The African child, part 3

Continued from the last blog post; The African child, part 2, One of such times was when most of the children in the village fell Ill almost all at once. The infection or whatever it was seemed to jump from child to child and from house hold to house hold. Once a child in a compound catches it, it was almost certain that all the other children were doomed to have it. The symptoms were initially flu like ( cough, catarrh, fever), then swellings appeared all over the victim's body. It was sometimes itchy and accompanied with redness of the eye and pussy eye discharge.  My sister and I were the first to catch the bug in our compound, gradually all of my mother's 6 children caught it, my step brothers and sisters also caught it and then a few of my cousins that also lived in our compound.  I guess it might have been easily spread because most of the children slept together at night. Our mothers ran from pillar to post seeking remedies. They  made foul smelling and horrid looking herbal concoctions for us to drink and rub on our bodies. These concoctions did not seem to work as gradually the children began to die. Especially the little ones, less than 5 years of age. Every one went about in dread of which child would go next. The village's chief priest said that one of the gods was angry, the god of Sanponna and that he was responsible for the outbreak. Several sacrifices were made to appease him and after a seemingly long while the outbreak ceased. Thus, not just leaving it's ugly scars on the bodies of the affected children but also upon the hearts of the mothers who lost their dear children to the deathly arms of this plague. To be continued ........