No more Back to School castor oil!
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - Do you remember when parents felt that preparation for school meant giving you a good cleaning inside and out? They were very serious about it.
They knew that during the Summer when you roved all around up hill and down gullies you would be eating all kinds of things at all kinds of times. At that time the fruits growing wild were relished – fruit like fat pork, macaw, lizard food, plum, stinking toe, sugar apple, mango, guinep to name a few.
Back then, the fruits were not eaten for their nutritional value, but because that is what was there to eat. The choices nowadays can hardly compare.
But parents were very serious about giving you a good start at school and they were very aware that clothes alone did not make the man or woman. So giving you a good start meant cleaning your insides as well. They depended on castor oil to do that!
You did not have a choice. Some parents were kind enough to give you a lime to suck after, or some would give you some orange juice.
But you stood still with fear and dread. The spoon was filled with the ghastly oil. You held your nose so the fumes would not make things worse. It would be better if you did not smell it. Better to get it over and done with.
So you swallowed; your whole body became absorbed in getting it down; your face showed a disgusting grimace as the taste and smell hit you... and then it was over.
But was it really? Not a bit! For the entire day you were spitting as the vapour of that oil rose in your throat, AND for the whole day you would have to hover around the house and remain in very close proximity to that little room so as not to embarrass yourself.
By the end of the day you were totally detoxified.
Somehow that practice of giving castor oil is not as prevalent as it was in those ‘good old days’. Some doctors felt that the detoxification method was too drastic; some suggested using other ways of purging the system.
But the point is that getting ready to go back to school did not only mean getting new clothes, new shoes and the required books. It meant preparing body and mind to “learn good” and to enable you to unleash your full potential.
It is good to see that LIME has included health aspects in their back to school assistance package slated for Saturday 3rd September. Parents are encouraged to get free eye checks and free dental checks along with free haircuts and hair braiding.
It is hoped that other businesses will exercise that corporate responsibility and realise that children are not just to be used to enhance and advertise their products but they (businesses) too can help to buttress parents during these difficult economic times.
It takes a village to raise a child. Let us all chip in to ensure that our youth begin the new school year by giving them healthy bodies to nurture sound minds.
‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’(latin) – a sound mind in a sound body is the state the whole world strives to reach. .. So important is this concept that it is translated in every language e.g. in French it becomes ‘un esprit sain dans un corps’. See, we are already getting into the school-mind mode... after that castor oil !!!
