A Trip to the Healer

It was Thursday night when Francimar noticed how agitated Maddie was. Maddie had had a fever for the entire day, nothing to worry about, just fighting off something (you can tell this is our second child). She said that we needed to take her to the rezador (healer) for a healing because the evil-eye had taken all her energy. When Matt translated this, I thought okay, this is the second time that someone has mentioned my child having the evil-eye. And this time, from Francimar, a biochemist who teaches at the local university. So, when she offered to take us to her friend, a healer, I agreed.

Francimar and her 15-year-old daughter, Rinata, picked us up at 5:30 PM. We were to be at the rezador around 6 PM. We dumped along winding roads filled with potholes listening (quite loudly) to Rinata‘s favorite American band, Oasis. She kept yelling back at me asking for a translation of the lyrics. Lucky for me, I knew the song and could tell her what he was saying. At this point, I realized that riding in the back of cars is very juvenile in nature. Since I’ve arrived in Brazil, I’ve had to ride in the backseat holding the girls (car seats are not mandatory here and will not fit in most of the small cars). You cannot roll down window, cannot open the door, and you certainly cannot adjust the air conditioner vents, which is desperately needed in this hot and humid environment. You have to rely on the “front seat people”, the privileged two, who get the vents right in their face. How annoying! I really felt annoyed when Rinata asked me if I knew how to drive! Man, I felt like telling her that I was driving before she was born, but then I didn’t know how to say that in Portuguese nor did I want to own up to being that old…

We arrived at a clinic of some sort. We got out of the tiny Fiat and rang the bell to the gate. An older woman, with a leopard pint shirt, that was far too small, accentuating her waist rolls, came slowly down the two flights of steep stairs. Grace was the first to yell out to her, Oi! Then Francimar and the woman exchanged greetings and once the gates opened they hugged and kissed Brazilian style, a kiss on both cheeks. I did the same and we were lead up to the home above the clinic. The stairs were narrow and steep and the smelled like cold concrete. It was hard to carry the baby, manage Grace as she climbed up and hold up my long skirt so I didn‘t trip going up. I made a mental note not to wear a long skirt when going to unknown places, especially in Brazil where often houses have stairs that locate them off the streets.

The stairs led us to a door that opened into a large living room, that had two bedrooms connected and a large dining area that gave way to a kitchen. Grace ran off with another little girl that was there. Its funny how there are no barriers when it comes to the language of play.

As soon as I finished greeting the other woman in the house, about five other women suddenly appeared from the bedrooms, all chattering around Maddie, touching her hair and making favorable comments, I guess. I just smiled and said “Obrigada” --thank you. We sat down on the chocolate L shaped couch and waited. I wasn’t sure what we were waiting for and my prejudice had me believing leopard shirt, was the rezadora. I’m not sure why I thought the healer would be a women.

The only man in the house soon appeared. He was considerably shorter than me, I would say about 5’3”, with jet black hair and smile wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. His hands looked old and veiny, worn from many years of life. He saturated some pieces of cotton in a brown tea looking liquid. I asked Rinata what this liquid was and she told me it was Vegetal, the sacred form of Ayahuasca used by the church, the UDV I stood up, holding Maddie face out and greeted him with the formal Brazilian greeting, “Bom dia, todo bom?” and a kiss on either cheek.

He held the wet cotton pieces in the palm of his right hand, and with his left caressed Maddie’s face and head. He then asked me to take a seat on the couch and he proceeded to place the palm holding the vegetal soaked cotton on top of Maddie’s soft spot. He held it there for a few seconds while mumbling prayers, then he slowly slid his hand, that was in the shape of a cup, off the side of Maddie’s head meeting his other hand that was also shaped in a cup, as if swiping a substance into the palm of his other hand and holding it by cupping both hands together and then carrying it to the open window and throwing it outside. I imagined this was the evil energy that befell my Maddie. He did this a number of times, all the while in a deep meditative trance, his lips moving in prayer.

The healing took approximately ten minutes and I was instructed via Francimar to not give Maddie a bath until the morning. The vegetal smelled like teriyaki glaze to me, and left Maddie’s hair stiff. We were supposed to watch over her and if she still appeared agitated, we were to give her, by mouth, three drops of vegetal with four drops of water. I took this information and thought, “she will be fine, there will be no need for this extra internal cleansing” (I‘m not that open-minded when it comes to giving my baby a hallucinogen). Maddie was calm the rest of the night, however, the tea left a rash on her forehead. Not a bad one but still red and blotchy.

She’s been in good spirits, but when we went downtown the other night a woman, sitting on a bench, kept staring at Maddie and asked her name, I hesitated in answering, thinking that maybe she might give her the evil-eye…“Naaaa, I don’t believe in that stuff.” I thought, and yelled out, “Madeline”. She looked at me puzzled, and said “que?” Many people don’t understand “Madeline” because its not a Brazilian name and we have to repeat it a few times before they can get it. But this time I didn‘t repeat it, we just kept walking.