simple hydrotherapy treatments. We talked about how to treat many common illnesses and problems. “What do you do for an abscess or boil?” “How about a sinus infection?” “What do you do for an infected sore?” “Here is how you do hot compresses.” “What do you do for pimples?” Pimples are a problem here due to the heat, dirt, and very often the soap, most of which is highly perfumed. Since each person’s skin is different, there isn’t really a pat answer for the cause of pimples. People here also use highly perfumed creams and powders as well as skin lightening cream, which also causes problems. These problems aren’t life-threatening, but everyone was interested in skin health so we kept coming back to it.

Donne, one of our neighbors, helped me demonstrate vapor inhalation for coughs. Toussaint, (Heidi: pic 51-6), another neighbor, demonstrated using hot compresses on the face for a sinus infection, since he had been getting lots of practice with his own sinus infection. Then I demonstrated a hot compress on an abscess, which I had at the time.

We then moved to the treatment of diarrhea. We demonstrated the symptoms with a cardboard cutout of a child (Heidi: pic 51-24, 25) squatting, crying, and having diarrhea and vomiting, which we produced by blowing water out of tubes ending at the mouth and the other end. Everyone had a good laugh. We started by talking about what causes diarrhea and how we need to replace the water that comes out with diarrhea.

I then demonstrated how to make ORS (oral rehydration solution). “Here we have one liter of water. Into this one liter of water, we put three finger pinches of salt, stir it, and taste it. Make sure it isn’t saltier than tears. Now put in six sugar cubes. Stir it up, and it is finished. Drink lots.” Now you, my friends, also know how to make ORS. For those who are wondering about the sugar, doctors have found that when there is a little sugar in the water, the body is better able to absorb the water and salt. Without sugar in the solution, more of the ORS tends to run right through a person with diarrhea.

Two weeks later, we did the second health program, talking about how to make and use medical charcoal, starting with a review of how to make ORS (Heidi: pic 51-12). We talked about specific cases, such as infected sores, insect bites, some types of diarrhea, (Heidi: pic 51-31), and many other things. We discovered by accident that if you add a bit of sugar to charcoal water, it is almost palatable. Everyone tasted the charcoal water, and we all had black mouths together. At the end of both classes, we gave out water bottles as prizes. (Heidi: pic 51-15, 16).

I pray that the few simple things I was able to teach these people will translate to improved health and increasing interest in the Great Healer.

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