Garlic

Two of my housemates are sick. Not just stuffy head, runny nose sick but hacking cough, up-all-night-fever kind of sick.

I refuse to get sick. Refuse. I am not going to do it. This is the first time in twelve years that I am not getting coughed and sneezed and breathed on constantly by every sick kid in my class, this is the one opportunity I have to be free of the bacteria-smeared papers my students turn in to me and the virus-ridden doorhandles in my classroom. No no, no siree. I am not getting sick this year.

Plus my health insurance here is really terrible, but don't tell my parents or my grandmother because they will all get sick themselves, with worry though.

So how am I avoiding illness? Every single way I can think of:

*Airborne, grapefruit flavor
*Berroca (imported from Australia by Sharon-thanks mate!)
*Emergen-C that Debby wisely brought
*Rebecca's herbal Wellness preparation
*liters and liters of orange juice

and, most pleasant for those around me...

*garlic. So much garlic. Like, entire cloves at a time, just eaten raw. Hey, I've gotten pneumonia four of the past seven winters so I am not taking any chances. I remember once, when I was recovering from pneumonia #3, Batshir told me that I should take garlic as it is a very powerful anti-infective so at the first signs of heaviness in my chest two nights ago, after my housemates had been sick in bed all weekend, I marched right into the kitchen and peeled a clove of garlic and stood over the sink and ate the whole thing. It was not pleasant but strangely I could feel it working right away, a warm expanding energy in my lungs as the bulb overpowered the bacteria.

Two nights later, the housemates are still sick and I am still stinky--but illness free, for now anyway.