Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

CHAPTER NINETEEN
Duck Flower Contribo Aristolochia trilobata
A major medicine of traditional healers throughout Central America. Taken as a boiled tea or soaked
in water it has a wonderful effect on gastritis, fever, colds, flu, constipation, and sinus congestion and
is often drunk in rum to alleviate hangovers. Now disappearing, it is a medicinal plant much in need
of protection.
My first warning of trouble was on a Saturday morning shopping trip to San
Ignacio Town.
Crystal and I were in the Venus Store buying school supplies, when
another shopper casually remarked, “Oh, I was going to see Don Elijio
about my crippled daughter, but the evangelist healers are coming tomorrow
so I’ll bring her to them to be cured instead.”
I didn’t think much about it. Many Central Americans had converted to
Protestant Evangelism in the great waves of revivals that swept through the
region in the 1950s. Every so often a group came to Belize for a few weeks,
fanning across the country, sending out preachers to towns and villages with
promises to heal body and spirit. They brought with them generatoroperated
loudspeakers to broadcast their meetings.
But when I arrived in San Antonio the next Wednesday for my regular
three-day stay with Don Elijio, it was clear something had changed. Hardly
anyone was out on the road or on their doorsteps chatting with neighbors. A
familiar face by now, I was usually greeted by a chorus of children, smiling
women, and barking dogs. Today, only the dogs ran to meet me.
I found Don Elijio sitting alone inside his cement hut. It was unusual for
him to be alone this time of the morning. If he wasn’t out in the forest, I’d
find him visiting with an old friend, neighbor, local patient, or a patient who
had moved in for treatments. On rare occasions I had found him chopping
alone, or fidgeting and lonely. But today was different. I could tell by his
face that something was amiss.
“No one has been here to consult with me all week,” he spilled out with
anguish as I put down my bag.