obat - some indonesian healing

raking by spork massage

today i woke up to throw up in the mandi at 3 a.m. and then again right before my alarm went off at 5:20 a.m. i decided that i could afford to sms a few people and head into school for my class at 10, rather than risk the return of my nausea outside of the house.

ibu comes to check on me since i sent her an sms as well (despite the fact that we live in the same house, as a disclaimer she began this trend), and immediately calls in mbak. apparently, the best medicine for indigestion and nausea is a massage. harmless and sounds even kind of almost good, right? oh sure, i am in for a real treat, mbak gets to business right away. she instructs me (mostly hand motions, as our communication is very rough) to pull off my shirt and puts a tiny tiny dollop of lotion on my shoulders, and proceeds to rake my back with what feels like a spork. yep, i got my back raked by the javanese maid this morning. as a result i look like i have a million little blood blisters, or series of hickies all over my shoulders and back.

luckily, my well-informed taiwanese friend, sarah, was able to explain that this is actually not an accident, and that the intended consequence is the release of the toxins in the blood - see attached link above "raking by spork massage". but she did say that it's used mainly for colds (the worse the cold the worse the bruising). to mbak's credit, i guess, i have not gotten ill again today...