Does it not look like this woman is in the process of slicing up the brains of a large animal???


On our first day in Warsambin, as we were walking over to meet with the head of the district and the village head in order to coordinate/socialize the Kalabia program to them, we passed by a woman who was doing a funny wiggling dance while slicing up something that, upon first glance, looked to me to be brains! I asked. In fact, it was a 'sarang semut' (ants' nest), and the wiggly dance was the reaction to the ants, whose bit is like fire! Apparently the local villagers cut these nests from the trees, slice them up (and remove the ants, of course) and use them for medicinal purposes. The slices can be steeped in hot water and made into a healing tea, or eaten! According to the local shaman it's good for all manner of ailment, including cancer, asthma, intestinal issues, heart problems, or just as a general whole-body detoxifying cleanse, which probably means it's has anti-oxidant properties... but of course, no formal scientific testing has been done to investigate the medicinal properties as of yet!

I'll be having ants' nest tea before bed this eve!