I think the most odd and interesting activity we have done so far is having an indigenous person from the Andes come show us how natural medicine is done. He talked about how they don’t believe in sickness, they only believe in being “disconnected.” He began by burning incense in the center of the room and placing rocks in a circle. Someone asked if they were a special type of rock, and he responded by saying they weren’t actually rocks, they were stars. He explained that when people disconnect from these stars that is when they do not feel well, and to get better they must reconnect with energy.
He then asked for a volunteer to demonstrate how he diagnoses a person who is not feeling well. He took an egg and made circular motions around the volunteer’s entire body. He then had her blow four times on the egg. Afterwards, he cracked the egg into a glass of water. He walked around the room showing everyone what had happened. I had no idea what I was looking at. Apparently the bubbles at the top meant that the volunteer was suffering some sort of head problem such as headaches or insomnia. Also if the egg whites were in a line then that meant the person was suffering back problems.
Next he had us all do breathing exercises while he counted to twelve in the Quichua language. He told us to rub our hands together in a certain way and then part them by about 4 inches. He said this tingling we felt and the energy between our hands was called sami. We got to share our sami with others in the room by putting our hands over another person’s hands and then by their heads.
For the last part of the demonstration, he poured herb-scented oil into our hands which we were then supposed to inhale and put the rest in our hair. After this, he came around with the burning incense that we waved onto our heads and chest. He said we were all reconnected, and for the final act we had to go around the room and hug each other and say, “I love you.”
This was a very interesting two hours I experienced. Normally if I have a headache I just take some Advil, but this group of indigenous people go through many rituals to cure certain ailments. I am glad I got to experience this type of medicine first hand rather than only have a lecture on it. It made it way more fun and attention grabbing.
