Lily had a fever. Eliza had a fever the week before, but no other symptoms. She still ate, drank, slept, and played, but we got worried after 6 days and headed to town to see a doctor. We were literally in the parking lot when we decided not to go in. We had emailed some doctor friends back home if they thought we needed more than fever reducers, and they finally responded at JUST the right time that since she's still eating and drinking, she's fine. Luckily the fever went away that night! But then Lily got sick. We weren't too worried since Eliza's seemed like a mild sickness, but we felt bad that it may take a whole week to recover and the Tylenol here is disgusting! They haven't updated the flavor since I was a kid!
Adam decided to stay home with Lily, Eliza and Lincoln, while I took Jade and Brigham on a Chocolate Tour with Adam's parents.
We drove to a local, indigenous BriBri tribal village and walked through beautiful forests and sketchy bridges, soaking in the sounds of nature all around.
About 20 families lived in this village. They are the original Costa Rican people and have tried to keep their traditions alive. There were lots of animals and kids and everyone was working.
Something about this simplistic lifestyle is so appealing to me!
Making a roof.
And THIS is the village medicine man. Not exactly the picture of health I imagined, but his father just died at 106 years old! The responsibilities of the medicine man are transferred from father to son, so now this man knows what all of the herbs, roots, fruits, and barks do for every ailment. He used an interpreter to tell us about a few of them, and then he had us drink some!
Brigham knew straight away that this was Noni juice!
The Medicine Man showed us what they use for makeup - these little pods were full of seeds covered in sticky, red paste that worked PERFECT for lipstick and blush! So clever! Brigham got some war paint.
Brad and Brigham tried blowing the conch shells! It was hard but they did pretty good! We learned the different calls and what they mean.
Jade and Brig tried out the blow dart!
Then we ate some of these noodle-looking plants. They were actually pretty good!
We were taught all about the cacao plants and the process of harvesting, removing the seeds, roasting them, grinding them, and making them into chocolate.
We ate the raw cacao and then got to taste test all of the different flavors of chocolate. The kids were really good at picking out the flavors! They were SO good! Coconut, orange, mint, and pineapple were some of the flavors.
The women cooked us a delicious lunch of chicken, potatoes, plantains, some other roots of some sort...
We drank delicious juice out of these fun shells.
Then we hiked to this other little house where this huge stone was used to crush the roasted cacao. It is a determining factor in weddings, apparently! The old women of the village gather around to watch how well the bride-to-be crushes cacao! If she rolls the stone fast and hard enough, she is qualified to marry. This lady was pretty amazing! It definitely took some skill to roll that heavy stone!
After the seeds are crushed into powder, they are rolled into these little balls. Sometimes they add the fresh fruit juice for flavor, but that's it! No sugar, no butter!
Afterward, we all had a cup of hot chocolate as a symbol of friendship. What a great tour!
When he was talking about a certain bark mixed with water that reduced fevers, I thought of Lily. After the tour I asked him about it and he made me some right there! He sliced off some pieces of wood and put them into a water bottle and told me to give her a tablespoon before bed and again in the morning and assured me that her fever would disappear. I asked, "What if it doesn't? Should I give it to her again tomorrow night?" He confidently replied, "It will be gone."
I excitedly brought it home feeling like, "Why not? What could it hurt?" I gave Lily a tablespoon that night and by morning she was healed! I didn't even have to give it to her again in the morning! Thanks Medicine Man! A miracle! I wish I had a medicine man in my neighborhood!
On the way home from the chocolate tour, we stopped to see some beautiful waterfalls. It was a little bit hard to just
look at it; we've been used to jumping in and swimming and climbing the waterfalls! However, this water was super dirty from the storms and we couldn't get in:(.
