Visiting the Mogotes Medicine Man
8 Jun
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His name is Ostokio. He’s the medicine man of Mogotes, the healer, the one who knows all the natural remedies and old tricks. He doesn’t have a long beard and a cane or any distinguishing native marks, only a warm smile, wrinkles around his lips and eyes and thick write eyebrows. He lives just outside the town.
Wilfredo got pummelled in the ribs during his football game on Sunday and has been in pain ever since, wincing when he laughs and reluctant to go to the hospital to get it checked out. So instead, we drove down a rib-rattling dirt road toward the mountains to pay a visit to Ostokio.
He welcomed us happily when we arrived, unexpected. He was just coming back from a walk down the muddy path and opened the gate to let us in. He shooed aside three dogs and motioned around the side of the house.
Chickens scattered and a grey cat with piercing green eyes glared at us from the ground. Clothes hung from a wire. His granddaughter Camila looked expectantly at my camera so I took her photo and she beamed with delight.
They pulled up an assortment of chairs for all five of us (the whole family came along) and we sat on a concrete stoop at the side of the house. The door was open; inside there were bare floors and a bed behind some curtains. A woman watched us from inside a small brick hut nearby. She was cooking.
Ostokio started telling stories as he pushed his fingers along Wilfredo’s ribs, making him wince in pain. After rubbing in a strong scented tiger balm, he asked Camila to bring a water bottle from the garden then handed it to Wilfredo to blow inside of to push out his ribs.
For the next ten minutes we watched while he pushed his ridged fingernails against the ribs, pushed some more, poked, prodded out some crackling noises. He grabbed pinches of skin in both hands and pulled hard while Wilfredo blew into this empty water bottle. When he decided he was finished, they wrapped cloth around his ribs and Wilfredo’s mom handed over some pesos.
I asked him if it felt better but apparently Ostokio said it will feel the same for two more days so we have to wait and see. All said and done, he posed for a photo for me and we drove off into the rain, the car sloshing through muddy puddles back into town.
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To consider for the comments:
Have you ever been injured or sick while abroad and received some sort of unusual local treatment? Where were you? Did it work?
I had to go to the ER in Bogota once and it was an experience to say the least…I didn’t receive any strange treatments exactly but when they hung my IV bag on a nail that they pounded into the wall just above my head, I was ready to go home AMA… It just wasn’t what I was familiar with from home!
Michele recently posted..Napalm for Ants
I’m surprised that happened in Bogota… I had an IV bag in little tiny Mogotes and they had a primitive but proper stand for it! Thanks for sharing
Loved loved loved this post!!! I didn’t want it to end.
Thanks Andi. It was a really interesting experience!
Haha IV bag nailed to the wall… that’s hilarious but then again, we should be grateful how well we have it in the US.