Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Natural medicine and healing in the Amazon

I have been suffering from an old injury.

A manta ray sting to my knee to be exact.

Together with my fybromyalgia it does not make life easy and living has been quite difficult.

Especially when I need to transit to one place to another.

Sometimes just standing makes me want to cry and scream.

Sometimes the pain is easier to take and I can actually walk around and do something.
Some of the plants that went into my steam bath water. There were various kinds of stinging nettles for instance.

For my work this is not the ideal condition because I need to visit schools in variety of locations.

And the roads aren't even close to optimal condition.

I also need to stand for hours when I do teacher trainings or other public speaking.

Which usually leaves me incapacitated for days.

A friend from work was kind enough to ask if I would like his father to do a natural medicine and healing session with me.
Churi yuyu, a plant with natural penicillin.
The family members are all evengelical Christians and native Kichwa indigenous people.

His father is very well known healer and has an extensive knowledge of old Amazonic medicine, and different plants and herbs.

Another friend, a Finnish missionary that is also a very good friend of the family, drove me and my son to their house.

As a precaution if I would not be able to drive back home after the treatment.

It was wonderful opportunity to first learn about the natural healing and the plants that grow around us.
Preparing the herbal infusion for the steam bath.
Like Domingo, the healer, said:There are plants that grow right next to us, but if we don't know about them we won't apreciate them either.

I was able to participate in the preparing of the medicine and then I was given the herbal steam bath, it really made me sweat everything out.

Meanwhile my son bathed in the river and had a really lovely afternoon of his own.

After the steam bath, I was told to wash myself with the water and not take a shower for few hours to let the herbs do their work.

The bath works as a natural intoxication and fluid removal method, and to start-up the metabolism and get it working.
The water that was left over after my bath. The steam bath really made me relax and felt amazingly good.

I was also given herbal medicine to drink,I must say that it is the worst tasting medicine I have ever had in my life.

Before I took my steam bath we prayed together.

All the time the family took us into their activities and shared their life with us with the hospitaly that Ecuadorians are famous of.

There is always time to be friendly and enjoy one another.

22 comments:

  1. That is just plain awesome. I am ALL for healing things with the power of nature.

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  2. I've heard of plants being a natural healing. Way better than putting unnatural chemicals in your body. I pray for healing of your knee.

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  3. Old world medicine is much better then some of the new world meds.. This was so cool to read and see the pics..

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  4. I love trying natural remedies. That just sounds so peaceful.

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  5. This is awesome! I love reading about natural remedies. I hope your knee is doing better.

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  6. I love that …. the plants do grow right next to us--but most of us don't know what to do with them. Great experience!

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  7. I love home remedies and I believe in FARMacy :)

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  8. What an amazing opportunity. Good for you for giving indigenous healing a try. How are you feeling?

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    1. I has helped a lot. The knee isn't nearly as swollen anymore. The medicine I'm supposed to drink tastes really foul so I don't know if I'll be able to drink it all. But I'll be back for another steam bath next week and they'll put a poultice over my knee also.

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  9. In my hometown, folks still does herbal medicine. I remember when we were kids, that type of leaves were used to sooth and cure swelling.

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  10. Wow - so interesting! I can't imagine the pain you've been living with, and I hope it gets better soon!!

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  11. My father always told me God has made different plants to heal us of every ailments. Prayer + natural medicine = relief. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. How wonderful! I would like to know more of natures medicine. We use some herbs and plants here in Finland too for medicine.

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  13. I'm so sorry that it plagues you so, but yay for natural methods of pain relief and healing.

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    1. Thank you, Liz. I think many bloggers have some kind of difficulties or pain or even disabilities. At least, many of the Christian non-mom bloggers I've met. It makes sense since it's hard to work outside of home if you have a condition that makes your life hard. Luckily mine isn't that bad.

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  14. I wish the US would use more natural cures!

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  15. OMGoodness...you were stung by a manta ray!!! Just reading that makes me think of PAIN. Natural remedies really do work, and places like the Amazon are filled with miracle cures that we have no knowledge of.

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    1. It was really painful, insanely painfull but I think it's good to have painful experiences in life. That makes the little everyday pain not seem such a big thing. And you are right, it's amazing how many different medicinal plants there are here. For instance churiyuyu, that I have a picture of in the post, has penicillin in it. And it has so much penicillin that you can actually fight infections with it, and it's all natural.

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  16. This is so great! I hope you are feeling better. I'd be very curious to see if this works!

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  17. This article is really very inspirational to all of us. Especially I have to thank author for posting such magnificent information about healing herbs which are having vital role in our life. These herbs are mainly grows in our surroundings that we never make a glance on it...

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  18. Hello, do you know the scientific name for Churi yu yu?

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