Friday, April 29, 2011

The majic Higuera tree and Dia de los Albañiles

Both of these are from my worker and neighbor today, Hugo.

Last night he walked his family into Melaque from Pinal Villa and on the way there is a large Higuera tree. The baby in a stroller was effected by the magic of this tree and didn't sleep all night, discomfort, headache, temperature and maybe bad dreams ... as much of a dream as a 6 months old can have.

I asked him if this was an issue for a doctor and he said no, only a curandero or bruja (witch doctor) could deal with it. "Muchos problemas con chiquillos" (little kids) is all he could say. I asked Silvia who is visiting from the Chapala area and got more or less the same story about the magic Higuera. The curandero breaks a raw egg over the childs forehead to help in the diagnosis.   Wish I could find some 'real' tales of the magic of ther Higuera tree ... maybe later.


The other item is that Tuesday of next week (May 3rd) is "El Día del Albañil" (day of the cement workers (masons)) and Hugo wanted me to buy some crape paper and his wife would make a cross to put up on my house that he has been working on for the last 6 months. That was easy and 3 colors cost 10 pesos ... but he also wanted something like Saran Wrap to protect the crape paper from the rain. Haven't found that yet. Ziploc bags just don't work the same.

4 comments:

Calypso said...

In our Hood they roll an egg over the forehead to take away a headache and fever - but it remains in tact - go figure!

Oh my favorite is seeing a mujere put some onion skins on her head while cutting onions in order to minimize the tearing up. Does that work?

sparks_mex said...

It seems I didn't understand the Spanish description.

They use the egg as the 'scanner' and then break the egg in a bowl to see what the problem is. There's a number of variations

Steve Cotton said...

I know that road, but i cannot remember the tree. Where is it?

sparks_mex said...

That foto is of a tree in Barra on Nueva España.

I'm not sure which route they took but there are a number of large trees on the side roads towards the highschool

The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

Sparks Mexico Web
Manzanillo Information
House building in Pinal Villa

Archivo del blog

Expat.com

Expat Exchange