I haven’t been getting the best of sleep while in Ecuador. This could be partially due to the fact that I just got a mosquito net a couple of days ago. To avoid the incessant little bites from all types of critters, I have been sleeping in thick socks and sweats (with the hood up) in already warm weather. So, combine sweating through your clothes every night while getting eaten alive, with roosters at 3am and loud music from the neighbors- it adds up to mostly restless nights. Which is why I was subconsciously bummed when I was woken from my slumber last week at 4:30am with a phone call. I was on my back, legs straight out, and my whole body and mind were completely relaxed. Until I realized I had picked up a phone call in my sleep, from my fellow intern who was waiting at the top of our community for me in the taxi I had ordered the night before.
Suddenly, I was up, throwing my body out of my bed and rummaging through my suitcase for a change of pants and socks (Halfway to our destination, I realized I was still in the tshirt I had slept in). I ran downstairs in my rubber boots, frantically saying goodbye to my host dad, who was already up for the day. I can’t imagine what I looked like to him in that moment, feeling disheveled and embarrassed for sleeping in 45 minutes later than I meant to. I ran out to the taxi to meet my friend and driver, and we were off to Archidona, the nearby town. There, we would join a few other interns and head to La Libertad, where we would take part in a guayusa ceremony. You may be wondering why my dad was already up at 4am when everyone else was still asleep. My dad takes part in a Kichwa tradition of waking up before the sun rises and drinking the tea brewed from the guayusa (written wayusa in Kichwa) plant to start the day. He’s the only one in my family of nearly 12 that really takes part, but many households practice this a whole family, every morning. It’s difficult to explain entirely, as there are many parts to the tradition, but drinking the guayusa tea is mostly a way to reflect, socialize, connect with your ancestors and the Amazon, and energize yourself for the day ahead. It reminds me a bit of sitting with your loved ones, drinking a cup of coffee in the morning. A group of us interns took part in a guayusa ceremony, which just meant we had Kichwa community members from La Libertad explain to us the many traditions of the drink while we drank it. We arrived to the community while it was still dark, and took a path through the back of the community. It was a little unnerving and disorienting taking the long walk in the middle of the jungle when I was still waking up. About halfway there, though, our intern leader had us all stop to take a moment of pause. We all turned off our flashlights in the middle of the trail, and stood in silence, listening to the bugs and water and life surrounding us. For a minute, I felt like a tiny little bug, chilling on a branch, listening in on the conversations of the animals around me. One we got to the choza, or hut for the ceremony, we sat in a circle and were handed pilches from which to drink the guayusa. The tea is pretty bitter if you don't add lemon and sugar, like most people do. But it also felt more powerful to drink it this way, like I was absorbing the real energy of the plant. Before drinking the whole cup, however, we learned how to spit it on various parts of our body, as ancestors did, to protect themselves from dangers in the jungle. We all tried our best to get a good spit spray onto each arm, below us, and up over our heads. You also gargle the tea like mouthwash, to clear our mouth and body of bad energy that may have been left over from the night before. Our leaders of the ceremony also told us many interesting stories about the history of the plant, and how it was discovered by humans. It is said that the grandfather of one of the leaders stumbled upon the plant one day in the forest, and it was shaking. He tried to reach for it and grab it, but the guayusa would not allow itself to be touched. When the man brought back his family to see the plant, the guayusa continuted to shake and avoid the people's grasps. Then they realized that the guayusa plant was a virgin- never touched or used by humans. So, the people bowed and prayed to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, to ask for use of the guayusa. Pachamama listened and allowed them to harvest the guayusa, which is now drunk by Ecuadorians every day. The people's connection to and understanding of their natural world is so moving, in a way that makes me wish I had that same deep connection with the jungle. Kichwa people, specifically, hold a special relationship with their environment, one where they try to maintain balance and respect. Just yesterday, I noticed my nine year old brother taking a moment to pray to himself and the tree before climbing it to grab some clementines for us to snack on. Everyone understands how to communicate with the earth and how to respect it, in a way that I've never seen before. We also got our dreams interpreted, which is a practice that can casually takes place for some families. Kichwa culture has many different meanings for different dreams. They believe that if you dream about something, you are receiving a sign or message about how to spend your day. There are certain interpretations of some signals in dreams that have spooky meanings. The dream that I shared with our leader, Amable, for example, was about my host sister. My dream took place in bed, but I couldn't tell if I was awake or asleep throughout the whole thing. When I think I was awake, I was experiencing sleep paralysis, and then I kept thinking I was seeing my host sister next to my bed. She would peek her head out and giggle, playing hide and seek. When I finally woke up, she wasn't there. There was also a worm hole of insects that appeared above my bed and was sucking all of the bugs out of my room (yep, super icky). Amable told me that because she was near me in my dream, but not in real life, that meant she may get sick. Another intern asked about dreams about you pulling your teeth, which Amable said could mean a family member is going to pass away. We talked for a long time about all of the different meanin gs and interpretations, and I started thinking about all of the dreams I have and how they could be interpreted. Apparently, a lot of dreams with parties and music can generally have bad connotations. I swear all of my dreams recently have been about parties- uh oh. Maybe it was the multiple pilches of wayusa, but I was feeling real emotional during the whole ceremony. The quiet rushing water right outside, the calm voices of our guides telling elaborate stories, the warm and bitter guayusa soothing my throat. I felt too lucky to have been sitting in the middle of the jungle with creative and loving people from all over the world, including from La Libertad. I heard stories that sounded like they were from a fairytale; I watched a couple of people take tough hits from a hortiga, a stinging nettle plant to relieve some pain (our leader, Stephanie, calls it nature's Icy Hot); I peed in a beautiful river! It was an early and moving morning, and since then, I've been trying to thank Pachamama as much as I can.
1 Comment
Mariam
3/14/2019 02:11:42 pm
You are partaking in such unique experiences Abigail I’m so excited to hear so much more about this stuff :)
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AuthorI'm a 21 year old university student, studying geography and food security, and spending a semester in Ecuador interning with Amazon Learning. ArchivesCategories |