Random Fiji Post

Today, because it's too hot to think, I'll simply pick a random Fiji photograph with my eyes shut and if it's interesting I'll tell you about it and if it isn't, I won't:

Ooooh, cool.  You undoubtedly think "It's just a red hibiscus. Bet she doesn't have anything to say about that!" but you'd be wrong.

Red hibiscus are simply fascinating. How so? Well, you may recall that newspaper report that came out about four months ago saying that 87% of the results of the tests done in the past 15 years by The Big Five drug companies turn out to be irreplicable and are therefore bogus - did you read that? - and that these drugs don't really do what the drug companies claim they do. It was so terrifying knowing we'd been lied to that Baby Jane and I talked long and hard on the subject and decided no one was to be trusted anymore and the time had come for folks to become their own health-care advocates and be more pro-active about their own health issues and thus, while in Fiji, we did a course called "Introduction to Fijian Medicine".

It was most interesting and I really want to know more but am having the worst time trying to find books on the subject.  Hey, maybe the drug companies are pulping books on alternatives so we no longer have this choice!

Anyway, the course was great and for an entire day we were taken both into the jungle and along the beaches and banuves (beachsides) where Vosa, our desperately hungover teacher, identified various plants Fijians used as medicines and cosmetics, and told us how to prepare and use them.

A lot of things made us laugh because little flashes of memories kept coming back. Such as how often when we were children playing at the waterfall in Wailoku, gangs of elderly white-haired Fijian ladies would arrive to each gather herself a little bowl of mud.  Yes, MUD! It was very odd, especially how they were always so picky about what went into their bowl, forever circling the area to gather different shades of mud, mixing together various clumps of soil and clay and sprinkling-in quantities of ash and water to mix themselves a big mud-pie, then all gathering round the resulting mess, rapt in discussion, adding more ash or soil or whatever until they'd finally decide it was bowl-worthy and then they'd leave, carefully carrying their bowl like they had scored themselves a treasure.

Curious, right? And if you ever asked them what they were doing they'd say something entirely non-sequitur like "My granddaughter is getting married next week." and grinning like this should mean something to us.

And now it does.  In the jungles of Fiji there's a nut which, when crushed and added to mud and/or ash, will dye your hair.  You simply comb it through and leave it for a few hours, then, voila, your hair becomes the exact colour of the mud you've selected.  And from those little glimmers of memory, it would seem that everyone in Suva thought the muds around the waterfall at Wailoku made for the best shades which is why they'd forever go there to collect.

So, Clairol, eat your heart out. Who needs a chemist shop when you can spend a lovely afternoon at a beautiful waterfall with old friends and end up with the same result, and for free too? And let's not talk about the lack of carcinogens and such, because it just becomes too depressing.

Another particularly interesting memory? While Vosa was showing us how Fijians treat various ear ailments I had a flash of something from when I was a child: a bunch of European doctors at some function all talking about how they'd never once treated any Fijian for any ear ailment and wondering if there was some particular reason Fijians didn't get ear problems.

And now I know the answer: Fijian ear medicines work.

But back to the red hibiscus?  For high blood pressure, find a hibiscus bush with this type of red flower - and it's only this type will do the trick - break off the smallest leaves, chop and crush them and throw them into boiling water and leave to steep for a while. Drink when cool.  Good one, right?

But what I found really interesting here was that this is also the treatment for high blood pressure in Egyptian medicine from ancient times until today.

OK, despite how tempting it is, I won't let my mind wander down any speculative path that has ancient Egyptians and Fijians knowing each other.  Instead, I'll just say that in two entirely different parts of the world, centuries of trial-and-error produced an identical medication for the same problem and leave it at that.

Naturally there's a great deal more here that I can tell you but I'll leave it for now. Today's my birthday and Keith wants us to do something special to celebrate.