Week 5:
Interns and Outsiders

July 24, 2018

This week, some of the other traditional medicine interns came over to live in the chakra house for a few days and learn.  We busied ourselves before they came, raking leaves, “mowing the lawn” with a machete, and Clemente said he was going to “clean the forest”.  I made bouquets of flowers and helped decorate the house.

When they arrived, we set up in the chakra house with mosquito nets, sleeping bags, and pillows.  It was almost like a slumber party, and we had much to talk about.  We exchanged notes on medicinal plants that we’ve collected so far and discussed our experiences.

We took a tour around the chakra, and Clemente explained again about the plants along the way, while I helped translate.

On Thursday, all of the interns came to the chakra house for a jungle feast.  Almost my whole host family was there, cooking, and the chakra was abuzz with activity.  At the feast, I tried frog for the first time, along with new nuts and fruits.

After the feast, some of my extended host family dressed up in traditional garb and played music for us, while we danced.

Everyone had an amazing time, and apparently, there will be another feast in the coming week.  I hope to help cook this time since I won’t be busy helping to host other interns beforehand.

The day after the jungle feast, my host family and I went to an open house at Amu-Pakin, the Kichwa midwives’ association.  They had a birthing demonstration, a rainforest meal wrapped in a banana leaf, a tour of the chakra, and dancing.

I’m glad that us interns are so accepted in this area and that the people are willing to provide good experiences for us.  People are fairly used to foreign students hanging around and are eager to share their culture and learn about us.  Besides that, it’s brought more money into the community; my host family’s main source of income seems to be hosting interns and tourism events.  Selling produce at the market just doesn’t measure up.  At the beginning of the week, my host family’s television broke, and after the jungle feast, they have enough money to pay a mechanic to fix it (and I can share my favorite movie with them!).  So while we may be outsiders, we are welcomed quite warmly by the Kichwa people.

Even though I’ve started to feel like less of an outsider, I’ve started to get homesick.  It dawned on me that I only have a couple of weeks left, and I’m planning the rest of my time wisely.  A couple of interns mentioned botanical gardens that are worth visiting, so I think I will be doing some traveling!