The Doctor is In

I arrived at my village to a sick host mom. She has a tremendous cough and has trouble breathing. The doctor says she has bronchitis and I think he is pretty much correct. She caught this sickness by drinking cold water. She has drank cold water many times in the past, but this one last time was the one that did her in. "Never in my life will I drink cold water from the refrigerator again." My host mom has been to the doctor every day since I have been back, taking blood, taking urine samples, x-raying her chest... Every time she buys a new set of medicine (injections, pills, teas, etc.) and none of them seem to help. The medicine here is lacking and most of it, I am sure, is the same thing but in different packaging. The doctor tells her different things to concoct to help with her breathing and coughing. A mixture of lemon, honey and aloe which you drink by the tablespoon. The most recent suggestion is the most fun. The doctor told her to melt parafin wax and then place it on her chest. I guess it holds in the heat and sort of works like that icy hot theraflu stuff. So we melt the wax and after lunch we begin to play with it. It is too hot to touch so we let it cool a little. Once the wax cools, I begin to experiment with it, by rubbing it on my chest. My host mom sees how I am doing it and she too begins rubbing this semi-hot wax onto her chest. Imagine, two women standing at the kitchen table over a bowl of melted wax, globbing it on their chests. I stop midway, I am not the one who is sick (although I have a slight cough which I think I caught from someone in America!). I begin to help her, because she has concentrated only in the spot directly above her cleavage. So, now, imagine two women standing at the kitchen table over a bowl of melted wax, the older with her shirt pulled open, and the younger one globbing wax onto the others chest. My host mom now has a chest covered with parafin wax which she has covered with a plastic bag, and then a towel to keep the wax from falling off and to hold in the heat. Her response, "Never in my life did I think I would have to put wax on my chest just from drinking cold water...never again!"