True to my word, I have created a flickr account with lots of pictures (mostly of Jasper). There is an archive of Jasper's first year, as well as updated photos of us in Fiji. It is a free account, so it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a paid account. It only shows the 200 most recently uploaded photos, so if you want a copy, download it in a timely manner!
The link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fijimamma/
You can also just click on the slideshow on the side bar (I just discovered you can do this).
Enjoy!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Fijian Medicine I
Jasper seems to have picked up a cold that started showing symptoms this morning. I’m guessing he got it at Joeli’s auntie’s funeral that Eseta took him to on Tuesday. When I picked him up from her house, she said he had a great time, and that all the people were picking him up and kissing him and passing him around.
When I picked him up today, Eseta said, “My mom say he has the mucous (runny nose) because he hot inside.” Basically, having a runny nose is a symptom of being “hot” in the chest/back. She told me that she sponged him down with a cool cloth to bring out the “hot” and that tomorrow, she would give him some Fijian medicine. So of course I asked what that entailed. She told me that they take the drove root and grate it and squeeze the juice out of it, add some water, and feed it to the child. She likened it to ginger root, and said that it is often used for children, also in combination with kavika bark (scrape it out and squeeze it) and wi (“like a mango, but green, and the seed is not round”). I’m supposed to come over tomorrow morning and see how it’s done (they are harvesting the drove this afternoon down the road).
So like any paranoid/responsible parent, I went to John and Barbara’s house because I knew they had a book on Fijian medicine. I looked up drove and found the Latin name, read the short description in the book on its uses, then googled the Latin name to find out as much as I could. Turns out, the common names are “Shampoo Ginger” and Awapuhi, the same stuff they put in shampoo. The root is in the ginger family, and is widely used in the pacific as a remedy for coughs and thrush, and the flowers are crushed and used in hair products. There was even a scientific paper on its anti-inflammatory properties. So there you go: well known, widely used, perfectly safe. I should have known they weren’t going to give him something weird and dangerous, but I just had to check.
The next day:
Sure enough, the root looks just like ginger, and Eseta makes it just how she says, mixing the grated root with a little bit of water and squeezing it through a cloth. She asks me if I want to try some. I feel like I might be getting the cold too, so I say yes. Oh man is it bitter. Not nearly as tasty as ginger. I say “good luck getting Jasper to drink that.” She just smiles and gives him some in a spoon, and he drinks it up and then makes a face. But all of the kids there surround him and start cheering, and he immediately smiles and is fine. Ah the influence and distraction of seven other kids. No wonder Eseta says he has never had an accident there. He just does what all of the other kids do.
She also told me that I need to make sure he doesn’t go outside during a sudden downpour (“You know, when it rains, then it stops. In the afternoon.”), because that will make kids sick. I ask her if it’s only during the afternoon rain, and she repeats, “When it starts and then stops.” So Normal rain is ok I guess, just not the sudden ones. Then she adds, “If he get wet during this rain, you have to shower him and wash it off, then he be ok.” Go figure.
When I picked him up today, Eseta said, “My mom say he has the mucous (runny nose) because he hot inside.” Basically, having a runny nose is a symptom of being “hot” in the chest/back. She told me that she sponged him down with a cool cloth to bring out the “hot” and that tomorrow, she would give him some Fijian medicine. So of course I asked what that entailed. She told me that they take the drove root and grate it and squeeze the juice out of it, add some water, and feed it to the child. She likened it to ginger root, and said that it is often used for children, also in combination with kavika bark (scrape it out and squeeze it) and wi (“like a mango, but green, and the seed is not round”). I’m supposed to come over tomorrow morning and see how it’s done (they are harvesting the drove this afternoon down the road).
So like any paranoid/responsible parent, I went to John and Barbara’s house because I knew they had a book on Fijian medicine. I looked up drove and found the Latin name, read the short description in the book on its uses, then googled the Latin name to find out as much as I could. Turns out, the common names are “Shampoo Ginger” and Awapuhi, the same stuff they put in shampoo. The root is in the ginger family, and is widely used in the pacific as a remedy for coughs and thrush, and the flowers are crushed and used in hair products. There was even a scientific paper on its anti-inflammatory properties. So there you go: well known, widely used, perfectly safe. I should have known they weren’t going to give him something weird and dangerous, but I just had to check.
The next day:
Sure enough, the root looks just like ginger, and Eseta makes it just how she says, mixing the grated root with a little bit of water and squeezing it through a cloth. She asks me if I want to try some. I feel like I might be getting the cold too, so I say yes. Oh man is it bitter. Not nearly as tasty as ginger. I say “good luck getting Jasper to drink that.” She just smiles and gives him some in a spoon, and he drinks it up and then makes a face. But all of the kids there surround him and start cheering, and he immediately smiles and is fine. Ah the influence and distraction of seven other kids. No wonder Eseta says he has never had an accident there. He just does what all of the other kids do.
She also told me that I need to make sure he doesn’t go outside during a sudden downpour (“You know, when it rains, then it stops. In the afternoon.”), because that will make kids sick. I ask her if it’s only during the afternoon rain, and she repeats, “When it starts and then stops.” So Normal rain is ok I guess, just not the sudden ones. Then she adds, “If he get wet during this rain, you have to shower him and wash it off, then he be ok.” Go figure.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Ayurveda Adventures
A few weeks ago, when I threw my back out, one of my first days back at work I found this tube of “Moov” Joint Pain Reliever in the back by the sink. I was curious, wondering if it might help relieve my muscle soreness. So I started reading the side of the box: “Indications: joint pains and inflammation, backache, sprains, sciatica.” Perfect. I decided to borrow it and try it out. It wasn’t until later that I took out the paper insert and read more closely and saw that it was an Ayurvedic formula. Well, that made me even more curious. I had never seen or tried any Ayurvedic remedies, and I have to say that Miles and I make jokes referring to our limited knowledge of Ayurvedic diet guidelines, teasing that we need more purple (or blue) in our diets. Then I found the ingredients: Oil of Wintergreen, Pudinah ka Phool, Tarpin ka Tel, Nilgiri Tel, Ointment Base. Hmm, did I really want to use this? Well, thank goodness for Google, because to my pleasant surprise, I discovered that the mystery ingredients are also normal oils (mint oil, eucalyptus oil) with the exception of the Tarpin. I’m still not really sure what that one is. But I tried it out, and it did help (it felt kind of like Icy Hot), and the price was right: according to the sticker on the box, it was $1.60 Fijian, or about 80 cents US.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Intro
Here it is! The new blog!
This time, it's not just about our little man, but about our family adventures living in an exciting, crazy place. Of course, there will still be lots of posts about the Buddha Baby (now a Buddha Toddler, if there is such a thing). I will try to post some of the pictures from the old blog as well, though we are quite limited on the amount we can upload. Patience may be required, for we are now operating on Fiji Time!
This time, it's not just about our little man, but about our family adventures living in an exciting, crazy place. Of course, there will still be lots of posts about the Buddha Baby (now a Buddha Toddler, if there is such a thing). I will try to post some of the pictures from the old blog as well, though we are quite limited on the amount we can upload. Patience may be required, for we are now operating on Fiji Time!
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