Moderate Activities And Comsumption During Public Gathering

Writers are said to be more sensitive to light, sound and the environment around them than any other person and it happens wherever he/she goes. I have attended several funerals but the recent one motivated me to write this feature. I experienced mixed emotions when I attended a funeral in the Ashanti Region, compelling me to sanitize people about their health and how they should behave when in the public.

There were more than five funerals in the community. Some of the bodies were kept too long and even as at 1PM, some bodies were still lying in state, bodily fluid started oozing from the dead bodies and when they were putting them in the coffin, the people had no protective hand gloves. I earlier published a feature in the People and Places (P&P) with title ‘Protect Yourself During Hospital Visit’. This time, I will like to sensitize the general public to take care of themselves during social gathering especially funerals.

Environment
I often see people throwing sachet of water indiscriminately, spiting sputum anywhere, and blowing their nose in their palms but shake hands with the people at the funeral. Sometimes there are no mobile toilets and people look for any closest convenient place to rest. Similar observations were made when I started looking for food. Combing through the place, I finally came to the first food vendor I saw. This woman was upset seeing me for the second time. She lamented, ‘This man should not goad me this morning’, expecting me to hear. My reason for my indecision was insanitary environs and my body irritated me. Some of the food vendors had no place for customers; others had nice places but lacked sanitation. I saw a kenkey seller wiping sweat with her hand without washing her hands continued serving food. Another vendor was too close to a dirty, choked and stinging gutter within the vicinity with only two caps for her customers. Flies sitting on the food and fish washed their bodies. The lace covering the food was soiled with oil attracting many flies.

Moral Lesson
There are many diseases that can be transmitted during social gathering; can be church service, festivals, parties and funeral grounds. People should know the disease that killed the person in order to know the preventive measure to put in place. During programmes people travel from far and near even to the extent that people can travel from Europe, Asia etc to attend a programme and it is likely that common diseases in their respective communities can spread during the occasion. Such common diseases include typhoid fever, tuberculosis, worm infestation, scabies, lice infestation and yaws. During funeral celebrations, people weep loudly and within few minutes they catch cold which makes them prone to diseases of the tract. People who mourn and don’t eat will reduce their immunity as they lose mineral and vitamins even water in their bodies and therefore stand the chances of easily getting infections.

People must wash their hands under running water to reduce bacteria load to avoid diarrhea, typhoid among others. People who urinate near river bodies can spread bilharzias if they are already infected. Sputum should be covered else can spread tuberculosis. People with hypertension and diabetes require diet management to stay healthy and should eat well irrespective of who has died and should avoid too much mourning to maintain blood pressure. Too much thinking breaks the immune system. After burial, bereaved family should console each other to maintain their health. Most of the invitations state that their people died after short ailment at hospital, people dealing with such bodies need to wear protective gloves. Such people should avoid smoking in public to reduce the oduor of the dead body.

Your health should be your concern
We must know that the dead body will not resurrect even if we don’t eat for days. However, fasting during those days will deteriorate one’s health. Eating and drinking too much during the occasion is not good for your health. Foods and drinks served mostly contain too much sugar, alcohol, salts, oil and fat, which is too bad for old people like you. Therefore health protection of the people celebrating the funeral to live to take care of the diseased family is very essential. Wash your clothes and hands thoroughly before touching anything in your house. Ladies should properly wash their hands before serving food in the house. Don’t eat too much meat and food just because it will be served by request. Moderate what you eat and drink during social gathering for your health depends on what your consume, how you consume it and how much you consume.

Daniel Djan
Accra, Ghana
[email protected]