Virus crisis: The straws that we’re clutching on

How the humble lemon is having its moment in the limelight! Even the avocado did not occupy such a lofty stage.

Right beside it is garlic and ginger, a root that the mama mboga I often buy from would nonchalantly toss into my bag of vegetables as “discount” before Covid-19. Now she would rather give me a discount of tomatoes because ginger is more valuable to her.

She tells me that this shapeless root, garlic and the once ignored lemon are some of her most fast-moving commodities. The last time I went to the market, she sold me one marble-sized lemon for Sh20 and did not even blink when my mouth almost fell to the ground in shock.

Sure that she was fleecing me, I had headed to the next kibanda to look for more affordable lemons, and then the next, and the next, only to realise that her price was the fairest – there were those that were selling three of them for Sh50, a whole loaf of bread.

And so I returned to her stall with my tail between my legs. Later that day, I saw a story in the news where one lemon was retailing at Sh40 each. It seems I was better off than some.

Lemon juice

Doctors have repeatedly warned that lemon juice is not a cure for coronavirus, even though they do agree that the Vitamin C in this citrus fruit boosts immunity – but there have also been stories doing round on social media about how people with Covid-19 nursed themselves back to health using a concoction of lemon, ginger and other spices.

And so people are consuming them like there’s no tomorrow, determined to keep at bay this disease that has scientists all over the world perturbed.

What I have realised is that during a crisis that shows no signs of respite, people will clutch at whatever straws that come their way, and if these straws come in the form of a humble fruit that many are swearing by, then why not?

I am so wary of this virus, which I have heard so many terrible things about, each time I imagine I have a sore throat, and being a last minute person, I rush to make a concoction of lemon, ginger and garlic, which has become my tea these days.

It is fortunate that I don’t go out much nowadays, otherwise many of you would have already been recipients of the pungent breath this concoction has a tendency of leaving behind.

One of my colleagues recently told me that her two children are no longer talking to her because she makes them drink a variety of (foul tasting) concoctions she has been obsessively researching about online, and which she tells me are a better shield than lemons.

Share her recipe

Curious, I asked her to share her recipe because it seems that we are in a every-man-for-himself situation, only for her to WhatsApp me a long list that left my head reeling. I couldn’t even pronounce some of the names and had to Google most to see what they looked like.

It is about time we got a vaccine for this virus – I wonder how Russia’s vaccine, the one the rest of the world is skeptical of, will fair.