Day 17

Ugh, getting up this morning was not fun because it was especially cold and I was so warm in my bed. Our breakfast was a bit different this morning because we were served a slice of what tasted like lemon meringue pie, which was too sweet for me that early so I stuck with bread and cheese. We had to push the bus again this morning, but I didn’t participate. We headed to another primary health center this morning but this one was Mapuche based and further away than Villarrica; instead it was in a nearby town called Temuco. We all sat around a fire burning in a hut-like building with straw on used for the roof as one of the administrators of the center talked to us about how the community is working on creating a complementary system for medicine between modern medicine and Mapuche medicine. I was very interested in what he had to say and it was very nice to have the fire to keep us warm. After this mini-presentation we went to the town of Temuco where we stopped by a Mapuche herbal shop. Here we heard more about the different uses for herbs in Mapuche medicine. We were all starving by this time so we went in to a little area where there were all kinds of stands selling Mapuche “nifty gifties” as we like to call them. For lunch I had a fried white fish with French fries, which was pretty good. After lunch we were able to walk around the stands for a bit before we got on the bus to head back to Villarrica. On our way back we stopped at the home of a Mache, who is a Mapuche medicine-man/woman. She told us a little bit about what she does and then performed a typical ritualistic song using drums with two of her neighbors accompanying her. After she was done she told us that she had prayed for us to have a safe rest of our trip as well as for our health. It is always so cool to see another culture’s ways in action. We were even given a little snack of home-made bread with a sauce that seemed to be made up of green onion, parsley, olive oil and water. The whole time we were outside which was a bit chilly, and so after our goodbyes we scrambled back on to the bus. As a group we decided that we wanted to go back to the ruka instead of going to Pucon, another near by town, for some shopping. When we got back we were able to have dinner, which was another soup but very delicious and perfect since it had been another cold day. I took a shower so that I would have time to dry my hair and we had driven on a ton of dirt roads that day so I felt dusty all over. Emily and I went to bed pretty early as well as many of the other people in the group.