Piracanga: Indigenous Medicine Woman (Part 1)

I REALLY haven't had (until now) the opportunity to tell my tale of how Nadia, the indigenous medicine woman, came to me.

It all started with an innocent puncture wound on my heel and an insect bite on my ankle. The two wounds quickly became infected and our Piracanga doctor promptly taught me how to clean them with hydrogen peroxide and iodine.

However, after about a week there was no improvement. In fact, they had become much worse. In my very pregnant state this was a major concern for all of us.

On the day Nadia appeared I had stayed home instead of going up to the restaurant for lunch. I was laying in our hammock feeling sorry for myself. Tears were pouring out of my eyes when I recalled a certain passage from the popular book, Eat, Pray, Love.

In the book the author had injured her knee while in Bali. Like here, the humidity can make most minor wounds difficult to heal. Anyway, to cut a long story short, a medicine woman helped her recover with the use of local plants.

As the tears rolled down my cheeks all I could think about was how there had to be a way to heal my wound using plants. It just did not make any sense to me that there wasn't a leaf somewhere in my garden or the forest that could help.

Literally five minutes from having this thought Claude and Zenchai arrived home telling me an indigenous medicine woman was coming to help clean my wounds.

I wiped my wet face with the back of my hands, pulled myself out of the hammock and by the time I got down the stairs there she was - with about five other people from the Piracanga community. 

Nadia had come to Piracanga to do a massage course. She had been told about my situation and immediately came to me. Nadia had a lot of experience treating staph infections in her community.

After assessing my infections, she sent the various people out to collect plants and supplies so she could begin the cleansing process.

As we sat there waiting for the people to return with the bits and pieces, I fell in love with her.

I felt safe, protected and nurtured immediately upon meeting her. She had an amazing presence that was enhanced by the tribal paint on her face, the colourful feathers in her hair and the handcrafted jewelry that bedecked her.

Each day that she was here (in Piracanga), she took time out of her course (even though the tutors were not happy about it) to care for me. 

She prepared a herbal bath for my foot using arueira leaves then she would clean the puss from the staph using cotton or gauze and the auira water. This was almost always very painful. 

On one occasion she performed what could only be described as finger surgery. In the most sensitive way possible Nadia would pull the infected flesh off. 

This was by far the most excruciatingly painful thing I have ever felt. After all the cleaning, she would apply an aloe vera cream her mother had made. Nadia had also prepared a tincture using resin from a tree producing mescaline, which had to brew for a minimum of seven days before it could be used.

By that point my infections weren't getting any better, but hadn't got any worse. I was at a crossroads on my journey to regaining my health and with so many factors to consider, I finally decided to use antibiotic cream.

The antibiotic cream and cleansing regime was no walk in the park either. By the time Kobra arrived, both wounds were nearly closed. My midwife finished the process by cleaning them with a nailbrush and coconut soap, followed by pure tobacco and an Amazonian tincture.

However, when I found out Nadia was returning to Piracanga to teach a course on medicinal plants, I knew I would attend.

Comments

[Bryan Training]

Every wound in the feet or near it always takes time to heal. But in any case, people always forgot the power of nature in healing human body. It is what the doctor would not tell you. Good thing you turned into that path.

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