Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer

the northern strain—I bathed them in a tub filled with boiled Red
Gumbolimbo bark. It soothed their painful rashes, lowered the high fevers,
and helped them fall into a deep, restful sleep.
In the beginning of my apprenticeship, I would return from San Antonio
and search my backyard farmacia, pharmacy, for a specific plant, never
certain I could identify it without Don Elijio’s help. After about a year and a
half of tramping about in the rainforest, plants began to stand out as
individuals with uses and exciting histories. The dark, mysterious forest of
trees and lianas was becoming a familiar place of knowledge and healing.
Once I felt sure that the plant in my hand was what I believed it to be, it
took much more time before I felt completely confident that I could use the
plants I collected on my patients. Only gradually did I became proficient at
using the cures Don Elijio had taught.
Our lives were still difficult and challenging, but our perseverance was
showing results. Our natural healing practice in San Ignacio Town was
flourishing. As Greg and I began to realize that we had purchased thirtyfive
acres of medicine—enough to last several lifetimes—we no longer
needed to import herbs from the United States.
An increasing number of our patients were coming from the Mennonite
community of Spanish Lookout, about ten miles northeast of San Ignacio.
The German Mennonites, a Christian sect, had settled in Belize in 1958 to
form a farming community of several hundred settlers. They came to us
mostly for naprapathic treatments. Hands-on healing had always been a part
of their culture, and they arrived at our office by the truckload. We treated
all ages, from newborns to the elderly. Sometimes as many as twelve
members of one family filled our waiting room.
Gradually, our ugly, burned-out clearing in the jungle was transforming
itself into a showplace of tropical flowers, including hibiscus in four shades,
orchids, and heliconia.
The fruit trees were beginning to bear their mangoes, oranges, lemons,
and avocados. The pineapples and bananas were fat and sweet. We
discovered wild fruit trees in our jungle, including annona, hog plum, and
zapote, a favorite fruit of the ancient Maya. Its delicious flavor reminded
me of a peach embellished with a dash of cinnamon.
Our organic gardens were sprouting some hearty, deep green varieties of
lettuce, with succulent, tender leaves. Collard greens had become one of our