Thursday, March 17, 2011

"Tawas"

Miguel had fever on-off for three days, which I initially thought was just because of his congested nose because of the cold, cold weather in Sorsogon. Seriously cold. As cold as Baguio that I literally cannot sleep and when I do, I wake up several times in the middle of the night. On the fourth day, Miguel was covered with rashes all over the torso, arms, back, face and neck. I thought it was dengue but dismissed it was only Roseola or "Tigdas Hangin." He's had this before, and I remember that episode very clearly. He was only 6 months old when he first had it.

I brought my him to Daraga for a check-up but all three clinics did not have a pediatrician. There was an ongoing pediatricians' conference, and as expected, all pedias were supposedly there. I wasn't as troubled cos I know that Miguel's almost going to get well. The rashes have dried up a bit and was turning scaly, he still had low fever, and that was what I was kinda worried about. But my mother-in-law would have none of it. Before I knew it, Manang was already in our living room and ready to do the "tawas" on Miggy. This is so witchcraft-y and voodoo-ey but just for the sake of not arguing, and her peace of mind, I gave in.

First, Manang drew crosses on the plate using oil.

bicol9

Then, she scanned Miguel's body with the plate while muttering some prayer that only she can hear nor understand.
bicol7

Miguel kept squirming and pulling away, which they said was because the "nuno" was angry or disturbed and agitating the kid. Any kid would be fussy when sick, whatchuthink?

bicol8

Manang said that if the crosses that she drew formed an awkward shape, maybe like a person (same as the lower leftside cross) or an animal, the "nuno" is still there. I just rolled my eyes, what are the chances of oil blotting and not form patterns? The process was repeated over and over until no more "tao" figures appeared on the blackened plate.

bicol6

Marco making "usyoso" with Manang's "readings."

bicol10

Well, he did get better after the tawas. Though I doubt it's related to that. I'll leave them to their beliefs that the "tawas" actually worked. It was pretty entertaining, anyway. :-p

No comments:

Post a Comment

Tell me what you think!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...