Page 11 - AHATA

a8 local
Friday 31 May 2024

Lessons from our elders:

Plants and fruits for medicinal use

When the fruit is unripe and
green, this can be used to
stimulate menstruation flow
in women. This also stimulates
the passing kidney stones.
When ripe, the fruit can be
used for poisoning in the gut
and can help treat rheumat-
ic diseases, like arthritis.

However, breastfeeding
women who cannot pro-
duce much milk are advised
not to consume too pineap- To make arrowroot shalup, and drinking it. You can also
ple, and people with acid boil a bit of water and add make eggplant juice to help
reflux are recommended to one tablespoon of arrowroot purify your blood. However,
not consume any pineapple powder and stir continuous- do make sure to drink slowly;
at all. ly until you reach porridge let it mix with your spit and
consistency. If you make a then swallow.
Arrowroot shalup with milk, add a pinch
Arrowroot is native to tropical of salt. Raw arrowroot pow- Eggplant kataplan* can also
(Oranjestad)—Though west- Pineapple America and can be sold as der can be used to powder be used to treat skin tumors,
ern medicine is now widely Pineapple has more uses a powder or whole. It is said babies. abscesses and hemorrhoids.
used for common illnesses than topping it on your that you can take arrowroot Eggplant kataplan can also
and to keep our bodies Christmas ham. According powder and make a “sha- Eggplant/Aubergine be used externally to treat
healthy and happy, it is to elders, the skin of a pine- lup” (porridge) for stomach Eggplants, or aubergines, are arthritis.q
still very common in every apple is great to use to re- pain or when you’re feeling easy to find in supermarkets
household in Aruba (and fresh your body. Clean the weak. You can make it with around the world and can *warapa: term referring to
around the world) to have skin thoroughly and make milk too, but it is advised to be grown all year round on a water and sugar solution,
staple home remedies that is tea or warapa* with it. It is best use just water. You can the island. Related to pota- a.k.a simple syrup.
passed on through genera- said that this tea can also also add prunes for a bit of to and tomato, eggplants *kataplan: porridge-like
tions. Here are some tips that be drank after an operation sweetness. Arrowroot shalup are good to calm nerves. It mixture used externally for
our elders have passed on to on the ovaries or uterus. This is also good to treat an un- can also be used to lower wounds or parts of the body
us over the years. gets rid of irritation and in- healthy gut or for diarrhea. blood pressure, by steep- that are painful or swollen.
flammation. ing its leaves in boiled water

Aruban legends:

Frenchman’s Pass

(Oranjestad)—If you ever to smoke them out of the he noticed that the there
plan on taking a group caves, but the indigenous was no driver in the front.
tour of the island, you may settlers ended up inhal- Paralyzed with fear, he
pass through the French- ing too much smoke and didn’t dare to get out, and
man’s Pass in Balashi. The most died in those caves. the car started to move.
Frenchman’s pass (known From then on, this passage
to locals as “Franse Pas”) was known as Frenchman’s When approaching a
remains a mysterious—and Pass, and there have been sharp turn, the hitch hiker
spooky—road of which its many accounts of spirits braced for impact, but just
legend is told from genera- roaming the area of Span- when he though the car
tion to generation. ish Lagoon. might drive straight off the
road and crash, he saw a
The history of the French- There are many ghost sto- hand appear out the win-
man’s pass—and how it got ries surrounding this area, dow and turn the wheel.
its name—dates back to but one of the most famous For the next few turns, the
the colonization era, when one involves a lonely hitch- hand appeared again. Af-
the French tried to colo- hiker, trying to find a ride ter having had enough, the of the few sites on the is-
nize the island, but were back home in the dark man decided to jump out Sometime later, two men land that keeps the locals
met with an angry mob of rainy night. and he ran to Santa Cruz. walked into the bar and on their toes. While most
indigenous settlers, refusing Sometime after trying to Arriving at a nearby bar, one of them noticed the ghost stories may not have
to give up their land. How- hitchhike, the man saw a he ordered a drink and be- hitchhiker. He called out to real grounds—or some may
ever, as the French were car approaching, appear- gan to tell everyone about his buddy and said: “Look, even be a set up story for a
heavily equipped with fire ing almost ghost-like in the his experience. Everyone there’s the idiot who sat joke, this pass contributes a
arms, the indigenous set- rain. However, since he grew quiet, because they in our car when we were lot to our culture of folkloric
tlers began to retreat, and needed a ride real bad, realized he wasn’t some pushing it!” story-telling. q
hid away in nearby caves. he didn’t think twice and drunk messing around; he
The French colonizers tried jumped in. But to his horror, was telling the truth. French man’s pass is one Source: visitaruba.com