A World without Lawn Mowers

Here in Cochabamba, Bolivia the weather is hot, the mountains dry, and many a medicinal plant flowering. I originally had decided to visit Cochabamba way back in the day when I was writing for my Fulbright grant. I had discovered a man named Carlos Prado, a fifth generation herbalist, who runs a small school for traditional Andean medicine with an herbal medicine clinic named Kuska Incari which translates to ¨together to live better¨in Quechua. Since my arrival in Cochabamba my days have been steeped in herbal medicines and mates (that´s south american for tea!). In the morning I usually walk to the enormous market covering many city blocks in search of my morning tea. Here you can find men and women who have set up carts with various glass jars filled with fresh herbs such as chamomile, uña de gato, cornsilk, cedar, or anis infusing in water...you can walk up and say Ï need something for my kidneys or my liver¨and they will mix up a concoction for you, tossing in a bit of fresh honey. From there I usually catch the ¨U¨ a colorfully decorated bluebird short-bus that roares through the cities streets, cutting lanes of traffic, blaring its horn at any opportunity to arrive at the Cochabamba Botanic Gardens. With Carlos I have been assisting in mounting a new garden of Foreign medicinal plants and clearing the original medicinal plant section to contain only Bolivian Natives. From there we usually go to Carlos´s home/clinic/school to see a patient, prepare medicines, or eat lunch with the family. His home is exactly how I imagened it to be: caving in ceiling, clinic room designated by a hanging sheet that sections of the ¨healing space¨from the living area, two rooms full of hundreds of jars of dried plants, five gallon buckets brimming with tinctures, and a patio cluttered with mismatched jars/pots full of medicinal plants. It is in this home that Carlos reads coca leaves to diagnose the origin of a person´s illness, where he burns copal to induce healing, and where he ladels out his medicines into platic bottles to pass on to his patients.

When working with healers in traditional cultures the most magical moments are when their philosophies are shared with you, teachings that often butt up against the western paradigm in which we have been bred. These moments challenge us, giving us the opportunity to completely disregard the information, or more interestingly instigate us to chip away at the boundries that close in our minds. When we choose to ¨chip¨we open the door to a diffent world that appears magical because it often defies our normal beleifs and perceptions.

Two examples:
1)We went out into the mountains seeking native medicinal plants to transplant into the Botanic Gardens. We stopped on the way to eat whole fried fish from the Lagoon, soft-salty cheese, and boiled beans. Knowing my interest in plants used in gynecological matters Carlos was discussing a large native grass species that we were going to dig up. He says to me that according to some women the plant is useful as a contraceptive. My interest peaked, I asked him if its a plant that´s used for short term effects or longterm/complete infertility, as many plants used in this fashion are catagorized this way. He looks at me and says, thats such a westernized thing to say! First, in Andean beleif system the concept of time is very different, so to use the term absolute doesnt fit into his description of the plant or how it would function. Second, the plant is medicine, so it can be used in various ways depending on how the plant synergizes with the person and the plants specific state of growth. A large plant may have a longer effect than a short plant; if its growing at higher altitude versus lower this can influence its effects; if the woman is young vs. old, fat vs. thin, never had a child or already has a litter, etc.

2)I hear Carlos speak about almost every plant with the reference ¨its the famous avocado seed, the famous andean sage, the famous passiflora...¨ Each plant is revered and honored as medicine. When sitting in on a class of university students one of them dared to asked: what is that plant used for, and his response was almost open jawed as he said, obviosly its medicine, its all medicine! the catagorization of uses often constricts the plants abilities, confining it so that it cant do its work.

And now to bid you all adeu, I wanted to share the famous anti-diarrhea formula that we prepared yesterday:
1.5 cups peeled, washed, shredded avocado seed
1.5 cups burnt to a crisp, dry, white rice
1 peel of a pomegranit chopped
1 handful cinnamon bark broken into small pieces
Add all ingredients into 3 liters of boiling water. Steep 15-30 minutes, strain. Dosage is 1-2 Tbsp. To make a tincture add 1.5 liters water and 1.5 liters grain alcohol. Dosage is 15-30 drops.

This one´s for my mama!

Coming to this area of the world it is hard to deny the power of the earth. It is evident in the snowcapped peaks seen in the distance, the evergreen hills towering at 12,000 ft, and the roaring waters flowing through Andean valleys. When I sent my mother a message letting her know that I was heading down to the Inka empire of Machu Picchu she told me that I was living her dream. So, as a tribute to her and all the Mamas out there including the Pachamama I dedicate this edition of my blog once again from a land where women carry their babies tightly wrapped to their bodies in brilliantly woven tapestries.

The Pachamama is considered the feminine power of the mother earth as ascribed by the Inkas. It is a force so grand that the people populating the Quechua regions of Peru live an existence that is inseperable from her. They follow various practices that honor her, and on a day-to-day level it is obvious how she is appreciated.

1) Living Buildings
On the large scale Machu Picchu is impressive due to its complicated location deep in the Andes atop a leveled green mountaintop. One asks over and over how people lived up there, and how on earth they carried goods so far. But what is almost more impressive, in my eyes, are the architectural details that incorporate the earth into the citys dwellings. Unlike many cities where the earth has been cleared, lifted, and destroyed to accomodate its settlers, Macchu Picchu is a work of natural art. Throughout the ruins you can behold rocks that have been so delicately carved that they may have six or three sides and yet fit togehter in a linked pattern to produce walls. The most stunning buildings are built from enormous boulders that were jutting up from the earth then and exist still. Many boulders form the base of temples which are topped with smoothed stones to produce a vision that is unmatched. Not only had the Inkas chosen ares of great natural beauty to live, but their habitations are alive with the place, not seperate; an honoring of the Pachamama. The Inka decendants today still live in homes cast from mud bricks, surrounded by immense gardens and terraced agricultural plots.

2) Agricultural Advancements
The Inkas also show their appreciation for the Pachamama in their agricultural processes that are mostly based in terraced plots. In areas that appear harsh the Inkan decendants have been able to manipulate the earth to produce a wide array of agricultural successes. The potato, which origantes from the Andean mountains, boasts more than 300 differing varieties from sweet, starchy, small, large, colorful, to a dried variety that is produced by freezing and then expressing water by stomping. Having traveled a variety of times to Mexico, I thought I knew corn...I had NO idea of the diversity of corn until walking into a market in Cuzco, Peru; at least 50 countable forms and colors...the Peruvians have done a virtual evolutionary miracle with corn hybridization! The markets in Peru are unlike anything I have ever seen and I owe this fact to the honoring of the earth and manipulation of her soils and fruits to produce the rainbow available in the market place: corn, potato, camote, peppers, aji, garlic, greens, mushrooms, algeas, membrillos, pomegranits, and a majority of produce that I can only dream of remebering the names!

3)Herbal Medicine
Alongside the ventas full of fruits and vegetables in a Peruvian market you will also see the largest variety of fresh herbal medicines that I have EVER seen in a market in Latin America. I spend hours talking to women like Justicia in the markets that share their remedies and herbs with me. The beauty of this environment is that many plants that are common in the herbal pharmacopea can be located here alongside the Andean plants that are new to me: Marshmallow, valerian, horsetail, nettles; Muña, coca leaf, hierba de cancer, etc. Herbal medcine is alive here, and I attribute that to the reverance for the earth/Pachamama.

Next stop La Paz, Bolivia!

thoughts on nicaragua from lima

once again in a cosmopolitan city such as Lima, peru i am able to reflect back on the experience and learning that nicaragua has provided me with. I can think fondly of the simplicity of life there as I gently clack away at the key board, listening to cars drive by on a street lined with brightly lit casinos and designer clothing shops. On my last days in Nicaragua Cody and I discussed all of the new skills I had aquired and foods that I had savored. When I turn these events over in my mind I recognize that I learned skills that are basic to the life of a woman living in a rural area of the world, skills that may appear quite different from those of the high heeled city woman. So in honor of all the rural women the world over, particularly those in Nicaragua that laguhed as I attempted to master the most mundane skills I dedicate this list of newly aquired knowledge:

-to pull water up from a well with a plastic bucket...easier said than done, its all in the wrist!
-to grate a coconut on a tool derived from a punched metal can and then make coconut milk...various scars on my hand to prove the sharpness of this tool!
-to light a fire with pine wood and charcoals for grilling food...this is without the traditional addition of fast lighting plastic
-to effeciently bath and wash dishes without running water
-to carry buckets of water without spilling too much
-to hand wash cloths on a grated cement block, hang them to dry, and remember to bring them in at night so they wont get stolen (ill admit that i only did it a couple of times and paid to have someone do it the rest of the time...its hard work!)
-to fish with a line and hook
-to descale, gut, and grill a fish (thanx to cody for that one!)
-to peel and cook bread fruit in a variety of ways
-to make cake out of quiquisque
-to make miskito tortilla both fried and baked (kind of!)

And to cody and his gastronomical passion a list of new foods that have touched my palate: quiquisque, jocote, bittensweet, naranjarilla, bread fruit, malanga, icate, chile congo & cabro, encultidos, rose apple, roscetes, rosquillos, rondon, wiya/ibhina wina/gibbnet, turtle meat, iguana eggs, bunnyhuevos, fresco de grama y avena, cuajada...just to name a few!

occassionaly as a modern woman traveling in the developing world you realize the delicate and difficult skills that we have lost as life has become paradoxically simplified and more complex at the same time! heres off to the Inka empire and other unknown skills....