First Published: 22nd of September, 2020.
Last updated: October 20, 2020 at 20:27 pm
I left Guyana around the 30th of May, 2020 for Brazil. At that time, Brazil was dubbed the epicenter of the coronavirus with over one million confirmed cases while Guyana had only a handful. Many people were upset with the move and some were amazed, but I only laughed at the warnings.
I entered Brazil via the Lethem/Bonfim border at Region 9, Guyana. At that time, the border was closed to travels, but I had the assistance of a Brazilian diplomat in helping me through. It was easy to pass the Immigration Department in Guyana. I just sat in the vehicle of the Brazilian diplomat as he told them to open the border for him to go to Brazil. He said he would be back in a few minutes. The officer who removed the bar noticed me in the vehicle, but he didn’t say anything – perhaps he thought I was a diplomat too.
We drove over the Takutu River Bridge and soon came to the Brazil side where we encountered the Brazilian authorities. That was a bit more of a challenge. They detained me and asked me why I was traveling to Brazil at such a time. I told them that I had an important project to work on in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and I showed them documents to support my claims. I even offered them the telephone number of “Jerry’ who lived in Rondonopolis, Mato Grosso, Brazil. I also showed them that my flight was booked from Boa Vista, Roraima to Cuiaba, Mato Grosso two days away.
They examined all of my documents and asked me to wait outside for a few minutes. It winded up being over an hour. Meanwhile, the taxi which I had prearranged was waiting for me just across the border. I signaled for him to wait. A few minutes later, I went over and explained to him that I was being detained, that the Brazilian authorities needed to “verify” stuff. As I sat outside on the bench, I saw the Brazilian authorities examining my documents, pressing buttons on the computer, making phone calls and discussing with one another. I felt my throat itching, but I tried not to cough. Meanwhile, my diplomat friend tried to assure that they would eventually let me through.
After about one hour, the official came back with my passport and other documents and indicated that it was OK to cross. He smiled. I smiled and thanked him. I thanked my diplomat friend wholeheartedly and grabbed my two suitcases. I had to pass another checkpoint on the Brazil side. There, the woman took my telephone number and other information. It wasn’t over yet: the soldiers were just a few meters away to examine my suitcases. After checking my suitcases lightly, they told me to proceed. The ruse had succeeded. I was glad to be in my taxi on my way to Boa Vista in the beautiful land of Brazil.
Related: The Real Reason I was Running from Guyana
In Boa Vista, I spent a night at “Three Nations Hotel” in Avenida Rodoviaria before proceeding the next day to the airport where my flight was booked. When I posted pictures of my voyage on Facebook, they pulled in a lot of reactions. Some called me crazy and some called me brave. I laughed where necessary and thanked where necessary.
After about 8 hours of flight, I finally landed in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso. No, not my destination as yet, which was Campo Verde. My flight had connected twice – once in Manaus and once in Sao Paulo. When I arrived in Cuiaba, it was around 10 PM. I wanted to spend a night in Cuiaba before traveling the next day to Campo Verde, but I was undecided. The taxi driver whom I had taken from the airport helped me decide – he made a deal to take me down the 120 miles road straight to Campo Verde for a “reasonable” fee. For some reason, I agreed to his offer and left the same night to Campo Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil.
After about 3 hours of driving, I saw that magical sign in my beloved city: Welcome to Campo Verde. For the past three months, I had been listening to the song, “Country Roads, Take me Home.” But once I had reached Campo Verde, I never again felt like listening to that song because I felt like the country roads had already taken me home!
Related: It is God who takes you down the road you are going.
After spending about a week at a beautiful hotel in downtown of the city of Campo Verde, I transitioned to my beautifully furnished apartment in Mato Grosso Avenue, Belvedere, Campo Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil. It was all a magical experience.
For the first two months, I didn’t have any symptoms of COVID-19. Of course, I was not the slightest bit scared of COVID-19 for several reasons. First of all, I had no underlying medical conditions (praise God). Secondly, I believed that if I did contract COVID-19, I could beat it using herbs and immune boosting foods. Moreover, I was drinking chipped garlic every morning after exercising.
My friends sometimes texted me and asked how the coronavirus was treating me in Brazil. “I caught it a few times and killed it,” I would joke. I never heeded COVID-19 prevention protocols much except for sanitizing my hands often which became pretty addictive. I only wore a mask to appease the authorities and because it was “required” to enter the supermarket and other premises. Aside from that, I pulled it under the chin in the way that the WHO warned not to.
One day, about 3 months into my stay in Campo Verde, I felt a weird sensation in my chest. It was not painful – just weird – as though someone was tightening a screw inside my chest and pressing a ten pound weight against it. Could it be COVID-19? I was not sure, but it sure was unlike anything I had felt before. I continued having this feeling for about one week and then things got worse. One night, I couldn’t sleep. When I lay down, I felt saliva rushing up my throat and stifling me. I tried to cough up the “mucus” that was triggering this, but it turned out to be a dry cough.
This got worse through the night and I had to get up every ten minutes to cough and spit. I was finally able to sleep around 4 in the morning. I woke up around 10 AM and did my exercise routine. The illness – whatever it was – did not considerable weaken my body as I was able to do over 100 pushups that morning as I usually did. But the symptoms worsened. The next night, especially when I started falling asleep, the saliva would rush upwards and stifle me. At times, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath and had to jump out of bed in panic.
Related: How Do You Go from 1 to 100 Pushups in One Week? You Don’t!
I felt this condition intensify whenever I was laying down, and more so when my stomach was full. “So what is this now?” I mused. Did I have to stay awake with an empty stomach until I died! Is this death by starvation and hard labor!
At that point, my mind became open to the possibility that this could be coronavirus. Or maybe not. I had had a similar attack in the year 2017 and I had linked it at that time to drinking excessive coffee and stressful situations. I had actually had to stop drinking coffee for about 1 year. Then, when my stomach “healed,” I returned to my old addiction. Could this be a return of the same condition? At the time of these symptoms, my coffee drinking habit had returned to full swing.
I cut off my coffee the next day. The symptoms persisted for a third night. At that point in time, I stepped up the use of herbs such as lemon grass tea and immune boosting foods. I used lots of potato chips deep fried in extra virgin coconut oil. By the fourth day, I was much weaker. My whole apartment was now in a mess as I was in a frenzy to cure myself. I called my girlfriend and told her not to come over, that I was self isolating for COVID-19. I also took extreme precaution when interacting with the taxi driver who brought my groceries. I told him that I suspected I had COVID-19. He laughed. He said he doesn’t think so, that it’s something else. He said COVID-19 is “political” and will be over after the elections. I knew for sure he was mistaken, but I just laughed under my mask.
On the fifth day, I went to the supermarket – taking all precautions not to interact with anyone and keeping the mask fully on my face. I picked up a bottle of vodka and a big bottle of coke. I also went by the coconut water stand and gulped down a few servings of coconut water. I also bought a few small bottles of coconut water to bring back home. But by now, my condition had gotten even worse. I was salivating badly in the day while initially it was only in the night. Further, I felt the shortness of breath getting worse, and I could feel mucus building up in my stomach. I felt as though the COVID-19 was in my body and I feared it might soon make its way into my lung fields.
Should I go do a COVID-19 test? A part of me wanted to, but a part of me didn’t. It would be good for academic purposes. But then again, I hated the idea of anyone pushing that swab to the back of my head. If there were a less uncomfortable way of taking the test, I would have done it. On Facebook, many of my friends had posted that it was the worse experience of their lives. Were they exaggerating? Then again, millions of people do it everyday and are not scared. Further, Guyanese politician, Lenox Shuman, described the experience as “akin to inhaling a little bit of water while swimming – nothing to worry about.” Should i believe him? Something told me Lenox Shuman was not an ordinary man and had a greater threshold for pain than the average human.
In a nutshell, I wasn’t exactly scared of doing the COVID-19 test. It was just that my desire to know my status was not stronger than my desire to avoid the hospital. I also thought about the possibility of a misdiagnosis and being served COVID meds which perhaps came with damaging side effects. While taking the COVID-19 test was perhaps the right thing to do, I preferred to avoid the hospital. However, that day, I felt so sick that I walked straight up to the hospital door, was about to enter and then turned away.
That night, the same problem occurred – salivating and dyspnea. But it worsened. I pulled out my rum and coke after having a meal of potatoes and eggs deep fried in extra virgin coconut oil. By the way, coconut oil strengthens the immune system and kills a wide variety of viruses.
I knew I might not be able to sleep again that night, so I found a solution: drunk myself to sleep. It worked. The rum and coke tasted delicious and the next morning, I woke up around 7 AM. I did my exercise routine which included over 100 pushups. By virtue of this, I was able to determine that the illness I was suffering from did not “significantly” weaken my body, but it did weaken me to some extend. I was unable to do most tasks I usually did with ease. It was the fifth day and now my temperature was rising. I “assumed” that I had been infected with COVID-19. I shifted into battle mode. I was going to attack this virus with every anti viral and immune boosting food and herb I knew.
Here were my weapons of choice:
Chipped garlic – I have personally experienced the power of this against the influenza virus, and I had reason to believe that it could kill other viruses too.
Read Story: Garlic Kills the Flu Virus
Coconut oil – my diet for the next two days consisted of only potato chips and eggs deep fried in extra virgin coconut oil.
Coconut water – I drank about 2 pints of this every day.
Lemon Grass Tea – I took about two cups of lemon grass tea with lemon juice and sugar every day.
Ginger tea with lemon and honey.
The Power of Oregano Tea
The next day, I went back to the supermarket and I found something amazing: Packets of dried and chipped oregano leaves. I personally knew of the power of oregano oil, and here was the big brother. I took it home and brewed a cup of oregano tea with milk. I let it boil for about 15 minutes, then strained it, sweetened it and drank it. I felt better almost instantly. I repeated the process every 8 hours or so.
By the sixth day, my condition was alleviated significantly. I slept normally without using alcohol on that night.
By the next day, Sunday, I was back to normal.
I cannot say if whatever I was suffering from was COVID-19 or not. As I said, I had had a similar condition in the year 2017. Similar but not the same. The condition that I described above had many of the symptoms consistent with COVID-19. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it was a result of excessive use of coffee. It could have also been psychosomatic or stress induced since I had been having some stressful experiences with particular persons leading up to the illness.