VISITING EDEN

Investigating Herbal Health in Zimbabwe, Africa

  

“You take five handfuls of freshly picked tips of this herb,” Angela began, “chopped and pounded in the pestle like this… Then add twenty five drops of the oil…” she continued as she instructed me in what she called “learning by doing.”  I had been pounding dry herbs the day before, making the usual novice mistakes and spilling the mix all over the ground… but with practice and coaching I learned.  The fresh herbs were easier.

 Angela was diagnosed with HIV over six years ago when her husband died.  Weighing just 34 kilos doctors gave her only two weeks to live.  She sought the help of a Catholic sister who introduced her to an herbal remedy regime.  Today at a bouncing 78kg she is a qualified herbalist and, under the guidance of nursing sister Judy Ervine, she runs the hands on day to day functions of Eden Herbal Clinic, the health division of Eden Children’s Village in Doma, north central Zimbabwe. 

Pounding herbs for medication

ECV hosts an orphanage, a school, and a clinic as its main functions.  Judy’s husband, Rory Ervine, an evicted white farmer from the Doma area serves the operation through a few hundred hectares of agricultural land leased now from the local government.  Food crops and dairy cattle are raised for food, milk and butter, as well as an abundance of various produce which serve the herbal needs of the clinic.  All the crops are raised here under the conservational minimum tillage system of “Farming God’s Way”.

 

 Following my return to Zimbabwe in March 2008, every mention of being a “Wilderness EMT” and “Wilderness Medicine Instructor” sparked comments of “Bush Doctor,” of Great-Grandma’s home remedies, or competition with the African Traditional Healers.  Such conversations connected me to various HIV-related orphanages and associated herbalists, herbal remedies being the only affordable solution available for improving health and healing on necessary budget restrictions in the crumbling economy of Zimbabwe, 28 years after political independence.    

Infection treated with Nasturtium leaves

 

My interactions with these fascinating associations rekindled an old interest in natural health.  So I found myself in Eden, scrubbing out wounds, treating infected injuries, debrieing dead tissue from third-degree burns, being appalled at the STD’s, and dressing everything with natural remedies made on site.  Later I learned how to create cough mixtures, antibiotic ointments and eye and ear drops, among others.  I even learned the consultancy system and began to get a handle on which treatments to give for particular ailments.  It is fascinating the power in the simple plants we often take for granted, when it comes to health and healing of our natural bodies.  Surely, God made things good, their fruit for food and their leaves for healing [Ezekiel 47:12].

 

 

 

Delicate work on Epileptic burn victim...

 My week of intense instruction gave me a great grounding on which to build.  I have since begun two of my own herb gardens and shall return to ECV to work again in the clinic later in the year.  With more time for exposure and experience, and the good grounding already established, I am sure I will be able to operate more confidently in this field of study and ministry, later incorporating it into my daily practice, and teaching it as an add-on to the greater Village Medic program.  

 

 

 

 

My hope is that the principles of Farming God’s Way will enable us to grow (food and) the herbs, and the Eden Herbal Clinic training will empower us to use them wisely in our village communities.  With a firm foundation of the SOLO Village Medic course, then adding these divinely inspired skills, mission staff should be well prepared to empower their appropriate appointees to establish and maintain good health and wellness in their rural African village communities, freeing them from the problematic “dependency syndrome” so prevalent in foreign-aid-addicted  developing nations.

Please pray for me as I seek God’s hand of direction, and discipline in pursuit of the right balance of these amazing gifts He has entrusted to me – knowledge, skills, and the ability to teach others… doing it all in His Love.

With love from my Africa, I miss you.

Rowan