by Sr. Rita Higgins MMM                                Ireland/Honduras                                     02.07.2025

The pot sits on an open fire in a smoky kitchen.  It is a small room full of the sound of chopping, cutting and peeling. The scent of fresh pine resin, lemon, camomile, ginger and eucalyptus wafts about us. Today we are making our own cough syrup. There is excitement in the air.  Old and young, men and women and children are involved in the activity.

For the twentieth time the chickens are chased out, dogs are staring longingly through the doorway.  Someone checks the recipe again and we sit and wait for the mixture to cook.  There is an animated discussion about what tea to drink when a child has asthma.  Take 5 mint leaves, 5 eucalyptus leaves, 3 leaves of oregano, add boiling water and wait five minutes.  Dona Carmen is painstakingly writing down the recipe.  Dona Maria is illiterate, so her grand-daughter, Angelina, writes it for her.  It is a very reassuring atmosphere.  There is great peace amidst the activities.  One of the elderly men is speaking about the recipes his father used.  Don Angel commands attention when he speaks.  He has a natural authority and a strong sonorous voice. He is saying “although we are poor people we have great riches – our plants, the soil, our families.”   There is much quiet nodding in agreement.

Finally, the mixture on the fire is ready.  Several people taste it with approval.  Someone says it should be poured into the bottles in silence out of respect for the healing quality of the mixture.  We look in awe at what has been produced and pray that whoever uses the syrup may find comfort and be restored to health.  As we come towards the end of the workshop, coffee is prepared.  This is the staple drink, home grown and roasted.  After mother’s milk, coffee becomes everyone’s drink, we savour its hot, black, sweet flavour.  The chickens dash in once more and we are all too absorbed to chase them out again.  The radio plays in the background.  It is almost time for the adult education programme.

Two questions: When is Maria coming to visit us? (referring to Mary Egan, MMM Associate who is involved in the literacy programme.) ”  She will come soon. How is your reading this week?”  A final prayer is said.   “Goodbye, go well, and que le vaya bien!”

See you next month at the workshop.

(first published by MMM in 2001)