Helping the women … hugs from a healer

Back at Projet Ix-canaan's Women’s Center, we spent a morning helping in their “food forest.” 

(Yes, yes, we can hear the laughing. A picture of the Brown Thumb Kleins who loathe yard work actually gardening is pretty hilarious. Fortunately, it was mostly helping hoe and spread manure on raised vegetable garden beds; pretty sure we didn’t destroy anything living in the process.)

There are nearly 30 women from the village who are part of the collective, divided into sub groups, each with their own unique style. They come together to raise chickens, grow food, make meals and for lessons, events and experiences.

Zeth wanted to see inside a coconut, so Jim used a machete and we gave the halves to the really skinny dogs we fed earlier in the week. 

AND … we had an amazing experience with Dona Nico, a local healer/midwife/herbalist. She took us on a long tour through her garden and neighboring fields, explaining (through a translator) the different leaves, roots and stems that could be boiled or baked into various concoctions, rubbed on the skin or chewed. 

Diabetes, cancer, headaches, sore throat, liver ailments, stomach ache, arthritis, pregnancy, kidney disease, wounds … you name it, she has a plant for it. 

She also collected specific branches and rubbed them down our backs, heads, face, chest, arms and legs. 

Dona Nico learned from her mother (who likely learned from her mother, and so on). Now age 68, Dona Nico gave birth to fourteen children, of course all with her own herbal medicines for pregnancy and childbirth. She’s never been to a doctor in her life. Isn’t she gorgeous?! 

She gives these long, lonnnng hugs … you can feel her energy, sort of like a Guatemala’s micro version of the Hugging Saint Amma.

This photo was at the end of our walk with her, Lake Peten Itza in the background. Gratitude for her time, energy, and the healing she has given countless people over the decades.