Healing: Natural Mexcian Cures For a Fever

Last weekend I asked Bishop Delgado where he was going to work on Sunday hoping he'd take the hint and invite me along. Sure enough, he asked me to go with him to San Pablo in Colonia Satelito and San Marco in Alpulyeca. I still don't have the words to converse effectively with the parishioners. At San Pablo I asked the matriarch what I thought was "How many years old is the church?" She looked puzzled and the Bishop pointed me to the "bano," restroom. "Tiene anos" sounds like "Tiene bano." I should have said, "Cuantos anos." Man, am I doing a lot of practicing!

I had been to San Marcos in Alpulyeca before and loved the people there. This week they were having their monthly "pot luck" supper after their service in the evening. Victoria, a member of the parish ladeled out a lovely sauce on a piece of beautiful chicken white meat. Then she presented it to me in the manner she had presented it to each member, with dignity and respect. As we ate, we shared first names. I took a group photo of us on the patio next to the wall.

Alpulyeca is somewhat rural. I had suspected that the food sat out during the hour-long mass. The thought crossed my mind before eating the chicken that my "gringo" stomach might not take kindly to the delicious food. Sure enough, less than 24 hours later I had a sudden onset of chills and diarrhea. That afternoon I spiked a fever.

I take fevers seriously. Years ago I majored in microbiolgoy and studied human pathogens. They are serious and cause fevers. I suspected that on Sunday I had not only met a marvelous group of new friends, but I had also met a new pathogen to my system.

So Monday afternoon I wrapped in warm blankets. (Although it was a warm day, I was freezing.) I took a cool shower, put cool, wet cloths on my body and took my first dose of ciprofloxacin that my infectious diseases doctor had prescribed for me "just in case."

By that evening I was beginning to make plans to go to the local infirmary because the fever had not decreased. Thankfully, my friend Rodolfo at the Diocese of Cuernavaca came over with a remedy he learned from his grandmother. He had made a pot of camomille tea with fresh leaves of the guava plant mixed with a little leaf of mint. I drank the medicinal tea most of the night and the fever left me by morning.

In the morning Rodolfo prepared a special cereal of corn flower, water and sugar called atole. He served it with three toasted tortillas - more food for healing from his grandmother, he said. The day before, Rodolfo offered me ciprofloxacin like my doctor did. I'm pretty sure Rodolfo has had medical training and I know that he has a gift for healing.

By noon I felt like dressing for the day and eating lunch. I was healed and I'm so grateful it was only a 24 hour illness. I could have caught that kind of pathogen anywhere.

I was telling my Spanish teacher, Yuri about the dangers of fevers yesterday in class. I told her about my former life working in a university hospital testing for leukemia. She told me of her 23-year-old cousin from Taxco who was sick and had a fever for 4 or 5 days before he went to the doctor. He was diagnosed with leukemia, went into a coma and soon died. In a young or old person a fever is screaming to the body for immediate help.

I've decided to call Rodolfo "El Doctor". Or is it, "curadoro?"