Wednesday, July 8th 2020 #Day 4: I fell ill with malaria

It's 8:44pm, the start of my diary for the day. I woke up to the rising sun and said my morning prayers. I felt a little bit down so I couldn't go through with my exercise for the morning.

I went online on WhatsApp and one of my big brothers in Rivers State, Nigeria, West Africa, called me on video.

I wasn't sure if I am sick so I didn't bring it up. We talked for a while because we hadn't talked in a long time now. I had a lot of gossip for him.

My siblings swept the house while I retired to the kitchen to prepare dinner. This COVID 19 has turned me to a chef. Note; I'm not an expert in preparing intercontinental dishes.

I prepared jellof rice with some greens and carrot. The carrot wasn't much so it's not that visible unless you look closely.

I added cucumber to spice it up. Since I am weak I need to take fruits and vegetables like these.

After eating I went straight to bed to sleep. Sickness makes me sleepy all the time. I slept around 12:30pm to wake to the sound of my mum's voice.

She went to market and needed me to arrange the things she bought. That's when she noticed my staggering steps. I explained to her that I'm developing signs of malaria after asking what was wrong with me.

She quickly warmed local herbs in liquid form thats been in the freezer for three months now. It's very bitter in taste and black in color. I took it regardless. If by tomorrow I am not better I'll go to the pharmacy.

My elder sister came back from town and bought corn and pear. The size of the pear is bigger than I've ever seen before so I decided to take a shot.

Part of the things my mom bought is ingredients to prepare a local dish. She bought ingredients as recommended by my aunty to help build our immune system.

This next paragraphs is going to teach you how to prepare the dish called Yam pepper soup in English, Mmiri awaiy or Mmiri oku ji in Igbo language, my native tougue. Chefs: @beckie96830 and her mom.

Ingredients

• Yam
• Fresh pepper
• Dried fish
• Pepper soup spices
• Onions
• Salt to taste
• Maggi (optional)
• Ginger (optional)
• Uda seed also known as Negro Pepper

Preparations

• I started pounding the uda seed, fresh pepper and ginger. Ordinarily I would have used blender but there was no light so retired to manual means.
• I took turns to pound all of them. Couldn't pound them at once while my mum on the other hand sliced the yams and cooked the dried fish with water.

Fresh pepper

Ginger

Uda seed

• She added the desired amount of water into the pot of fried fish. Added salt, Maggi and onions for seasoning.
• When the water containing the fish boiled for a while she added the peeled yam, fresh pepper, uda seed, ginger and finally the peppersoup spice.
• Mum covered the pot and allowed it to boil for a while so that the ingredients would mix well and enter the yam.
• After about 15-20 minutes the yam and the peppersoup was done and she separated the yam from the soup to dish out in separate plates.

Tada!!!! Food is ready. Come and join me. I'll mention some of my friends to; @focusnow, @stephenkendal, @cryptokannon, @yohan2on, @cmp2020, @dlioness, @talktofaith, @mesonia.

Yours truly
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Becky.